[papertyger]

the true Church, guided by the Holy Ghost, already knew what was Scripture and what was not.

So why did this "true church" fragment so badly after the "reformation?"

Did the previously zealous Holy Spirit lose interest in guiding and guarding? Did he decide it was time for men to run the Church on their own? Why did he decide it was okay to let this "true church" splinter after fifteen hundred years of solidarity?

Bloody papists want to know!

[Celtman]

So why did this "true church" fragment so badly after the "reformation?"

Well, the fragmentation did not begin with the Reformation.  In Apostolic times,

Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:12

Clearly, this is not the perfect will of God - but also clearly it is part of His permissive will.  Only one of the current fragments of Christianity claims (but does not possess) infallible perfection - the rest of us realize that our doctrine is not perfect, but that does not stop the pursuit of doctrinal purity as a goal.

Although the papists tried to exterminate them, there were Christians living outside papal domination from the first century until the Reformation.