Andrew Melville | Page 7

native land.
In St. Andrews and Glasgow he had not only teaching duties, he
presided over the government of the University as well; and the same
resolute respect for law, which set him so stoutly against the King's
tyranny in the realm, made him a determined upholder of order in the
University. He was at once a fearless subject and a born ruler of men.
When he entered on his office in St. Andrews, some of the professors,
chafed by the reforms which he introduced, became insubordinate, but
soon succumbed to his authority; and more than once in Glasgow he
quelled riots among the students at the risk of his life. On one occasion,
when his friends urged him to condone an offence of a student of noble
family from fear of revenge, he answered, 'Giff they wald haiff

forgiffness let them crave it humblie and they sall haiff it; but or that
preparative pass, that we dar nocht correct our scholars for fear of
bangstars and clanned gentlemen, they sall haiff all the blud of my
body first.'
In St. Andrews he was for some time Rector of the University as well
as Principal of St. Mary's, and in his exercise of civil authority in that
capacity he did more for public order than all the magistrates of the
burgh. At one time the inhabitants were greatly plagued by a bad
neighbour, the Laird of Dairsie, who had once been Provost, and who
resented his ejection from that office. On more than one occasion
associates of his, Balfour of Burley and others, had entered the city
during the night and committed gross outrages. One day the report
reached St. Andrews that Dairsie and his friends were approaching in
force to make an assault on the citizens. The magistrates were
panic-stricken; but on the report reaching the Rector's ears, he
immediately summoned the whole University together and organised a
party of resistance, placed himself at its head, bearing in his hand a
white spear (one of the insignia of his office), and by his prompt action
made the invaders glad to decamp.
During Melville's rectorship quarrels sometimes occurred between
town and gown, and in these he always showed himself jealous in
regard to the rights of the University. He had once a serious rupture
with the magistrates, on account of their unjust administration and their
rejection of eminent ministers whom he had commended for charges in
the city. Preaching in his own pulpit in the College of St. Mary's, he
spoke with such vehemence of their misdoings that he raised the town
against him. Forthwith placards were affixed to the College gates
threatening the Rector with dire revenge. Nothing daunted, Melville
continued to fulminate against the authorities--'with ane heroicall spreit,
the mair they stirit and bostit the mair he strak with that twa-eagit
sword, sa that a day he movit the Provest, with sear rubbing of the ga of
his conscience, to ryse out of his seatt in the middes of the sermont, and
with some muttering of words to goe to the dure, out-throw the middes
of the peiple.' Melville, instead of giving way to the irate magistrate,
had him brought before the Presbytery, when he expressed his regret

for disturbing the public worship, and craved forgiveness; and so peace
was restored.
The academic labours of Melville caused a great revival in Scottish
education. Not only did Scotland after this time keep her own students,
but foreign students began to attend her Universities. A few years after
Melville went to St. Andrews, names of students from all parts of the
Continent began to appear on the matriculation registers, chiefly of St.
Andrews, but of the other Universities as well. He gave an impetus to
learning not only within academic circles, but throughout the country,
as was shown in the great increase in the production of books in all
branches of literature and science. The period enriched the nation with
no names of literary genius, but the general intellectual activity of the
country made a great advance, Melville himself left no permanent
contribution to literature--his hands were too full of public cares for
that; and his entire literary remains consist of sacred poems and
fugitive pieces of verse in Latin. But he was very ready with his pen,
and served as a kind of unofficial poet-laureate. It is a curious fact that
on every occasion in the King's reign that called for celebration, even at
those times when Melville was on the worst terms with James, an
appropriate ode was forthcoming. He was a clever satirist, and it was a
lampoon which he wrote on a sermon in the Royal Chapel at Hampton
Court that was made the pretext for depriving him of his liberty.
Such were Melville's services to education and