The famous pun, "give great praise to the Lord, and little laud to the devil" is a warning to King Charles attributed to the official court jester Archie Armstrong.

Laud is known to be touchy about his diminutive stature.

Whereas Strafford sees the political dangers of Puritanism, Laud sees the threat to the episcopacy.

But the Puritans themselves feel threatened: the Counter-Reformation is succeeding abroad and the Thirty Years' War is not progressing to the advantage of the Protestants.

Laud's high church policy is seen in this climate as a sinister development.

A year after Laud's appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury, the ship Griffin leaves for America, carrying religious dissidents such as Anne Hutchinson, the Reverend John Lothropp and the Reverend Zechariah Symmes.