I am going to start with the Vicar Clyntahn ...

Bearing in mind that our Author is a FAN of Heinlein and RAH is on record about being a successful writer includes filing-off the serial numbers of prior successful authors!

So imagine Clyntahn as Shakespeare's Richard III on Bosworth Field, stranded, alone and no-one around to help him when he is in extremis! To wit, The Temple is Bosworth Field with the victorious allies there or approaching. Clyntahn suddenly finds his staff and everyone else paying no attention to him, the Vicar who has controlled EVERYTHING! Suddenly everyone is saving themselves and has no time for him or his orders. His world, his control has collapsed and he is ALONE, even Rayno (if still alive - debatable) ignores him.
Like an episode of Twilight Zone, he runs through the Temple trying to find an escape but there is none. Now he fears all of the enemies he has made WITHIN the Temple and feels everyone's hand turning against him. Suddenly Major Phandy's appears and treats with him courteously. He offers Clyntahn an out, a pain-free drug death that he happens to have on him. What Clyntahn does not know is that it is not death but the same cold-sleep drug Merlin used via remote on the Mahlard family at Camp Chihiro.
He awakes to face the court of no appeal - ...