[SecondAmendment]

I would be happy to read some of the Church's defense against Protestant criticism.

My statements are from personal experience and research, but the history of the Church and the Protestant Reformation can get pretty complicated to follow when attempting to sort it out for yourself.

Can you recommend something for me to look at ?

[wideawake]

The core foundational work was St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine's Disputations on Controversies in four volumes, published in the 1580s, which systematically goes through Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin's arguments regarding the papacy, the Mass, justification and Scripture.

Theodore Beza and John Rainolds (the most prominent English Puritan theologian before the Restoration) wrote extensive replies to Bellarmine, as did the High Anglican Lancelot Andrewes.

There are also the three volumes of St. Peter Canisius - The Summary of Christian Doctrine and the works of St. Lawrence of Brindisi whose three volumes of Controversies address matters of Protestant exegesis in detail.

These are difficult to find today, especially online, but they comprise thousands of pages of closely reasoned arguments.

More recent books that are readily available are such works as By What Authority? by Mark Shea, If Protestantism is True by Devin Rose and Pillars of Sola Scriptura by Dave Armstrong, among many, many others.

[Mrs. Don-o]

That sounds like reason and good will.

Refreshing!