Final answer:
The only literate Europeans following the fall of the Western Roman Empire were primarily members of the clergy within the Roman Catholic Church. They preserved Latin scholarship and the cultural heritage of the Roman Empire. Byzantine scholars also contributed by bringing ancient texts to the West during the fall of Constantinople.
Step-by-step explanation:
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the primary literate individuals in Europe were members of the clergy associated with the Roman Catholic Church. As the Roman Empire split apart and the Western part ceased to exist, the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, continued for nearly a millennium and preserved the literary and scientific works of ancient Greece and Rome. Once the Western Empire collapsed, the Latin Church became the sole institution that supported scholarship and basic literacy.
Byzantine scholars who fled to Europe during and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought with them invaluable texts and knowledge. The literacy and education in Europe, however, experienced a decline during the Middle Ages, a period some Renaissance thinkers derogatorily called the "Dark Ages". Despite the political fragmentation, the Latin Church helped preserve the culture and language of the Roman Empire, with Latin as the language of liturgy, thereby creating a sense of unity and identity in Western Europe.