Why did it take in the north of Europe, and not the south? Was it proximity to Rome, and the fact that Luther was German, Calvin was French, etc? Perhaps because Gutenburg and his tech was German?
The Great Schism seems to make more sense since it was a jurisdiction disagreement between a city in the west, and a city in the east.
EDIT: Calvin being French is a terrible example, considering France's Catholicism - forgive me. I've left it in though, for talking's sake.
To clarify on Calvin, he spent almost his entire ministry career in Geneva, and did train and send considerable numbers of Protestant "missionaries" (the term is a bit anachronistic for the reformation) into France, where they enjoyed considerable success as seen in the history of French Huguenot up until the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685.