That the Catholic Church is the true Church is not a restriction of men at all. It carries the truth of Jesus. It is a restriction from Jesus which is why it exists and persists. If it was of men it would have failed long ago. Its attributable to the failures of men that it is divided.
Not only did Jesus leave a Church for us he left it with his authority:
Mat 16:19 And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven. And whatever you may loose on the earth shall be, having been loosed in Heaven.
Jesus did leave us a Church long before he left us written word. Its through this Church he created which is self evident in scriptures that the scriptures themselves filter down to us at all.
He does this through the gift of the Holy Spirit:
Joh 14:26 but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, **He shall teach you all things **and shall remind you of all things that I said to you.
God uses the Church to meet our spiritual needs in many ways. Thats its whole purpose. To feed Gods sheep.
Rome has never succeeded in forcing its primacy on all Christians, although its ambition to do so was already apparent in the late 2nd century. Bishop Victor of Rome attempted to compel the Christians of Asia Minor to celebrate Easter on the Sunday after Passover rather than “on the third day” (two days after Passover). In the late 4th century the pope began referring to Rome as “the apostolic see,” pointing to the fact that both Peter and Paul were active in Rome and were both martyred there.
The Eastern Church did not reject the term “apostolic see,” but it never accepted the claim to universal authority made by Pope Leo I (440-461) and his successors.
There were a number of temporary schisms between the Eastern Church and the Church of Rome before 1050. In 1054 the schism became permanent. That is, it remains to this day. It was in 1054 that Rome declared itself to be the only true catholic (universal and orthodox) church.
Pope Nicholas II (1058-1061) said that the Rock of Matthew 18 is Peter’s faith. On the other hand he also taught that the keys to eternal life were given to Peter (and his successors). For some centuries popes claimed the title “Peter’s Vicar.” Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) began to use the title “Vicar of Christ,” and that usage continues to this day. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) gave theological weight to this claim in his “Sum of Theology.” He said, “The pope (is) the Vicar of Christ and St. Peter’s successor.”
Ulrich Zwingli was indeed a conscientious Roman Catholic priest before introducing a reformation in Zurich, Switzerland.
The idea that the church enjoyed unity in doctrine before the Reformation is a myth. There were doctrinal differences, many of them of long standing. More than once “infallible” popes contradicted their “infallible” predecessors. The Inquisition investigated and prosecuted many people who were accused of false doctrine, including university professors whose ideas were considered dangerous to the status quo (Roman primacy in Europe and the hierarchical system). After Luther’s death (1546), the council of Trent (1545-1563) did settle many doctrinal issues, in addition to condemning Lutheran, Reformed, and Anabaptist teachiings.
In the early 9th century a Frankish monk, Ratramnus, took a position on the Lord’s Supper that was very similar to Calvin’s position in the 16th century. He emphsized that the presence of Christ in the sacrament is spiritual and “figurative.” In the mid-11th century the German monk Berengar held a similar view. Controversy over this issue finally prompted the pope to enforce a “gag rule,” forbidding further discussion of the subject. The English monk John Wyclif (early 14th century) denied transubstantiation and took a position similar to that which Calvin later espoused.
Incidentally, Wyclif denied the primacy of the pope over the entire church. At most, he said, the pope is head of the Roman (Western or Latin) part of the visible church.
