Elizabeth boasted, and boasted truly, that she did not persecute opinion.

If people were good citizens and loyal subjects, it was all the same to her whether they went to church or to mass.

Had it been possible to adopt and apply in the sixteenth century the modern doctrine of contemptuous indifference to sectarian quarrels, there was not one of her subjects more capable of appreciating and acting upon it than the great Queen herself.

But in that case she would have estranged her friends without conciliating her opponents.

She would have forfeited her throne and her life.