In England from Wicliffe to Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

anded as a heretic. Witness the stinging diatribes
and biting satires of Petrarch, written, we may say,
under the very roof of the Popes at Avignon. But
now the wind set in from another quarter, and if
one spoke irreverently of saint, or indulged in a
quiet laugh at monk, or hinted a doubt of any
miracle or mystery of "Holy Church," he drew
upon himself the suspicion of heresy, and was
fortunate indeed if he escaped the penalties thereto
annexed. Some there were who aimed only at being
wits, who found to their dismay that they were near
becoming martyrs.
Protestantism, which has only one object of
worship, has only one great Festival–that DAY
which stands in majesty unapproachable among the
other days. But the fetes and festivals of Rome
crowded the calendar, and if more should be added
to the list, it would be almost necessary that more
days should be added to the year. Yet now there
came a great addition to these days of unholy
idleness. The previous century had entrenched the
Romish ceremonial with "All Souls," the
"Conception of the Blessed Virgin," and "Corpus
137