The ordinary people weren't expected to understand the liturgy, religion should be explained to them by priests. Their religious education came from images - the churches at the time were usually decorated with vivid images of judgement and hellfire. Most of these were destroyed during the Reformation but some were painted over and survived - the recently resored Guild Chapel at Stratford on Avon has some fine examples.

The Reformation was partly about allowing people to read the Bible and hear services in their own language. My home town still has a memorial to a young man of 19 who was burned at the stake or the crime of reading the Bible in English, and the tradition of the school I attended, which was founded a few years later by the judge who had ordered the execution, was that this was done out of remorse, although that now seems doubtful.