Though three of the four Scottish universities were founded by Catholics, and the fourth, Edinburgh, had an endowment bequeathed by a Catholic, the clerical ignorance, in Knox's time, was such that many priests could hardly read.
If more evidence is needed as to the debauched estate of the Scottish clergy, we obtain it from Mary of Guise, widow of James V., the Regent then governing Scotland for her child, Mary Stuart.

The Queen, in December 1555, begged Pius IV.

to permit her to levy a tax on her clergy, and to listen to what Cardinal Sermoneta would tell him about their need of reformation.

The Cardinal drew a terrible sketch of the nefarious lives of "every kind of religious women" in Scotland.

They go about with their illegal families and dower their daughters out of the revenues of the Church.