As was tradition from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, the Archbishop also took on the role of Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, as the University had strong links with the Pre-Reformation church.
[1] He graduated at University of Paris, where he was a fellow-student of Archibald Hay in Montague College.
He was probably the "magister Johannes Douglas," who matriculated from the Psedagogium on 25th June 1523.
He was appointed by Queen Mary prior to 1 October 1547, on which date the commendator and sub-prior gave notice of the appointment to the vicar of Tynninghame and the curates of Inchbryok and Tannadice, with instructions to announce it in their respective churches, the revenues of these churches being part of the endowment of the College.
Douglas was one of the "Six Johns" who wrote the First Book of Discipline and the Scots Confession of 1560.