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.
"I think that disgust with the church of that era led the reformers to throw out all the past as well."
That's pretty much my theory too. Add to it that the Latin Church certainly preached then as it did until, well into our lifetimes, that +Basil and +Athanasius and +Ignatius and +Gregory and +Maximus, etc etc etc were all Catholics in the sense of Roman Catholics and that The One Church is co-extensive with the Roman Church and only the Roman Church (something it sort of still teaches) and one can readily see why, in confusion, they might have rejected beliefs and practices that there was no need to reject at all in an effort to root out Romanism.
The Reformers "threw out the past?" That's ludicrous.
It was Luther who returned the church to justification by faith in Christ alone and Calvin who returned the church to wedding the Holy Spirit intrinsically to Scripture.
In Christ the Holy Spirit is always conjoined to the Word, for "there is a permanent relation between faith and the Word." -- John Calvin 3.2.6.
These were steps back to the faith of Christ and the Apostles. Nothing new. And they were a lot more than simple disgust at indulgences and ornate cathedrals.
"...The Reformation was the greatest religious movement for Christ since the early church. It was a revival of Biblical and New Testament theology...."