i think his problem with protestantism is that it removed the saints and that saints were often replacements for the worship of the old gods which made some aspects of old paganism survive. but you are right with catholics bowing down to rome is anti-germanic. to be fair bavaria and austria are very catholic and they are very strong components of the german nation. many of the hre's problems came from conflicts with the pope. you could argue that luther contributed to the creation of prussia, one of the biggest protestant and germanic powerhouses in history. prussia was the first european state to adopt lutheranism as its state religion and it became a duchy after adopting protestantism.
Germany