CT Russell’s analysis of the Catholic Church

Source: The Watch Tower August 1889

The underlying principle of the Great Reformation, to which all Protestants look back with pride, was the right of individual judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures, in opposition to the papal dogma of submission to clerical authority and interpretation. On this very point was the whole issue of the great movement. It was a grand and blessed strike for liberty of conscience, for an open Bible, and the right to believe and obey its teachings regardless of the usurped authority and vain traditions of the self-exalted clergy of Rome. Had not this principle been firmly held by the early Reformers, they never could have effected a reformation, and the wheels of progress would have continued to stick in the mire of papal traditions and perverted interpretation.

To-day, the careful observer may note, and it should be noted with alarm, that the very condition of things which led to the great Papal apostasy, against whose errors and bondage our fore-fathers awoke and protested in the sixteenth century, is gradually, stealthily, yet swiftly, overshadowing Protestantism; and, unchecked, will soon entirely wipe out the idea of the right of individual judgment in the study of God’s Word, and bind Protestants as securely as Romanists are bound, to the judgment and religious decrees of a system, instead of leaving faith to the intelligence, study and judgment of each individual.

The foundation of the great Apostasy (Papacy) was laid in the separation of a class, called the “clergy,” from the church of believers in general, who, in contradistinction, came to be known as the “laity.” This was not done in a day, but gradually. Those who had been chosen from their own number, by the various congregations, to minister to or serve them in spiritual things, gradually came to consider themselves a superior order or class, above their fellow-Christians who elected them. They gradually came to regard their position as an office rather than a service and sought each other’s companionship in councils, etc., as “Clergymen,” and order or rank among them followed.

Next they felt it beneath their dignity to be elected by the congregation they were to serve, and to be installed by it as its servant; and to carry out the idea of office and to support the dignity of a “clergyman,” they deemed it better policy to abandon the primitive method by which any believer who had the ability had the liberty to teach, and decided that no man could minister to a congregation except a “clergyman,” and that no one could become a clergyman except the clergy so decided and installed him in office.

Their councils, at first harmless if not profitable, began gradually to suggest what each individual should believe, and came finally to decreeing what should be considered orthodox and what should be considered heresy, or in other words deciding what each individual must believe. There the right of private judgment by individual Christians was trampled upon, the “clergy” were put in power as the only and official interpreters of God’s Word, and the consciences of the “laity” were led into captivity to those errors of doctrine which evil-minded, ambitious, scheming, and often self-deluded men among the clergy were able to establish and false label, Truth. And having thus, gradually and cunningly, secured control of the church’s conscience, as the apostles had foretold, they “privily brought in damnable heresies,” and palmed them off upon the conscience-fettered laity as truths. — 2 Pet. 2:1.

One result was, that the Bible took second place to the opinions of the clergy in these councils, thus discounting the value of the only true standard of faith. Another result was, that this self-exalted clergy, becoming more and more vain and boastful, finally concluded that they alone constituted the Church, and that the laity bore to the clergy the relationship of children, “children of the Church,” and were not to be classed as joint-heirs with the clergy, to the promises of coming glory and honor and association with Christ in the Millennial reign.

When the Roman empire was falling into ruins, these clerical schemers by multitudinous crafty arts and intrigues, too numerous to be here detailed, contrived to work their own advancement to political power and influence until, as the great papal hierarchy, they gained the rulership of the world, electing one of their number king of kings and lord of lords — the pope. Thereafter the church, instead of being “subject to the powers that be,” assumed and used power over the world and demanded universal obedience. Instead of suffering at the hands of the ungodly, this corrupt church reigned; instead of being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, she was flattered and honored, and became the persecutor of all who differed from her, rejecting the decrees of her Councils, and exercised their right of private judgment in the study of the Bible.
— The Watch Tower August 1889

Meanwhile…, 78 years later…

*** Watchtower Oct 1, 1967 p. 587 ***
As the canon of books of God’s Word was expanded and the Christian Greek Scriptures were added to complete the Bible, each book was written directly to the Christian congregation or to a member of the Christian congregation in its behalf. Thus the Bible is an organizational book and belongs to the Christian congregation as an organization, not to individuals, regardless of how sincerely they may believe that they can interpret the Bible. For this reason the Bible cannot be properly understood without Jehovah’s visible organization in mind.