changes included holding late-night prayer vigils, and adorning the chapel with relics, crucifixes, and images of Mary, mother of Jesus. According to an early Crashaw biographer, David Lloyd, Crashaw attracted many attendees to Little St Mary's who were eager to hear his sermons, "that ravished more like Poems, than both the Poet and Saint... scattering not so much Sentences as Extasies". Because of the tensions between Laudian adherents and their Puritan detractors, the Puritans often sent spies to attend church services to identify and gather evidence of "superstitious" or "Popish" idolatry. In 1641, Crashaw was cited for Mariolatry (excessive devotion to the Virgin Mary) and for his superstitious practices of "diverse bowings, cringeings" and incensing before the altar". English Revolution In 1643, Cromwell's forces took control of Cambridge and immediately began to crack down on Catholic influences. Crashaw was forced to resign his fellowship at Peterhouse for refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant. He soon decided to leave England, accompanied by Mary Collet, whom he revered as his "gratious mother". He arranged for Mary's son, Collete Ferrer, to take over his fellowship at Peterhouse. Soon after Crashaw left Cambridge, St Mary's was ransacked on 29 and 30 December 1643 by William Dowsing under orders from the Parliamentarian commanders. Dowsing recording that at Little St Mary's "we brake downe 60 superstitious pictures, some popes, and crucifixes, and God the Father sitting in a chayer, and holding a globe in his hand". Crashaw's poetry took on decidedly Catholic imagery, especially in his poems about Spanish mystic St Teresa of Avila. Teresa's writings were unknown in England and unavailable in English. However, Crashaw had been exposed to her work, and the three poems he wrote in her honor—"A Hymn to Sainte Teresa," "An Apologie for the fore-going Hymne," and "The Flaming Heart"— are, arguably, his most sublime works. Crashaw began writing poems influenced by the George Herbert's collection The Temple—an influence likely derived from Herbert's connection to Nicholas Ferrar. Several of these poems Crashaw later collected in a series titled Steps to the Temple and The Delights of the Muses by an anonymous friend and published in one volume in 1646. This collection included Crashaw's translation of Giambattista Marinis Sospetto d'Herode. In his preface, the collection's anonymous editor described the poems as having the potential to induce a considerable effect on the reader—it would "lift thee Reader, some yards above the