Waldensians

The first extant Protestant tradition is often identified as the Waldensians

Waldensians

Waldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions, primarily in North-Western Italy. There is considerable uncertainty about the earlier history of the Waldenses because of a lack of extant source...

, who originated through the teachings of Peter Waldo

Peter Waldo

Peter Waldo, Valdo, or Waldes , also Pierre Vaudès or de Vaux, is credited as the founder of the Waldensians, a Christian spiritual movement of the Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions of southern Europe...

, a wealthy merchant of Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

 who lived in the 12th century. The Waldensians later moved to Northern Italy, where they would experience near decimation from Catholic authorities until the Reformation, when they would affiliate with the Calvinists and other Reformed Christian groups of Switzerland, Germany and France. The group still exists in Italy, Germany, Brazil and the United States.

Huguenots

The Huguenots of the Reformed Church of France

Reformed Church of France

The Reformed Church of France is a denomination in France with Calvinist origins. It is the original and largest Protestant denomination in France....

 would emerge from the teachings of John Calvin

John Calvin

John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...

, and would become the major Protestant sect in France until a large portion of the population either died in massacres or were deported from French territory. The group would survive until the end of the monarchy and the restoration of full citizenship for Huguenots by the French Revolutionaries. Today, the Huguenots number about one million, or about two percent of the population; They are most concentrated in southeastern France and the Cévennes region in the south.

Later establishments

The Evangelical Lutheran Church established a synod for France and Belgium in 1927, while the Latter-Day Saints have been active in France for as far as the 1850s. Many Evangelical Protestant sects would be established in France in the post-WWII period, many of which would derive their liturgical styles from North American evangelical charismatic or pentecostal movements.