The influence of the New Learning was now strong at the English Court.

Colet and Grocyn were among its foremost preachers; Linacre was Henry's physician; More was a privy councillor; Pace was one of the Secretaries of State; Tunstall was Master of the Rolls.

And as yet the New Learning, though scared by Luther's intemperate language, had steadily backed him in his struggle.

Erasmus pleaded for him with the Emperor.
Ulrich von Hutten attacked the friars in satires and invectives as violent as his own.

But the temper of the Renascence was even more antagonistic to the temper of Luther than that of Rome itself.