Yes, and this type of thing is exactly why. The Catholic church has always been all about control — seating kings, selling indulgences, owning land, financing crusades, all that kind of malarkey — and any religious effect imparted on the world in the process has kind of been ancillary side effect.

The church didn't want any laymen reading the book and coming to their own conclusions, because the end result of that as has often been seen throughout history is that once people do that, they tend to stop being Catholics.