He says, 'I fell in very eagerly with the religion of the times, to
wit, to go to church twice a-day, and that too with the foremost;
and there should very devoutly both say and sing as others did,
yet retaining my wicked life; but withal, I was so overrun with a
spirit of superstition, that I adored, and that with great devotion,
even all things, both the high-place, priest, clerk, vestment,
service, and what else belonging to the Church; counting all things
holy that were therein contained, and especially, the priest and
clerk most happy, and without doubt greatly blessed, because they
were the servants, as I then thought,[49] of God, and were principal
in the holy temple, to do his work therein. This conceit grew so
strong in little time upon my spirit, that had I but seen a priest,
though never so sordid and debauched in his life,[50] I should find
my spirit fall under him, reverence him, and knit unto him; yea,
I thought, for the love I did bear unto them, supposing they were
the ministers of God, I could have lain down at their feet, and
have been trampled upon by them; their name, their garb, and work
did so intoxicate and bewitch me.'

All this took place at the time when The Book of Common Prayer,
having been said to occasion 'manifold inconveniency,' was, by an
Act of Parliament, 'abolished,'[51] and by a subsequent Act[52]
prohibited, under severe penalties, from being publicly used.
The 'manifold inconveniences' to which the Act refers, arose from
differences of opinion as to the propriety of the form which had
been enforced, heightened by the enormous cruelties practiced upon
multitudes who refused to use it. Opposition to the English Liturgy
as more combined in Scotland, by a covenant entered into, June 20,
1580, by the king, lords, nobles, and people, against Popery; and