Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/248

 ciated, Melvill reciting a Latin poem, which was published by royal command. When Adamson was deposed by the assembly and neglected by James, Melvill met his necessities from his own purse, and by a contribution from his friends. At the same time he insisted on Adamson's recantation as the condition of release from excommunication. Adamson's death (19 Feb. 1592) removed the ablest advocate of episcopacy. The parliament in June 1592 ratified the presbyterian system, confirming, however, the rights of patrons, and not affecting the civil status of bishops, including their right to sit in parliament. Melvill was again moderator of the general assembly at Edinburgh in May 1594. Huntly and other catholic peers left Scotland in 1595, and Melvill used every means in his power to prevent their return. In August 1596 he forced himself into a meeting of the privy council at Falkland to protest against Huntly's proposals. He was excluded, but made himself the spokesman of a deputation to the king in the following month, when he plucked James by the sleeve, calling him ‘Gods sillie vassall,’ claimed the character of loyal patriotism for the policy of his party, and extorted a promise that the demands of the church should be respected.

The tide now turned against the presbyterian cause. The general assembly convened by James at Perth for 28 Feb. 1597 adopted thirteen articles which gave new power to the king in ecclesiastical affairs, and forbade the clergy to preach on matters of state. Melvill was not present, and his party unsuccessfully challenged the legality of the assembly. In June 1597 James made a visitation of St. Andrews University. Melvill was deprived of the rectorship, a council nominated by the king was entrusted with the government of the university, and all holders of chairs, not being pastors, were prohibited from sitting in church courts, except that one representative (whose election was carefully guarded) was given to the university in the general assembly. Notwithstanding this, Melvill presented himself at the general assembly at Dundee in March 1598. James personally bade him withdraw, and he was compelled to leave the town. By way of amends he was made dean of the faculty of theology in the summer of 1599. He maintained the leadership of his party by assisting at extra-judicial meetings of clergy. One of the most important of these was the conference held at Holyrood House, November 1599, in James's presence, on the admission of bishops to parliament. His personal controversies with James were not limited to verbal altercation. In 1599 James printed the first edition of the ‘Basilicon Doron,’ consisting of only seven copies. One of them came into Melvill's hands through Sir James Sempill. He extracted propositions from it, and caused them to be censured by the synod of Fife. At Montrose, in March 1600, he again unsuccessfully claimed his right to sit in the assembly; he appears, however, to have been admitted to the assembly of May 1601 at Burntisland. In June 1602, in a sermon at St. Andrews, he condemned the attitude of some of the clergy, and was ordered (11 July) to confine himself within the precincts of his college.

Melvill hailed the accession of James to the English throne with a series of odes, in which he addressed him as ‘Scotangle princeps, optime principum.’ He was in favour of a legislative union of the two kingdoms. In 1605 nine presbyteries sent their representatives to Aberdeen, and after constituting the general assembly in defiance of the king's messenger adjourned to 28 Sept. Severe measures were taken with the leaders of this meeting, in whose behalf and in behalf of the right of free assembly, Melvill headed a protest (drafted by Patrick Simson) which was offered to the parliament at Perth in August 1606. He was summoned, with his nephew and six other ministers, to appear in London before 15 Sept.

He reached London by 25 Aug.; John Gordon [q. v.], dean of Salisbury, had instructions for him. The ministers were lodged at Kingston-on-Thames, and received at Hampton Court on 20, 22, and 23 Sept. Melvill, who made two uncompromising speeches, each of nearly an hour's length, on behalf of the freedom of assemblies, turned upon the Scottish lord advocate (Thomas Hamilton, afterwards Earl of Melrose [q. v.]), and vituperated him in a Greek phrase. ‘By God,’ said James, ‘it is the devil's name in the Revelation.’ After some further parleying, Melvill and his friends were required to attend in the Chapel Royal on Sunday, 28 Sept. Melvill, returning from this service to his lodging, penned a bitter Latin epigram on the accessories of Anglican worship. For this he was brought before the English privy council at Whitehall on 10 Nov. Here he turned the tables upon Archbishop Bancroft, by producing his former publication against James's title to the English crown; and seizing the white sleeves of Bancroft's rochet, he called them ‘Romish rags.’ At length he was removed, and placed in the custody of John Overal, D.D. [q. v.], then dean of St. Paul's. On 9 March 1607 he was nominally transferred to the custody of Bilson, bishop of Winchester, but permitted to be at large and consort