Under Mary the executions were for heresy; under Elizabeth chiefly for treason.

It is true that the whole age acted upon Sir Philip Sidney'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.