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.
It is true. The RC church forbade its people to read the Bible.
“The Council of Trent (1545-1564) placed the Bible on its list of prohibited books, and forbade any person to read the Bible without a license from a Roman Catholic bishop or inquisitor. The Council added these words: “That if any one shall dare to read or keep in his possession that book, without such a license, he shall not receive absolution till he has given it up to his ordinary.” “
Also, Luther can hardly “stick with” a church once he is kicked out of it! As he was declared an outlaw, you know, he was essentially sentenced to death.
“His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor.”
“In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute or kill them. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system.”