structural:summarization, stylistic:tone
Western schisms and reformations

In Western Christianity, there were a handful of geographically isolated movements that preceded in the spirit of the Protestant Reformation. The Cathars were a very strong movement in medieval southwestern France, but did not survive into modern times, largely as a result of the Albigensian Crusade. In northern Italy and southeastern France, Peter Waldo founded the Waldensians in the 12th century, which remains the largest non-Catholic church in Italy and is in full communion with the Italian Methodist Church. In Bohemia, a movement in the early 15th century by Jan Hus called the Hussites called for reform of Catholic teaching and still exists to this day, known as the Moravian Church. Though generally counted among Protestant churches, groups such as the Waldensians and Moravians pre-exist Protestantism proper.

The Protestant Reformation began, symbolically, with the posting of Martin Luther 's " Ninety-Five Theses " in Saxony on October 31, 1517, written as a set of grievances to reform the Western Church. Luther's writings, combined with the work of Swiss theologian Huldrych Zwingli and French theologian and politician John Calvin, sought to reform existing problems in doctrine and practice. Due to the reactions of ecclesiastical office holders at the time of the reformers, the Catholic Church separated from them, instigating a rift in Western Christianity. This schism created the Mainline Protestant Churches, including especially the Lutheran and Reformed traditions.

In England, Henry VIII of England declared himself to be supreme head of the Church of England with the Act of Supremacy in 1531, repressing both Lutheran reformers and those loyal to the pope. Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury introduced the English Reformation in a form compromising between the Calvinists and Lutherans. This schism created today's Anglican Communion.

The Radical Reformation, also mid-sixteenth century, moved beyond the Magisterial Reformation, emphasizing the invisible, spiritual reality of the Church, apart from any visible ecclesial manifestation. A significant group of Radical reformers were the Anabaptists, people such as Menno Simons and Jakob Ammann, whose movements resulted in today's communities of Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and Brethren churches, and to some extent, the Bruderhof Communities.

Further reform movements within Anglicanism during the 16th through 18th centuries, with influence from the Radical Reformation, produced the Puritans and Separatists, creating today's Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers, and eventually Unitarian Universalism.

The Methodist churches, which uphold Wesleyan-Arminian theology, grew out of a revival within Anglicanism, especially in England and the American colonies, under the leadership of the brothers John Wesley and Charles Wesley, both priests in the Church of England. This movement also produced the Holiness movement churches.

The Old Catholic Church split from the Catholic Church in the 1870s because of the promulgation of the dogma of Papal Infallibility as promoted by the First Vatican Council of 1869–1870. The term "Old Catholic" was first used in 1853 to describe the members of the See of Utrecht who were not under Papal authority. The Old Catholic movement grew in America but has not maintained ties with Utrecht, although talks are under way between some independent Old Catholic bishops and Utrecht.

The Evangelical movement takes form as the result of spiritual renewal efforts in the anglophone world in the 18th century. According to religion scholar, social activist, and politician Randall Balmer, Evangelicalism resulted "from the confluence of Pietism, Presbyterianism, and the vestiges of Puritanism. Evangelicalism picked up the peculiar characteristics from each strain—warmhearted spirituality from the Pietists (for instance), doctrinal precisionism from the Presbyterians, and individualistic introspection from the Puritans". Historian Mark Noll adds to this list High Church Anglicanism, which contributed to Evangelicalism a legacy of "rigorous spirituality and innovative organization".

Pentecostalism is likewise born out of this context, and traditionally traces its origins to what it describes as an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on 1 January 1901 in Topeka, Kansas, at the Bethel Bible College. Subsequent charismatic revivals in Wales in 1904 and the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 are held as the beginnings of the Pentecostal movement. These started just a few hours after Pope Leo XIII led a prayer Veni Spiritus Sanctus during an Urbi et Orbi message, consecrating the 20th century to the Holy Spirit and through this prayer to the reunion of Christianity.