When looking into the Reformation for a fictional work that I am currently creating with some other people I found it rather difficult to not make reforming sound like the obvious right choice.
We want to tell the story of the Reformation in this fictional setting and show both sides of the debate, but when researching this I personally thought that the 95 Theses by Luther and the 12 Articles from the German Peasants' War sounded quite reasonable as far as religion goes and have trouble finding reasons for people to stay Catholic.
We don't want to paint Catholicism as a corrupt and horrible religion but rather in such a way as people would have looked at it at the time.
Trying to look up things like "arguments against the protestant reformation" on google resulted in "Protestant Errors" which is a website describing everything wrong with Protestantism in a modern light (and a very confusing way of wording things combined with an unhelpful layout)
I would like to know arguments against reforming, was it faith and trust in their Catholic priest? Was it the fact that Catholic Churches ran most social services like Orphanages, alms for the poor and what little education was available? A combination of these things? or are there more reasons I have missed/overlooked?
I don't mean to start a religious debate between different Christians I am just trying to figure out why people would choose to reform or stay Catholic during the reformation, which arguments did they weigh to make their decision.
Well, there were multiple reasons an individual or a nation could be swayed to stay Catholic. First, it is easier to deal with nations and international politics. In response to the Lutheran (and other heresies) , a prominent text that was in circulation was Henry VIII's "Assertio Septem Sacramentum [adversus Martinum Lutherum]", which was quite literally a defense of the RCC's seven traditional sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Confession, Holy Orders, Marriage, Anointing of the Sick). Additionally this document highlights his view of the proper role of the state and the "Christian king" in the continuation and propagation of the faith. Historian debate whether the document was authored by Sir Thomas More or Cardinal Wolsey, but regardless, its publication earned Henry the papal title of "Defensor Fidei" (Defender of the Faith; this should also be seen as the papacy making an attempt to match the English king with his continental peers, the Spanish king having already been given the title "Most Catholic Majesty" and the French king having already been given the title "Most Christian King"). It should also be noted that Assertio underscores the primacy of Papal authority in spiritual disputes, which would of course prove problematic for Henry later during the saga of England's break with Rome (1533).
It is important to understand how entrenched the Church was in both the spiritual lives of the community as well as the administrative life. My specialty is Tudor England and the general history of the Anglo-Irish archipelago. Church administrative courts sorted out a plethora of civil disputes, and England under the early reign of Henry VIII received a higher gross number of papal dispensations than any other European nations. Moreover, the mystery cults of the Virgin and particular reliquaries were cornerstones of local economies, never mind the spiritual importance of these sites.
I would also recommend looking at the arguments made by the Jesuits and other counter-reformation forces during the mid to late 1500s and 1600s.