How can I read on after this?

In an article I was reading about William Caxton, the first person to print English language materials, the author suggested that most illiterate members of 15th century English society wouldn't have been able to read latin. As we are talking about illiterate people I think that we are on pretty safe ground with this assertion. Unfortunately, about a line later the author goes on to suggest that "the presence of latin lends authority in a way that would have discouraged pulling down Caxton's bill [poster] even among the ill-lettered."

For this to make sense we must be talking about the type of illiterates who, though they can't read, can distinguish between two different languages printed in the same (gothic) script. These individuals were then able to determine that because one of the languages present is latin that they shouldn't tear down the poster, which, had it been only in English, would have been the obvious action for most of them.

It is pretty hard to keep reading something after encountering such a train of thought.