All rearrange into exhausted disarray. JAMES appears to be asleep.

REYNOLDS. Baptism should not be for babies!

ANDREWES. False! All the ancient fathers baptised the very young!

REYNOLDS. Baptism in the Scriptures is for adults! Who come to Jesus by their free will!

ANDREWES. Infant souls are saved from Hell by baptism. One early father saved the soul of a dying child by baptising him with sand.

JAMES (suddenly awake). Sand? Baptised by sand? A turd for that argument. He might as well have pissed on the bairn, that would have been more like water than sand.

The ANGLICANS are appalled, the PURITANS laugh.

But as for myself, I am grateful for anything that will keep me from hellfire.

The ANGLICANS like that, the PURITANS do not.

Come on come on, keep going! No dinner until you’ve done!

REYNOLDS. I… I do not like the marriage ceremony.

JAMES. Is it the ceremony you dislike or the wife it gave to you?

REYNOLDS. I am not married, Your Majesty.

JAMES. Oop, oop whoops, oh dear. Well, some speak of Robin Hood who never shot his bow.

GEORGE suddenly laughs at this. JAMES glances at him.

What do you object to in the ceremony?

REYNOLDS. The words ‘with my body I thee worship’.

JAMES. If you had a wife, you’d find you’d want to worship her, and fire all the arrows you could. Ha! What is the matter between you Puritans and bodies?

BARROW. Your Majesty! We do not come to the nub!

JAMES. What knob, sir?

BARROW. Nub, Sire!

JAMES leans to CECIL.

CECIL. Henry Barrow.

JAMES. Master Barrow. Hasten to your nub.

BARROW. The power of bishops!

Here it comes… they all concentrate.

Where in the Gospels are there bishops?

ANDREWES. Sir, the Apostles were the first bishops!

BARROW. The Apostles were godly men who preached God’s Word! They wore no fancy hats, long surplices of gold, gold crosses, rings on fat fingers. They were rough-hewn, common men, bringing the Word to the people!

ANDREWES. What, then, would you have instead of bishops?

BARROW. The Word of God. The Lord is my shepherd, not the Bishop of such-and-such or this-and-this. The Word of God can come through any man.

ANDREWES. Especially through you.

BARROW. Through any man.

ANDREWES. What, are you an Apostle?

BARROW. No. But I have the spirit of the Apostles.

ANDREWES. The spirit of the Apostles is in you? Of Peter, James, Paul, in you?

BARROW. Yes, the spirit of the Apostles!

ANDREWES. How much?

BARROW. What?

ANDREWES. How much of this spirit is in your… person?

BARROW. As much as God has seen fit to pour into me!

ANDREWES. As much as there is in, say… St Paul?

BARROW. No, not as much! But it is the same spirit, there is but one spirit.

REYNOLDS. I think…

ANDREWES. Master Barrow, what Church Government would you have?

A moment. Even BARROW is aware they are now on dangerous ground.