Knox at once appeared in England in a character revolting to the later Presbyterian conscience, which he helped to educate.

The State permitted no cleric to preach without a Royal license, and Knox was now a State licensed preacher at Berwick, one of many "State officials with a specified mission." He was an agent of the English administration, then engaged in forcing a detested religion on the majority of the English people.

But he candidly took his own line, indifferent to the compromises of the rulers in that chaos of shifting opinions.

For example, the Prayer Book of Edward VI.

at that time took for granted kneeling as the appropriate attitude for communicants.