The energies of Ferdinand were largely taken up with the Turkish war.

His son, Maximilian II, [Sidenote: Maximilian II, 1564-76] was favorably inclined to Protestantism.
[Sidenote: Catholic reaction] Before Maximilian's death, however, a reaction in favor of Catholicism had already set in.

The last important gains to the Lutheran cause in Germany came in the years immediately following the Peace of Augsburg.
Nothing is more remarkable than the fact that practically all the conquests of Protestantism in Europe were made within the first half century of its existence.

After that for a few years it lost, and since then has remained, geographically speaking, stationary in Europe.
It is impossible to get accurate statistics of the gains and losses of either confession.

The estimate of the Venetian ambassador that only one-tenth of the German empire was Catholic in 1558 is certainly wrong.
In 1570, at the height of the Protestant tide, probably 70 per cent.