ABSTRACT
W. M. Southgate writes that since the early sixteenth century, Roman Catholic writers have argued that in doing away with the control of the Church over doctrine and the interpretation of the Bible, the reformers set in motion centrifugal forces which would end only in complete and unchecked individualism. Cooper's response follows Jewel in treating 600CE as the point after which the Church became corrupt. On the issue around which questions of authority in doctrine and political authority would hinge the papal supremacy the year 600CE was also considered of first importance. The earliest responses to the published Challenge sermon do handle the question of doctrinal authority, sola Scriptura, and the role of the Fathers more fully than Jewel did in his letters to Henry Cole. Harding begins by denying that the Catholic Church instituted a private Mass as defined by the Reformers.
