"Although his [Maximilians II.] relationship with Maria [seiner Gattin] was excellent, the same was not true of the Spanish servants that accompanied her. After his negative experience in Castile [1548 bis 1551] and his open opposition to the dynastic plans of Charles V and Philipp II, Maximilian attempted to limit the presence of Spaniards at court as much as possible, as he doubted their loyalty, and openly revealed to the Venetian ambassadors how much he disliked his father Ferdinand's compromising attitude towards Charles V and the harmful influence of the Spaniards. Since his return to the Empire [gegen Ende des Jahres 1551], Maximilian II systematically dismissed the Spaniards who formed part of his household and showed himself an 'undisguised enemy of the Spanish nation.'" (in: Rubén González Cuerva: Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (1528-1603), id., p. 72).
"... there is no record that Maximilian [II.] went to confession or took communion publicly. He also did not participate in processions, over which his wife used to preside, mocked her attempts to obtain papal jubilees, and rarely attended Mass, to Maria's despair. In this respect, the empress's concerns and movements were inversely proportional to her success: Maximilian II counted on her for dynastic affairs, but was reticent about his inner life and rejected her pleas and warnings in a kindly mocking way. ... she [Maria] gave the impression of fighting on the war front, relying on the Jesuits to bring about the conversion of Viennese Protestants one by one. She used to spend some afternoons in the Kaiserspital, the hospital near the Hofburg Palace, where she attended the dying with anguish, imploring them to confess to the Jesuits and die as Catholics for the sake of their souls. ... This professor of theology [Georg Eder im Jahr 1573] at the university of Vienna had published a harsh anti-Lutheran polemic in German, the Evangelische Inquisition, which attacked the moderate policy of Maximilian II at its root. The emperor reacted sharply: he confiscated the book and forbade Eder from publishing on religion again." (in: Rubén González Cuerva: Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (1528-1603), id., pp. 119/124/126).
"On 12 October 1576, Maximilian II died in the same state of confessional ambiguity in which he had lived: he refused to confess and receive Holy Communion during more than a month of agony, and in his last moments he only made a generic profession of faith before his Catholic preacher, Gruter. Maria's most important endeavour in the Empire had met with resounding failure: she was not able to move her firm husband an inch not even by delegating the task to others, such her sister-in-law, Anna of Austria, Duchess of Bavaria ... Maximilian bade farewell to the papal legate with evasions, and the preacher Gruter entered his chamber against his will. Maria barely moved from her dying husband's bed for weeks, but he died while she was at Mass. The shock of losing her husband unconfessed and in her absence left a long-lasting mark on the dowager empress." (in: Rubén González Cuerva: Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (1528-1603), id., pp. 133-134).