Bibles were locked away
There exists a conspiracy that Bibles were locked away to keep the people for reading the true gospel. The Middle Ages was a period where religion was the law. The church had immense power and opposing the church was a serious crime. The Bible was one of the most important books and seeing that there was no printing press, all the copies thereof were hand-written. This made the Bibles very valuable and a target for thieves. The only reason why Bibles were locked away was to protect them so that they could be read every Sunday during mass.
Starving poor
One of the most disturbing myths was that the poor were kept in a perpetual state of starvation. This could not be further from the truth as the peasants of the day had pretty decent diets. Every day when they went to work, they would get a hearty meal. In the morning, they would receive porridge or bread and mug of beer to wash it all down. Throughout the day, there was an assortment of cured and dried meats as well as fruits and vegetables from the area. Some peasants even kept bees so that they could provide honey for their families.