Andrew Melville | Page 3

the
spirit in which he does it, his faith, his fortitude, to all generations.
Melville conferred many signal and enduring benefits on his country:
the one which transcended all others was the inspiration he left to her in
his own rare nobility of character.
CHAPTER II
BIRTH--EDUCATION--YEARS ABROAD
'Fashioned to much honour from his cradle.'
Henry VIII.
Melville's birthplace was Baldovy, an estate in the immediate
neighbourhood of Montrose, of which his father was laird. He was born
on 1st August 1545--a year memorable as that of Knox's emergence to
public life--the youngest of nine sons, most of whom came to fill
honourable positions in the Church and commonwealth.
Montrose and the district around it early showed sympathy with the
Reformed Faith. George Wishart was a native of Angus, and his
influence was nowhere greater than there. The family seat of John
Erskine--Dun House--was in the same vicinity, and he too by his warm
espousal of Protestantism strengthened its hold on the district. The
Baldovy family itself had been identified with the Reformed movement

from the beginning. Melville's eldest brother, Richard, who became
minister of Maryton, was travelling tutor to Erskine, and the two
studied together at Wittenberg under Melanchthon. The Melvilles were
intimate with Wishart; and Baldovy and Dun House were the resorts of
other leading spirits among the Reformers. In 1556 Knox was Erskine's
guest when he was preaching in the district, and his personal influence
intensified the attachment of the Melvilles to the cause to which they
were already committed.
Melville was only two years old when his father was killed fighting
among the Angus men on the field of Pinkie, a battle which made many
orphans; and in his twelfth year he lost his mother, when he was taken
by his eldest brother to Maryton Manse, and as tenderly cared for by
the minister and his wife as though he had been a child of their own.
One of the sons of the manse was James Melville, between whom and
his 'Uncle Andro' the most endeared affection sprang up. The two lived
in each other's lives and shared each other's work, alike as teachers in
the two principal Universities, and as leaders in the Council of the
Church. Corque unum in duplici corpore et una anima--so the elder,
after the younger's death, described their relationship.
Melville's scholarly bent showed itself early. 'He was a sicklie, tender
boy, and tuk pleasure in nathing sa meikle as his buik.' He began his
education in the Grammar School of Montrose, which had great repute,
and on leaving it he attended for two years the school in the same town,
founded by Erskine of Dun, for the teaching of Greek. It was in the
latter school that he learned the rudiments of Greek, in which he had
afterwards few equals anywhere, and none in Scotland. In 1559
Melville entered the University of St. Andrews and joined St. Mary's
College. Aristotle's Works were the only text-books used; and Melville
was the only one in the University, whether student or professor, who
could read them in the original. He was a favourite of the Provost of his
College, John Douglas, who invited him often to his house and
encouraged him in his studies, and discerned in him the promise of
distinction as a scholar. 'He wad tak the boy betwix his legges at the
fire in winter, and blessing him say--"My sillie fatherless and
motherless chyld, it's ill to wit what God may mak of thee yet!"'

Melville finished his curriculum at St. Andrews in 1564, and left with
the reputation of being 'the best philosopher, poet, and Grecian of any
young maister in the land.'
It was common at that time for Scottish students on leaving their own
Universities to seek, at the Continental seats of learning, a more
abundant education than their own country could afford. We shall see
that when Melville came to be at the head in succession of our two
principal Universities, he considerably modified this custom. He
conformed to it, however, in his own case, and the same year in which
he closed his course at St. Andrews left Scotland to prosecute his
studies abroad. The next decade was his Wander-jahre. He went first of
all to Paris, whose University was the most renowned in Europe. There
was a truce at the time between the Catholics and the Reformers in
France; a large measure of toleration was allowed by the Government,
and the principal Professors were Protestants. In Paris, Melville sat at
the feet of some of the most distinguished scholars of the day: he read
diligently in Greek literature; acquired a knowledge of Hebrew; and at
the same time studied Philosophy under Petrus Ramus, the great
opponent of Aristotelianism, becoming a follower of this daring
innovator, whose