Answer:
During his reign as Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (a member of the House of Habsburg) attempted to impose imperial hegemony over much of Europe, a move marked by his support of Catholicism and the Roman Church, and his fight against the Reformation; however, the wars among different kingdoms and principalities and the spread of Protestantism in Germany were an obstacle for the realization of those ambitious goals.
Charles V accepted the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, what provided a political and legal basis for the separation of German states along religious lines, Catholic and Protestants. He abdicated in 1556 and his succcesor was Rudolf I of Habsburg. Until its final days in the 19th century, the empire was merely a loose federation of German Catholic principalities and kingdoms (Protestant states did not belong to it).
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