George Eliot is reported to have been a very bad person. He earned his living as a con artist (someone who gains the trust of another and then tricks them out of their money). He was well known as a rapist and suspected of being a murderer. Eliot became a spy for Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. This was to avoid a charge from the last crime he committed. Eliot agreed to seek out Catholics who were not conforming to the rules of the state because the Church of England was the official state religion. He would then hand them over to the authorities for punishment.