He exposed the folly of pilgrimages, the absurdity of miracles said to be done at Walsingham, Canterbury, and even in Ipswich, and hesitated not to call them the inventions of the devil to delude the souls of men. The lights set up before images, he designated as meteors of deception, which would lead men into darkness. He had been well acquainted with De Freston and Latimer, Notcote and Bailee, and many more in the town previous to his appearing among them as an advocate for their religious liberties. He was grown a bold man, strong in confidence of the rectitude of the cause he was advocating. Intimate as he was with Hugh Latimer, the after celebrated martyr, cousin to William Latimer, of Ipswich, it was at the house of the latter, which Daundy and De Freston had obtained from Antony Wingfield, that Bilney, Arthur, John of Alneshborne, and John Bale, so often held learned, sound, and judicious disquisitions concerning the errors then so prevalent in matters of faith and duty. Of far too high a character for anything that was seditious, inflammatory, or even despiteful of dignities, these truly gifted men looked only at the truth, as laid down in the Revelation of God, and applying their hearts to God in prayer, that their understandings might be opened, they beheld, with light as clear as the sun in broad day, all the fooleries then practised to deceive; the pomposities of the processions to the shrines of saints, and all the tinsel flummery of an external parade of devotion which imposed upon the senses, and filled the minds of the people with fancies. Thomas, Arthur, and Bilney were cited to appear before the Cardinal, at the Chapter House in Westminster. Nothing could equal the rage of the friars at Ipswich against Bilney. He had assembled before him a multitude of hearers to whom he exposed in clear and concise language the distinction between the duties of obedience to God and obedience to man. He cut them to the heart when he told them that in the various protestations they made to the images, and the offerings they made to them, they were serving senseless devils and not God: that though in all legal matters submission even unto death was a duty, yet nothing ought to hinder them from protesting against idolatry, in matters of faith and good works; and that obedience to man, when in direct opposition to God's commands was, however urgent that command, not to be complied with. He instanced Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over all of whom God had power, so that they suffered no injury. But if they had, if they had as the sufferers for Christianity been burnt to death, or been devoured by lions, their duty was to adhere to the truth, and yet not rebel against the lawfully constituted authorities of the realm.