CECIL. With difficulty. Yes. It was as if she never lived. But finally we found a record in the Tower’s old files. It would seem she was executed, in the Tower, on the green beside the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. The body and the head were then put into a chest and buried under the floor of the Chapel.

JAMES. A chest! Shall we dig it up?

CECIL. I think, Sire, that would be… seen by your subjects as rather strange.

JAMES. Oh, Robert, whoops slip-slop, I forgot. You have no imagination.

CECIL. Sometimes I count it as a blessing that I don’t.

Enter ANDREWES and REYNOLDS, exhausted. They kneel.

PARROT. Dean Andrewes and Doctor Reynolds.

JAMES. Dean Andrewes, Doctor Reynolds, I believe you asked to see me. Please, do stand.

Wearily, they get to their feet.

Well? Well?

ANDREWES. After much prayer and contemplation, and dispute amongst ourselves, we we…

REYNOLDS. We need a new Bible.

A pause.

JAMES. A new Bible.

ANDREWES. Newly translated.

REYNOLDS. A translation to end all translations.

CECIL. Your Majesty, that will surely mean the most divisive, argumentative falling out over every verse of Scripture…

JAMES. No no no no. (Falls silent.) Hum hum hum. Ha! (Falls silent.) Ah ah. Hah! Hah! Hip hah! Hah! (Falls silent, sprawled, with a vacant stare.)

ANDREWES (to CECIL). Should we leave him…

CECIL. No no. Wait.

A silence.

JAMES (snaps back into life). How will you translate the Greek word ‘Ecclesia’?

ANDREWES. Church.

REYNOLDS. Congregation.

JAMES. Hah hah! A world of difference. ‘Church’ meaning an institution of the State. ‘Congregation’ meaning a meeting, higgledy-di-piggledy group. Nub, gentlemen. Nub. And another, nubbly knobbly nub. How to translate ‘Presbyteros’?

ANDREWES. Priest.

REYNOLDS. Elder.

JAMES. ‘Priest’, ordained by a bishop, but ‘elder’? An older man in a meeting. And in St Paul’s Corinthians, the Greek word ‘Agape’? Faith, hope and…

ANDREWES. Charity.

REYNOLDS. Love.

JAMES. ‘Charity’, yes, public responsibility, alms, civic rectitude. But ‘love’ can go anywhere, lead to loose talk of the love of God and this and that, a path to heresy and darkness. Hu, hu, hum. Hop!

He falls silent. Unease amongst the listeners.

In my Bible there will be: ‘church’, ‘priest’ and ‘charity’.

REYNOLDS. I…

They stare at REYNOLDS. But he bows.

JAMES. And you will take, as the first source, the translation of William Tyndale.

ANDREWES. The heretic Bible? We’ve burnt it all these years…

JAMES. It is the best. I read it every night.

REYNOLDS. It shines with God’s Word.

ANDREWES. But Tyndale has ‘congregation’, ‘elder’ and ‘love’ throughout!

JAMES. Then rewrite him, Dean. Rewrite. Make him safe for good Anglicans to read. (Stands.) Gentlemen, I invite you and your long-suffering companions next door, to sit with me at dinner.

ANDREWES. To sit would be a boon, Sire.

JAMES (smiles). Would it now, Dean. (Waves them away.)

ANDREWES. Your Majesty. (Bows.)

REYNOLDS. Your Majesty. (Bows.)