Why did the Roman Catholic Church became powerful in Western Europe?

During the earlier Middle Ages the literacy rates were very low and only about 3% of people could read or write, most being monks. The Pope abused that power over the people by telling them that he was the mouth piece of God and that the people should come to him for salvation. For example, in the Crusades Pope Urban the II told people that if they fought in the Crusades they would earn salvation. And they believed him since he was the ¨Mouth Piece of God.¨ Later the Pope started to tell people that they could pay indulgence meaning they could pay a certain amount of money to the church and in return, they would have to spend as much time in purgatory. Purgatory was a place that the Pope made up to gain money and was the place in between heaven and hell. The only way you would go to purgatory was if you weren't good enough to go to heaven or bad enough for hell.

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