The Protestant movement was one of politics, the invention of the printing press, and a man named Martin Luther. Luther was a Catholic monk who protested the Church’s practice of indulgences — a payment to the institution for the atonement of sin. He believed that forgiveness for sins happened through faith alone. In 1517, Luther wrote his dissent, the 95 theses, and nailed it to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. According to Vox, Luther was excommunicated by the Catholic Church by 1520.

Since the time of Constantine, the Church and the rulers of the Roman Empire became enmeshed. By the time of Martin Luther, the emperor of Rome was considered ordained by God, and heresy was a crime not just of faith but of the state. Needless to say, Luther was considered a heretic and wanted for arrest. The German prince Frederick III protected Luther in protest of his arrest. According to Vox, Protestantism at the time was used by some to express their defiance to imperial power, and rulers all over Europe who wanted independence from the Holy Roman Empire converted.

The printing press was invented in 1439, making the distribution of Luther’s writings to the common person faster. Luther translated the bible into German, which helped Germans to read the bible for themselves and not rely on the Catholic Church to interpret the Latin version for them. According to The Conversation, Luther said, “Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” Luther’s simple desire to reform the church led to a revolution that changed the world and the way it practiced religion forever.

England’s separation from the Catholic Church began when Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope Clement VII would not grant an annulment, but Henry VIII did it anyway and was excommunicated from the church. According to History, Henry VIII then created laws to separate his kingdom from the religious authority of Rome. This was the beginning of what is now known as the Church of England.

In 1534, Henry VIII formed the “Act of Supremacy,” making the King or Queen of England the head of the country’s Church. Henry VIII remained a devout Catholic, though he allowed for some reforms. Per Musee Protestant, when his successor Mary Tudor was crowned, she returned England to Catholicism and executed over 300 protestants, earning her the title “Bloody Mary.” When her sister, Elizabeth I, took control, she converted England fully to Angelicalism — a middle ground between Catholicism and Protestantism.

The King or Queen of England was to be the head of the Church of England and appoint all bishops, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and York are similar to the Pope. But while England was no longer beholden to Rome, the style of religious government and power remained similar. According to World Atlas, the Anglican Communion is the third-largest Christian organization in the world. It reaches beyond the shores of England to multiple places once under British rule, including Australia, Canada, the U.S., and many countries in Africa and the West Indies. In the U.S., Anglicans are called Episcopalians.

In the 1700s, there was a new religious movement in Britain and the U.S colonies called The Great Awakening, per National Humanities Center. Differing from the Puritan style of religious intellectualism, Evangelicalism was a more emotional brand of worship. The leaders of The Great Awakening preached to the masses in large outdoor settings in hopes of converting as many people as possible.

Presbyterians in Pennsylvania were the first to start this trend. They created the Log College — which is modern-day Princeton University — to train clergymen and spread their evangelism efforts all over the colonies and into the South. From Britain came George Whitfield and John Wesley, who first tried to reform the Church of England, but failed and came to the U.S. According to the National Humanities Center, the Evangelical style of preaching was described as including dramatic gestures, “sometimes weeping openly or thundering out threats of hellfire-and-brimstone” to turn the sermon “into a gripping theatrical performance.”

According to PBS, the “egalitarian” style of these revivals changed the typical “hierarchical” style in which religion had previously been practiced. This attitude gave slaves and the working-class Black community a leg up. While evangelical leaders did not oppose slavery, they did not discriminate against who could be saved, giving working-class whites and people of color access to religion in a way they had not previously. For generations, many leaders of the Black community were born out of churches inspired by the evangelical movement.

Anabaptism was a denomination of Protestantism founded in 1525. Its policies, which separated them from other Protestants, were defined by a belief in full immersion baptism for adults. In addition, they fought for a “‘free Church’ separate from state interference,” according to PBS. Mennonites were a conservative branch of Anabaptism, and the Amish an even more conservative branch of Mennonites. In 1693, the Amish split from Mennonites over the practice of “shunning”, which refers to avoiding a person who has not followed their laws, per Amish America.

When the Amish came to the U.S., they settled in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Over the 20th century, they were confronted with modernization and decided to “shun” it. First, it was the invention of the telephone, which divided the community into those who thought it was okay and those who did not. Next, it was the car, which they did not permit anyone to own. Afterward, it was refusing to be drafted in World War I. And when Ohio mandated all children must attend school, Amish parents happily went to prison before adhering to the state’s law and sending their children to school. To this day, Amish communities “shun” technology and other norms in varying degrees.

The nondenominational movement arose out of the Second Great Awakening, which spurred on the creation of the Church of Christ. Again, a group of Christians sought to reform Christianity to its original principles and away from the traditions established over time by different religious movements. According to Christianity.com, the Church of Christ leaders wanted to bring their congregations back to the basics of how Christ defined the church in the New Testament. Today, there are over two million Church of Christ members, with locations in every state and several other countries.

The term “nondenominational” can also be used as a more generic term for Christianity. Not being tied to any one denomination allows for churches to pop up wherever they may. Per CNN, some of the largest churches in America are nondenominational.” Indeed, some of the most famous megachurches fall under this umbrella: Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California; Joel Olsteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas; and T.D. Jakes’s Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas. Still, according to Pew Research Center, 25% of the U.S. population is Evangelical Protestant, while just 5% of them consider themselves nondenominational. As of now, nondenominational Americans are third in line after Baptists and Methodists.