[sheltonmac]

Luther's call for reform might have succeeded in reforming the Church without splitting it had the kings and princes not chosen sides and had Luther not turned into a radical ...

I suppose popularizing a German translation of the Bible was rather radical back then.

[magisterium]

Oh boy. You just may recall that Johannes Guttenberg -WHO DIED IN 1468!! - printed his Bible in German. That would be a Catholic Bible, in a Catholic Germany, over 50 years before Luther's trip to a certain cathedral door.