In 1526, with the first diet of Whorl, the partisans of Luther obtain a relative tolerance within the Germanic Empire. That their is withdrawn three years later with the second diet of Whorl (April 1529). Five princes and the free representatives of fourteen cities then raise a “protest” against the decisions taken: “We protest in front of God, like front all the Men, whom we do not authorize nor do not adhere to the decree suggested in all the things which are contrary to God, in his holy Parole, with our clear conscience, with the hello of our hearts.” This solemn protest is at the origin of the term of “Protestant”.  

Protestantism is characterized consequently by a plurality of Churches. Initially these Churches will take, most of the time, a national character (thus with creation, in 1559, of the reformed Churches of France). Then, they will not inevitably have the same mode of organization, nor of the theological references (symbolized by “confessions of faith”) completely identical. Part of Germany and the unit of Scandinavia become “Lutherans”.

But the Lutheranism - marked as much by Luther as by his disciple Philipp Melanchthon - is only one of the forms of Protestantism. In Switzerland, in Zurich, Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) replaced in 1524 the mass by a Sunday worship centered on the preaching and of which the liturgy is stripped than it will be it in Protestantism Lutheran.  

In 1536, Protestantism takes a new breath with the passage to the Reform of the town of Geneva, where will be exerted the ministry of Jean Calvin (1509-1564), a driven out French of his country. In this form, the Protestant religion progresses in particular to French-speaking Switzerland, France and to the Netherlands. The confessions of posterior and Scottish Swiss faith (1560), those of the La Rochelle (1571) and Westminster (1646), etc, are attached to the theology of Calvin. The 39 articles which define the faith of the Church of England are also largely of inspiration calvinist. But the Anglicanism - which will give rise to the United States of America with the Church épiscopalienne - represents a moderate Protestantism which modified only partially (and more or less according to the tendencies) the ecclesiastical framework resulting from Catholicism.  
 
Principal Churches resulting from the Reform

The Anglicanism, the Baptist doctrines, the Lutheranism, the presbyterianism and the reformed tradition, which challenge unanimously certain aspects of Catholicism, are characterized by doctrinal designs and particular liturgical uses.  

Anglicanism
This moderate form of Protestantism has still today as bases doctrinal the 39 articles of orientation calvinist: for the Anglicans, the Writing is the single authority as regards faith, the baptism and the Holy Communion are the two sacraments, and there does not exist any obligation of ecclesiastical celibacy. Elements catholicisants remain however in the liturgy and the episcopal principle is maintained.  

Various currents exist in the Churches Anglicans:  
 - the current High Church (also called anglo-Catholicism), which develops the tradition of the old Church, insists on the importance of the episcopate and the apostolic succession, defends the liturgical ornaments and, generally, the uses (as the celebration of the eucharistie the back turned to the assistance) which bring the Anglicanism closer to Catholicism;  

- the current Low Church, which insists, on the contrary, on the fact that the Anglicanism is resulting from the Reform. It defends a more functional design of the episcopate and wishes a simple liturgy, stripped. He is often wary of the attempts at bringing together with Rome. Marked by the puritanism to the XVII E century, then by a movement, the Alarm clock, to the XIX E century, the current Low Church insists particularly on the authority of the biblical texts;  

- the current Broad Church, which is close on certain points to the current Low Church (in particular, their design of the ministry is identical), but he interprets the Bible in a liberal way and wants to accompany modernity théologiquement.  

The Church of England is most important of the Churches Anglicans, also present in South Africa (the black South-African bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Prize of peace in 1984), in Australia, in Canada, in the United States of America (under the name of Episcopal Protestant Church) and in New Zealand.  

Baptist doctrines
As of the XVI E century, minority groups, even pursued inside even of Protestantism, refused the baptism of the children and estimated that this sacrament was to be related to a step conscious of conversion. From this point of view, the Church is the local assembly of faithful having received the baptism to the adulthood. This baptism is carried out today by immersion.  

The Baptists insist on the authority of the Bible and the importance of the maintenance of the principal Christian doctrines in a secularized company. They do not have leading authorities supralocales, even if they can be grouped in a federative form. Baptist doctrines were born, at the beginning of this century, the pentecotism, for which, thanks to the baptism of the Spirit, God grants gifts promised in the Bible: a power which cures the diseases and which transforms the life of people.  

The Baptists set up the most important group protesting with the United States of America (among the Baptists are to be announced Martin Luther King and former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton), and they are present in many other countries.  

Lutheranism
The confession of the most important faith of the Lutheranism is the Confession of Augsburg (1530), written by Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560). The assertions central of Protestantism are found there: sovereign authority of the Bible, hello by the grace, universal priesthood of the believers, etc  

The Churches Lutherans entrusted to the princes the organization of the Churches and a certain role of monitoring. The doctrines of the “two reigns” (the spiritual one and the temporal one) insist on the autonomy of temporal and its own responsibilities with regard to here below. It was factor of secularization and modernity, but it often succeeds, during the history, with a rather passive attitude of the Lutherans vis-a-vis the political powers.  

The faith of the Lutherans gives a place to the sensitivity: the teaching interest of the images is, in general, allowed, and a great place is made with the canticles. The main subject of debate between Lutherans and reformed related to the sacrament of the Holy Communion: for the Lutherans, the bread and the wine are not transformed into substance of Christ, as in the catholic doctrines (transsubstantiation), they are truly body and blood of Christ (unlike the reformed doctrines). It is what one calls the consubstantiation. One finds, in addition, in the current Lutheranism, a tendency close to High Church Anglican. The Lutherans are majority in Germany and Scandinavia. But there exist also Churches Lutherans in France, in the United States of America and in several countries of Africa.  

Presbyterianism and the reformed tradition
The Presbyterian ones represent a line resulting from Jean Calvin (the first term is Anglo-Saxon, second is of use in Western Europe). The confessions of faith of the Presbyterian and reformed Churches often were of a national nature, as testify the Confession of Scotland to it, the Swiss Confession, the Confession of the La Rochelle (for France). The principal doctrines of these Churches are identical to those of the Churches Lutherans, but they consider that, at the time of the Holy Communion, the real presence of Christ in the elements of the bread and the wine is of a spiritual nature: she takes place by the Holy Spirit and not by a transformation of the bread and wine.  

The Calvinism is also characterized by its insistence on glory from God, who was translated to the XVI E century by the belief into the “predestination” of each human being in the “hello” or the “damnation”. It was then a factor of stamping with regard to a power which continued of divine right: the religious destiny was between the hands of God alone. But the expression given to this belief was disputed starting from the XVII E century (in particular by the tendency arminienne) and, today, a majority of reformed believe that safety is offered to all the human beings, which softens these doctrines.  

Affirming that all must contribute to the glory of God, the Calvinism supported the company spirit, methodical control, the heat with work. It developed a democratic frame of mind, in particular by its internal organization, who consists of a succession of collegial authorities, room with the national, and which associates laic and pastors in the government of the Churches. However, the propensity of some of its members to be caught for “chosen people” involved a certain racial contempt (in particular with regard to the Indians of North America), even of the practices of discrimination (South Africa).

One finds Churches reformed in other areas of the Anglo-Saxon world (in Scotland, for example), in Hungary, in Switzerland, in France and in the third world.