Augustus
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I have reservations about heaping any praise on religion though as religion was the only game in town for most things, education comes to mind also.
Again this seems to assume that there were others queuing up to do the same but were being prevented by the church.
It's also not about 'heaping praise' just acknowledging a historical role seeing as most people still cling to the Conflict Thesis myth that has religion and science as implacable enemies.
It wasn't the only game in town anyway. At times rulers and wealthy people funded such things. They just did so inconsistently.
While you can certainly debate the ethics of church finances, the fact that they were wealthy enabled them to fund such things and there is no reason to assume that had the church not existed that another organisation would have appeared and been more lavish in its patronage for such things.
Think about how much it would have cost to maintain all of the monastery libraries and pay all of the copyists on the open market. How would continuity over centuries be maintained if it is based on the whims of individuals?
Who would have provided a better route for non-elites to gain an education too? Why would they have done this?
It is reasonable to note negative impacts, but assuming that things would have been better without the church requires a very big leap of faith and an avoidance of competing evidence.