So, even though Aifos explained I might be able to assist you. So the Healing Church was founded by Laurence/Lawrence who was a student at Byrgenwerth(a prestigious academy). Laurence was a student of Willem(the "head" of the academy) and you can argue Laurence was possibly his favorite student but they differed at two points: Laurence believed in blood for the "ascension of humanity". While Willem believed in insight for the evolution of humanity so you'll never guess what happened next..... Laurence one day came to tell Willem he was going to leave Byrgenwerth to conduct further research( he also could possibly have convinced some other students to follow him). Willem saw this as a betrayal while Laurence thought that Willem could never truly understand him.... So you're wondering what did Laurence do next? He possibly did these(in chronological order. I hope.) 1. Laurence went to the people of Yharnam and told them of his blood they simply ignored him. Very few listened to him in the start 2.So he decided to spread a disease. An illness to be exact. Now I'm gonna go into speculation but I believe that Laurence and his band of followers used poison knives to poison the water supply of Yharnam and this started the first plague. This is also when his "blood of the gods" came to the entire populous 3. However next came something you should be much, much more familiar with. The Beastly Scourge. It possibly started with the use of the blood. However, the people of Yharnam slowly transformed into beasts. 4. So this is possibly when Laurence started the church. This is also when Laurence began to send out Hunter's of the church those of the Workshop. 5.But as the disease began to spread the Church knew what to do the Church used a sect of hunters known as the Powderkegs who destroyed a section of Yharnam(now known as Old Yharnam) by lighting it on fire(you may know one of the Powderkegs he is called Djura a.k.a. Machine gun man) So after that people put the pieces of the puzzle together and knew they messed up as the Church had caused the plague and they had been listening to them. However the church sent Hunters to Yharnam to rally support(one of them is called Ludwig). This is also when the Church could have possibly split into three branches: 1. The Healing Church: Headed by Laurence 2. The School of Mensis: Headed by Micolash 3. The Choir:Headed by ???? Thus began the beginning of the end of the Church. Hope this was right you might not read this because of Aifos's wonderful post. My memory of the lore is rusty and I might have forgotten some key or minor events. Hope this helps. :) Sources: My memory, VaatiVidya, Fungo(check them out on YouTube except for my memory).