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Protestantism is the second largest denomination of Christianity (after the Catholic Church), accounting for nearly 40% of all Christians by 2015. Protestantism emerged during the Reformation of the 16th century, during which theologians such as Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Calvin sought to fix "errors" in the Catholic Church, such as rejecting papal supremacy and sacraments, emphasizing the priesthood of all believers, justification by faith alone rather than by good works, and the authority of the Bible alone over tradition. Luther's publishing of the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 led to the creation of Lutheranism, while Calvinism emerged from Calvin's teachings, and King Henry VIII of England created a new Christian denomination, Anglicanism, which had both Catholic and Protestant attributes. Protestantism lacks structural unity, and there are 9,000 Protestant denominations alone, in addition to 22,000 "independent" churches (which agree with Protestant theology, but which define themselves as simply Christian), 168 Anglican denominations, and 1,600 marginal denominations. Protestantism's main sub-denominations are Adventism, Anabaptism, Anglicanism, the Baptists, Calvinism, Lutheranism, Methodism, and Pentecostalism, while Protestants movements include evangelicalism, nondenominationalism, independent churches, and Charismatic Christianity.

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