The foreboding of Alfonso de Valdès was amply justified. Luther’s books became more popular than ever, and the imperial edict did nothing to prevent their sale either within Germany or beyond it. Aleander was soon to learn this. He had retired to the Netherlands, and busied himself with _auto-da-fés_ of the prohibited writings; but he had to confess that they were powerless to prevent the spread of Luther’s opinions, and he declared that the only remedy would be if the Emperor seized and burnt half a dozen Lutherans, and confiscated all their property.(295) The edict had been published or repeated in lands outside Germany and in the family possessions of the House of Hapsburg. Henry VIII. ordered Luther’s books to be burnt in England;(296) the Estates of Scotland prohibited their introduction into the realm under the severest penalties in 1525.(297) But such edicts were easily evaded, and the prohibited writings found their way into Spain, Italy, France, Flanders, and elsewhere, concealed in bales of merchandise. In Germany there was no need for concealment; the imperial edict was not merely disregarded, but was openly scouted. The great Strassburg publisher, Gruniger, apologised to his customers, not for publishing Luther’s books, but for sending forth a book against him; and Cochlæus declared that printers gladly accepted any MS. against the Papacy, printed it _gratis_, and spent pains in issuing it with taste, while every defender of the established order had to pay heavily to get his book printed, and sometimes could not secure a printer at any cost. § 9. Popular Literature. The Reformation movement may almost be said to have created the German book trade. The earliest German printed books or rather booklets were few in number, and of no great importance—little books of private devotion, of popular medicine, herbals, almanacs, travels, or public proclamations. Up to 1518 they barely exceeded fifty a year. But in the years 1518-1523 they increased enormously, and four-fifths of the increase were controversial writings prompted by the national antagonism to the Roman Curia. This increase was at first due to Luther alone;(298) but from 1521 onwards he had disciples, fellow-workers, opponents, all using in a popular way the German language, the effective literary power of which had been discovered by the Reformer.(299) These writers spread the new ideas among the people, high and low, throughout Germany.(300)