More accurately, he crushed in northern Europe those aspects of the Catholic faith that were imperialistic and inquisitional, allowing something that resembled a free market in religious ideas to survive. Catholicism was not wiped out by any means as a religion.
“Catholicism was not wiped out by any means as a religion.”
- Well, that really is a matter of how you define things.
Anyhow, as a POWER, we could perhaps agree it was wiped out.
Catholicism lost its grip over the trade patterns dominated by the Hansa. Emerging powers of Northern Europe, especially Prussia, gained immensely from this Swedish military aggression supported by Cardinal Richelieu of France.