MELVILLE

MELVILLE, ANDREW, a Scottish divine of distinguished talents and learning, was born at Baldoey in Forfarshire on the 1st of August 1545. His father,

Richard Melville, who was connected with a family which boasted its descent from the blood-royal, was slain at the disastrous battle of Pinkie, fought on the 10th of September 1547, when Andrew, the youngest of nine sons, had only completed his second year. He lost his mother during the same year, and the care of the orphan boy devolved upon his eldest brother Richard, who afterwards became minister of the adjacent parish of Marytown. As he early discovered great aptitude for learning, he was removed to Montrose, where he was instructed in the rudiments of the Latin language. In the year 1559 he was sent to the university of St Andrews, where he became a student in St Mary's College, and greatly distinguished himself by his early proficiency in classical learning, particularly in his knowledge of Greek, a language at that time unknown even to the lecturer on Aristotle of his university. Melville left this university with the reputation of "the best philosopher, poet, and Grecian of any young master in the land;" and in the autumn of 1564, when he had completed his nineteenth year, he proceeded to Paris with the view of prosecuting his studies at the university of that city, then at the height of its celebrity. Here Melville enjoyed the advantage of hearing the prelections of Turnebus, professor of Greek in the Royal College; of Mercier and Quinquarboeus, professors of Hebrew and Chaldee; and of the celebrated Peter Ramus, who had greatly distinguished himself by his strenuous opposition to the philosophy of Aristotle. In addition to his other engagements, young Melville commenced the study of civil law, at that time taught by Balduinus, or Baudouin, a very eminent civilian of Paris. During the second year of his residence he had attained to such proficiency in the Greek language, that he was able to speak it with great fluency and copiousness. He left Paris in the year 1566, and repaired to the university of Poitiers to prosecute the study of law. Here, owing to his great celebrity, he was appointed a regent in the college of St Marceon, though he was only twenty-one years of age. He continued to prosecute his legal studies for three years at Poitiers; but owing to political disturbances he was ultimately compelled to seek a residence elsewhere. Leaving behind him his books and other effects, and fixing a small Hebrew Bible in his girdle, he, in company with a Frenchman, set out for Geneva. When the two pedestrians reached the gates of that city, their money was all but entirely spent; Melville, however, had the good fortune to obtain, through the influence of Beza, the professorship of humanity in the academy of Geneva, and was thus enabled to support for a time his less fortunate companion.

Geneva was at this time a most conspicuous bulwark of the Reformation. It afforded an asylum to many persecuted Protestants of eminent piety and learning. The academy of Geneva, which was a university without the name, could boast of various professors of the highest reputation. The chair of Calvin, its first and most celebrated professor of divinity, was now occupied by Beza, who was likewise a man of eminent talents, and who with his profound knowledge of theology united many of the graces of polite literature. Melville, still eager to learn, became a student under this venerable professor; and acquired a knowledge of Syriac from Bertram, the professor of oriental languages. In the year 1572 the atrocious massacre of St Bartholomew compelled many of the French Protestants to abandon their native country and seek refuge in Geneva. Melville had the good fortune on this occasion to make the acquaintance of the celebrated scholar and thinker, Joseph Scaliger, for two years professor of philosophy at Geneva. He also heard the lectures of Bonnetoy on oriental jurisprudence, who, along with Hotman, another distinguished refugee, was paid by the magistrates of Geneva for delivering lectures on civil and ecclesiastical law.

Melville. After having retained his professorship for five years, he was at length induced by the urgent solicitations of his friends in Scotland to revisit his native country. He accordingly left Geneva in the spring of 1574; and in passing through Paris engaged in a controversy, which lasted several days, with one James Tyrie, one of the antagonists of Knox, at the college of the Jesuits. He arrived in Edinburgh in the beginning of July 1574.

Melville had already distinguished himself by his Latin poetry, and his reputation as a man of talents had reached his native country. It was about this period that he made his first appearance as an author. His earliest work was entitled Carmen Moysi, ex Deuteronom. cap. xxxii. quod ipse moriens Israeli tradidit ediscendum et cantandum perpetuo, Latina paraphrasi illustratum. Cui addita sunt nonnulla Epigrammata, et Jobi cap. iii. Latino carmine redditum. Andrea Melvino Scoto auctore, Basileæ, 1574, 8vo. The Earl of Morton, regent of the kingdom, was desirous of retaining him in the capacity of a domestic chaplain; but he had no wish to become a courtier; and he was persuaded that his labours would be most available to his countrymen if he were placed in one of the universities. On the death of John Douglas, who had accumulated the offices of Archbishop of St Andrews, provost of St Mary's College, and rector of the university, a proposition was made for placing him at the head of the college; but on being very strongly urged to accept of a similar appointment at Glasgow, he was finally induced to give it the preference. On his installation as principal of the Glasgow university in November 1574, he found that institution in a very unsatisfactory condition. When he commenced his academic labours his only coadjutor was Peter Blackburne, who officiated as a regent, and managed the scanty revenues of the foundation. The exertions of the principal himself to elevate the teaching and improve the character of the university were quite prodigious. He initiated his students in the principles of Greek grammar; introduced them to the Dialectics of Ramus and the Rhetoric of Tullius; read with them the best classical authors, as Virgil and Horace among the Latins, and Homer, Hesiod, Theocritus, Pindar, and Isocrates among the Greeks; taught them the Elements of Euclid, with the arithmetic and geometry of Ramus, and the geography of Dionysius; read with them Cicero's Offices, Paradoxes, and Tusculan Questions, the Ethics and Politics of Aristotle, and certain of Plato's Dialogues; expounded natural philosophy; taught the Hebrew language, accompanied with a praxis upon the Psalter and books of Solomon; initiated the students into Chaldee and Syriac; and, to complete the theological curriculum, went through all the common heads of divinity, according to the order of Calvin's Institutes, besides giving lectures on the different books of Scripture. This course of study was completed in six years. After some time, however, he succeeded in increasing the staff of professors, and restricted himself to divinity and oriental languages. The learning, talents, and energy of Melville speedily raised this university from its ruinous condition, and secured for it the reputation of being the first seminary in the kingdom. Students were attracted from all parts of the country, and among these were not a few graduates from St Andrews, who were disposed to learn what their former masters could not teach. Various individuals who afterwards rose to eminence were here trained under his discipline. Melville's influence in advancing the literature of his native country was great and lasting; nor was it less considerable in improving the condition of the Scottish church. He was a member of the General Assembly convened at Edinburgh in March, as well as that convened at the same place in August 1575. The lawfulness of episcopacy was debated in this latter assembly; and he there maintained the negative side of the question in a speech

which, as Spotswood admits, "was applauded by many." For the more mature discussion of this subject, the assembly appointed a committee of six, of which Melville formed one, who presented a report expressive of a mild but essential hostility to episcopacy. This report was approved by the assembly held in April 1576; and those bishops who had not already undertaken some parochial cure, were enjoined to select particular parishes for the exercise of their pastoral functions. This was the first step towards the abolition of diocesan episcopacy in Scotland. Of the assembly held in Magdalene Chapel at Edinburgh in the month of April 1578, Melville was chosen moderator. The Second Book of Discipline now received the sanction of this ecclesiastical judicature; and it was resolved that bishops should no longer be described as lords, but should be addressed like other ministers.

After a residence of six years at Glasgow Melville was removed to St Andrews, where he was installed as principal of St Mary's College, in the month of December 1580. The university of St Andrews had very recently been subjected to a salutary reform, and this college had been appropriated to the study of divinity. The office of primarius professor of divinity was then conjoined, as it still continues to be, with that of principal. Here, again, owing to the temporary incompleteness of the university, the enthusiastic principal, in addition to his own lectures on systematic theology, "taught learnedly and perfectly the knowledge and practice of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and rabbinical languages." In this new situation he had to contend with new difficulties; but his superior talents and learning, with the firmness and consistency of his personal character, enabled him to overcome all opposition.

Melville took a prominent part in the subsequent ecclesiastical struggle of his country against the restoration of popery. At a General Assembly held at St Andrews in April 1582, he was again elected moderator, and assisted in drawing up a vigorous remonstrance, complaining of their grievances, and craving redress. A deputation of the members, with the moderator at its head, was named for the purpose of presenting this remonstrance to his majesty, who was then residing at Perth. It was accordingly presented to the king in council; and on its being read, the Earl of Arran asked with an angry countenance, "Who dare subscribe these articles?" "We dare," said the undaunted Melville, and immediately signed his name, the other commissioners following his example. The minions of power were overawed by their intrepidity, and dismissed them without any formal censure.

On one occasion Melville, in a public sermon, took the liberty of animadverting on certain public abuses, when the provost of the city abruptly quitted the church in the middle of the discourse, not without muttering his high displeasure at the unsparing zeal of the preacher. The gates of St Mary's College exhibited placards threatening to bastinado the principal, to set fire to his lodgings, and to expel him from the city. But in the midst of these excitements he not only continued firm and undismayed, but summoned the provost before the presbytery for contempt of divine ordinances. He was soon afterwards exposed to danger from another quarter. He was cited to appear before the Privy Council on the 17th of February 1584, to answer to a charge of having, on the occasion of a fast kept during the preceding month, uttered certain seditious and treasonable words in his sermon and prayers. Furnished with ample testimonials of his loyalty, he repaired to Edinburgh, and having appeared before the council, he entered into a full explanation and defence of the expressions which he had actually employed. The Privy Council resolved, however, to proceed against him, when he declined its jurisdiction in a written protest. On the reading of Melville's declination the king and Arran were roused to unseemly

Melville. rage; but they had to deal with a man whom the frowns of royalty could not intimidate, and he pleaded his own cause with the most unshaken firmness and resolution. In the course of his speech he appealed to the authority of the Scriptures; and unclasping a Hebrew Bible that was suspended at his girdle, he threw it on the council table, and challenged any of his judges to show that he had exceeded his instructions. He was, however, found guilty of behaving irreverently before the council and of declining its jurisdiction, and was sentenced to be imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, and to be further punished in his person and goods at the pleasure of the king. On learning that the place of confinement was changed to Blackness Castle, a dreary dungeon kept by a dependent of the Earl of Arran, he escaped from Edinburgh, and next day proceeded to Berwick. This rigorous treatment of so learned and eminent a man excited no small degree of popular indignation. Having obtained permission to visit London, he proceeded on his journey, bearing with him instructions from the exiled nobles who were then residing at Berwick. During the ensuing month of July he paid a visit to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and was received with great marks of respect. After an absence of twenty months, Melville and the banished lords returned to Scotland in the beginning of November 1585. He lost no time in using his best endeavours for the recovery of those liberties of which the church had recently been deprived. He undertook a mission to various parts of the kingdom for the express purpose of securing a united effort among his brethren, to effect a change in the ecclesiastical polity of the country.

During the absence of Melville the university of St Andrews had witnessed many vicissitudes; but in the month of March 1583 its zealous and learned principal returned to the scene of his former labours. When Du Bartas, an envoy from the King of Navarre, accompanied King James to St Andrews, they came to hear a lecture from Melville; and he pronounced an extempore discourse, which is said to have given "satisfaction to all the hearers except his majesty, who considered some parts of it as levelled against his favourite notions of church government." Aroused by the efforts made by the archbishop to induce his majesty further to encourage prelacy, the intrepid reformer, despite the threats of the king, delivered an elaborate discourse on the following day, directed against the positions of the archbishop, and characterized by great eloquence and power; on which the royal auditor condescended to deliver a speech, enjoining all to respect and obey the archbishop. The imperial disputant afterwards deigned to partake of a collation in the college, and was regaled with "wet and dry confections and all sorts of wine."

Of the General Assembly held in June 1587 Melville was elected moderator; and on the 17th of May 1590 he was present at the coronation of the queen, and recited a Latin poem which he had composed for the occasion, and which was immediately published (Στεφανίων, ad Scotiae Regem, habitum in Coronatione Regina, 17 Maii 1590, per Andream Melvinum, Edinb. 1590, 4to). His antagonist, Adamson, who died on the 19th of February 1592, had been deprived of his office, together with all its emoluments, by the king. Left to poverty and contempt, Melville hastened to pay him a visit, and not only procured contributions from his friends at St Andrews, but even continued for several months to support him from his private resources. The death of this accomplished and unfortunate prelate was speedily followed by the formal restoration of presbytery; and Melville, after being again elected moderator of the General Assembly of May 1594, subsequently accompanied the king on his expedition against the popish lords, after the battle of Glenlivet; and his majesty, who had requested their attendance, found him a very

faithful and able counsellor. When an attempt was afterwards made to recall the popish lords from banishment, Melville, with other commissioners, was admitted to a private audience of the king, when, taking his majesty by the sleeve, and calling him "God's silly vassal," he proceeded to address him in a strain which was "perhaps the most singular, in point of freedom, that ever saluted royal ears, or that ever proceeded from the mouth of a loyal subject, who would have spilt his blood in defence of the person and honour of his prince." While some applaud the courage of this undaunted presbyter, others may be equally disposed to condemn him as guilty of unwarrantable insolence to his sovereign. For several years ensuing the king made repeated attempts to regulate the church according to his own arbitrary notions, but constantly found a strenuous opponent in the worthy principal of St Mary's. After repeated and fruitless endeavours on the part of the king to prevent Melville from occupying a seat in the General Assembly of the church, his majesty at last, by his sole authority, commanded him, under pain of treason, to confine himself within the walls of his own college; a sentence afterwards relaxed by the intercession of the queen, so as to permit him to move within a circuit of six miles from St Andrews.

Andrew Melville was one of the eight presbyters called to London by King James on his accession to the English throne, for the overt purpose of restoring the tranquillity of the church, but, as is confidently believed, with the secret intention of circumventing this formidable scourge of episcopacy. Melville and his colleagues, however, conducted themselves with so much firmness and skill, that they were dismissed with unequivocal marks of approbation on the part of those who were present. "The English nobility," says M'Crie, "who had not been accustomed to see the king addressed with such freedom, could not refrain from expressing their admiration at the boldness with which Melville and his associates delivered their sentiments before such an audience, at the harmony of views which appeared in all their speeches, and the readiness and pertinency of the replies which they made to every objection with which they were urged."

Before quitting the metropolis various artful but fruitless expedients were adopted for corrupting the integrity of the staunch Presbyterians of the north. They were, besides, treated to lectures on the beauties of episcopacy, and permitted to witness one of its most imposing spectacles, which only served, however, to excite ridicule in the irreverent minds of the stern presbyters, and which found vent in a trenchant epigram of Melville's (Melvini Musæ, p. 24, anno 1620, 4to), who was obliged to appear at Whitehall and answer for his obnoxious verses. On appearing before the king and council, Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, began to expatiate on the aggravated nature of his offence, which he described as coming within the definition of treason. "My lords," he indignantly exclaimed, "Andrew Melville was never a traitor; but there was one Richard Bancroft (let him be sought for), who, during the life of the late queen, wrote a treatise against his majesty's title to the crown of England; and here is the book." Bancroft, who was totally unprepared for such an act of retaliation, sat in mute astonishment, while Melville proceeded to accuse him of profaning the Sabbath, and of silencing and imprisoning faithful preachers of the gospel for scrupling to conform to the vain and superstitious ceremonies of an anti-Christian hierarchy. He gradually advanced so near this pontiff as to shake his lawn sleeves; and calling them Romish rags, he thus continued to address him: "If you are the author of the book called England Scottizing for Geneva Discipline, then I regard you as the capital enemy of all the Reformed churches in Europe, and as such I will profess myself an enemy to you and your proceedings, to the effusion of the last drop of my blood; and it grieves me

Melville. that such a man should have his majesty's ear, and sit so high in this honourable council.¹ After some altercation, Melville was informed that he had been found guilty of scandalum magnatum, and was to be committed to the custody of the dean of St Paul's till the king should signify his pleasure as to his further punishment. On the 26th of April he was again summoned before the council. The King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland had recourse to the expedient of stationing himself in a closet where he could hear without being seen; and he received the appropriate reward of hearing himself mentioned with the utmost freedom of speech by the most undaunted of his subjects. By a most inquisitorial sentence, worthy of Rome or Toledo, he was committed as a prisoner to the Tower. His nephew, who had written an epigram on the superstitions of the church, was commanded to fix his residence at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and not to move beyond a distance of ten miles from that town.¹ Their brethren were permitted to return to Scotland, but were each of them restricted to particular limits.

For the space of about ten months the prisoner was subjected to the most rigorous treatment; no person was allowed to visit him; he was not permitted to retain a servant, and was even denied the use of pen and ink. But his manly spirit was still unsubdued, and he endeavoured to amuse his solitary hours by composing Latin verses, which, with the tongue of his shoe-buckle, he engraved on the walls of his prison-house. From these unnecessary restraints he was at length released by the intercession of some of his friends at court, and particularly of Sir James Semple, but the king could not yet be induced to open the doors of his prison. At the expiration of four weary years he was released at the intercession of the Duke of Bouillon, who invited him to fill the chair of biblical literature in the Protestant university of Sedan. He was now in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and had long filled an honourable and conspicuous station in his native land, to which he felt that strong attachment which his countrymen so generally feel. It was accordingly with some degree of reluctance that the brave old presbyter prepared for this voyage to France. He embarked, however, on the 19th of April 1611, and having spent a few days at Rouen and Paris, he arrived at Sedan in the course of the ensuing month. In this university he was associated with several of his countrymen, which served to lighten his banishment; yet he did not cease to cherish some lingering though faint hope of being permitted to deposit his bones in the land of his fathers. His naturally vigorous constitution had been impaired, however, by his protracted imprisonment; and he terminated his eventful life at Sedan in the year 1622, at the age of seventy-seven.

Melville was small in stature, and was alike conspicuous for his vivacity of body and mind. His elasticity of spirit, which he appears to have retained till the last years of his life, was accompanied with a warm and impetuous temperament, which, however, was free from all personal malignity. From his early youth he was distinguished by fervid and consistent piety. He was a man of the most unblemished integrity; nor did his enemies, who were sufficiently numerous, venture to charge him with sordid or selfish motives of conduct; their accusations chiefly relate to his want of personal reverence for the king, and to his want of veneration for bishops. In private life he appears to have been very amiable and affectionate: if his indignation was easily

roused, it was also easily appeased. Melville was unquestionably possessed of very uncommon talents, and he had acquired an ample and varied store of erudition. Such was his indifference to literary reputation, however, that although so capable of writing in prose or verse, he committed very few works to the press. In the excellent Life of Andrew Melville by Dr McCrie, 2 vols. 8vo, 1819, will be found an enumeration of his works, to which may be added a MS. Commentarius in divinam Pauli Epistolam ad Romanos, auctore Andrea Melvino Scoto.