Why did the Catholic Church remain unchallegened for so long?

Answer 1

Before Martin Luther, all Christians were Catholic. There was no distinction between the two - they both meant the same thing. In fact, the early Christians have been using the term "Catholic Church" since at least the second century AD. The first recorded use of this term to describe Christianity is from a letter of Ignatius of Antioch: "Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop or by one whom he ordains [i.e., a presbyter]. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church" (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]).

Then on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther hung up his infamous 95 Theses on a church door describing all of the things that he thought were wrong with the Catholic Church. At first, it was just that the Church was selling indulgences to people. This was wrong of the Church, but the selling of indulgences was soon outlawed with the Council of Trent (1545-1563AD).

Luther broke off from the Church, and discarded all of the Sacraments except for Baptism, Communion, and Confession (but said that their absense may be supplied by faith). He discarded the authority of the Church to interpret Scripture and hand on Tradition, and he also discarded this Tradition, even though in John 21:25 it says "There are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." These things, as well as the interpretation of the Scriptures, which were written by the apostles, were handed down through Tradition. Jesus explained to the apostles the meanings of the Old Testament writings. ("Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." Luke 24:45-49) The apostles were there with Jesus and so knew what they were talking about when they wrote the Gospels and some of the letters. Mark and Luke, who were not apostles, were taught by the apostles. (Paul learned everything through Jesus, when he had his conversion. Before his conversion, he didn't believe that Jesus was the Christ. After his conversion, he knew specific details about Christ's life enough to "[prove] that Jesus was the Christ." Acts 9:22) These Scripture teachings and things coming from Sacred Tradition were handed down by the apostles and those who came after them who they taught.

Luther also coined the saying "faith alone," along with "Scripture alone." I already went over the part about Scripture, however, in the book of James, it says "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:17). This does not mean that if we have no faith and only do good works we can get to heaven, but only combined can it work. If one truly has faith in Jesus Christ, he will try to live by His teachings, and therefore live a virtuous life. These are the works that James is talking about. ("What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. [...] Even the demons believe--and shudder [...] You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone [...] For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead." James 2:14-19, 24, 26).

Luther removed the book of James, along with 7 other books that contradicted things that he believed. However, after Luther's death, his followers put the book of James back in the Bible.

This breaking away from the Church started what is now known as the Protestant Reformation. It made it easier for people to start their own churches if they disagreed what the Catholic Church said, instead of looking things up and learning why the Church believes what it believes. Soon the Calvin and Anglican churches popped up, along with many others that took bits and pieces from the Catholic Church, removed parts, and inserted others. This is how we get Christian demoninations such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. As you can see, the term Protestant comes from the word "protest," for that's what people were doing - protesting against the Catholic Church.

So Catholics were not challenged until 1517 because everything that the Catholic Church believes is in Scripture or Tradition handed down by the teachings of the apostles. Yes, there was a problem with the Church selling indulgences, but it was soon corrected. Other Church teachings however were just not properly understood. Other denominations just branched off of Catholicism.