the Treaty of Carlisle in 1556, and for that of Upsettlington in 1559. On 2 December 1558, he succeeded the bishop of Orkney as Lord President of the Court of Session, and on the death of Bishop David Panter in the same year, he obtained a gift of the temporalities of the see of Ross, being consecrated – after some delay in obtaining the papal sanction – in 1560. In 1561 he was chosen one of Queen Mary's privy council of twelve, the other eleven members being all laymen. The same year he and other bishops offered to give up a fourth of the rents of their benefices. On 28 December 1563, he was appointed one of a commission for the erection of jurisdiction in various parts of the country. Apparently Sinclair possessed no special predilections for either the old or the new religion. He was content to retain the temporalities of his bishopric, and, as president of the court of session, he made it his duty to see that proper regard was paid to the laws in actual force, whether they favoured Protestants or Catholics. Thus, when the queen sought his advice in regard to the prosecution of several Catholics who had observed the mass, he advised "that she must see her laws kept, or else she would get no obedience". On the other hand, when John Knox in 1563 penned a letter to "the brethren in all quarters" to assemble for the protection of certain persons who had made forcible entrance into the chapel of Holyrood during mass, Sinclair sent a copy of the letter to the queen at Stirling. Knox, on this account, denounces him as "ane perfect hypocrite, and ane conjured enemy to Christ Jesus". Yet Knox himself admits that Sinclair voted for his absolution when brought before the council. "The bishop", he says, "answered cauldlie, 'Your grace may consider that it is neither affection to the man [Knox], nor yet love to his profession, that moveth me to absolve him; but the simple truth, which plainly appears in his defence'". It is clear that Sinclair was capable of acting justly, if not generously, towards an avowed enemy. On the appearance of Bishop Jewell's Apologia in 1562, Randolph, the ambassador of Elizabeth in Scotland, sent a copy to the bishop of Ross, expressing at the same time his intention to send one to the archbishop of