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Thanks! I see it now. I couldn't picture it in my mind as it is so contrary to what I know. > an equally oppressive government (just towards a different group

Thanks! I see it now. I couldn't picture it in my mind as it is so contrary to what I know. > an equally oppressive government (just towards a different group of people). Could you expand on this? I contrast the then contemporary government against the reign of Bloody Mary, and it's hard to see how it could have been as bad as what Papists would surely have done.

qwytw 5y ago
Of course I oversimplified, any government formed by the conspirators would had probably had to kill a lot more people to solidify their rule. Then again any attempt to impose a new religion by the central government would result in a lot of violence. While England was majority protestant by 1605, protestantism was largely violently imposed on a significant part of the English population whom wanted to remain catholic. While I don't want to downplay the persecutions that happened during Mary's reign they, they much like Guy Fawkes day or the "Spanish Black Legend" are to a some extent myths propagated by the protestant establishment over several hundreds of years. Protestants were mostly just as eager in persecuting heretics (not only catholics but also other protestants) as the catholics were. Even if they sometimes ended up killing less people I think it's more of a difference of degree rather than kind. I found https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/myth-bloody-mary-180974221/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/myth-bloody-mary-1809... quite interesting.