Dispute Catholic leader's place in the Reformation (11)
I believe the answer is:
altercation
'dispute' is the definition.
(altercation is a kind of dispute)
'catholic leader's place in the reformation' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'catholic' could be 'rc' (abbreviation for Roman Catholic) and 'rc' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for altercation that I've seen before include "difference" , "breeze" , "Noisy argument" , "heated argument" , "Rattle a coin (anag) - row" .)