Good Things Reformers said about the Roman Catholic Church

Protestant Reformers are known for their disagreements with the Catholic Church, but many Protestants nowadays have thrown the baby out with the bath water, by thinking that the Protestant Reformers disagreed with every single practice of the Catholic Church, despite possibly its use of the Bible and love of Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Trinity. In this essay, I will explore some things the reformers had to say which were in keeping with Catholic beliefs, to show that Protestants today have gone much further from the originial Church than they think.

Martin Luther:

On Mary:
(Special thanks to Dave Armstrong for this information):

Along with virtually all important Protestant Founders (e.g., Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer), Luther accepted the traditional belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary (Jesus had no blood brothers), and her status as the Theotokos (Mother of God):
Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . "brothers" really means "cousins" here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers. (Sermons on John, chapters 1-4, 1537-39)

He, Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.
(Ibid.)

God says . . . : "Mary's Son is My only Son." Thus Mary is the Mother of God.
(Ibid.)

Luther, in general, had a great devotion to Mary. Something many protestants have lost, unfortunately.

Martin Luther praised the saying of the Rosary to those who understood what they were doing, and were not equating Mary with God, which the Catholic Church condemns as well.

On the Bible:
Martin Luther makes a pertinent observation in the sixteenth chapter of his Commentary on St. John "We are obliged to yield many things to the papists [Catholics]—that they possess the Word of God which we received from them, otherwise we should have known nothing at all about it."