A View of Popish Abuses was written by John Field in 1572, criticising the church services, priests and clergy of Elizabethan England, particularly the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. A Puritan clergyman, Field desired to change the Act of Uniformity 1558 in order to remove aspects of Roman Catholicism that he found unacceptable. A View of Popish Abuses was designed to sway public opinion towards his view.
Field's main complaints concerned the church services that took place. According to his publication:
Field's book was published abroad with Thomas Wilcox's Admonition to the Parliament. Both Wilcox and Field were sentenced to a year's imprisonment in the Tower of London for the publication and breaking the Act of Uniformity 1558. Field was undeterred and continued to push for greater emphasis on preaching and the removal of Roman Catholic tendencies in the Church of England. It is likely that he penned at least some of the Marprelate Tracts of 1588.