he dared to stand up to the most powerful man on the planet perhaps because he knew he wasn't alone. and then to lose the new he had a far reaching social reform movement beyond him as and that enabled him to act the way he did involves in volved in the towns we have the support of the middle class the intellectual elite associated with the humanists in london as well as to a degree the backing of the imperial nightstand and a portion of the clergy supported him to die it is clear was all this coincided with the calculated use of a nascent power of the media the battle to shape public opinion began involves. it was the first propaganda war in european history fought by followers and opponents of the reform of the friar from a german backwater became an international household name one placed on an equal footing with the pope in the fight for the one true faith.