Stung to the quick, Henry, who had already urged the emperor to crush the heretic, now wrote with the same purpose to the elector and dukes of Saxony and to other German princes.
[Sidenote: Growth of Lutheranism] But while the chief priests and rulers were not slow to reject the new "gospel," the common people heard it gladly.

The rapid diffusion of Lutheranism is proved by many a side light and by the very proclamations issued from time to time to "resist the damnable heresies" or to suppress tainted books.

John Heywood's _The Four P's: a merry Interlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Potycary and a Pedlar_, written about 1528 though not published until some years later, is full of Lutheran doctrine, and so is another book very popular at the time, Simon Fish's _Supplication of Beggars_.

John Skelton's _Colyn Clout_, [Sidenote: c.

1522] a scathing indictment of the clergy, mentions that Some have smacke Of Luther's sacke, And a brennyng sparke Of Luther's warke.
{284} [Sidenote: William Tyndale's Bible] But the acceptance of the Reformation, as apart from mere grumbling at the church, could not come until a Protestant literature was built up.
In England as elsewhere the most powerful Protestant tract was the vernacular Bible.