In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church played an important role in the development of England and had much more power than the Church has today. In medieval England, the Roman Catholic Church dominated everyday life and controlled everyone, be they knights, peasants or kings. The Church was one of the most influential institutions in all of medieval England and played an important role in education and religion. The power of the Church was so great that they could order and control the knights and send them into battle whenever they wanted. The Church also had the power to influence the kings' decision and could stop or pass laws that benefited them in the long run, in addition to that, the Church held the majority of the wealth in Europe as it required a tithe from all common life. which meant they had to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The Church controlled all beliefs and religion of the Church as they were the only ones who could read or write Latin and as such could decipher the Bible and scriptures which gave them all the power to be the mouth of God. The legacy of power and the influence of the Church can still be found, even today in modern times. Throughout the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church was one of the most influential institutions in all of medieval Europe, the Church served as a significant force in the arts, crafts and culture of Europe. The Church had a rank structure (hierarchy) that was in many ways almost identical to the feudal system, this showed that the Church had a lot of power in those times compared to today and showed the influence that the Church had in those times. The power and influence of the Church in those times was mainly related to...... middle of paper ......Christ in the country of Palestine during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (42 BC - 37 AD) . Christianity originated in Judaism. Most Roman emperors after Constantine were Christians. Christianity then became the official religion of the Roman Empire in place of the ancient Roman religion which worshiped many gods. During the Middle Ages and the Early Middle Ages the only accepted Christian religion was the Catholic one. The power of the Church in the Middle Ages was extremely great, as it had the greatest influence on the people, kings and knights. The Church had the ability to stop laws and change them to its advantage and controlled people's religious beliefs. They had the power to influence kings and send knights to war, which sends the message that they were one of the most important institutions in all of medieval Europe.