Although a Catholic, he was plunged into the controversies of the Italian Reformation when he visited a young lawyer of Cittadella, Francesco Spiera, who was slowly dying of despair, having adopted the new opinions and then been forced to recant.
Nonetheless, it was some years before Scrimgeour would openly show his adherence to protestantism, and his second publication was a law book, an edition of the Novellae, printed by Estienne in Geneva in May 1558 and subsidized by Ulrich Fugger, entitled: Impp.
He also engaged on a diplomatic career, travelling to Padua, Venice, Florence, Rome, Milan, Mantua, and Bologna, and also to Bourges, where he tried unsuccessfully to set up a printing press.
Bochetel may have wanted his diplomatic services at this time to help him in difficult negotiations with the German Lutheran princes, or with the colloquy of Poissy of 1561 between French reformers and Catholics, or with the Council of Trent, which after a ten-year interval had resumed its sessions in January 1562.
Ulrich Fugger, now a Lutheran, had a plan for a public library in Geneva in order to secure his large and important collection of rare books, and Scrimgeour was associated with this project.
At the same time, on 30 December, he was honoured by the magistrates of Geneva who received him as a burgess, three years after John Knox, and thanks to Calvin he soon became involved in the city's public life.