8. “They have an idol or patron for every city, village, or hamlet.
9. “They divide the power and honor of God among the departed saints; thus, seamen invoke St. Nicholas, St. Christopher, and St. Anna; women in travail, St. Mary; for gum-boils, St. Appollonia; against pestilence, St. Rochus and St. Anthony.
10. “They set up images in their churches; they light tapers, torches, and lamps before them; they clothe them in cloth, silk, velvet, silver and gold; they carry them with great reverence on their shoulders; they visit them in different places, and offer gifts to them (to which practice the popes and bishops append indulgence for sins); they kneel before them; they kiss, and worship them.
11. “In their oaths they swear by God and all his saints, etc.
12. “They pray to, and call upon God, without considering their need, and without thinking why they call upon him; they give him their prayers by the number, as apples are bought; they read, in the hours, rosaries, etc.
13. “They create many sabbaths, which they call holidays, in honor of departed saints; on which days manual labor is forbidden on pain of punishment; while drinking to excess, bartering, and gambling remain unpunished. On these days they generally commit shameful idolatry; the services are read in an unknown tongue; water is conjured; the organ is played; and the dead are called on for help and assistance.
14. “To the two sacraments, or signs of grace, instituted by Christ in his church, namely, holy baptism and the holy Supper, which they have shamefully corrupted, they have added five others, namely, confirmation, matrimony, ordination of mass-priests, auricular confession, and extreme unction.
15. “In baptism they leave out the most important part, namely the preaching of the Gospel; and add of their own, conjured salt, grease, spittle, and tapers, and exorcise the devil from the child which he never possessed.
16. “They also baptize bells, giving them names.
17. “They have changed the Lord’s Supper into an offering for the living and the dead; they conjure the bread with five words,[176] and persuade the people, that the bread is changed into flesh, and the wine into blood.
[176] _Hoc est enim corpus meum_, _i. e._ for this is my body.
18. “They withhold the wine from the laity, contrary to the command of Christ, who said: ‘_Drink ye all of it_.’
19. “They worship the bread, and say that it is their God; they enclose it in coffers and ciboria; they carry it through the streets; they burn torches and tapers before it, also at noon-day; they address and salute it; but it answers not.
20. “In their churches they have altars draped with linen, upon which burning tapers are placed at day-time, when mass is read.
21. “Mass is read by a mass-priest, who is hired to do it for money, or a yearly salary; he comes clothed in strange attire, after Jewish fashion, with a drinking cup of silver or gold in his hand, and accompanied by an attendant. He then says his confession before the altar, in Latin (though the attendant does not understand it), and invokes the assistance of the dead saints. Then, having kept up his mummery for a considerable time, having spoken loud and low, turning himself hither and thither, kissing and licking, he finally takes bread and wine, and forthwith offers the same to God, for the redemption of souls, for the hope of salvation, and the health of those present. Thus they reject thy sacrifice, O Christ Jesus, which thou once didst make for our salvation. O God, says the writer, how canst thou suffer this? He then calls the dead saints to the feasts, desiring to be aided by their merits. Over the bread he breathes these five words: _Hoc est enim corpus meum_, that is: For this is my body; supposing that thereby the bread will be changed into flesh. He then holds it above his head, for the people to worship it. So he does also with the cup. Then he prays for all those who sleep in Christ, that they may obtain a place of refreshing. Thereupon he prays to the Father, to accept his Son, whom they believe to have there, as graciously as he accepted the offering of Melchisedec and of Abel. Finally, he worships the bread, calling it the Lamb of God. Having worshiped the Lamb, he breaks it in pieces, and eats it up, also quaffing the wine, which he imagines to be the Lamb’s blood. This is the glorious mass of the papists, which, says our author, is a shameful corruption of the Supper of Christ, and has been reprehended by many godly men, who on this account had shed their blood.