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"This is a particularly weak entry by the priests - it's about as well-researched as The Two Babylons. I guess the Catholic priests of that day weren't above engaging in a little religious bigotry themselves."

I don't think it's bigotry nor un-rersearched if you take a look at what their understanding of what Protestantism is and bearing in mind they said a "new" form of Protestantism:

This is from The Catholic Encyclopedia, ca. 1911

However vague and indefinite the creed of individual Protestants may be, it always rests on a few standard rules, or principles, bearing on the Sources of faith, the means of justification, and the constitution of the Church. An acknowledged Protestant authority, Philip Schaff (in "The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge", s.v. Reformation), sums up the principles of Protestantism in the following words:

The Protestant goes directly to the Word of God for instruction, and to the throne of grace in his devotions; whilst the pious Roman Catholic consults the teaching of his church, and prefers to offer his prayers through the medium of the Virgin Mary and the saints.
From this general principle of Evangelical freedom, and direct individual relationship of the believer to Christ, proceed the three fundamental doctrines of Protestantism — the absolute supremacy of (1) the Word, and of (2) the grace of Christ, and (3) the general priesthood of believers. . . .

Charles T. Russell certainly went directly to the Word of God, and did not submit himself to teachings of the Catholic Church.