What did the Roman Catholic Church provide during the Middle Ages?

The Roman Catholic Church provided a sense of relative stability for a chaotic Europe during the Middle Ages.  After the end of the Roman Empire, there was little to unify Europeans except for the fact that they were Christians.  Europeans were less likely to identify with a nationality as they were with Christendom.  The Papacy was quite a strong government, and the Pope could issue edicts banning kingdoms from fighting with one another; because of these bans, knights developed jousting in order to satisfy their honor and avoid papal disapproval.  The Church also organized Crusades in the Middle East as a way for kingdoms to gain more wealth and for participants to fulfill the spiritual need to fight for the Holy Land.  
Religiously, the Church provided guidance for all souls.  Almost no one outside of monasteries and royalty could read during the Middle Ages, so commoners had to rely on the Church to provide religious teaching.  This provided comfort to people who had very short lives packed with uncertainty.  The local church also kept records of marriages and births, making them a keeper of history in their localities.