1563.
The town of Edinburgh formed only one parish. Knox, when elected Minister, had the assistance of John Cairns as Reader. John Craig, minister of the Canongate or Holyrood, had been solicited to become his colleague, in April 1562; but his appointment did not take place till June 1563.
1564.
March. Knox married to his second wife, Margaret Stewart, daughter of Andrew Lord Ochiltree.
June 30. He was appointed by the General Assembly to visit the churches in Aberdeen and the North of Scotland. The following Assembly, 26th of December, gave him a similar appointment for Fife and Perthshire.
1565.
Knox was summoned before the Privy Council, on account of a sermon which, on the 19th of August, he had preached in St. Giles's Church.
1566.
In this year he appears to have written the most considerable portion of his History of the Reformation; having commenced the work in 1559 or 1560.
In consequence of the unsettled state of public affairs, after the murder of David Riccio, 9th of March, Knox left Edinburgh, and retired for a time to Kyle.