[8][9][10] Montague was both a courtier and a Calvinist, and closer to the king than George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury; he is considered to have influenced James I against the Arminians.

[11][12] With the other courtiers Sir Robert Darcy and John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton, Montague introduced to court circles, and especially those around Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the Puritan Arthur Hildersham, and the radical religious figures Henry Jacob and John Burges.

[13] He edited the collected works of James I; it has been said that his introductions "push the art of panegyric close to deification".

The cue for the visit may have been the completion of the restoration work to Bath Abbey, the last instalment of which had been paid for two years previously.

[21] At Bath and Wells, he contributed to the legend of the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury, in an entertainment for Anne of Denmark, when the character of Joseph of Arimathea presented boughs to the Queen.