Waldensians, Nestorians, Donatists, and on and on and on...Just because your false religion labeled them as heretics doesn't mean there's an ounce of truth to it...
Your religion tried to kill them all off but quite a few survived and flourished...
Those Christians were around long before there was a Protestant Reformation by truth seeking Catholics...
lots of luck with that theory....there is one true Christian religion and it is Catholicism. If you claim to be a Christian, but choose not to follow the Catholic church, you are a protestant. Some of the early followers who wandered off into various heresies are actually neither Catholic, Christian, nor protestant.
as to "truth seeking Catholics" who split away during the revolution, they were mislead and drawn away from th true church and weren't seeking truth at all, they were following charismatic people who decided that they could alter and otherwise change the church to suit themselves....tragic!!