He closed his eyes and looked pained. ‘The church was corrupt, God knows it was corrupt, but still we fed the hungry, we clothed the naked, and we tended the sick. We did good works, we prayed for souls and we gave comfort. But now the Puritans revile us, they call us the devil’s creatures, and they hate us. They hate even their own kind, other Protestants. And they would close your playhouses, Richard, they would strip the churches of what small beauty is left in them, and they would make the world drab.’
