[Sidenote: 1525] Iconoclastic outbreaks occurred in which crucifixes were desecrated.

In the same year an Italian in Antwerp wrote that though few people were openly Lutheran many were secretly so, and that he had been assured by leading citizens that if the revolting peasants of Germany approached Antwerp, twenty thousand armed men would rise in the city to assist them.

[Sidenote: July 31] When a Lutheran was drowned in the Scheldt, {243} the act precipitated a riot.

In 1527 the English ambassador wrote Wolsey from the Netherlands that two persons out of three "kept Luther's opinions," and that while the English New Testament was being printed in that city, repeated attempts on his part to induce the magistrates to interfere came to nothing.

Protestant works also continued to pour from the presses.