MELVILLE, ANDREW: B. at Baldovy, near Montrose (30 m. n.e. of Dundee), Scotland, Aug. 1, 1545; d. at Sedan (130 m. n.e. of Paris), France, in 1622. After preliminary training in Latin, Greek, and French, at Montrose, he entered St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, in 1559; and when he left St. Andrews for the University of Paris, in the autumn of 1564, he was commended as "the best philosopher, poet, and Grecian of anie young maiater in the land." In Paris he studied Hebrew as well as Latin, Greek, and philosophy. Two years later he went to Poitiers to master civil law and became a regent in the College of St. Marceon. He afterward traveled to Geneva, where he war speedily appointed to

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the humanity chair. During his five years' resi dence there he devoted himself chiefly to the study of theology under Beza, who, at his leaving, wrote that the greatest token of affection the church of Geneva could give, was that it had consented to be deprived of Melville that the church in Scotland might be enriched. Having returned to Scotland, in July, 1574, he accepted the principalship of Glasgow University. He began his work there in Nov., and by his incredible labors and enthusiasm drew students from all quarters; so that the classrooms which for some years before had been literally empty, were soon filled to overflowing. Before Melville's return to Scotland, "Tulchan" episco pacy had been erected; and when John Durie pro tested in the General Assembly, in Aug., 1575, against the lawfulness of the bishop's office, Melville showed that prelacy was unscriptural, and should be abolished, and parity in rank and authority be restored among the ministers of the church. Five years later, the episcopal office was formally abol ished by the assembly, without a dissenting voice. Melville was on all the committees employed in preparing the Second Book of Discipline, took a prominent part in the discussions concerning it, and was moderator of an assembly which approved it, in April, 1578.

In December, 1580, Melville was transferred to the University of St. Andrews; installed as principal of St. Mary's College, which, by act of Parliament, had been appropriated to the study of divinity. Here, at first, he met with much opposition; but in less than two years his learning and zeal wrought a favorable change. The number of students increased; and the cause of religion prospered, both in the city and in the university. This was interrupted only by his being called to defend the polity and liberties of the church. Despite the confession or covenant of 1581, the privy council revived the regulations recognizing episcopacy, framed at Leith in 1572; and Lennox, one of the king's unworthy favorites, had Robert Montgomery pre sented to the archbishopric of Glasgow. This high handed procedure of the court was boldly met by the church, and Montgomery was excommunicated. The privy council proclaimed the excommunication null and void, ordered those who refused to pay him the episcopal rents to be imprisoned, and laid Glasgow College under a temporary interdict. In his opening sermon before a special meeting of the assembly, Melville inveighed against those who had introduced "the bludie gullie of absolute power into the country, and who sought to erect a new popedom in the person of the prince." A remon strance was drawn up, which he and the others presented to the king. In Feb., 1583-84, he was summoned before the privy council for seditious and treasonable preaching. Conscious of his inno eence, and furnished with ample proof, he appeared and gave, account of his sermon. On the council resolving to proceed with the trial, he maintained that he ought to be tried in the first instance by the church courts. As he would yield neither to entreaties nor threats, he was found guilty of declining the judgment of the council, and was sentenced to imprisonment in Blackness Castle, and further punishment at the king's pleasure; but he escaped to England.

As the court wished to make James absolute by bringing every cause before the I)rivy council, it was necessary to curb the church courts; and accordingly, in 1584, Parliament overthrew presbytery, and laid the liberties of the country at the king's feet. But in 1585, after twenty months' absence, Melville returned with the exiled nobles. Weary of tyranny, their countrymen ,flocked to their standard, Arran fled, and the king received them into favor. Melville was moderator of the assembly in June, 1587, and was one of its commissioners to the Parliament which annexed the temporal lands of bishoprics, abbacies, and priori to the crown, thus paving the way for the entire abolition of episcopacy. At the coronation of the queen, in May, 1590, he recited a Latin poem entitled Stephaniskion, which he composed on two days' notice. Patrick Adamson, who still persevered in opposing presbytery and attacking Melville, having fallen into poverty, addressed "elegant and plaintive verses to his Majesty," who turned a deaf ear to him; but Melville generously supported him for several months, as he himself was afterward aided, when a prisoner in the Tower of London, by Adamson's nephew, Patrick Simpson. In June, 1592, Melville's labors were crowned with success; Parliament having consented to pass an act ratifying the assemblies, synods, presbyteries, and kirk sessions of the church and declaring them, with their jurisdiction and discipline, as agreed to by the king, and embodied in the act, to be, in all time coming "most just, good and godly." This settlement is still the charter of the Church of Scotland's liberties.

Contrary to his promise, James insisted in restoring the popish nobles, and put the ministers on their defense by declaring that state affairs should not be introduced into their sermons, that the assembly should not convene without his command, that its acts should not be valid until ratified by him, and that church courts should not take cognizance of offenses punishable by the criminal law. One minister being dealt with as an example, the others made common cause with him. Soon they were forbidden to speak against the doings of the council, the king, or his progenitors, under the pain of death, and ordered to subscribe a bond, before receiving their stipends, promising to submit to the king and council when accused of seditious or treasonable doctrine. Melville and the other commissioners of assembly were ordered to leave Edinburgh, and their power was declared illegal. Determined to restore episcopacy James, by secret and corrupt influence, secured a vantageground for his future plans at an assembly which Melville could not attend. It was with difficulty he carried out his measures, even in a modified form, at next assembly, where Melville was present. The committee of ministers there appointed to advise with the king about church affairs was "the needle which drew in the episcopal thread." In 1597 Melville was deprived of the rectorahip of St. Andrew's University after holding it seven years. To get rid of his opposition in the church courts,

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all doctors or regents teaching theology or philosophy, not being pastors, were forbidden to sit in any of these courts under pain of deprivation and rebellion. Prelates were declared by Parliament to have ever represented an estate of the realm; and, when the assembly met, the king would not allow it to proceed until Melville retired; and ultimately he was forced to quit the town. James protested that he did not intend to restore bishops, but only wished some of the wisest ministers, as commissioners of the kirk, to have a place in the privy council and Parliament to judge in their own affairs. To this the assembly by a small majority agreed. The king would not permit Melville to sit in the assembly of 1600, and, by acceding to many caveats, he induced the members to comply with his plan. When the Scottish Parliament restored the bishops to their ancient privileges, in 1606, Melville, who was sent by St. Andrew's presbytery, protested. As the bishops had as yet no spiritual power, Melville and seven other ministers were summoned to London, nominally to confer with the king on church affairs, really to deprive their brethren of their aid and counsel in opposing the changes contemplated. The English nobles were astonished at Melville's talents and courage. On a highly ritualistic service which he had been made to witness in the Chapel Royal he wrote a Latin epigram, which one of the court spies set to watch him conveyed to the king. For this Melville was tried by the English privy council Nov. 30, and though he had given out no copy, was found guilty of scandalum magnatum. In April he was sent to the Tower, where for ten months he was treated with great severity. Pen, ink, and paper were taken from him; and none saw him save the person who brought his food. But his spirit was free and unbroken, and he covered the walls of his cells with verses beautifully engraved with the tongue of his shoe-buckle. By means of packed assemblies and bribery, prelacy was established in Scotland when he and other faithful men were far away. Though the Protestants of Rochelle were eager to have Melville as professor of divinity, James would not consent; but, after four years' captivity, he, at the request of Du Plessis-Momay (q.v.), allowed him to go to Sedan to share with Tilenus the professorship of divinity. There his last years were spent, the bitterness of his exile being alleviated by the kindness of some Scottish professors and students. Among these last were John Durie (q.v.), and perhaps Alexander Colville, destined so long to carry on his work in St. Mary's College. The contest in which he took so prominent a part affected not only the government of the church but also the cause of civil and religious liberty. "Scotland," says his nephew James, "never received a greater benefit at the hands of God than this man." "If," says Dr. McCrie, "the love of pure religion, rational liberty, and polite letters, forms the basis of national virtue and happiness, I know no individual, after her Reformer, from whom Scotland has received greater benefits, and to whom she owes a deeper debt of gratitude and respect, than Andrew Melville." He was full of spirits, vigorous and courageous, quick-tempered but kindly, of great and varied learning, but more of a scholar than a popular orator. His chief work was in the universities and church courts rather than in the pulpit; and that, perhaps, was the reason why, with all his influence among his brethren, he never gained such sway over the nobles and people as Knox and Henderson attained. The hard measure meted out to him by King James was one of the greatest blots on that reign.

D. Hay Fleming.

Bibliography: The principal sources -are: J. Melvill, Autobiography and Diary, with Continuation, e d. R. Pitcairn, Edinburgh, 1842; J. Row, Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. D. Laing, ib., 1842; w. Boot, An Apologetical Narration of the State and Government of the Kirk of Scotland since the Reformation, ed. D. Laing, ib. 1846; J. Spottiswoode, Hind. of the Church of Scotland, ed. M. Russell, ib. 1851; D. Calderwood, Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. T. Thomson, 8 vols., ib. 1842-49; Register of the Privy Council q/ Scotland, ed. D. Masson, vols. iii.-iv., ib., 1880-81. The one life of importance is by T. McCrie, 2 vols., ib. 1819, also in his works, ed., his son, the younger McCrie, ib. 1856, reissued, 1899. Consult also DNB, xxvii. 230; H. Cowan, Influence of the Scottish Church in Christendom. London, 1896.