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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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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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.
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