WI: No Protestant Reformation

Let's say that the Protestant Reformation doesn't occur as in OTL (Luther's dramatic intervention doesn't happen, perhaps there is an impetus for reform within the Church). I'm interested in the question of how the intellectual landscape of Europe would progress without a Reformation, particularly in relation to Renaissance Humanism. Would the legacy of thinkers such as Erasmus, More and Bude be even greater? OTL, the Reformation led to divisions within the humanist movement, in England More was attacked by Tyndale for not supporting a vernacular Bible, whilst on the continent, Erasmus and Luther argued about free will. Without the Reformation, could we see the emergence of a greater humanist "Republic of Letters" and the creation of the first "reading public" like the Enlightenment? What about political thought? Will the continuing popularity of classical antiquity lead to a greater appreciation of republican ideals? Or will the influence of Platonism led to an intellectual disengagement from politics? What about the effects on Early Modern society? Without the division of the nobility created by the Reformation, it's possible that the traditional order isn't radically threatened like OTL, and there's no religious doctrine to justify resistance theory.

Sorry for the number of issues raised here, I'm just curious about how Europe could have turned out differently.
 
Honestly, I don't think much would change intellectually. The Reformation simply allowed certain rulers and groups to advance their own agenda through the cover of religious reform. Take that away, and they are still going to pursue them.

Kings will still attempt to gain control over the national church from Rome in an attempt to centralize their authority.

The lords of the Holy Roman Empire will seek to suppress the ability of the Emperor to centralize the state.

The literate middle class will still seek new ways to express their religious feelings.

A reformed Church will still try to stamp out heresy and retains its authority.

The idea of the divine right of kings was found in both Protestant and Catholic monarchies, and medieval Catholic teaching justified rebellion against tyrants. The real struggle between people who were against divine right of kings and the kings was not religious in nature, but had their origins in the feudal origins of those monarchies (which put restrictions on kings in terms of the liege-vassal relationship) and the desire of the monarchies to build a centralized sovereign state.

All of these will continue to happen even without the Reformation.

The wars fought over these issues may be less bloody because religious fanaticism won't be involved, and absent that, political compromise might be easier. But the conflicts will still happen.

The Renaissance era will see a lot of changes as people reconcile the new knowledge versus how their society was previously organized. There's still going to be lots of disputes. How they are resolved will be different, and there's bound to be differences from how they are treated from OTL, but these will be so peculiar, it'll be hard to say what happens. Perhaps the only thing we can say is that Catholicism may be more like High Church Protestantism in certain areas than it is IOTL.
 
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