Protestantism inItaly comprises a minority of the country's religious population.
TheCatholic Church is by far the largestChristian denomination, but Protestantism has a significant presence. While theCESNUR (an Italianthink tank devoted to religious studies, especially on new religions in Italy) asserts that there are 442,377 Protestants in Italy, due to the difficulty of keeping accurate records regarding the proclaimed religion of immigrants to the country, that number likely reflects, at best, only an approximation of the actual number of Protestants in the country.[1][better source needed]
In 2022, non-Catholic Christians made up 4% of the population,[2] while estimates suggest that 0.65% of the country has a Protestant background.[3]
The oldest known of Italy's Protestant churches, theWaldensian Evangelical Church, is a pre-Lutheran Protestant denomination, which was founded byPeter Waldo in the 12th century and, after theProtestant Reformation, adhered toCalvinist theology and became the Italian branch of the Reformed churches. The church's heartland is a cluster ofAlpine valleys, the so-called "Waldensian Valleys" (Val Pellice,Val Chisone andValle Germanasca), in westernPiedmont. Since 1975 the Waldensians form a united church with theMethodist Evangelical Church in Italy.[4] The ideas ofGirolamo Savonarola also had spread around Florence around the 15th century.[5]
TheReformation in Italy began at the end of the 15th century and quickly collapsed at the beginning of the 17th century. Its development was hindered by stern repression by theInquisition of the Catholic Church.[6] Groups of Italian Protestants had more comfortable lives inSwitzerland, particularly in theGraubünden region.
On 17 February 1848Charles Albert, king ofPiedmont-Sardinia, granted religious freedom and civic emancipation to the Waldensians. Freedom of worship and equality of civic and political rights were later extended toJews and to the other Italian states that were progressively annexed to Piedmont-Sardinia during the process ofunification of Italy. Newer Waldensian congregations sprang up as well as the Free Christian Church[7] (which lasted from 1852 to 1904) and theEvangelical Christian Church of the Brethren.[8][9] Meanwhile British and American missionaries began to preach and establishAnglican,Methodist andBaptist churches.
In the early 20th century, missionaries spread thePentecostal gospel throughout the country. Nowadays, most of those resulting Pentecostal congregations belong to theAssemblies of God in Italy, theFederation of Pentecostal Churches, and theApostolic Church in Italy.
TheFederation of Evangelical Churches in Italy (FCEI), formed in 1967, comprises all the historical Protestant churches of Italy (including theUnion of Methodist and Waldensian Churches, theLutheran Evangelical Church in Italy, theBaptist Evangelical Christian Union of Italy, and some minor churches), plus two observer members with a large following (the Federation of Pentecostal Churches and theItalian Union of Seventh-day Adventist Christian Churches).[10][11]
Protestantism, especially in its Pentecostal forms, is thus on the rise. The Assemblies of God have the majority of their communities in the South[12] and, according toCaritas Italiana, in 2012 the North of Italy was home to 850 "African Neo-Pentecostal churches".[13]
