Later Developments
In the German Holy Roman Empire of the High Middle Ages, there was a chronic power-struggle between the Emperor and the Pope, known as the Investiture Controversy.
From the 16th century the Protestant Reformation erupted, which took hold almost exclusively in territories where Germanic languages are spoken (the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Britain). The last German Emperor to be crowned by the Pope was Maximilian I in 1493. The religious division eventually generated The Thirty Years War (1618–1648) which ultimately led to the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and the confessional division of Germanic Christianity that exists to this day: most of Austria, Luxembourg, Southern (especially, Bavaria) and Western Germany (notably Saarland and Rheinland part of Nordrhein-Westfalen) remained Catholic while Northern and Eastern Germany (notably Prussia) remained Lutheran. Under the Peace, the religion of the Lutheran or Catholic ruler determined the religion of his subjects. The current German Pope, Benedict XVI, who was born in Southern Germany (Bavaria), is a product of this confessional division. The Romance speaking territories remained Catholic (with the exception of Geneva, where Calvinism originated) while Scandinavia remained Lutheran.
Read more about this topic: Germanic Christianity
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