ney's maxim that it was the highest
wisdom of statesmanship never to separate religion from politics.
Church and state were practically one and the same body, and opinions
repugnant to established religion naturally resulted in acts inimical
to the civil order. But the broad distinction is plain. Cecil put men
to death not because he detested their dogma but because he feared
their politics.

Nothing proves more clearly the purposes of the English government than
its long duel with the Jesuit mission. [Sidenote: Jesuit mission] It
is unfair to say that the primary purpose {337} of the Curia was to get
all the privileges of loyalty for English Catholics while secretly
inciting them to rise and murder their sovereign. But the very fact
that the Jesuits were instructed not to meddle in politics and yet were
unable to keep clear of the law, proves how inextricably politics and
religion were intertwined. Immediately drawing the suspicion of
Burghley, they were put to the "bloody question" and illegally
tortured, even while the government felt called upon to explain that
they were not forced to the rack to answer "any question of their
supposed conscience" but only as to their political opinions. But one
of these opinions was whether the pope had the right to depose the
queen.

[Sidenote: Character of Jesuits]

The history of these years is one more example of how much more
accursed it is to persecute than to be persecuted. The Jesuits sent to
England were men of the noblest character, daring and enduring all with
fortitude, showing charity and loving-kindness even to their enemies.
But the character of their enemies correspondingly deteriorated. That
sense of fair play that is the finest English quality disappeared under
the stress of fanaticism. Not only Jesuits, but Catholic women and
children were attacked; one boy of thirteen was racked and executed as
a traitor. The persecution by public opinion supplied what the
activity of the government overlooked. In fact it was the government
that was the moderating factor. The act passed in 1585 banishing the
Jesuits was intended to obviate sterner measures. In dealing with the
mass of the population Burghley made persecution pay its way by
resorting to fines as the principal punishment. During the last twenty
years of the reign no less than L6,000 per annum was thus collected.

The helpless rage of the popes against "the Jezebel of the north" waxed
until one o