Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-6078851-20150114163201/@comment-24944355-20150127231820

Neithan is absolutely right about the church regressing the knowledge base of the west following the fall of the Roman Empire. They actually encouraged illiteracy as they believed that if only priests could read then the peasantry could not question how they twisted Christ's words & the bible in general to suit themselves & their power. The church of the time went out of it's way to suppress any knowledge they thought would threaten their grip on power or any Knowledge they believed contradicted their teachings of the bible.

The church's involvement in educating the masses is a relatively recent occurrence & only happened because secular education programs had become successful enough that the church believed they had to get into the education game to foster their teachings & prevent or at least slow down the secularizing of the world.