Nope, sorry but this is plainly wrong. As you know I reviewed the early church fathers writings and creeds to see what their beliefs were-specifically Augustine prior to reading anything by Calvin and Luther. Never having read Calvin or Luther I could articulate their perspectives simply by knowing what Augustine had stated. This would not be possible if Luther/Calvin had been innovators.
What you neglect to see is that over time the Church was like a frog in water with the heat rising. It never felt the changes in doctrine but it was changing ever so gradually. Some saw this change. Bit by bit it became more and more intolerable. The Orthodox left over the authority of the Pope in 10??AD. People started leaving because of the Crusades. The Church established doctrine to keep them. The 12th Lateran Council of 12?? made it official doctrine saying if you left you would be damned. The Eucharist became the official policy and the only way you could receive God's grace was to go to mass. Money was needed. The doctrine of Purgatory and indulgences became official to buy your relatives way out of it. People like Hus, Wycliff and Luther had had enough. Had they felt the only avenue was the Orthodox Church they would have went there. But the Orthodox Church wasn't what they wanted. They wanted a return to the roots of the western Church.
Pinging you to post #403.
"People like Hus, Wycliff and Luther had had enough. Had they felt the only avenue was the Orthodox Church they would have went there. But the Orthodox Church wasn't what they wanted.
What was it about Orthodoxy, save its 1500 year old theology, which the Reformers didn't want?
They wanted a return to the roots of the western Church.
Until at the earliest the 800s, probably even later, the dogmatic theology of the Eastern and Western particular churches was identical. Its no answer to say that Blessed Augustine taught this or that. Neither Augustine nor any of the other Fathers spoke infallibly or dogmaticly. By 1500, if one accepts the Protestant claims that erroneus practices and beliefs as a matter of dogma, or what might as well have been dogma, had crept into the Latin Church, the same claim cannot be made about Orthodoxy whose dogma and praxis have been fixed since the 7th Ecumenical Council. The only reason that Protestants could have had to reject Orthodoxy would have been to reject the established dogma and praxis of The Church, East and West, as of 787, which represents the root beliefs of the Western Church.
That was thoroughly refuted last month, by myself, and in much greater detail by another Catholic whose name I cannot spell at the moment, but starts with a "Dio". Even from St. Augustine HIMSELF, I have given you quotes that refutes the idea that he was some sort of proto-Protestant on total depravity of man. Sorry, it just wasn't there. Especially the creeds! Where is anything about "total depravity" of man mentioned in any creed of Catholicism?
As to your history lesson, forget about it. It won't hold water to any unbiased scrutiny - for example, people leaving the Church BECAUSE of the Crusades and as the cause of the doctrine of the Eucharist. Didn't I already show you how dumb that idea was? Come on, you are losing any sort of credibility whatsoever by expressing that the Eucharistic doctrine came as a result of the Crusades. The proof of that, again, is the Eastern Churches hold to the same doctrine that we do, that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist.
The Eucharist became the official policy and the only way you could receive God's grace was to go to mass
Wrong
Money was needed
Yea, that can be a problem...for any church.
The doctrine of Purgatory and indulgences became official to buy your relatives way out of it.
Wrong.
People like Hus, Wycliff and Luther had had enough.
I think you forgot "...of obeying the Church of Christ."
Like I said before, the theme song of Protestants should be "I did it my way", because that is exactly what people like you and Luther demand - to interpret God's Word your OWN way, despite the fact that it contradicts the only authority to whom Christ gave the power to bind and loosen, the Church. But the Orthodox Church wasn't what they wanted. They wanted a return to the roots of the western Church.
That's hilarious! There was not two separate churches with two separate doctrines of beliefs. Explain to me again how the Eastern Church and Western Church were different in 300 AD. Oh, well, first, the Eastern fathers had beards...Please, if you want to return to the roots of the Western Church, look up under "Roman Catholic Churches" in the phone book and make your way to it this Sunday. We have room for another.
Regards