Quote:1500s - Protestant rebellion against Catholic doctrine, focus should be on Bible, not word of the Pope.
This misses about three centuries of significant history, and one of the biggest religious brouhahas in European history. You need to look up the Avignon Popes, the Great Schism, the Anti-Pope, the abuse of Simony (which spurred on Marin Luther and his ilk--a simple statement that the Reformation was a rebellion against Catholic doctrine is incredibly naive). Also check out Jan Hus, who was burned as a heretic more than a century before the rise of Martin Luther. Martin Luther himself is one of history great, bizarre crackpots, obsessed with scatalogical references--constantly commenting that this or that great idea came to him while in the privy, and claiming to have defeated Satan in farting battles.
Barbara Tuchmann's
The March of Folly has what could be characterized as the best brief discussion of the self-destruction of the Papcy in years leading up to the Protestant Reformation. An interesting read, although dicey in many of its historical contentions, is William Manchester's
A World Lit Only by Fire. Although i consider it to be in many respects a slapdash job, he concentrates on Martin Luther versus the Emperor Charles V, who was also the Spanish King Carlos, and therefore the most powerful man in his world. The antecedants of the Protestant reformation are in incredible series of monumental blunders of policy by the Popes, and the alleged "Anti-Popes" (at the height of the folly, there were three competing Popes). They sold indulgences (forgiveness for sins) in a practice known as simony, and when it reached the point that notorious and unscrupulous tax farmers were sent out to sell the indulgences, the Germans rebelled, and rallied around Luther--in fact, Luther was conducted to the Imperial Diet at which he confronted the Emperor Charles by German knights not only dedicated to protecting him from the Emperor and his agents, and those of the Pope, but also pledged to kill Luther if he recanted before the Emperor.
Check out those two books--you're missing the greatest soap opera in modern European religious history. Look up the Borgias, as well, and Francis I of France. Check out some of the early "heretical" sects such as the Albigensians and the Waldensians. Lots of intrigue, foolishness, fanaticism and depravity--a tale that can't be beat.