Concerning literacy, people who actually needed it, learned to read and write. Novgorod isn't a very good example because it was quite unusual: a trade-based republic where business required people to be literate. Apart from (some) monks and (usually) clergy, merchants were the next major group of people to be literate. Nobles could often afford to avoid learning the "scholarly" skills like writing, while peasants could spend their whole lives without needing to read or write anything (except, perhaps, of making an X on some document).