Originally Posted by Dave Lane
Let's make sure we're on the same page here.
When the Western Roman Empire crumbled in late antiquity, it caused a severe breakdown in modes of education and social and political stability, which in turn plunged Western Civilization into a period of relative 'darkness.' This darkness contained several modes of 'light,' however. These lights were fueled primarily by the Catholic Church, whose monasteries and political and social authority (though vastly underwhelming compared to the Roman Empire shoes it tried to fill) kept alive the spark of the Greco-Roman Civilization that preceded it.
When the Western Roman Empire crumbled in late antiquity, there was no dramatic crumbling of Western Civilization culture, because that had already succumbed to the increased power of the Catholic Church. It was the Catholic Church that fueled this darkness, rather than it remain the lamps of Greco-Roman Civilization. This is an opposite historical path compared to what happened in the Eastern Roman Empire and Arab Empire, which saw continuing advancements in science and education for the sole purpose that there was no Catholic Church.