The church in Medieval Europe did bring the people together, but it was a well-known leadership icon. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, education almost disappeared, which made everyday people uneducated. To prevent people from asking why they needed to go to Church and preach the doings that weren't necessarily in the Bible, the priests used torture methods to convict people of heresy. Most people that underwent these torture methods were innocent. But this made the church the most powerful thing in Medieval Europe because there was a feudalism form of government.