William Cranston’s life was changed radically by the Reformation Parliament of August 1560. He gave up his prestigious academic position as provost of St Salvator’s College and went to Paris, where he was almost at once active in Queen Mary’s service. His commitment to Catholicism never wavered. It is instructive to follow the career of a man who was a public, though hardly a major, figure at a crucial stage of the Scottish reformation. Nothing is known of his early life, except that he was from the diocese of Glasgow, before he matriculated at Paris in October 1532. In December 1533, with the title of Dominus, surely denoting that he was a priest, he incepted at Paris; that is, he embarked on the course leading to the full Master’s degree. One can perhaps infer from this that he was in his mid twenties, being born c.1510 or possibly earlier. Paris was where he lived and worked for the next ten years at least. At some point he graduated in theology, in December 1537 he was a preceptor (sponsor for a graduation) and from December 1542 to March 1543 he was rector of the university. At this point he was described as regens physicorum in Collegio Caluico, clearly denoting instructional and administrative duties. He published a very slight work, Dialecticae Compendium, based on the Logic of Rudolph Agricola, which went through three editions at Paris in 1540–45. The first indications of Cranston’s career in Scotland are in 1543 and 1544, when he is found as dean of the Merse, in the Lothian archdeaconry of the diocese of St Andrews. These ‘deans of Christianity’ had duties in their limited territories and, in the absence of any indication to the contrary, the presumption ought to be that Cranston fulfilled these duties himself and not through a delegate. In February 1547 he received papal provision to the provostry of King’s College, Aberdeen but this did not secure him the post. In December