He was a perfect agitator; he knew no tolerance, he spared no violence of language, and in diplomacy, when he diplomatised, he was no more scrupulous than another.
Admirably vigorous and personal as literature, his History needs constant correction from documents.

While to his secretary, Bannatyne, Knox seemed "a man of God, the light of Scotland, the mirror of godliness"; many silent, douce folk among whom he laboured probably agreed in the allegation quoted by a diarist of the day, that Knox "had, as was alleged, the most part of the blame of all the sorrows of Scotland since the slaughter of the late Cardinal." In these years of violence, of "the Douglas wars" as they were called, two new tendencies may be observed.

In January 1572, Morton induced an assembly of preachers at Leith to accept one of his clan, John Douglas, as Archbishop of St Andrews: other bishops were appointed, called _Tulchan_ bishops, from the _tulchan_ or effigy of a calf employed to induce cows to yield their milk.

The Church revenues were drawn through these unapostolic prelates, and came into the hands of the State, or at least of Morton.

With these bishops, superintendents co-existed, but not for long.