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The settlement ultimately failed because it did not admit Calvinist to the terms of the treaty, and it was unable to define the religious status of the Episcopal states. Most importantly, it created a mutually hostile Protestant and a Catholic bloc in Central Europe. This hostility eventually led to the Thirty Years War, the most brutal conflict, according to some, in European history.

[[File: Lucas Cranach d.Ä. (Werkst.) - Porträt des Martin Luther (Lutherhaus Wittenberg).jpg|300px|thumb|left|Portrait of Martin Luther]]

The Holy Roman Empire was a fragmented collection of largely independent states of various sizes. The Holy Roman Emperor, a member of the House of Hapsburg, directly ruled some of the lands, but he was only a ‘nominal head of state in the rest of the Empire.’<ref> Hale, JR, <i>Reformation Europe</i> (Pelican, London, 1998), p 134</ref> The Hapsburg’s hereditary rulers of Austria, were elected Emperor by the major states in the Empire.