[Natural Law]

What is most perplexing is that the argument between the Protestants and Catholics came down to the deciphering understandings of the 29 books that the Catholic Church decided would compromise the New Testament. Had the Protestants attempted to revisit and revise Canon and examining the many other works contemporary to the 29 chosen the argument might have been more about the message of God and less about political power.

[sittnick]

What is most perplexing is that the argument between the Protestants and Catholics came down to the deciphering understandings of the 29 books that the Catholic Church decided would compromise the New Testament.

You raise an interesting point. I fear, however, that once you get into the realm of personal interpretation, and in some cases multiple manuscripts (the Jehovah Winesses for instance, omit the Johannine Comma completely, and it is not in all the manuscripts), that nothing stops a theologian, or a king, or a money-lender from making it mean what his belly tells him to make it mean.

[Verginius Rufus]

29 books? My NT has 27 books. What are the other two? Gospel of Thomas? Gospel of Judas?