The Protestant movement is preceded by many others over hundreds of years. All of them were eliminated by the Roman Catholic Church. The Waldensian movement of the 12th and 13th centuries was against the public displays of wealth among churchmen. They have gained a following in Spain, France, and Italy, only to be suppressed as soon as their influence became a problem for the Catholic Church. 15th century Lollards movement wanted to spread the ideas of John Wyclif, who criticized the Church. They have met a similar fate. Perhaps the strongest pre-Reformation movement was led by Jan Hus who created the Bohemian Hussite movement in the early 15th century. It was violently suppressed, and Hus was burned at the stake as punishment in 1415.
Martin Luther is considered the creator of the Protestant Reformation movement. In his work The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences he criticized the sale of indulgences, argued against the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints, and insisted that the Pope does not decide the matters of Purgatory. For this, he and his followers were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church as punishment. The Church used multiple methods to combat the spread of the Protestant Reformation. The Jesuit Order and the Ursuline order were established to utilize education in an attempt to keep people inside the church. On the other hand, The Church also used the Roman Inquisition as a harsher and more violent institution. Roman Inquisition imprisoned people who they considered heretics, confiscated their property, and used torture to carry out their punishments.
Martin Luther quickly found like-minded people to join the reformation such as John Calvin. His writings helped unite the different smaller Reformation movements in Europe. Augustine of Hippo had similar beliefs about the Catholic Church and helped spread reformist ideas across Germany. This was one of the reasons behind the German Peasants’ War of 1524–1525. Luther did not condone the uprising.
After the Thirty Years’ War, the Peace of Westphalia gave princes the right to determine the religion of their states as well as the right to practice any Christianity to people living in principalities where a denomination was not established.