Let us not be led into believing however that Luther was the first Protestant. 500 years before Luther there was Berengarius, who though weak when faced with the stake, opposed and protested with great distinction the heresy of transubstantiation that was introduced into the church 100 years previously. The darkness had begun even before then, the practices and chsracter of the papal church coming into disrepute and exposed by such as the Waldenses and Albigenses, against whom were raised many a crusade and attempts at extermination because they also exposed the papacy as the Antichrist, as did Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and numerous others before and after.
Many excellent books have been written on the history of these people, of the reformation, and the rise of the Protestant faith, and ALL are roundly condemned and pilloried as revisionist or downright lies, and their authors branded as heretical and"anti-Catholic" by those determined to cleave to error and pride.