 His policies stemmed from personal prejudices—against Spain, for example, or the Jews—rather than any overarching political or religious goals.In a time of precarious balance between Catholic and Protestant, his adversarial nature did little to slow the latter's spread across northern Europe.His anti-Spanish feelings alienated the Habsburgs, arguably the most powerful Catholic rulers in Europe, and his ascetic personal beliefs left him out of touch with the artistic and intellectual movements of his era (he often spoke of whitewashing the Sistine ceiling).