As people began to read the bible, like Luther, they recognized the gap between what the bible was teaching and what the Catholic Church was doing. Pentance, indulgences, the false teachings of Mary, etc.
So the claim by the rcc to have an exclusive claim on interpreting the bible correctly just doesn't wash. I can make the same claim against the rcc as you do against everyone else. Take away tradition and a large part of the rcc's claim to authority goes away. And regarding peter and the rock I know I'm not the first to do the research.
The question is do you just blindly accept what the priest or pope tells you or do you do as Paul tells us to try every spirit to see if they are preaching another Jesus?
I understand that you define yourself by being antiCatholic; The 14 Centuries after the Apostles were basically lost then and Martin Luther came along to save them. You are a Lutheran then, correct ?