What Divided Catholics and Protestants?
In less than fifty years the unity of the Western church had been shattered. Although relations between different churches are now more friendly, the legacy of the divisions continues to this day. The Protestant world was and remains fragmented. Many factors contributed to the making of the Reformations. Even so, certain key issues stand out. Perhaps most important is the question of authority. All Christians accept the authority of scripture, but which interpretation of scripture is authoritative? Catholics linked the tradition of the church with scripture and gave the final authority in interpretation to the church. Roman Catholics located the churchs authority in the papacy, which came to be regarded as infallible. Infallibility is a negative term signifying preservation from error rather than inspiration. The term applies properly to people or institutions rather than to the statements which they make. The First Vatican Council in 1870 proclaimed that the pope is infallible when sp
