Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/55

 escape for the council: the Archbishop of St. Andrews had withheld his assent, and they could do no less than follow the example. The Book was rejected, and the ministers were left to divine the cause of the refusal. But Andrew Hay, on inquiring of several members of council, who told him the particulars, and laid the whole blame of the refusal on Adamson, soon saw that he had a pledge to redeem; and on the archbishop passing by at that instant, he griped him by the hand, looked him angrily in the face, and exclaimed, in presence of the others, " knave, knave, I will crown thee the knave of all knaves!" It is enough to add here, that the Book of Policy, after having been delayed three years longer, was in 1581 thoroughly ratified and ordained in every point, and ordered to be registered in the books of the Assembly. As for Adamson, we find him employed during this interval in preaching in St Andrews, lecturing in the college, and attending the meetings of the General Assembly, but with no greater authority than that of the ordinary brethren. But symptoms even already had occurred to show, that the court favour upon which he was willing to build, was but a sandy foundation, for his powerful patron, the earl of Morton, had been brought to the block. He forthwith prepared himself, therefore, to recognize the authority of the kirk in the doctrine of bishops, to which he had hitherto been opposed, and even gave his subscription to the articles of the Book of Policy, which he had hitherto withheld. This was in St Andrews, before the celebrated Andrew Melville, and a party of his friends, who were assembled with him. But all this was insufficient: he must also secure the countenance of the party in power, whatever for the time it might be; and for this purpose he passed over to Edinburgh, and took his seat in the Convention of Estates. Here, however, his reception was so little to his liking, that he found he must side wholly with the kirk. He therefore addressed himself to the ministers of Edinburgh, with professions which his subsequent conduct showed to be downright hypocrisy. He told them that he had come over to the court in the spirit of Balaam, on purpose to curse the kirk, and do evil; but that God had so wrought with him, that his heart was wholly changed, so that he had advocated and voted in the church's behalf and that henceforth he would show further and further fruits of his conversion and good meaning. This self-abasing comparison of himself to Balaam must have staggered the unfavourable suspicions of the most sceptical; at all events, it did so with the apostolic John Durie, who rejoiced over the primate's conversion, and wrote a flattering account of it to James Melville. The latter, in consequence, visited Adamson upon his return, and told him the tidings he had received, for which he heartily thanked God, and offered the archbishop the right hand of Christian fellowship. The other, still continuing his penitent grimace, described the change that had passed upon him at great length, which he attributed to the working of the Spirit within him. Perhaps he overacted his part, for Melville only observed in reply, "Well, that Spirit is an upright, holy, and constant Spirit, and will more and more manifest itself in effects; but it is a fearful thing to lie against him!"

It was indeed full time for the Archbishop of St Andrews not only to recover his lost credit with the kirk, but the community at large. He was generally accused of the vices of intemperance and gluttony; he was noted as an unfaithful paymaster, so that he stood upon the score of most of the shopkeepers in the town; and what was still worse, he was accused of consorting with witches, and availing himself of their unlawful power J We of the nineteenth century