Catholics ought to consider that the Reformation was not really about Henry VIII’s love life, or the corruptions of the church; but rather about political power. The Reformation caught hold and prospered in countries that felt slighted by the political interventions of the Bishop of Rome. The church took sides, and those countries on the losing side left. Without political support, the Protestants would have wilted away.
The human corruptions of unfaithful Catholics surely added fuel to the fire.
“The Reformation caught hold and prospered in countries that felt slighted by the political interventions of the Bishop of Rome.”
That’s nonsense. What “political interventions of the Bishop of Rome” were there in pre-Reformation 16th century Sweden of any note at all, for instance? How about Prussia? That was a crusader state run by a papal approved crusader order. It turned Lutheran after getting support from the papacy for 300 years!
The Protestant Revolution was a political movement as much as a religious one and was forced on people whether they wanted it or not.