section_path: Churches and denominations/Protestantism
section_name: Protestantism
paragraph_text: Protestantism
  
  In 1521, the Edict of Worms condemned Martin Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas. This split within the Roman Catholic church is now called the Reformation. Prominent Reformers included Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Calvin. The 1529 Protestation at Speyer against being excommunicated gave this party the name Protestantism. Luther's primary theological heirs are known as Lutherans. Zwingli and Calvin's heirs are far broader denominationally and are referred to as the Reformed tradition. The Anglican churches descended from the Church of England and organized in the Anglican Communion. Some Lutherans identify as Evangelical Catholics and some but not all Anglicans consider themselves both Protestant and Catholic. Protestants have developed their own culture, with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, and many other fields.
  
  Since the Anglican, Lutheran, and the Reformed branches of Protestantism originated for the most part in cooperation with the government, these movements are termed the " Magisterial Reformation ". On the other hand, groups such as the Anabaptists, who often do not consider themselves to be Protestant, originated in the Radical Reformation, which though sometimes protected under Acts of Toleration, do not trace their history back to any state church. They are further distinguished by their rejection of infant baptism; they believe in baptism only of adult believers— credobaptism (Anabaptists include the Amish, Apostolic, Bruderhof, Mennonites, Hutterites, River Brethren and Schwarzenau Brethren groups.)
  
  The term Protestant also refers to any churches which formed later, with either the Magisterial or Radical traditions. In the 18th century, for example, Methodism grew out of Anglican minister John Wesley 's evangelical revival movement. Several Pentecostal and non-denominational churches, which emphasize the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, in turn grew out of Methodism. Because Methodists, Pentecostals and other evangelicals stress "accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior", which comes from Wesley's emphasis of the New Birth, they often refer to themselves as being born-again.
  
  Protestantism is the second largest major group of Christians after Catholicism by number of followers, although the Eastern Orthodox Church is larger than any single Protestant denomination. Estimates vary, mainly over the question of which denominations to classify as Protestant. The total Protestant population has reached 1.17 billion in 2024, corresponding to nearly 44% of the world's Christians. The majority of Protestants are members of just a handful of denominational families, i.e. Adventism, Anabaptism (Amish, Apostolic, Bruderhof, Hutterites, Mennonites, River Brethren, and Schwarzenau Brethren), Anglicanism, Baptists, Lutheranism, Methodism, Moravianism/Hussites, Pentecostalism, Plymouth Brethren, Quakerism, Reformed Christianity (Congregationalists, Continental Reformed, Reformed Anglicans, and Presbyterians), and Waldensianism are the main families of Protestantism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, neo-charismatic, independent, and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity.
  
  Some groups of individuals who hold basic Protestant tenets identify themselves as "Christians" or " born-again Christians". They typically distance themselves from the confessionalism and creedalism of other Christian communities by calling themselves " non-denominational " or " evangelical ". Often founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with historic denominations.