/lit/ - Literature

How do Protestants justify the reformation in spite of the belief of the Holy Spirit guiding the church from falter existing for 1,500 years prior? Granted there are two understandings of "the church", it makes no sense regardless.

If the church is to be recognized as the centralized institution, then the church would not have faltered to the point reformers felt a reformation was important.

If the church is the body of believers, then they could not have believed in church authority over scripture for over 1,000 years, as all sects did before the Reformation.

The only clear cut answer is that the Protestants are wrong.