He just realized that papacy was a man made institution, some good, some bad, nothing holier than any other christian believer. Probably really realized it when they threatened to arrest him if he didnt recant. Jesus didn’t arrest many people. Good thing Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony protected him.
It’s like math. You dont need to know 2+3=5 to know that 765 is the incorrect answer. Nothing in Christs life or words suggests the creation of a hierarchical government, living in spendor, ruling by fear, and suggesting that it is the necessary intermediary between a man and Christ.
If fact, Christ said no man comes to the father except by me. He could have said “or the pope, or a Bishop of Antioch, or an deacon, etc. But he didn’t.
Now I’m ready for you to snidely tell me that Jesus himself started the papacy by pointing to the Peter/Rock verse in the Bible. Then of next course, without a hint of irony, you’ll tell how a Christian cannot go solo scriptura.
You guys got away with *a lot* back when translating or reading the Bible was against your rules for the laity.
You wrote:
“Nothing in Christs life or words suggests the creation of a hierarchical government, living in spendor, ruling by fear, and suggesting that it is the necessary intermediary between a man and Christ.”
Actually everything in Christ’s life suggests (and proves) He willed and created a hierarchical Church (hierarchical literally means “rule by priests). Living in splendor is essentially irrelevant since no one who lived in it actually owned it. Also, the Church herself, willed and created by God serves His purposes no matter how sinful her members. Protestants invented the straw man of the Church as an “intermediary between a man and Christ.” In reality the Church is Christ’s bride and inseperable from Him.
“You guys got away with *a lot* back when translating or reading the Bible was against your rules for the laity.”
You’re living in a fantasy world. A dark, twisted, paranoid fantasy world.