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"They are not automatically authoritative simply by virtue of bearing the title, "Church Council.""

For 1500 years before the Reformation, well, at least until the Great Schism, The Church believed that the dogmatic pronouncements of the Ecumenical (not local) councils were authoritative. After the Schism, of course, Rome felt it could "go it alone" so to speak under a Pope who claimed infallibility. As an Orthodox Christian I, like you, do not accept the pronouncements of Popes as dogmatic in se nor do I believe that the local councils of the Latin Church are binding on me or infallible in their pronouncements. Considering the course followed by the Latin Church after the schism and through the Middle Ages in Western Europe, I can certainly understand why the reformers decided to break with Rome. What I have yet to understand is why the Reformers chose to create a totally new and different theology and ecclesiology which in most respects is at odds with what the One Church, I think admittedly, had always practiced and believed. And that Church, the One Church, was by definition infallible and invincible. So how come you threw out the belief that the councils were infallible? Why was that necessary? I have my own theory but I am curious about yours.

So how come you threw out the belief that the councils were infallible?

I think the Reformation looked at the past and looked at the present. In the present, they were being hounded by the Holy Roman Empire on behalf of Rome. War was being waged against northern Europe by southern Europe to put it bluntly. That anger about the present made the PAST look that much more horrific. The abuses that Luther had identified were not piddling. The entire idea that one could buy himself out of sin or buy a future get-out-of-jail-free card for future sin was demonic. All of this to build a big cathedral in Rome. This is to say nothing of all the other inquisitions and abuses by Rome perpetrated against other reformers.

I think that disgust with the church of that era led the reformers to throw out all the past as well.