Petrarch didn't just wake up one morning in 1300 and start a new era from scratch. He's part of an over all trend in thought and literature stretching back hundred's of years. The Plague of 1348-1350 was certainly and accelerant as was it's periodic return, but stuff was already happening before the plague hit Europe.
The Church actually disseminated and spread knowledge and literacy in the early days, particularly the Irish church in the 7th-9th centuries when they sent missionaries to reeducate Europe after the collapse and in the Early years after the Reconquest. The Church crackdown on heretical knowledge, women in power, and minorities was part of the centralization trend starting in the thirteenth century and they didn't get really nasty about things like Hermetic magic until the late 15th.
I'm not a Christian. I definitely think the Catholic Church has a lot of horrible things to answer for, such as the burning of a hundred Jews, lepers, and heretics circa 1300 in Paris. I just think it's unreasonable to blame them for the depredations of waves of book burning barbarians or the horrors that Protestant witch burners brought to places like Germany.
Much as I despise Augustine, I have to admire him staying to organize the defense of Hippo when the Roman Imperial officials fled before the Vandals. When Roman Civil Authority failed, it was the Church government that held things together in a lot of places until civil authority could be reestablished.
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A Touch of History
This will mostly contain history stuff.
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Gwion Vaughn Community Member 
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In addition, the Church provided a unifying element otherwise missing in Europe. No matter what your nationality or ethnicity or geographic location, if you were a Catholic, you were part of something much larger than yourself or your immediate community. It was almost like being a Roman citizen again. It didn't stop the endless wars between various tribes/cities/states/nations/whatever. But then, nothing has in all of human history. But it was a step, an important step, and one often forgotten by those (like myself) who're quick to hold the Church accountable for its various less savory deeds.