"Basic Idea" of the Protestant Reformation

I am currently taking a course in Political Science that is currently talking about the original colonization in the New World. As I was reading some of the notes from the Pearson company to supplement the text I read a statement that was not entirely accurate and I felt it merited a critique. I posted this response on the course discussion forum to promote some dialogue. This is the gist of the post:

The statement,"The Protestant Reformation was based on the idea that individuals should be able to talk to God without going through a priest.", which is found in the notes, is inaccurate.
The Catholic church has never taught that a priest is required for a Christian to "talk to God". It does teach and encourage all Catholic Christians to pray directly to God about and for everything. However, the Church does have a Magisterium/College of Bishops who deliberate on issues of faith and morals and safeguards the Catholic Faith from unorthodox and unqualified interpretations of Scripture and Tradition. The "basic idea" of protestantism is rejection of authority, stemming from abuses i.e. selling of indulgences. This rejection of authority, lead to disunity, a branching off of Luther and his followers, which resulted in further sects branching off eventually causing 33,000 different protestant denominations, most of which claim to be Christs true Church.
This original statement is a common misunderstanding of the concept of apostolic authority. The basic idea was based on rejection and opposition of the magisterial authority due to abuses by the Church at the time. The subsequent objections of specific traditions and Dogmas of the Catholic faith, were only a result of this fundamental opposition of authority by Luther.
The common protestant objection of a mediator between God and Man in relation to certain Liturgical Sacraments i.e. confession, didn't develop until later. With this in mind, it doesn't follow and seems ironic that a group of people opposed to mediation would revert to system of government that utilizes representatives to mediate for them as its new model of governance.
A critique would not be complete without a solution, therefore I suggest changing the statement to something more accurate; something like, "The Protestant Reformation was based on the idea that reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church's ability to define Christian practice."(http://www.history.com/topics/reformation).


I am not opposed to an indirect democracy, but I felt it pertinent to point out the inconsistency of the type of government chosen by a primarily Protestant America who claims to be opposed to the idea of mediators (presented in the text notes from the Pearson Co.) and then proceed to form a governance based on this concept. I know there is more to this and I may be comparing apples to oranges; however, they are not completely disassociated since our governments are founded my Natural Law, which of course has its origination in God.