WI the reformation had succeed any the catholic church was reformed and there were no break aways. or at least no big ones.
Not precisely sure what the question is, but...WI the reformation had succeed any the catholic church was reformed and there were no break aways. or at least no big ones.
IF they had reformed along those lines, yes. However, I don't think that's possible, short of truly massive shock. (Such as a successful Reformation.)I think the unspoken question behind the OP, is: "Would we have had a united Western church today, or would there have been a Reformation later?"
You seem to be of the latter opinion....I tend toward the former. Of course, "ifs and buts", we can never say with certainty what would've happened, but if the RC church had reformed along the lines that Luther and Melanchton pointed out, I'm pretty confident that the Western Church would've more or less stayed one, under the leadership of the Bishop of Rome. Of course, reforming along "Lutheran" lines wouldn't satisfy the "left-wing" of the Reformation (Zwingli, Calvin), or the radical reformers (Karlstadt, Müntzer), but I'm pretty sure that since the radicals were, by definition, anti-establishment, they lacked the support of the German princes that ensured the success of the Reformation. At most, another "church" could've become a Swiss thing, but I'm not sure about the long-term viability of such a construction anyway.