John Knox called the mass "the devil's sacrament" (cited in Kevin Reed's John Knox the Forgotten Reformer, p. 79).

Kevin Reed has also pointed out that "when the queen wished to reinstate the papal Mass, john Knox vehemently opposed such measures. He said, "'that one mass... was more fearful to him than if ten thousand armed enemies were landed in any part of the realm, of the purpose to suppress the whole of religion. For (said he) in our God there is strength to resist and confound multitudes if we unfeignedly depend upon him; whereof heretofore we have had experience; but when we join hand with idolatry, it is no doubt but that both God's amicable presence and comfortable defence leaves us, and what shall then become of us? Alas, I fear that experience shall teach us, to the grief of many'" (John Knox the Forgotten Reformer, p. 172).

In The Hurt of Hearing Mass, John Bradford recognizes the wicked and insidious nature of this pretended sacrament. As a faithful shepherd, he warns against attending the mass because it is blasphemous idolatry (for some were doing so, in his day, even though they knew it to be an affront to God).

Part of his argument, against attending mass, runs as follows: "First, out of the second commandment, 'Thou shalt not make to thee...,' this precept forbiddeth all kind of outward idolatry, as the first doth all kind of inward idolatry, to this end that God's true worship inwardly and outwardly be observed. But now the mass is an outward idol, and the service of God there used is idolatry. Therefore they which are present at the mass, honoring it with their corporal presence (as they do which being there do not in open and exterior fact publicly disallow the same), they, I say are open and manifest idolaters, and incur the danger of idolatry, that is God's heavy wrath and eternal damnation: which thing I trow be no trifle, but to fools which make sin a thing of nothing."

Application to forms of modern Protestant idolatry, which runs rampant in public worship today, (e.g. as in the public preaching of women, the use of dance, the singing of uninspired songs, the use of musical instruments, and whatever else is not appointed by God for public worship), can be made to the degree that one has light upon this topic.

For Bradford attacks idolatry both generally and specifically. Keep in mind that refusing the mass was one of the major reasons why Rome imprisoned, dismembered, maimed, burned and generally mutilated Protestants during the Reformation (cf. "Why Were Our Reformers Burned?" by J.C. Ryle,or J.A. Wylie's History of Protestantism).