Well, yes and no. The church actually started during the time of Christ and refers to the believers who followed Christ’s teachings. Now recall that the Jews were under the Roman empire during that time and the Romans became very afraid of the advance of Christianity to the point of persecuting many to the point of death. When even this did not stop the Christians, the Romans had no choice but to set up their own churches, the Roman Catholic churches, who appear to be the same as Christian churches but did not have the power and did not have the right teachings. So actually the true church started even before the Roman Catholic churches. However, many Catholics still believe that Protestants branch out from their church because Martin Luther, a Catholic himself who lived in the sixteenth century, challenged the doctrines of the Catholic church especially in the area of salvation by works. Therefore, Protestanism did start from the Catholic church but the true church of God had existed all along even before the advent of the Catholic church.