The Little Gidding community, described in this anonymous pamphlet, consisted of members from three generations of the Ferrar family, who—at the instigation of the second eldest son, Nicholas—had withdrawn from London at the time of the 1625 plague to a life of retirement in the Huntingdonshire parish of Little Gidding. The author of this anonymous pamphlet paid an unannounced visit to the family and on the basis of his observations of their daily rituals charged them with nurturing monasticism, extra-Scriptural religious observances, idolatrous decorations, and superstitious practices. The engraving on the title page, featuring a nun holding a chaplet of beads and a prayer book, clearly represents the women of the community as Catholic and possibly targets the two "maiden sisters" of the Collett family who had decided not to marry. The pamphleteer describes their devotions as "a lip-labour devotion, and a will-worship."

The poet Richard Crashaw, who had visited and corresponded with members of the Little Gidding community, wrote an approving poem about his encounter, "Description of a Religious House and Condition of Life," in which he also connected the community's piety to Catholic ritual. Helen White, however, argues that despite the superficial resemblances between Little Gidding's devotional habits and Catholic ritual, the community remained Protestant.

Anthony Milton, who describes the increasing crypto-popery and Laudian character of Cambridge in the 1630s and 1640s (Little Gidding is situated just north of the university), argues that in such an atmosphere, confessional boundaries became more fluid, making it increasingly difficult to identify those with "popish" affiliations. In such fluid conditions, devotional practices become more vulnerable to the interpretations of those who observe them.

For more information on the Little Gidding community, consult A.L. Maycock, Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1938). On the poet George Herbert's connection with the community, see Helen White, The Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience (New York: Collier Books, 1936). Anthony Milton discusses the broader polemical context for such pamphlets as The Arminian Nunnery in Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought 1600–1640 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).