Andrew Melville and Humanism in Renaissance Scotland 1545-1622 (Studies in the History of Christian Traditions)

Andrew Melville and Humanism in Renaissance Scotland 1545–1622

Studies in the History of Christian Traditions General Editor

Robert J. Bast Knoxville, Tennessee In cooperation with

Henry Chadwick, Cambridge Paul C.H. Lim, Nashville, Tennessee Eric Saak, Liverpool Brian Tierney, Ithaca, New York Arjo Vanderjagt, Groningen John Van Engen, Notre Dame, Indiana Founding Editor

Heiko A. Oberman†

VOLUME 154

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/shct.

Andrew Melville and Humanism in Renaissance Scotland 1545–1622 By

Ernest R. Holloway III

LEIDEN • BOSTON LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011

Cover illustration: ‘John Slezer. St Andrews – ‘The Prospect of the Town of St Andrews’ in Theatrum Scotiae. 1693. [NLS shelfmark EMS.b.5.1] Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holloway III, Ernest R. Andrew Melville and humanism in Renaissance Scotland, 1545-1622 / by Ernest R. Holloway III. p. cm. -- (Studies in the history of Christian traditions, ISSN 1573-5664 ; v. 154) Based on the author’s thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Aberdeen, 2009, issued under the title: Andrew Melville and humanism in the reign of James VI. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-90-04-20539-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Melville, Andrew, 1545-1622. 2. Humanism--Scotland--History. I. Title. BX9225.M4H65 2011 285.092--dc22 2011011258

ISSN 1573-5664 ISBN 978 90 04 20539 0 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke€Brill€NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.

CONTENTS Acknowledgements╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓������ ╅╇ vii A Melville Chronology╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓 ╅╇╛╛ix Abbreviations╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓���������������� ╅╇╛╛xi I.╇ Andrew Melville and the Melville Legend╇ ������������������������������ â•…â•… 1 1.╇ The Melville Legend╇ ����������������������������������尓���������������������������� â•…â•… 1 2.╇ The Development of the Legend╇ ����������������������������������尓������� â•…â•… 7 3.╇ Demythologizing the Legend╇ ����������������������������������尓������������ ╅╇ 13 4.╇ Knox and Melville╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������� ╅╇ 18 5.╇ Buchanan and Melville╇ ����������������������������������尓����������������������� ╅╇ 22 6.╇ Melville and Humanism╇ ����������������������������������尓��������������������� ╅╇ 27 II.╇ The Formative Years (1545–1563/4)╇ ����������������������������������尓������ ╅╇ 35 1.╇ The Narrative History╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������� ╅╇ 35 2.╇ Childhood and Family╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������ ╅╇ 37 3.╇ Early Education╇ ����������������������������������尓����������������������������������� ╅╇ 47 4.╇ The University of St Andrews╇ ����������������������������������尓������������ ╅╇ 53 5.╇ Conclusion╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓������� ╅╇ 58 III.╇ France: Paris and Poitiers (1563/4–1569)╇ �������������������������������� ╅╇ 61 1.╇ The Collège Royal and University of Paris╇ ������������������������� ╅╇ 61 2.╇ Petrus Ramus╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓��� ╅╇ 74 3.╇ George Buchanan╇ ����������������������������������尓�������������������������������� ╅╇ 82 4.╇ Poitiers╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓�������������� ╅╇ 91 5.╇ Conclusion╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓������� ╅╇ 98 IV.╇ Switzerland: Geneva (1569–1574)╇ ����������������������������������尓���������� â•… 1.╇ The Academy of Geneva╇ ����������������������������������尓��������������������� â•… 2.╇ Melville’s Genevan Circle╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������� â•… 3.╇ Joseph Justus Scaliger╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������� â•… 4.╇ Theodore Beza╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓� â•… 5.╇ Melville’s Departure╇ ����������������������������������尓���������������������������� â•… 6.╇ Conclusion╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓������� â•…

101 101 112 131 136 146 148

vi

contents V.╇ Scotland: Glasgow (1574–1580)╇ ����������������������������������尓���������� â•… 1.╇ Melville as Private Tutor╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������ â•… 2.╇ The University of Glasgow╇ ����������������������������������尓�������������� â•… 3.╇ A Humanist in Service to the Kirk╇ ����������������������������������尓� â•… 4.╇ Fellow Humanists and Advocates of Reform╇ ����������������� â•… 5.╇ 1577 Nova Erectio╇ ����������������������������������尓����������������������������� â•… 6.╇ Relocation to St Andrews╇ ����������������������������������尓���������������� â•… 7.╇ Conclusion╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓���� â•…

151 151 155 166 170 179 185 187

VI.╇ Scotland: St Andrews (1580–1607)╇ ����������������������������������尓����� â•… 1.╇ The University of St Andrews╇ ����������������������������������尓��������� â•… 2.╇ The Controversy Over Aristotle╇ ����������������������������������尓����� â•… 3.╇ The Ecclesiastical Statesman╇ ����������������������������������尓����������� â•… 4.╇ Exile in England: London, Oxford, and Cambridge╇ ������ â•… 5.╇ The Visit of Du Bartas╇ ����������������������������������尓��������������������� â•… 6.╇ Melville’s Literary Circle╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������ â•… 7.╇ Melville’s Poetry╇ ����������������������������������尓�������������������������������� â•… 8.╇ Conclusion╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓���� â•…

191 191 197 205 210 220 223 232 246

VII.╇England and France: London and Sedan (1607–1622)╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓������� â•… 1.╇ Prelude to Conflict╇ ����������������������������������尓��������������������������� â•… 2.╇ James VI and the Tower of London╇ ��������������������������������� â•… 3.╇ The Melvini Epistolae╇ ����������������������������������尓����������������������� â•… 4.╇ The University of Sedan╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������ â•… 5.╇ Arthur Johnston╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������� â•… 6.╇ Conclusion╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓���� â•…

251 251 260 268 277 283 287

VIII.╇Andrew Melville and the Renaissance in Scotland╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓���������� ╅ 1.╇ Melville the Humanist╇ ����������������������������������尓��������������������� ╅ 2.╇ Melville the University Reformer.╇ ����������������������������������尓�� ╅ 3.╇ Melville the Ecclesiastical Statesman╇ ������������������������������� ╅ 4.╇ Melville the Man╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������� ╅ 5.╇ Conclusion╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓���� ╅

291 291 306 315 329 336

Selected Bibliography╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓�� â•… 337 Index of Melville’s Selected Works╇ ����������������������������������尓����������������� â•… 359 General Index╇ ����������������������������������尓������������������������������������尓��������������� â•… 361

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study is based on my PhD thesis “Andrew Melville and Humanism in the Reign of James VI” originally submitted to the University of Aberdeen in 2009 and supervised by Nicholas J. Thompson in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy. During my time in Old Aberdeen, I enjoyed interaction with a number scholars who contributed to the development of my own thought on Melville, humanism, and the northern European Renaissance but none were more helpful than my advisor who generously gave of his time and skillfully assisted me in my investigations. For this and his enduring friendship I remain in his debt. Complementing the work of my supervisor, I would also like to thank those who conducted my viva at King’s College, Mark Elliot of the University of St Andrews and Marie-Luise Ehrenschwendtner of the University of Aberdeen. I am most grateful for their careful perusal of the thesis and their insightful and probing questions. Those hours of examination were a sheer delight stimulating my own thought and opening up new avenues of inquiry. Another scholar who is owed special thanks for his indirect contriÂ� bution to this work and his direct contribution to my development as an historian of early modern Europe is my former American doctoral€thesis advisor Carl Trueman. It was during his doctoral seminar on the English Reformation that the seeds of my subsequent Aberdeen research were sown. As an alumnus of and former Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, his friendship helped make the transition from Philadelphia to Old Aberdeen relatively seamless. I would especially like to thank the members of staff of the Special Collections at King’s College, the University of Aberdeen who graciously provided invaluable assistance in the research process. Particular recognition should be given to Mrs. B. J. Ellner and Miss M. B. J. Gait who patiently and diligently tracked down materials from the University’s extensive collection of rare books and manuscripts. I am also most grateful for the help provided by those members of the library staff during my work at the University as a tutorial instructor and teaching fellow. To those members of staff of the Bodleian Library, British Library, National Library of Scotland, University of Edinburgh, and Bibliothèque de Genève, Université de Genève I am deeply indebted for their excellent assistance in locating correspondence, manuscripts, and rare books.

viii

acknowledgements

Particular recognition is especially due to E.J. Brill, Leiden and its fine editorial staff and scholars who have expertly supervised every phase of the publication process. I am especially grateful to Mr. Ivo Romein, editor in the Brill History Department for his excellent assistance and for the judicious review of the manuscript supplied by the anonymous reader. It will always be my distinct honor to have had my work published by Brill. I am grateful to my family in the United States whose love, understanding, and support have made this work possible. In addition to the generous support of my mother, Janet Davis Holloway, I would like to offer special thanks to my late grandfather Ernest R. Holloway Sr. of Dallas, Texas whose generosity has helped to make the costly venture of living and studying abroad a reality. Most of all I would like to thank my wife Rebecca whose sacrifices, love, and devotion to me and our three children, Addison, Davis, and Genevie, have made this work what it is today. Her role as my loving companion and mother of our children has been complemented by her indefatigable labors as my chief redactor, literary critic, and constant supporter. To her and our three beautiful children this work is most affectionately dedicated. Ernest R. Holloway III January 2011

A MELVILLE CHRONOLOGY 1545 Andrew Melville born near Montrose on the estate of Baldovy 1557/58–1559/60â•…Pursues Greek studies under Marsilier 1559/60 Matriculates at St Mary’s College, St Andrews 1563/64 Probably graduates from St Andrews, departs from Scotland, and commences studies at the University of Paris and the Collège Royal 1565–1566 Studies under Buchanan in Paris 1566/67 Departs from Paris and commences study at the University of Poitiers 1569 Serves as classical tutor in Poitiers, departs from Poitiers, commences work as a regent in the schola privata of the Genevan Academy 1570 Attends Ramus’ lectures on dialectic in Lausanne 1574 First publishes Carmen Mosis, departs from Geneva, returns to Scotland, appointed principal of the University of Glasgow, tutors nephew 1575 Melville and Arbuthnot plan the reform of the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen 1577 The University of Glasgow ratifies nova erectio 1578 Melville serves as moderator of the general assembly 1579 St Andrews approves nova fundatio 1580 Melville transferred from the University of Glasgow to become principal of St Mary’s 1582 Melville serves as moderator over two separate general assemblies, Buchanan dies 1583 Arbuthnot intends nova fundatio for King’s College, Old Aberdeen, Arbuthnot and Smeaton die 1584 Summoned before Privy Council in Edinburgh, confronts James VI 1584–1585 Exile in England, resides in London, visits Oxford and Cambridge 1586 returns to St Mary’s, warded briefly north of the Tay

x

a melville chronology

1587 Visit of Du Bartas; Melville serves as moderator of the general assembly 1590 Delivers and publishes Στεφανισκιον, appointed rector of the University 1594 Publishes Principis Scoti-Britannorum natalia; Melville serves as moderator of the general assembly. 1596 Confronts James VI at Falkland Palace 1597 Removed as rector of the University, prevented from attending church courts 1602 Publishes Gathelus, confined within the precincts of St Mary’s 1604 Composes Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria 1605 Supports Aberdeen assembly 1606 Summoned by the King to London to discuss the 1605 Aberdeen assembly 1607 Incarcerated in the Tower of London, deposed from principalship 1607–1611 Melvini epistolae written, Psalm paraphrases and Prosopopeia apologetica composed, Casaubon visits Melville in the Tower 1611 Released from the Tower, banished from the kingdom, accepts position at the University of Sedan, John Johnston dies 1614 James Melville dies 1620 Viri clarissimi A. Melvini musae published 1622 Dies in Sedan

ABBREVIATIONS Acta conventus Amstelodamensisâ•…Acta conventus neo-Latini Amstelodamensis Acta conventus Sanctandreani Acta conventus neo-Latini Sanctandreani Acta conventus Torontonensis Acta conventus neo-Latini Torontonensis Acta conventus Turonensis Acta conventus neo-Latini Turonensis ACUSA Alumnus Chronicle of the University of St Andrews AHR American Historical Review ARG Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte AUR Aberdeen University Review BHR Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance BUK Acts and proceedings of the general assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland CC College Courant CH Church History CJ Classical Journal CTJ Calvin Theological Journal DPS Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum EBST Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions EHR English Historical Review GHJ George Herbert Journal HJ Historical Journal HS History of Science HT History and Theory HTR Harvard Theological Review IR Innes Review JBS Journal of British Studies JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History JHE Journal of Higher Education JHI Journal of the History of Ideas

xii

abbreviations

JMAD The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville; A True Narratioune of the Declyneing Aige of the Kirk of Scotland JWCI Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes MAUG Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis MLR Modern Language Review MP Modern Philology Musae Anglicanae Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 NS Northern Scotland ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography PMLA Proceedings of the Modern Language Association RQ Renaissance Quarterly RR Renaissance and Reformation RSCHS Records of the Scottish Church History Society SCJ Sixteenth-Century Journal Scotia Scotia: American-Canadian Journal of Scottish Studies SEL Studies in English Literature SHR Scottish Historical Review SJT Scottish Journal of Theology SQ Shakespeare Quarterly SR Studies in the Renaissance TZ Theologische Zeitschrift Viri Clarissimi Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Musae et P. Adamsoni Vita et Palindoia WTJ Westminster Theological Journal YES Yearbook of English Studies

Chapter one

ANDREW MELVILLE AND THE MELVILLE LEGEND The Melville Legend The intellectual legacy of Andrew Melville (1545–1622) as a leader of the Renaissance and a promoter of humanism in Scotland is as complex as the man himself. Few figures in early modern Scotland have been as misunderstood as Melville. His work as an academic and university reformer as well as his ecclesiastical labors have generated diverse and, at times, conflicting assessments. Some, reflecting upon his labors as a humanist and university reformer, have labeled him “the Scots Melanchthon,”1 “the Beza of Scotland,”2 the first of Scotland’s “pure scholars,”3 “a scholar’s scholar,”4 “the Second Founder of the University of Glasgow,”5 and even “the chief restorer of the western university.”6 Others, contemplating his efforts as an ecclesiastical reformer, have designated him the “Episcoporum exactor” or “επισκοπομαστιξ,”7 the “father of Scottish Presbyterianism,”8 the “Presbyterian missionary€ to Scotland,”9 the primary author of the 1578 Second Book of

╇ James Bass Mullinger, The University of Cambridge: From the Royal Injunctions of 1535 to the Accession of Charles the First (Cambridge, 1884), 365. 2 ╇ G.D. Henderson, Religious Life in Seventeenth-Century Scotland (Cambridge, 1937), 32. 3 ╇ John Durkan, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland” in David McRoberts (ed.), Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 (Glasgow, 1962), 291. 4 ╇ John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 276. 5 ╇ H.M.B. Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654 (Glasgow, 1917), 1. 6 ╇ Alexander Gray, “The Old Schools and Universities in Scotland,” Scottish Historical Review, 9 (Jan., 1912), 120. Cf. also Joseph H. Summers, George Herbert: His Religion and Art (London, 1954), 55. Summers calls Melville “the reformer of the Scottish universities.” 7 ╇ James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 52, 369–370. 8 ╇ James Kirk, “Melvillian Reform in the Scottish Universities” in A.A. MacDonald, Michael Lynch, and Ian B. Cowan (eds.), The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion and Culture (Leiden, 1994), 277. 9 ╇ Gordon Donaldson, The Scottish Reformation (Cambridge, 1960), 190. 1

2

chapter one

Discipline,10 and “the de facto leader of the Scottish Presbyterians from the 1580s on.”11 Still others in assessing the period more broadly have simply declared that he was “the dominant figure in Scottish history for thirty years.”12 To be sure the more extreme characterizations have arisen, in part, because of Melville’s own charismatic personality and flamboyant histrionics. He was unquestionably a polarizing figure. Consequently he has been portrayed in almost mythic terms as an “ancient prophet emerging from his seclusion to hurl denunciation and protest”13 and as a high-handed theocrat and “militant champion” of Presbyterianism who preached sedition from the pulpit and who brought about, almost single-handedly, the acceptance of presbytery in Scotland in 1580.14 Whereas some have categorically denied that he was a church leader at all,15 others have attributed to him a virtual omnipotence in the church’s highest judicatory.16 Despite his decidedly Presbyterian commitments and avowed opposition to episcopacy, as seen in his 1604 Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria, he has been labeled the “intellectual grandparent” of the ‘Aberdeen Doctors.’17 Students of Scottish history will remember him as the one who confronted James VI of Scotland in September 1596 at Falkland Palace, calling him “God’s sillie vassal,” tugging on his sleeve, and boldly

10 ╇ J.H.S. Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland (London, 1960), 198; Charles P. Finlayson, Clement Litill and His Library: The Origins of Edinburgh University Library (Edinburgh, 1980), 17; Caroline Bingham, The Making of a King: The Early Years of James VI and I (London, 1968), 149. Finlayson and Bingham refer to “Melville’s Second Book of Discipline.” James Kirk debunks this “all but universal belief ” in The Second Book of Discipline, ed. James Kirk (Edinburgh, 1980), 45, 51. 11 ╇ James Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England (Cambridge, 2000), 57; James Doelman, “The Contexts of George Herbert’s Musae Responsoriae,” George Herbert Journal, 2 (1992), 44. Doelman has also identified Melville as “the chief architect of Presbyterianism.” 12 ╇ Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, 1935), 132. 13 ╇ Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 57. 14 ╇ D. Macmillan, The Aberdeen Doctors (London, 1909), 66, 78–79; I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan, (London, 1981), 470; Doelman, “The Contexts of George Herbert’s Musae Responsoriae,” 45. McFarlane portrays Melville as having developed in Geneva “a militant fundamentalism.” 15 ╇ Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 57. 16 ╇ Robert Sangster Rait, “Andrew Melville and the Revolt Against Aristotle in Scotland,” English Historical Review (April, 1899), 257. 17 ╇ R.G. Cant, The University of St. Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 61, 67.



andrew melville and the melville legend

3

declaring his two kingdoms theory.18 Archbishop Spottiswoode, who had been a student at the University of Glasgow while Melville served as principal, later remarked that he was “more like a madman than a divine.”19 Other historians, such as William Palmer, have simply dismissed him as a terribly “misguided man.”20 His opponents, because of his intimate association with Calvin’s successor and his rigorous adherence to the Genevan discipline, contemptuously labeled him “Beza’s ape.”21 Still others have characterized him as a belligerent, disagreeable, strident agitator who initiated and sustained a firestorm of controversy throughout his long and tumultuous career as Scotland’s foremost university reformer and indefatigable promoter of Presbyterianism. Whereas some scholars have ranked his neo-Latin poetry as second only to Buchanan’s in Scotland, calling him “an excellent poet,”22 others, while recognizing his centrality among the Latin poets of his generation and his position as “a kind of unofficial Latin laureate to James VI,” have labeled him a “mediocre poet.”23 Others, in assessing his stature as a Latin poet of the Scottish Renaissance, have simply identified him as “effectively Buchanan’s successor.”24 As a result of the diversity of evaluations, the conflicting assessments, and the fantastic caricatures, Andrew Melville remains an enigma to historians of early modern Europe.25

18 ╇ David George Mullan, Scottish Puritanism 1590–1638 (Oxford, 2000), 259; Episcopacy in Scotland: The History of an Idea, 1560–1638 (Edinburgh, 1986), 59; Michael F. Graham, The Uses of Reform: ‘Godly Discipline’ and Popular Behavior in Scotland and Beyond, 1560–1610 (Leiden, 1996), 201. 19 ╇ John Spottiswoode, The History of the Church of Scotland Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1850), 200; Vol. III, 183. 20 ╇ Thomas McCrie, Jr., Life of Thomas McCrie, D.D. (Edinburgh, 1840), 232. 21 ╇ John Hill Burton, The Scot Abroad (Edinburgh, 1864), II, 90. 22 ╇ Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Britain Vol. III (London, 1868), 295; Izak Walton, The Life of Mr. George Herbert (London, 1670), 35. Walton characterized Melville as “a man of learning, and … the Master of a great wit, a wit full of knots and clenches: a wit sharp and satyrical; exceeded, I think, by none of that Nation, but their Bucanon.” 23 ╇ James W.L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets: (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry: A Critical Survey (London, 1955), 81–82; J.H. Millar, A Literary History of Scotland (London, 1903), 246. Millar bestows faint praise on Melville’s epigrams labeling them as “tolerable.” 24 ╇ Paul J. McGinnis and Arthur H. Williamson (eds.), George Buchanan: The Political Poetry (Edinburgh, 1995), 31, 318. They also refer to Melville as “Buchanan’s successor poet.” 25 ╇ Cf. G.D. Henderson, The Burning Bush: Studies in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1957), 25; John Kerr, Scottish Education School and University: from Early Times to 1908 (Cambridge, 1910), 128.

4

chapter one

To further complicate matters, there has developed over the years what John Durkan has called “the Melville legend,” a mythical image that emerged in part due to the success of his academic reforms and his ecclesiastical influence.26 Despite David Mullan’s remark that “Melville’s influence is not easily overestimated,” the mythical portrayal of the reformer has flourished over the last two centuries and can be seen most vividly in Robert Sangster Rait’s claim that Melville was “all-powerful in the General Assembly.”27 Whereas Durkan is undoubtedly correct that Melville’s successful university reforms and ecclesiastical influence contributed to the growth of the legend, the Scot’s mythical status grew to epic proportions with the publication in 1819 of Thomas McCrie’s Life of Andrew Melville. Conceived at the outset as the natural sequel to his 1811 Life of John Knox, McCrie’s biography portrayed Melville as the successor to Scotland’s leading reformer and most eminent divine. Relying heavily upon James Melville’s 1602 Diary, 1610 True Narratioune, and William Scot’s Apologetical Narration, McCrie identified Melville as “the chief influence” during the Jacobean period in promoting the New Learning and the individual who, more than any other, led the Kirk in Knox’s absence. Portrayed in Herculean terms, McCrie depicted Melville as “the master-spirit which animated the whole body, and watched over the rights and liberties of the church.”28 Indeed, James Kirk has characterized McCrie’s portrayal of Melville with only the slightest tinge of hyperbole when he refers to the Reformer as “Knox redivivus, his spirit brought back to life,” embracing “the same beliefs and ideals” of Knox and the first generation Reformers.29 Despite the “bilious effusion” expressed in the British Critic in February 1820, soundly condemning the work as a piece of bitter partisanship and its author as a narrow bigot, a more sympathetic reader in the Christian Instructor hailed the bioÂ� graphy and its predecessor as “the Iliad and Odyssey of the Scottish Church.”30 ╇ Durkan, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland,” 291. ╇ Mullan, Scottish Puritanism 1590–1638, 16; Rait, “Andrew Melville and the Revolt Against Aristotle in Scotland,” 250, 257. 28 ╇ Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. II (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824), 328, 333, 448–449; Life of John Knox (Edinburgh, 1811); Melville, JMAD, 143; William Scot, An Apologetical Narration of the State and Government of the Kirk of Scotland Since the Reformation (Edinburgh, 1846). McCrie maintained that Melville exercised “the chief hand in establishing” the ecclesiastical constitution of the Church of Scotland. 29 ╇ James Kirk, “John Knox and Andrew Melville: A Question of Identity?” Scotia: American-Canadian Journal of Scottish Studies, 6 (1982), 15. 30 ╇ McCrie, Life of Thomas McCrie, D.D., 238, 240, 244. 26 27



andrew melville and the melville legend

5

Notwithstanding the hagiographical character and the overtly partisan tone of McCrie’s Life of Melville, the work represents a remarkable achievement in Scottish history and continues to remain an authoritative source on the life of the humanist and reformer. McCrie’s thorough examination of rare editions and manuscripts, careful paleographical study, extensive Latin translations, and meticulous attention to detail represent an attempt to provide a critical history at a time when such scholarship was in its infancy.31 In light of this fact and in spite of the efforts by critics to discredit the work as an “undiscriminating panegyric,” Gordon Donaldson astutely remarked that McCrie was “a pioneer” in historical research whose work on the reformer exhibited “a range of scholarship which has not yet been surpassed in this field.”32 His biography since its publication in 1819 has remained the standard, seminal work for historians on the life and achievements of Andrew Melville and a valuable contribution to our understanding of the sixteenth-century Scottish Renaissance. Whereas McCrie’s work may be identified as the proximate source for the Melville legend, the ultimate source may be located in James Melville’s own hagiographical narrative history.33 Although the Diary of James Melville (1556–1614) may be identified as the ultimate source of the Melville legend, the document’s general reliability in recording the details of Melville’s life, especially those accounts which cannot be corroborated by external evidence, has been assumed by many sixteenth-century historians. Given that its author wrote this account some 30 or more years after many of the events occurred and in some cases was not an eyewitness, a healthy degree of skepticism is warranted when assessing these accounts. There are clear instances in the Diary where the author is either confused or simply mistaken and this may be accounted for on the grounds of faulty memory, inadequate research, partisan polemics, or exaggerated estimates.

31 ╇ Ian Henderson, “Reassessment of the Reformers” in Duncan Shaw (ed.), ReforÂ� mation and Revolution: Essays Presented to the Very Reverend Principal Emeritus Hugh Watt, D.D., D.Litt. on the Sixtieth Anniversary of his Ordination (Edinburgh, 1967), 34. 32 ╇ Gordon Donaldson, “Sources for Scottish Church History 1560–1600” in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1985), 90. 33 ╇ Hugh Walker, Three Centuries of Scottish Literature: The Reformation to the Union Vol I. (Glasgow, 1893), 83–128; Graham, The Uses of Reform, 131; W.S. Provand, Puritanism in the Scottish Church (Paisley, 1923), 57; Michael Lynch, “Calvinism in Scotland, 1559–1638” in Menna Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541–1715 (Oxford, 1985), 235. Cf. Ian Hazlett, The Reformation in Britain and Ireland (London and New York, 2003), 113–133; Marjory A. Bald, “James Melville: An Obscured Man of Letters,” Modern Language Review, 21 (July, 1926), 261–68.

6

chapter one

There are also value judgments or sheer opinion which should not be accepted at face value. To be sure, it was not James Melville’s intention to provide either an official biography of his uncle or an history proper of the period. It is as the title suggests an autobiography and diary, an historical record written from the perspective of one intimately involved in many of the events he records. If one views the author’s proximity to these events as providing a unique but limited perspective written by one decidedly committed to his uncle’s cause, then the source may be used critically along with other historical records to reconstruct the events of the period. The author’s moral probity combined with his intention to provide a faithful and accurate account of the persons and events of the period have together provided the grounds for its essential reliability. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the Diary should be admitted as evidence even as other partisan accounts and historical records are consulted in endeavoring to understand the period. The same critical approach employed in consulting John Spottiswoode’s and David Calderwood’s respectives histories should be adopted in perusing James Melville’s narrative history. The mere presence of bias or overt partisanship far from becoming a disqualifiying factor simply makes explicit the interpretative framework through which the events are evaluated and assessed. Without question the Diary is the single most influential historical source and interpretation of the Jacobean Kirk and of the life, accomplishments, and significance of Andrew Melville. Despite the disparaging efforts by critics to dismiss his narrative history as “intellectual narrowness” and his ideas as “harsh” and exhibiting a “certain naivety,”34 the Diary has been praised by R.G. Cant as “one of the great books of its kind of all time” and has occupied a central place for sixteenth- and seventeenth-century historians of Scotland.35 Notwithstanding those who would portray its author as one who “played a more vigorous part even than Knox in killing the old Scots sense of delight in the arts” and as one who indulged in “much religio-literary flatulence,”36 James Melville’s narrative history consisting of his 1602 Diary and 1610 True

34 ╇ David Reid, “Prose After Knox” in R.D. Jack (ed.), The History of Scottish Literature Vol. I (Aberdeen, 1987–1988), 189–190. 35 ╇ Cant, The University of St. Andrews, 59. Cf also McCrie, Life of Thomas McCrie, D.D., 239. 36 ╇ Maurice Lindsay, History of Scottish Literature (London, 1977), 109.



andrew melville and the melville legend

7

Narratioune, is largely responsible for providing the raw materials from which the Melville legend has been constructed.37 Although not published until the nineteenth century, the Diary and True Narratioune have served as indispensable historical documents for understanding the period.38 In the line of George Wishart, Walter Milne, and John Knox, James Melville unequivocally portrayed his uncle as Knox’s successor in the Kirk, divinely placed there “for putting on of the ceapstean of the trew and right discipline and polecie.”39 Even though he avoided the error of later generations in ascribing primary authorship of the Second Book of Discipline to his uncle, his Diary and True Narratioune have dramatically shaped subsequent histories.40 David Calderwood’s and John Row’s respective histories as well as William Scot’s Apologetical Narration have all conspicuously relied upon Melville’s history in advancing their own interpretation even as many more recent historians have done.41 Even John Spottiswoode’s History, while at variance at many points with the interpretations offered by the presbyterian historians of the seventeenth century, has followed suit in ascribing to Andrew Melville a place of supreme importance and influence.42 The Development of the Legend The image of Melville’s centrality and widespread influence in the Jacobean Kirk was developed further by a number of historians during the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1870 John Hill Burton maintained that the Second Book of Discipline was “the work chiefly of

37 ╇ Cf. A. R. MacDonald, “A Fragment of an Early Copy of James Melville’s A True Narratioune of the Declyneing Aige of the Kirk of Scotland,” Innes Review, 47 (Spr., 1996), 81–88. 38 ╇ James Melville, The Diary of Mr. James Melvill (Edinburgh, 1829). 39 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 72. 40 ╇ Robert Sangster Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen: A History (Aberdeen, 1895), 108; The Second Book of Discipline, 51. 41 ╇ Robert Pitcairn, “Prefatory Notice” in James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), xxiv. Cf. David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland by Mr. David Calderwood, ed. T. Thomson, 8 vols. (Edinburgh, 1842–49); John Row, History of the Kirk of Scotland from the Year 1558 to August 1637, ed. David Laing (Edinburgh, 1842). 42 ╇ Alan R. MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 1567–1625 Sovereignty, Polity and Liturgy (Aldershot, 1998), 14, 171, 173.

8

chapter one

Andrew Melville.”43 Referring to Melville as “the Melanchthon of Scotland,” James Bass Mullinger in 1884 explicitly identified him as “the successor, in no small degree, to John Knox’s reputation and influence.”44 Similarly, Sir William Duguid Geddes in 1895 unequivocally declared that Melville was “[t]he successor of John Knox in the work of the Scottish Reformation.”45 In that same year, John Malcolm Bulloch substantially augmented this mythical image when he credited him with having single-handedly “effected the [educational] change in Scotland.”46 In 1899 Robert Sangster Rait made no less a claim when he remarked that Melville was “no unworthy successor” to Knox, even maintaining that he “left no less an impress upon Scotland than did Knox himself.”47 By the turn of the century the portrait of Melville as Knox’s successor and the leader of the Jacobean Kirk was firmly entrenched and was perpetuated by a vast array of historians. In 1900 Charles Borgeaud identified Melville as the “futur organisateur de l’Église presbytérienne d’Écosse”48 while Roland Greene Usher in 1910 singled him out as “the chief leader of the Presbyterians.”49 According to P. Hume Brown, Melville was not merely Knox’s successor but it was his continental learning which won for him “a prestige that at once gave him a commanding position in the Church.”50 Depicting his influence in dramatic terms, W.S. Provand in 1923 claimed that the year 1575 marked the cessation of “the Church of Knox” and the beginning of “the Church of Melville.” Indeed, his controling influence in the church was signified by the fact that the 1578 Second Book of Discipline was Melville’s “work as€decisively as the First Book was the work of Knox.”51 This mythical 43 ╇ John Hill Burton, The History of Scotland: From Agricola’s Invasion to the Revolution of 1688 Vol. V (Edinburgh, 1870), 404, 469. Cf. also Thomas Thomson, A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times Vol. IV (London, 1893), 348. 44 ╇ Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, 365. 45 ╇ William Duguid Geddes (ed.), Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston Vol. II The Epigrammata and Remaining Secular Poems (Aberdeen, 1895), 54. 46 ╇ John Malcolm Bulloch, A History of the University of Aberdeen 1495–1895 (London, 1895), 77–79. 47 ╇ Robert Sangster Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1895), 108; “Andrew Melville and the Revolt Against Aristotle in Scotland,” 250. 48 ╇ Charles Borgeaud, Histoire de L’Université de Genève L’Académie de Calvin 1559– 1798 (Genève, 1900), 108. Cf. also “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” American Historical Review, (Dec. 1899), 286. 49 ╇ Roland Greene Usher, Reconstruction of the English Church Vol. II (New York and London, 1910), 162. 50 ╇ P. Hume Brown, History of Scotland to the Present Time: From the Accession of Mary Stewart to the Revolution of 1689 (Cambridge, 1911), 129. 51 ╇ Provand, Puritanism in the Scottish Church, 54, 58–9.



andrew melville and the melville legend

9

image was further accentuated in 1923 by E.G. Selwyn when he claimed€ that the act of establishing Presbyterianism in 1592 “marks the€zenith of the power of Andrew Melville.” With approbation he cited the epigram “while Knox made Scotland Protestant, Melville made it Presbyterian.”52 Adding further credence to the view of Melvillian succession, Samuel Eliot Morison in 1935 repeated Mullinger’s epithet styling him “the Scots Melanchthon” and claiming he was “the dominant figure in Scottish history for thirty years.”53 The alleged parallels implicit in such a comparison between Knox and Luther on the one hand and Melville and Melanchthon on the other have only served to buttress the legend and perpetuate the image. Following in Morison’s footsteps, G.D. Henderson in 1937 labeled Melville “the Beza of Scotland” and made this parallel explicit when he claimed that “the Geneva tradition of Calvin and Beza, of Knox and Melville, lived on” in seventeenth-century Scotland.54 In 1939 Henderson went even further in reinforcing this image when he credited Melville with having established “the full Presbyterian system of Church government by Assembly, Synod, Presbytery and Kirk Session” thus earning the title “the establisher of Scottish Presbyterianism.”55 By 1940 the image of Melville as Knox’s successor had become so axiomatic that even Leicester Bradner in his history of Anglo-Latin poetry innocently referred to him as “the leader of the presbyterian party.”56 During the 1960s the legendary image of Melville was developed along two distinct lines of presentation. The first continued to perpetuate the view of Melvillian succession and may be seen in the work of William Arbuckle and T. Angus Kerr. In 1964 in addition to identifying Melville as Knox’s successor, Arbuckle maintained that he was “the leading figure in the Reformed Church and the father of Scottish Presbyterianism.” Crediting Melville for his influence in the production of the Second Book of Discipline, Arbuckle maintained that Melville

52 ╇ Edward Gordon Selwyn (trans. and ed.), The First Book of the Irenicum of John Forbes of Corse a Contribution to the Theology of Re-union (Cambridge, 1923), 2, 3, 7. 53 ╇ Morison, The Founding of Harvard College, 132. 54 ╇ Henderson, Religious Life in Seventeenth-Century Scotland, 32, 62; The Burning Bush: Studies in Scottish Church History, 25, 51, 139, 220. 55 ╇ Henderson, The Burning Bush: Studies in Scottish Church History, 25, 51, 139, 220. Cf. also William M. Campbell, The Triumph of Presbyterianism (Edinburgh, 1958), 12. 56 ╇ Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940), 151.

10

chapter one

functioned effectively “as spokesman for the Church.”57 In 1967 T. Angus Kerr presented this mytical image in bold relief when he declared that the reformer “reigned supreme in the General Assemblies of the late seventies and early eighties of the sixteenth century.”58 A second line of development was introduced in 1960 by Gordon Donaldson. In contrast to G.D. Henderson, who conceived of Melville as essentially completing the project introduced by Knox, Donaldson maintained that it was Melville, not Knox, who was “the originator of Scottish Presbyterianism.”59 While Donaldson drove a wedge between Knox and Melville rejecting the notion of Melvillian succession, he nevertheless portrayed him as the leader in the Kirk who formed “a party of energetic, zealous and forthright young men who became for a time the most vigorous element in the church.”60 Despite this rejection, Donaldson credited Melville with assuming upon the death of Knox “the leadership of the militant section of the Scottish clergy.” Indeed, he so strongly identified his prominent leadership with the presbyterian cause that he wrote not of the triumph of Presbyterianism but of Andrew Melville.61 He was after all, according to Donaldson, “[t]he presbyterian missionary to Scotland.”62 While providing analysis of Melville and “the Melvillian movement,” James Kirk in 1972 augmented this image of the reformer by exploring the ways in which he exerted his influence among the clergy of the Scottish Kirk in the late sixteenth century. Drawing upon Thomas Fuller’s corporeal analogy, Kirk maintained that if Thomas Cartwright and Walter Travers could be labeled the “head” and “neck” of England’s Presbyterian party, then Andrew Melville should be considered “the very heart of the Scottish Presbyterian movement.”63 Underscoring the

╇ William Arbuckle, A St. Andrews Diarist: James Melville 1556–1614 (Edinburgh and London, 1964), 3. 58 ╇T. Angus Kerr, “John Craig, Minister of Aberdeen, and King’s Chaplain” in Duncan Shaw (ed.), Reformation and Revolution: Essays Presented to the Very Reverend Principal Emeritus Hugh Watt, D.D., D.Litt. on the Sixtieth Anniversary of His Ordination (Edinburgh, 1967), 110. Cf. Maurice Lee, Jr., “James VI and the Revival of Episcopacy in Scotland: 1596–1600,” Church History, 43 (Mar., 1974), 55. 59 ╇ Donaldson, The Scottish Reformation, 191–193. 60 ╇ Gordon Donaldson, Scotland: Church and Nation through Sixteen Centuries (London, 1960), 71, 73. 61 ╇ Donaldson, The Scottish Reformation, 191, 224; Donaldson, Scotland: Church and Nation, 71, 73. 62 ╇ Ibid., 190. 63 ╇ James Kirk, “The Development of the Melvillian Movement in Late Sixteenth Century Scotland” (PhD Thesis, Edinburgh 1972), 142. 57



andrew melville and the melville legend

11

image of Melville’s centrality and his role as Knox’s successor, W. Stanford Reid in 1974 maintained that Knox “laid the groundwork for Andrew Melville’s establishment of a truly presbyterian church.”64 In keeping with Reid’s characterization, Caroline Bingham in 1979 reinforceed this legendary image by maintaining that Melville, “a pure product of Calvinst Geneva,” “inherited the mantle of John Knox after the latter’s death in 1572.”65 Similarly, Jenny Wormald in 1987 referred to “the great Andrew Melville” who, as the leader of the “extreme presbyterians,” intellectually dominated an entire generation of young scholars. Writing of his influence, she contrasted the two extremes within the Jacobean Kirk as “the Melvillians on one side, the king on the other.”66 During the last two decades historians have continued to perpetuate the image of Melville as the dominating figure in the intellectual and ecclesiastical life of Scotland in the second half of the sixteenth century. In 1992 Ronald Cant portrayed him as not only dominating the university by his personality for a quarter of a century but as “the figure whom the whole life of the city and university and much of that of Scotland revolved.” Fearing his persuasive abilities, Cant conjectured that the crown deprived Melville of the office of rector of the University in a deliberate attempt to curtail his influence in the Kirk. Not restricting his influence to the Presbyterian party, Cant maintained that Melville’s impact on his former pupil Patrick Forbes was so profound that he could legitimately be regarded as the “intellectual grandparent” of the ‘Aberdeen Doctors.’67 At the turn of the century, James Doelman reinforced this common image of Melville by categorically declaring that he was “the de facto leader of the Scottish Presbyterians from the 1580s on.”68 Other historians, such as Roger Mason and Michael Graham, while avoiding such sweeping statements and declarations have nevertheless employed terminology which implies a view of Melville’s central place and influence. Mason in 1994 characterized the debate over Â�ecclesiastical

64 ╇ W. Stanford Reid, Trumpeter of God: A Biography of John Knox (New York, 1974), 290. 65 ╇ Caroline Bingham, James VI of Scotland (London, 1979), 43, 45. Cf. also The Making of a King: The Early Years of James VI and I, 71. Bingham explicitly identifies Melville as “Knox’s successor.” 66 ╇ Jenny Wormald, “No Bishop, no king: The Scottish Jacobean Episcopate, 1600–1625” in Bibliothèque De La Revue D’Histoire Ecclésiastique: Miscellanae Historiae Ecclesiasticae VIII (Louvain, 1987), 259, 260, 262. 67 ╇ Cant, The University of St. Andrews, 60, 64, 67. 68 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 57.

12

chapter one

sovereignty as the struggle between James VI and “the Melvillian presbyterians.” In referring to the “dramatic confrontations” between the presbyterians and the crown, he wrote of a distinct ecclesiastical party which he designated “the Melvillians” and of “Melville’s presbyterian programme.”69 Similarly, Michael Graham reinforced this image of Melville as the primary spokesman for the Presbyterian party when he referred to “the leading Melvillians,” “the Melvillian battles of the 1570s through the 1590s,” “the Melvillians’ commitment to practical moral reform,” “the Melvilles and their followers,” and “the Melvillian manifesto.” While such terminology requires at least some measure of leadership exercised by Melville, it tends to suggest, when used withÂ�Â� out€ qualification, the theory of his dominance in the Jacobean Kirk. According to Graham, Melville’s influence was not restricted to the local confines of St Andrews and the Kingdom of Fife but was extended nationally throughout Scotland.70 Although there have been instances of authors taking exception to the view of Melville’s centrality and preeminence in the Jacobean Kirk, such as H.M.B. Reid at the beginning of the last century,71 and his influence in the Scottish universities, such as Michael Lynch more recently,72 the McCrie thesis has been widely accepted by a diverse group of historians and has only recently been challenged by the historical investigations of Alan MacDonald and Steven Reid.73 The mythical images of Melville have been promoted not merely by partisan presbyterian historians but by a vast array of historians writing in the fields of European, university, intellectual, religious, literary, and political history.74

69 ╇ Roger A. Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994), 114, 122. 70 ╇ Graham, The Uses of Reform, 151, 157, 190, 192, 210. 71 ╇ Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 57. 72 ╇ Michael Lynch, “The origins of Edinburgh’s ‘Toun College’: a revision article,” Innes Review, 33 (1982), 3–14. Cf. also Steven John Reid, “Aberdeen’s ‘Toun College’: Marischal College, 1593–1623,” IR, 58.2 (2007), 173–195. 73 ╇ MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 1567–1625. Cf. Hazlett, The Reformation in Britain and Ireland, 127; Steven John Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland: Andrew Melville and the University of St Andrews, 1560–1606” (PhD Thesis, St Andrews, 2008). 74 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 188. Reid, in emphasizing “the hyperbole of Presbyterian rhetoric,” does not account adequately for those other historians who have contributed to the promotion of the legend.



andrew melville and the melville legend

13

Demythologizing the Legend Alan MacDonald in 1998 offered a radical challenge to the view of Melvillian succession by denying Melville’s centrality. In his ecclesiastical history of the reign of James VI, MacDonald argued that Melville did not assume the leading role or even a prominent position in the reformation of the Kirk.75 In contrast to the prevailing historical opinion represented by Michael Lynch, Patrick Collinson, and David Stevenson, who have unequivocally affirmed Melville’s prominent leadership in the Jacobean Kirk, MacDonald has argued that there is “no evidence” to support this conclusion.76 While his work has served to stimulate fresh thought in the reevaluation of old assumptions, caution readers against the uncritical acceptance of nineteenth-century hagiographies, and discourage the unwitting endorsement of tendentious interpretations of the Jacobean era, he has not explicitly stated what would constitute a leading role, nor has he delineated what sort of evidence would warrant such a designation.77 The effort to determine Melville’s ecclesiastical position and influence is complicated by the intimate relationship between the Kirk and university. Few historians of early modern Scotland would contest Melville’s prominence and influence in the universities given his respective positions as principal of the University of Glasgow and St Mary’s College as well as rector of the University of St Andrews. From 1574 until 1607 it would be difficult to find a divine in Scotland who exerted greater influence in the preparation of candidates for the ministry than Melville€ himself. Likewise, it would be equally difficult to identify a Renaissance scholar who did more to contribute to the growth of humanism in Scotland during this period than Melville. In light of his

75 ╇ Cf. also Alan R. MacDonald, “James VI and the General Assembly, 1586–1618” in Julian Goodare and Michael Lynch (eds.), The Reign of James VI (East Lothian, 2000), 171. 76 ╇ Lynch, “Calvinism in Scotland, 1559–1638,” 234–236; “Preaching to the ConÂ� verted?”€ 321; Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (Oxford, 1967), 110; Roger A. Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994), 114, 122; Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 31; MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 14, 171, 173. 77 ╇ Cf. Felicity Heal, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford, 2003), 369; Mullan, Episcopacy in Scotland, 136–150; Maurice Lee Jr., “Archbishop Spottiswoode as Historian,” Journal of British Studies, 13 (Nov., 1973), 146.

14

chapter one

Â� prominent service as a leading doctor in the Kirk, it is unclear how this may be reconciled with MacDonald’s contention that Melville did not occupy a prominent position in the reformation of the Kirk. There has been very little reflection on the significance of Melville’s repeated service as a moderator of the general assembly, an assessor to the moderator, a member of various ecclesiastical committees and commissions, and his provincial service as a regular preacher in local parishes as well as his extensive service as an ecclesiastical statesman. When this service is considered in its totlaity, a fuller, more textured and nuanced portrait of Melville emerges. Intimately bound up in MacDonald’s rejection of the McCrie thesis is his corresponding abandonment of the misleading and frequently illdefined label “Melvillian.” Whereas the term “Melvillian” may not only be imprecisely applied but also, in a certain sense, problematic, MacDonald has called for a fundamental revision of the Melvillian interpretation commonly endorsed and most elaborately articulated by James Kirk.78 In his thesis Kirk enumerated 155 Melvillian preachers and defined the category broadly to include either some measure of support for Presbyterianism or advocacy of the two kingdoms theory, namely the separation of the civil and ecclesiastical spheres. MacDonald is mistaken when he identifies the year 1610 as the “earliest instance” of the use of the term “Melvinian” by archbishop Gledstanes.79 Indeed, twenty years earlier archbishop Patrick Adamson had used the term “Melvinian faction” in his dedication to his Latin paraphrase of the book of Revelation.80 It is also significant that five years earlier in 1585 Adamson had published his Declaration in defense of the 1584 Black Acts criticizing the presbyterians in general and Melville in particular. Such exclusive concentration upon Melville by his opponent only confirms the subsequent portrayal of his prominent leadership by presbyterian Â�historians.81 To put it quite simply, if Melville were an obscure and 78 ╇ Kirk, “The Development of the Melvillian Movement in Late Sixteenth Century Scotland.” 79 ╇ MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 175. 80 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 314. McCrie writes that Adamson “informs the King that he had prepared a work entitled Psillus, in which he had ‘sucked out the seditious poison infused by the Melvinian faction, defended the Episcopal authority and the royal supremacy, and warned the neighboring kingdom of England of the rocks on which the church of Scotland had struck.” 81 ╇ Patrick Adamson, A Declaratioun of the Kings Maisties Intentioun and Meaning Toward the Lait Actis of Parliament (Edinburgh, 1585), A iij–Aiiij; Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians,” 128.



andrew melville and the melville legend

15

Â� inconsequential figure it would make little sense for an individual of Adamson’s standing to elevate such a person by directly engaging that individual in criticism. Despite the early usage of the term “Melvinian” dating back to at least 1590 by Adamson and James Kirk’s broadly conceived definition, MacDonald has maintained that there is “no evidence of a coherent, self-aware band of ministers pursuing an Â�ideological€goal.”82 Again it is difficult to assess this claim due to MacDonald’s omission in supplying a precise definition of the controversial term “ideological.”83 To be sure, there does not seem to be any consensus among historians in their use of the term “Melvillian.” Depending upon the context, it may refer to the content, methods, or staffing reforms proposed by Melville in the University of Glasgow’s 1577 nova erectio or its corresponding foundations at St. Andrews, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh. Likewise, it may refer to those who, in some sense, supported presbyterianism, objected to episcopacy, and opposed a state dominated Kirk. The very use of the term, whatever its precise meaning, at least implies significant, though not necessarily exclusive or even dominant, leadership in both university and Kirk. In addition, the ideas associated with the term, such as the two kingdoms theory, the denial of royal supremacy in church government, the general assembly’s continued right to existence regardless of the crown’s religion, the doctrine of ministerial parity, or even the humanistic reforms introduced into the Scottish university system did not originate with Melville. By failing to recognize the legitimate precursors to Melville’s ideas and reforms in the Kirk and Scotland’s medieval universities, as well as the broader educational reform movements on the continent, Melville’s significance has been exaggerated and an inaccurate estimate of his role in the Scottish Renaissance and Reformation has been formed. Moreover, it has been observed that Melville emerged during the Jacobean era as an iconic figure for those who affirmed ministerial parity and the two kingdoms theory.84 While there is evidence to support the contention that Melville was viewed as a leading spokesman in the Kirk, it is not necessary to insist upon the notions of fixed clerical parties ╇ MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 173–75; “James VI and the General Assembly, 1586–1618,” 185. 83 ╇ On the controversial term “ideology” see John Gerring, “Ideology: A Definitional Analysis” Political Research Quarterly, 50 (Dec., 1997): 957–994; F. Lewins, “Recasting the Concept of Ideology: A Content Approach” British Journal of Sociology, 40 (Dec., 1989): 678–693. 84 ╇ Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians,” 128. 82

16

chapter one

or exclusive and dominant leadership. To be sure, MacDonald has provided a valuable service in observing the fluidity of such categories and even calling into question the value of the category “Melvillian.” Nevertheless, his conclusions regarding Melville’s alleged prominence and leadership in the Kirk should be treated with caution since his study is based primarily on the records of presbyteries and synods during the Jacobean era.85 While this evidence is indeed valuable and has provided much needed qualification and nuance to an understanding of Melville, there nevertheless remain other important lines of evidence that ought to be considered before any conclusions are drawn. James Melville’s Autobiography and Diary, Melville’s role in the poetic wars between the Presbyterians and Anglicans, and his service as a purveyor of the New Learning in Scotland need to be assessed along with these official ecclesiastical records. In addition, Melville must be situated within the broader context of the northern European Renaissance and French humanism before his significance can be determined. While it is not necessary to accept all of MacDonald’s conclusions, his work has had the heuristic effect of exposing faulty assumptions and unwarranted opinions and has encouraged a reevaluation of the life, literary productions, academic reforms, and influence of Andrew Melville.86 Along with MacDonald’s work, Steven Reid’s recent thesis has contributed to demythologizing the Melville legend. Although he identifies Melville as “the leading influence in the Jacobean Kirk”87 and “the leader of the Presbyterian wing of the Kirk from his return to Scotland in 1574 … until his imprisonment in the Tower of London in 1607,” Reid has demonstrated, by a careful examination of unpublished historical records of the University of St Andrews, that Melville’s influence in educational reform has been exaggerated.88 While his narrative history has provided further nuance in understanding Melville’s role in university reform at St Andrews, the work’s institutional focus has prevented a more thorough examination of Melville’s life and work in relation to the French humanism of the sixteenth-century Renaissance.

╇ MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 1567–1625, 4. ╇ Kirk, “The Development of the Melvillian Movement in Late Sixteenth Century Scotland,” 355; The Second Book of Discipline, 51–52. 87 ╇ Steven John Reid, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville: The Carmen Mosis (1574) and the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres,” Renaissance and Reformation, 30.4 (Fall 2006/2007), 76. 88 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 4. 85 86



andrew melville and the melville legend

17

In addition to providing a limited sketch of Melville’s early years and education in Scotland, Reid has explored in some detail his relationship with Petrus Ramus and George Buchanan but has ignored the role of the humanist Théodore de Bèze or Beza in Melville’s formation. In his examination of Melville’s academic training during this period there is likewise no discussion of the role of the legal humanism of the French Renaissance. While the evidence is admittedly limited, Reid provides no discussion of Melville’s study under François Hotman and only briefly acknowledges the tutelage of François Baudouin in Paris.89 Similarly, in his survey of Melville’s time in Geneva there is no discussion of Melville’s relationship with the divine Lambert Daneau, the Latin poet Paulus Melissus, and the humanist printer Henri Estienne. Reid provides very little analysis of either Melville’s academic colleagues at Glasgow or the 1577 nova erectio. Creating a new narrative based upon “untapped archival sources,”90 Reid has introduced important lines of evidence, but has neglected others. Regardless of these omissions, Reid’s work exposes the necessity of situating Melville more deeply within the milieu of his vast network of humanist associates and the culture of the Renaissance. While it is certainly true that Melville’s “religious calling” dominated “his future career in Scotland” as his years of service as principal of St Mary’s indicate,91 Reid’s emphasis upon “the theologian Melville”92 does not account sufficiently for his deep-seated humanism and the extent to which the values and methods of the northern European Renaissance shaped his intellectual outlook and determined the trajectory of his academic career. Reid’s emphasis upon Melville’s “religious calling” results in a neglect of the many ways in which French humanism conditioned his intellectual life, and has mistakenly led him to pit the “specialists in arts” at St Leonard’s over against “the theologian Melville.”93 Since Reid does not define the extent of Melville’s reservations about Ramus’ work, it is impossible to evaluate his comparison of Melville with the St Leonard’s regents who purportedly possessed “more reservations about the merits

╇ Ibid., 29. ╇ Ibid., i. 91 ╇ Ibid., 32. 92 ╇ Ibid., 122. 93 ╇ Ibid. 122, 193. Despite the revealing admission that his work “perhaps gives too negative an assessment of his [Melville’s] achievements,” Reid does not revisit those places in the thesis which exhibit an unnecessarily negative and uncharitable evalution. 89 90

18

chapter one

of the Ramist method.”94 Nevertheless, the work has helped to correct a number of misconceptions regarding Melville’s role in the reform of the University of St Andrews and to reevaluate his place within Scottish history. Knox and Melville The acceptance of the Melville legend in its various forms by scholars over the last two centuries may be attributed in part to the striking similarities, dramatic events, and colorful personalities of John Knox and Andrew Melville. Not only were their lives filled with drama, but they closely resemble one another at several points. For instance, both were from the east coast of Scotland and thus were in contact with continental Protestantism as it made its inroads into the country via the port cities. Both were connected with the influential Angus laird John Erskine of Dun, Andrew through his oldest brother Richard and Knox through his relationship with George Wishart. Both found themselves deeply enmeshed at a young age in the religious conflicts of their day, Knox at the siege of St Andrews castle and Melville at the siege of Poitiers.95 Both occupied prominent positions and exercised considerable influence within Scottish society, Knox as Minister of Edinburgh and Melville as principal of the University of Glasgow and St Mary’s College, St Andrews. Both participated in the various judicatories of the Kirk, Knox possessing until his death in 1572 the power to convene a General Assembly, while Melville served on various committees and as moderator of the General Assembly on numerous occasions.96 Both exhibited enlightened self-interest by fleeing to avoid religious persecution or imprisonment. Knox fled in 1554 from England to the continent shortly after Mary Tudor assumed the throne, while Melville fled from Scotland to England in 1584 in order to avoid incarceration by James VI.97 Both were exiles ╇ Ibid. ╇ Kirk, “John Knox and Andrew Melville: A Question of Identity?” 16, 20. 96 ╇ Shaw, The General Assemblies, 2, 157–58; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 117, 178, 290, 369. Melville served as moderator of the General Assembly in 1578, 1582, 1587, and 1594. 97 ╇ James Kirk, “John Knox and the Historians” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), John Knox and the British Reformations (Aldershot, 1998), 18; Gordon Donaldson, “Knox the Man” in Duncan Shaw (ed.), John Knox: A Quartercentenary Reappraisal (Edinburgh, 1975), 21; “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 14 (1963), 69. 94 95



andrew melville and the melville legend

19

who lived in England and on the continent and who enjoyed social intercourse with the leaders of the Reformed movement. In consequence of their time abroad in England and on the continent both were cosmopolitan in their outlook, men of education and culture who eschewed provincialism and exhibited a broad intellectual outlook. Knox studied at both the University of St Andrews and the Academy of Geneva while Melville studied at the Universities of St Andrews, Paris, and Poitiers as well as at the Collège Royal and Calvin’s Academy where he also taught in the schola privata. Knox lived for a time in Berwick, Newcastle, Frankfurt, and Geneva while Melville resided in London, Paris, Poitiers, Geneva, and Sedan.98 Always the scholar, Melville, while in London, took advantage of his proximity to Oxford and Cambridge and visited with a number of humanists associated with those seats of learning. Both returned to their native land and quickly became involved in ecclesiastical reform, Knox participating along with the five other Johns on the committee which drew up the First Book of Discipline while Melville was involved along with over thirty individuals in drafting the Second Book of Discipline.99 Compared with the literary corpus of such continental reformers as Luther and Calvin, neither Knox nor Melville can be considered prolific authors. Both valued the opportunity to speak to their own age rather than compose books for subsequent generations. Both suffered for their Protestantism, enduring imprisonment and, in Melville’s case, banishment. Knox was incarcerated in the French galleys and later released to England while Melville was confined to the Tower of London and subsequently banished to the continent to live out his remaining days. Both dramatically and publicly confronted the monarch, Knox leaving Mary Stewart in tears after his conference with her while Melville incurred the ire of her autocratic son by tugging on his sleeve and calling him “God’s sillie vassal.” Both vigorously advocated the freedom of the pulpit and the right of the General Assembly to its continued existence.100 Both were men of principle whose deep convictions, sense of obligation, and zeal for reform often made them uncompromising, implacable, and ╇ E.G. Rupp, “The Europe of John Knox” in Duncan Shaw (ed.), John Knox A Quartercentenary Reappraisal (Edinburgh, 1975), 1–17; Euan Cameron, “Frankfurt and Geneva: The European Context of John Knox’s Reformation” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), John Knox and the British Reformations (Aldershot, 1998), 651–73. ╇ 99 ╇ The First Book of Discipline ed. James K. Cameron (Edinburgh, 1972), 4; The Second Book of Discipline, 45–46. 100 ╇ Kirk, “John Knox and Andrew Melville: A Question of Identity?” 16. ╇ 98

20

chapter one

seemingly incapable of employing a more conciliatory approach in negotiating matters of reform. When these similarities are considered without reference to their profound differences, the image of Melville as Knox’s successor and the leader of the Jacobean Kirk gains credibility€ and the intimate link forged between the two divines appears indissoluble.101 While there exist a number of obvious parallels between Knox and Melville, there remain important differences that should caution the reader from forging too tight a link between them. Despite the fact that they were both from the east coast, Knox’s social origins were rather obscure and by comparison humble. He hailed from the Haddington area of East Lothian, while Melville was well-known as the son of an Angus laird near Montrose. Likewise, their university education differed profoundly. Although both studied at St Andrews and Geneva, Knox was trained in the medieval scholastic tradition and may even have sat under the famous John Mair, while Melville studied under some of the leading humanists of the French Renaissance. Although Melville’s education at St Andrews was still in many respects “medieval in character,” his time on the continent exposed him to the latest philological studies, literary forms, pedagogical methods, and classical texts of the Renaissance.102 Perhaps the most obvious difference between them was that, while Knox served as a priest, notary, and minister for much of his adult life, Melville, though a ruling elder in the congregation of St. Andrews, a ‘Doctor’ of the Kirk, and one who regularly preached on the Sabbath to the inhabitants of St Andrews, was never ordained to the ministry.103 101 ╇ Hazlett, The Reformation in Britain and Ireland, 119; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville, I, 231; Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603, 250; On Knox see Jaspar Ridley, John Knox (Oxford, 1968); W. Stanford Reid, Trumpeter of God: A Biography of John Knox (New York, 1974). Cf. McCrie, Life of Thomas M‘Crie, 235. Cf. also Charles Borgeaud, Histoire de l’université de Genève: L’ Académie de Calvin 1559–1798 (Geneva, 1900); Karin Maag, Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 (Aldershot, 1995); Gillian Lewis, “Calvinism in Geneva in the time of Calvin and of Beza (1541–1605)” in Menna Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541–1715 (Oxford, 1985), 39–70; “The Geneva Academy” in Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke, and Gillian Lewis (eds.), Calvinism in Europe 1540–1620 (Cambridge, 1994). 102 ╇ Kirk, “John Knox and Andrew Melville: A Question of Identity?” 16–17. 103 ╇ William Ian P. Hazlett, “Ebbs and Flows of Theology in Glasgow 1451–1843” in William Ian P. Hazlett (ed.), Traditions of Theology in Glasgow 1450–1990: A Miscellany (Edinburgh, 1993), 7; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 339. In spite of his absence, an ordination service was performed for Melville at the old parish church of Govan. In 1591 he became a ruling elder in St Andrews.



andrew melville and the melville legend

21

While Melville spent more than forty years teaching at Poitiers, Geneva, Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Sedan, Knox never occupied an academic post. If it may be said that Knox was primarily a preacher and evangelist, then Melville was primarily a scholar and intellectual. If Knox’s essential vocation was prophetic, then Melville’s was academic. Although both were exiles, Knox’s time abroad involved primarily ministerial service in England, Germany, and Switzerland whereas Melville’s time on the continent was absorbed in academic pursuits at Paris, Poitiers, Geneva, and Sedan. Whereas Melville devoted himself at an early age to the mastery of Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, obtaining a high degree of proficiency in those ancient languages, Knox never acquired an adequate knowledge of them.104 While Knox wrote in the vernacular in a number of literary genres, including history, political theory, theology, and liturgics, Melville often wrote in Latin and preferred the genre of poetry in the tradition of Buchanan. While the 1574 Carmen Mosis, 1590 Στεφανισκιον, and 1594 Principis ScotiBritannorum Natalia among others significantly enhanced Melville’s reputation as an elegant and erudite Latin poet, there is nothing in the corpus of Knox’s writings that is comparable to them. Whereas Knox’s Historie and First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women represent significant contributions to the fields of sixteenthcentury history and political theory, Melville left the task of recording the events of the Jacobean Kirk to his nephew and never committed to writing in any systematic way his well-known theory of the two kingdoms. Though his political views are expressed in some of his poetry, he never composed a systematic treatise on politics. Indeed, while neither author was prolific, the number of Knox’s publications far exceeds anything Melville ever published.105 When these basic differences are brought into clear focus, the attempt to identify or equate Knox and Melville or to portray the latter as his sole successor oversimplifies and ╇ Kirk, “John Knox and Andrew Melville: A Question of Identity?” 16–17. ╇ Jane E. A. Dawson, “The Two John Knoxes: England, Scotland and the 1558 Tracts,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 42 (Oct. 1991), 555–576; “Trumpeting Resistance: Christopher Goodman and John Knox” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), John Knox and the British Reformations (Aldershot, 1998), 131–153; Scott Dolff, “The Two John Knoxes and the Justification of Non-Revolution: A Response to Dawson’s Argument from Covenant,” JEH, 55 (Jan., 2004), 58–75; Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform 1250–1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe (New Haven, 1980), 419–434; Roger A. Mason, “Knox, Resistance and the Royal Supremacy” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), John Knox and the British Reformations, (Aldershot, 1998), 154–175. 104 105

22

chapter one

obscures Melville’s distinctive contribution to the Scottish Renaissance and Reformation. Buchanan and Melville In addition to the assertion that Melville was Knox’s successor, there have been efforts to identify Melville as Buchanan’s successor as a Latin poet of the Scottish Renaissance.106 Indeed, some authors have characterized him as succeeding the elder humanist as “a kind of unofficial Latin laureate to James VI”107 in light of Melville’s return to Scotland in 1574 and Buchanan’s death shortly thereafter in 1582. Following Buchanan’s death Melville did perform those literary functions commonly associated with a Latin laureate. In 1590 he composed and recited the Στεφανισκιον at the coronation of Queen Anne of Denmark in the abbey church of Holyroodhouse.108 In 1594 he published Principis ScotiBritannorum natalia honoring the birth of Prince Henry and hailing him as the one who would unite the crowns of Scotland and England and vanquish the Catholic powers in Rome and on the Iberian Peninsula.109 In 1603 he wrote Votum pro Iacobo sexto Britanniarum rege on the accession of James VI to the throne of England.110 In 1605 he celebrated the discovery of the infamous gunpowder plot entitled Conjuratio puluerea anno 1650 [sic] Novemb. 5.111 In these respects it seems clear that Melville occupied a place of literary prominence as a court poet composing and orally delivering his Latin verses on special occasions. Melville’s literary status was confirmed by the visit of the French Huguenot poet Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas to Scotland in 1587. James revealed his own estimation of Melville’s abilities when he brought ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan: The Political Poetry, 31. ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets: (2) Latin,” 82; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925, 152. 108 ╇ Andrew Melville, Στεφανισκιον Ad Scotiae Regem, Habitvm in Coronatione Reginae. 17. Maij 1590 (Edinburgh, 1590); McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 301; Spottiswoode, The History of the Church of Scotland, Vol. II, 408. 109 ╇ Andrew Melville, Principis Scoti-Britannorvm Natalia (Edinburgh, 1594); McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 376–377; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan: The Political Poetry, 278–279. 110 ╇ Andrew Melville, Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Mvsae et P. Adamsoni Vita et Palindoia (1620), 12. 111 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925, 152; Melville, Viri Clarissimi, 15–18. 106 107



andrew melville and the melville legend

23

the distinguished French poet to St Andrews to hear him lecture. Having earned a reputation as an elegant Latinist and poet while on the continent and being well connected within French Huguenot circles, Melville was an obvious choice to impress the visiting poet.112 Even after he fell out of favor with King James and emerged as a symbol of opposition to the Anglican Church and James’ efforts to centralize power in the Scottish Kirk, Melville’s poetry continued to occupy a prominent position during the years surrounding the 1618 Perth Assembly. Approximately 15 years after its composition, Melville’s famous poetic satire Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria continued to draw attention due primarily to its then current role in the controversy surrounding the Perth Articles. From George Herbert’s Musae responsoriae to Thomas Atkinson’s Melvinus delirans to George Eglishem’s “Adversus Andreae Melvini cavillum in aram regiam epigrammata prophylactica” to verses written by Thomas Wilson, John Barclay, and John Gordon, Melville’s Latin poetry occupied a strategically conspicuous position in the Episcopal controversy.113 To be sure, there are a number of respects in which Melville more closely resembles Buchanan than Knox. Both were humanists, Latin poets, classical scholars, academic reformers, and private tutors. Both spent a significant period of their life on the continent studying and teaching. Both were profoundly shaped by the humanism of the French Renaissance and cultivated relationships with the leading figures of that intellectual movement. Both may be properly termed French humanists as their time in France, and in the case of Melville, French-speaking Switzerland, left an indelible imprint in their intellectual formation. Both men earned for themselves a European reputation as elegant humanists and academics despite their meager literary publications. When they both returned to Scotland their respective reputations “rested more on hearsay than on publication,” yet the respect that they commanded was not unwarranted. Neither man was “a forward-looking humanist” in the sense that they remained wholly uninterested in certain aspects of the Renaissance, such as Neo-Platonic philosophy, the visual arts, and music.114 Both were captivated by a love of Latin poetry and cultivated the art over the course of their entire lives. Both Â�published ╇ Bingham, James VI of Scotland, 105. ╇ Doelman, “The Contexts of George Herbert’s Musae Responsoriae,” 47–48. 114 ╇ I. D. McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” Yearbook of English Studies, 15, Anglo-French Literary Relations Special Number (1985), 33, 36–38. 112 113

24

chapter one

poems that celebrated the births of the future monarchs, Buchanan composing the Genethliacon in honor of James VI, while Melville composed the Natalia in honor of Prince Henry.115 Both employed poetic satire in ridiculing their religious opponents, Buchanan in his infamous Franciscanus and Melville in his notorious Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria and In Aram Anglicanam ejusque apparatum, among others.116 Both were keenly devoted to the study and promotion of the classical literature of the ancient world and bathed their minds in the texts of antiquity. Both studied, taught, and served as principal at the University of St Andrews, Buchanan at St Leonard’s from 1566–1570 and Melville at St Mary’s from 1580–1607. Both demonstrated a desire to reform Scotland’s medieval universities with Buchanan drafting his proposal for the reform of the University of St Andrews in the 1560s while Melville emerged as the driving force behind Glasgow’s 1577 nova erectio and its similar new foundations at St Andrews and Old Aberdeen. Both were politically minded and active, Buchanan in composing his 1579 De iure regni apud Scotos dialogus and Melville in composing his own political poetry and in his role as an ecclesiastical statesman opposing the ever encroaching authority of the crown.117 And yet, despite these numerous and striking parallels, the differences between Buchanan and Melville remain so significant that any attempt to equate or tether them too closely runs the risk of gross over-simplification and distortion. This attempt to forge too close a link between the two humanists has prevented historians from fully appreciating Melville’s unique contributions to the intellectual and cultural life of Renaissance Scotland. In addition to their obvious temperamental differences, one of the most conspicuous differences between them was generational. While even this difference should not be pressed too sharply, nearly 40 years

115 ╇ Andrew Melville, Principis Scoti-Britannorvm Natalia (Edinburgh, 1594); McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan: The Political Poetry, 154–162. The full title of Buchanan’s poem is: Genethliacon Jacobi Sexti Regis Scotorum. 116 ╇ Parasynagma Perthense et Ivramentvm Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ et A.M. AntiÂ� tamicamicategoria (1620), 41–47; Viri Clarissimi, 24. The full title of Melville’s poem is: Prosvpplici Evangelicorvm Ministrorvm in Anglia ad Serenissimum Regem contra Larvatam geminæ Acadmiæ Gorgonem Apologia, sive Anti-tami-cami-categoria. 117 ╇ J. W. L. Adams, “Scottish Neo-Latin Poetry” in P. Tuynman, G. C. Kuiper, and E. Keßler (eds.), Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Amstelodamensis (München, 1979), 5. On Buchanan’s politics see J. H. Burns, The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarch in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), 185–221; “Political Ideas of George Buchanan,” Scottish Historical Review, 30 (1951), 60–68.



andrew melville and the melville legend

25

Â� separated the two men and with this age difference emerged different models of humanistic scholarship and methods. Although Buchanan himself seemed almost to span the generational gap by writing, publishing, and teaching through both the 1520s, 1530s, and 1540s, as well as through the 1560s and 1570s, he nevertheless belonged more to the older model of humanism as represented by Budé and Erasmus. Melville, on the other hand, was the product of that generation of humanists represented by Joseph Justus Scaliger and the methods of critical scholarship he developed. While both men were French humanists and shared many of the values and methods peculiar to the northern European Renaissance, their generational differences should not be ignored or minimized.118 Certainly Buchanan himself exerted a profound influence upon the young Melville during and after his Parisian years, and yet he was only one of a number of intellectual influences that contributed to the young humanist’s formation. In addition to temperamental and generational differences, the emphasis of their humanist education on the continent was quite different. While Melville attended the legal lectures of François Baudouin and François Hotman while he was in Paris and Geneva respectively and devoted three years of his life in Poitiers to the study of jurisprudence, this training in legal humanism and the new jurisprudence was wholly absent in Buchanan’s studies. Similarly, there is nothing in Buchanan’s university training that even approximates the formal study of divinity Melville pursued during his five years in Geneva. Unlike Melville who studied under some of the most distinguished theologians in the Reformed Protestant tradition of the sixteenth century, Buchanan, while a long-time friend of his fellow humanist Theodore Beza, never formally studied theology.119 Whereas Melville, from the beginning of his time in Paris under Jean Mercier and Jean de Cinqarbres, as well as during his ╇ Charles G. Nauert, Jr. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, 1995), 167; McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 34, 36; Peter Sharratt, “Peter Ramus and the Reform of the University: the Divorce of Philosophy and Eloquence?” in Peter Sharratt (ed.), French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 4; W. Leonard Grant, “The Shorter Poems of George Buchanan, 1506–1582,” Classical Journal, 40 (Mar., 1945), 332. On Scaliger see Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Textual Criticism and Exegesis Vol. I (Oxford, 1983); “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 38 (1975): 155–181; “Joseph Scaliger and Historical Chronology: The Rise and Fall of a Discipline,” History and Theory, 14 (May, 1975), 156–185. 119 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan: The Political Poetry, 116. 118

26

chapter one

time in Geneva under Cornelius Bertram, had applied himself to the acquisition of the Ancient Near Eastern languages Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac with a view to reading the Old Testament, Buchanan’s early academic experience largely lacked this decidedly Semitic orientation. While we know that he possessed a copy of Sebastian Munster’s Hebrew dictionary and that his Latin paraphrases of the Psalms indicate that he was conversant with contemporary Hebrew manuals and teaching, it is unclear how far Buchanan pursued his study of Hebrew.120 Even if it can be demonstrated that he attended the Hebrew lectures of François Vatable at the Collège Royal, the philological study and emphasis of Melville at this point remains fundamentally distinct from that of Buchanan.121 The effort to identify Melville as Buchanan’s successor becomes all the more difficult from a purely literary perspective. Despite Melville’s political poetry, there is nothing in his limited corpus that even begins to approximate Buchanan’s “political tryptich,” the Rerum Scoticarum historia, De iure regni apud Scotos dialogus, and the Baptistes.122 Likewise, Melville never composed anything like Buchanan’s biblical dramas Jepthes, on Jepthes’ infamous vow and Baptistes, an acknowledged allegory on political tyranny.123 Melville’s Latin paraphrases of a handful of Psalms, while respectable enough as specimens of Latin poetry, do not belong to the same literary order as Buchanan’s Psalm paraphrases for which he became internationally famous and which have been called “the classical translation of the century.”124 To be sure, Melville’s 1574 Carmen Mosis, a Latin paraphrase of Deuteronomy 32 and his Latin paraphrase of Job 3 may be viewed as literary productions in the tradition of Buchanan’s Psalm paraphrases, but even these compositions never achieved the same degree of European acclaim as Buchanan’s ╇ McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 35. ╇ Abel Lefranc, Histoire du Collège de France (Paris, 1893), 381; Le Collège de France (Paris, 1932), 19; McFarlane, Buchanan, 249. 122 ╇ McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 39. On the Rerum Scoticarum historia see McFarlane, Buchanan, 416–440. On the De iure regni apud Scotos dialogus see Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith (eds. and trans.), A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots: A Critical Edition and Translation of George Buchanan’s De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (Aldershot, 2004). 123 ╇ D. F. S. Thomson, “George Buchanan: The Humanist in the Sixteenth-Century World,” Phoenix, 4 (Win., 1950), 81. 124 ╇ Johannes A. Gaertner, “Latin Verse Translations of the Psalms 1500–1620,” Harvard Theological Review, 49 (Oct., 1956), 278. On Buchanan’s Psalm paraphrases see I. D. McFarlane, “Notes on the Composition and Reception of George Buchanan’s Psalm Paraphrases” in I. D. McFarlane (ed.), Renaissance Studies, Six Essays (Edinburgh and London, 1972), 21–62; Buchanan, 247–286. 120 121



andrew melville and the melville legend

27

Latin poetry.125 Although Buchanan’s De Sphaera had attempted to capture the genius of the Ptolemaic view of the universe by putting it into Latin hexameters for the instruction of young Timoléon de Cossé, Melville never attempted such a scientifically ambitious poetic production.126 Whereas Melville began work on his famous national Scottish epic Gathelus during the years 1594 through 1602 developing further his idea of a great Scoto-Britannic monarchy which would crush their Catholic and Iberian enemies, nothing “even remotely like it ever occurs among all the poems that comprise Buchanan’s oeuvre.”127 While we may speak of “the great tradition of Buchanan, Melville, Leech, and the Johnstons” as comprising a distinguished and highly gifted group of Latin poets in Scotland during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the substantial differences between Buchanan and Melville should discourage any facile identification or gratuitous labeling of Melville as his successor.128 Melville and Humanism Any attempt to reevaluate Andrew Melville’s place within the RenaisÂ� sance€ in Scotland in the sixteenth century must carefully situate him within the broader context of the northern European Renaissance in general and French humanism in particular. Even more than his early years in Scotland, his time in France and Switzerland determined his intellectual outlook and established the trajectory of his philological, literary, and academic pursuits. His development was so profoundly shaped by the humanism of the French Renaissance that his significance and influence cannot be properly appreciated without reference to his French associations and context. Nevertheless, from his return in 1574 until his banishment in 1611, Melville’s humanism developed primarily, though not exclusively, on Scottish soil. Not only did he form important Â�relationships with some of the leading literary and academic figures of the Scottish Renaissance during this period but he contributed to the 125 ╇ On the Carmen Mosis see Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiæ Pœtarum Scotorum (Amsterdam, 1637), 84–90; P. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan Centre d’Influence Française A Propos d’un Manuscrit du XVII Siècle (Paris, 1913), 156–163, 167–168. 126 ╇ Thomson, “George Buchanan: The Humanist in the Sixteenth-Century World,” 86. Cf. I. D. McFarlane, “The History of George Buchanan’s Sphæra” in Peter Sharratt (ed.), French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 194–212; Buchanan, 355–378. 127 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan: The Political Poetry, 32; 284–286. 128 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925, 198.

28

chapter one

humanistic culture of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth- century Scotland through his academic reforms, Latin poetry, and Latin correspondence. Consequently, care must be taken as well to explore his native humanist influences and associates before his role in the development of the Scottish Renaissance can be reassessed. The necessity of situating Melville within the context of the European Renaissance and French humanism may be established by the fact that there exists no full-length study of this kind. Even the closest comprehensive study, in addition to being outdated, is much broader in scope than the current study and does not sufficiently explore this intellectual and cultural milieu. While McCrie’s biography remains an extremely valuable work despite its filiopietistic character and its efforts to find an heroic figure who could inspire the Scottish Kirk and contribute to the shaping of Scotland’s national identity, the developments in intellectual, religious, and institutional history since its publication in 1819 are signiÂ� ficant enough to warrant a re-evaluation of Melville’s life and work. The institutional histories of St Andrews,129 the Collège Royal,130 University of Paris,131 Poitiers,132 Geneva,133 Glasgow,134 Aberdeen,135 and Sedan,136 129 ╇ Ronald Gordon Cant, The University of St Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992); The College of St. Salvator (Edinburgh and London, 1950); D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners A St Mary’s Miscellany (St Andrews, 1990); J. Herkless and R. K. Hannay, The College of St Leonard (Edinburgh, 1905). 130 ╇ Antonio Alvar Ezquerra, Les origines du College de France (Paris, 1998); A. Lefranc, Le Collège de France (1530–1930) (Paris, 1932); Histoire du Collège de France (Paris, 1893). 131 ╇ André Tuilier, Histoire de L ‘Université de Paris et de La Sorbonne Tome I Des origines à Richelieu (Paris, 1994); James K. Farge, Orthodoxy and Reform in Early Reformation France: The Faculty of Theology of Paris, 1500–1543 (Leiden, 1985). 132 ╇ Hilary J. Bernstein, Between Crown and Community Politics and Civic Culture in Sixteenth-Century Poitiers (Ithaca and London, 2004); Prosper Boissonnade, Histoire de l’Université de Poitiers passé et present (1432–1932) (Poitiers, 1932). 133 ╇ Karin Maag, Seminary of University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 (Aldershot, 1995); Paul F. Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959 (Genève, 1959); Borgeaud, Histoire de L’Université de Genève L’Académie de Calvin 1559–1798. 134 ╇ John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977); J. D. Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951 (Glasgow, 1954). 135 ╇ David Ditchburn, “Educating the Elite: Aberdeen and Its Universities” in E. Patricia Dennison, David Ditchburn, and Michael Lynch (eds.), Aberdeen before 1800: a New History (East Linton, 2002), 327–346; David Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641: From Protestant Reformation to Covenanting Revolution (Aberdeen, 1990); G. D. Henderson, The Founding of Marischal College (Aberdeen, 1947); Steven John Reid, “Aberdeen’s ‘Toun College’: Marischal College, 1593–1623,” 173–195. 136 ╇ P. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan Centre d’Influence Française A Propos d’un Manuscrit du XVII Siècle (Paris, 1913).



andrew melville and the melville legend

29

in addition to studies of George Buchanan,137 Pierre de la Ramée,138 Joseph Scaliger,139 and Théodore de Bèze140 among others, strongly support the need for reassessment. Furthermore, recent studies in the history of sixteenth-century jurisprudence,141 the neo-Latin poetry of the period,142 and the understanding of humanism in relation to scholasticism necessitate a fresh re-evaluation.143 It is the contention of the present work that the legendary and mythical images of the academic reformer and divine have developed primarily as a result of not properly situating his life and work within this intellectual, cultural, and religious milieu. By examining his intellectual development, vast network of humanist relationships, representative literary publications, and extensive correspondence in relation to French humanism, an attempt will be made to determine Melville’s significance and place within the European and Scottish Renaissance. In an effort to determine Melville’s role in Scottish intellectual life in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, it is necessary to define at the outset the terms “Renaissance,” humanista or “humanist,”

╇ McFarlane, Buchanan; McGinnis and Williamson (eds.), George Buchanan: The Political Poetry; Roger A. Mason, “Introduction” in Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith (ed. and trans.), A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots A Critical Edition and Translation of George Buchanan’s De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (Ashgate, 2004). For a more extensive listing of recent works on Buchanan see chapter 3. 138 ╇ Howard Hotson, Commonplace Learning: Ramism and its German Ramifications, 1543–1630 (Oxford, 2007); Walter J. Ong, S.J. Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (Cambridge, MA, 1958); Ramus and Talon Inventory: A Short-Title Inventory (Cambridge, MA, 1958). For a more extensive listing of recent works on Ramus, see chapter 3. 139 ╇ Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983). 140 ╇ Alain Dufour, Théodore de Bèze: Poète et Théologien (Genève, 2006); Kirk M. Summers (ed. and trans.), A View from the Palatine: The Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze (Arizona, 2002); Paul-F. Geisendorf, Théodore de Bèze, (Geneva, 1949). 141 ╇ Donald R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship: Language, Law, and History in the French Renaissance (New York, 1970). 142 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England; W.L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets: (2) Latin”; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925. 143 ╇ Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and Its Sources (New York, 1979); Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe; Erika Rummel, The HumanistScholastic Debate in the Renaissance & Reformation (Cambridge, MA and London, 1995); John MacQueen, (ed.), Humanism in Renaissance Scotland (Edinburgh, 1999); S. L. Mapstone and J. Wood, (eds.), The Rose and the Thistle: Essays on the Culture of Late Medieval and Renaissance Scotland (East Linton, 1998); Anthony Grafton and L. Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge, MA, 1986). 137

30

chapter one

humanismus or “humanism,” and studia humanitatis or “humane studies.”144 The term Renaissance, as it is used here, is an historical designation referring to a movement which began in the fourteenth and continued through the sixteenth century.145 While some historians have identified an earlier and a later stage of Renaissance humanism, namely one which began in fourteenth-century Italy and the other which lasted through the seventeenth century in northern Europe, our concern will be with the movement in northern Europe from about 1550 through 1625.146 In an effort to avoid diluting the term to “little more than a chronological time-frame,” the term Renaissance, as used here, designates a set of intellectual and cultural values associated with the studia humanitatis.147 The term humanista or “humanist” simply refers to a teacher or student of the studia humanitatis, a technical designation consisting of a group of disciplines, namely grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy studied through the medium of classical Greek and Latin literature.148 Despite the difficulty in identifying the distinctive meaning of the term “humanism,” which has led some to suggest that the noun ought to be discarded,149 the term, as it is used here, does not refer to a new philosophy that emerged in the sixteenth century but rather a new method of intellectual inquiry. As has been correctly observed, the humanism of the Renaissance was “not a philosophy”150 at all, though it certainly 144 ╇ A valuable discussion of these terms may be found in Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and Its Sources (New York, 1979), 21–32. 145 ╇ Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York and London, 1965), 2. 146 ╇ Alan Perreiah, “Humanistic Critiques of Scholastic Dialectic,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 13:3 (1982), 6. 147 ╇ Euan Cameron, “The Impact of Humanist Values,” Historical Journal, 36:4 (1993), 963. 148 ╇ Erika Rummel, “Et cum theologo bella poeta gerit: The Conflict between Humanists and Scholastics Revisited,” SCJ, 23:4 (1992), 718; Perreiah, “Humanistic Critiques of Scholastic Dialectic,” 3; Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 12–13; Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II, 3. 149 ╇ Cameron, “The Impact of Humanist Values,” 964. 150 ╇ Charles G. Nauert, “Humanism as Method: Roots of Conflict with the Scholastics,” SCJ, 29:2 (1998), 432; Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 196; Cameron, “The Impact of Humanist Values,” 957. Since humanism is a method, it is possible to speak of “Christian humanism,” “humanist theology,” “Humanist Aristotelianism,” and “Humanist dialectic.” Cf. Eugene F. Rice, Jr., “Humanist Aristotelianism in France: Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples and his circle” in A.H.T. Levi (ed.), Humanism in France at the End of the Middle Ages and in the Early Renaissance (Manchester, 1970), 132–149; Anthony Levi, “Humanist Reform in Sixteenth-Century France,” Heythrop Journal, 6 (Oct., 1965), 447–464.



andrew melville and the melville legend

31

Â� possessed within it certain philosophical implications regarding human nature, the capacity and limitations of human reason, and the purpose of human life.151 While no one has as yet convincingly defined or identified a set of commonly shared beliefs held among all humanists and while humanism never amounted to a comprehensive philosophical system, it did represent a new way of interpreting the classical authors which challenged the scholastic methods advocated by the medieval schoolmen.152 Instead of employing dialectical reasoning and appealing to medieval theologians in support of their arguments, the humanists adopted a philological approach to the text and frequently looked to classical and patristic authorities in support of their arguments.153 The new method of the humanists amounted to a new “historicalmindedness” which endeavored to understand these classical texts in historical perspective, taking into account context, historical circumstances, and authorial intention. Instead of approaching a text as “a bundle of individual statements” without any context or reference to historical circumstances, the humanists of the Renaissance exhibited historical sensitivity to words, records, and texts in their efforts to interpret correctly the classical authors.154 While humanism as a method of intellectual inquiry offered a challenge to the methods employed by the late medieval scholastics, both humanist and scholastic techniques did frequently co-exist in the same person, discipline, and educational institution without any necessary incompatibility.155 Likewise, humanists and scholastics not only co-existed but actually cooperated with one another during the Renaissance.156 There are several senses in which we may speak of Melville as a humanist. First and most obviously, he was a classical humanist who devoted himself to the mastery of the Greek and Latin languages and literature, taught these languages and literature, and cultivated the art of Latin poetry throughout his long life. His classical humanism, while having its origins at the Montrose grammar school and his study under the Greek scholar Pierre de Marsilier, took on its most definitive 151 ╇ Charles G. Nauert, Jr., “The Clash of Humanists and Scholastics: an Approach to Pre-Reformation Controversies,” SCJ, 4 (Apr., 1973), 11; Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 12, 16. 152 ╇Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 21. 153 ╇ Rummel, “Et cum theologo bella poeta gerit,” 718. 154 ╇Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 17, 20. 155 ╇ Cameron, “The Impact of Humanist Values,” 957. 156 ╇ Perreiah, “Humanistic Critiques of Scholastic Dialectic,” 6.

32

chapter one

character in Paris at the Collège Royal under Adrian Turnèbe and at Geneva under François Portus. His skills as a Latin poet were significantly honed through the private and public instruction he received from Buchanan during the latter’s stay in Paris from 1565–1566 and were cultivated back in Scotland while he served as a kind of Latin laureate to James VI and engaged in poetic warfare with his Anglican ecclesiastical opponents. Second, he was a legal humanist who was trained in the new jurisprudence at the Universities of Paris and Poitiers and the Academy of Geneva during the height of the French Renaissance. Sitting under both François Baudouin and François Hotman, Melville received instruction from some of the most distinguished and prominent leaders associated with the legal humanism of the French Renaissance.157 Third, Melville was a philological and Christian humanist who, in addition to Greek, mastered Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac in an effort to interpret Scripture. Studying Hebrew and its cognates under Jean Mercier and Jean de Cinqarbres at Paris and continuing these studies under Corneille Bertram at Geneva, Melville became one of the leading purveyors of the Semitic tongues in Scotland upon his return in 1574.158 From the beginning of his academic life at Montrose until the very end at Sedan, Andrew Melville remained a thoroughgoing humanist, and any attempt to reassess his life and place within the Scottish Renaissance and Reformation must take that fact into account. Even before he openly identified himself with the Protestant cause, he professed his devotion to the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance. There is no evidence that he ever renounced or even distanced himself from the humanism and the humanistic methods he imbibed during his time in France and Switzerland. His humanism was a constitutive feature of his intellectual makeup, and yet it in no way detracted from his ability as

157 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 10. On the legal humanism of the Renaissance see Donald R. Kelley, “Legal Humanism and the Sense of History,” Studies in the Renaissance, 13 (1966), 184–189; “Guillaume Budé and the First Historical School of Law,” American Historical Review, 72 (Apr., 1967), 807–834; “The Rise of Legal History in the Renaissance,” History and Theory, 9:2 (1970), 174–194; Linton C. Stevens, “The Contribution of French Jurists to the Humanism of the Renaissance,” SR, 1 (1954), 92–105; Michael L. Monheit, “Guillaume Budé, Andrea Alciato, Pierre de l’Estoile: Renaissance Interpreters of Roman Law,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 58 (Jan., 1997), 21–40. 158 ╇ On Christian Humanism see Alasdair A. MacDonald, Zweder R.W.M. von Martels, and Jan R. Veenstra (eds.), Christian Humanism Essays in Honour of Arjo Vanderjagt (Leiden, 2009).



andrew melville and the melville legend

33

a leader of Protestantism in Scotland, but only enhanced it. It is only when Melville has been carefully situated within the broader movements of the northern European Renaissance, French humanism, and the Scottish Renaissance that his significance as an intellectual leader in Scotland can be accurately and soberly determined. When Melville’s life and intellectual contributions have been freshly reassessed, the historical figure will emerge as the corresponding legends, myths, and imaginary constructions are discarded.

Chapter two

THE FORMATIVE YEARS (1545–1563/4) The Narrative History Were it not for the diarist and narrative historian James Melville and his €efforts at chronicling his own life in relation to the broader ecclesiastical, political, and cultural developments of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Scotland, our knowledge of the life of Andrew Melville would be extremely limited.1 Melville himself did not write an autobiography nor do we have any extant letters from his hand prior to 1572. While studying and teaching in Geneva we know that he corresponded with his brothers Richard and James, probably in the years 1572 or 1573, yet, sadly, none of these letters have survived. We also know that while he was in Paris and Poitiers during the years 1563/41569 he was in communication with his brothers back in Scotland and that this correspondence was interrupted by the French wars of religion, leading his family to believe that he had perished in the conflict.2 The earliest correspondence we have from his hand is a letter written to Peter Young on 14 April 1572 at the very end of his time on the continent just prior to his return to Scotland.3 Whatever correspondence he did write prior to 1572 simply has not survived. This lack of material from Melville himself only underscorces the indispensable nature of James Melville’s narrative history. 1 ╇ On James Melville see William Arbuckle, A St Andrews Diarist: James Melville 1556–1614 (Edinburgh and London, 1964); Marjory A. Bald, “James Melvill: An Obscured Man of Letters” Modern Language Review, 21 (July, 1926), 261–68; Henry S. N. McFarland, “The Education of James Melvill (1556–1614),” Aberdeen University Review, 36 (Aut., 1956), 362–370; A.R. MacDonald, “A Fragment of an Early Copy of James Melville’s A True Narratioune of the Declyneing Aige of the Kirk of Scotland,” Innes Review, 47 (Spr., 1996), 81–88. 2 ╇ James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melvill ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 30. James Melville writes that there had been correspondence between Andrew and his brothers during his time in France but that it had been “four or fyve yeirs sen they gat anie letters or word from him.” 3 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, 14 April 1572, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 27.

36

chapter two

While James Melville’s work is exceedingly valuable, especially regarding the early years of Melville’s life, the Diary (1602) and True Narratioune (1610) are not without their own historical discrepancies and errors and thus must be consulted critically and cautiously. These discrepancies may be seen from the very opening page of the Diary, which identifies 1556 as the year of James’ birth while Andrew himself maintained it was 1557.4 Likewise, James stated that he commenced his studies at St Leonard’s College, St Andrews in November 1571 while the official records of the University state that he matriculated in 1570 and was graduated in 1572.5 Similarly, James identified June 1575 as the month in which his father Richard died while the neo-Latin poet John Johnston identified the date as 25 May 1575 in his poem entitled Richardus Melvinus.6 While it is certainly possible that Johnston himself is mistaken, it would not be the first time James Melville confused dates. Furthermore, James is mistaken when he claims that his uncle served as “a Professour of Humanitie in the Collage” in Geneva.7 Rather than serving as a professor of humanity in the schola publica of the Genevan Academy, Melville served as a regent in the second class in the schola privata, “the lower-level Latin school.”8 James also mistakenly identified 1578 as the year Melville first published his Carmen Mosis. According to McCrie, the Carmen Mosis along with chapter 3 of the book of Job and various epigrams, were first published in Basel in 1574.9 Despite such ╇ Melville, JMAD, 13 ╇ James Maitland Anderson (ed.), Early Records of the University of St. Andrews (Edinburgh, 1926), 168, 279; Melville, JMAD, 24; Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. I (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824), 59; Arbuckle, A St Andrews Diarist: James Melville 1556–1614, 7. McCrie erroneously repeats Melville’s Diary at this point in accepting 1571 as the year of matriculation. 6 ╇ William Keith Leask (ed.), Musa Latina Aberdonensis: Poetae Minores Vol. III (Aberdeen, 1910), 123–124. 7 ╇ Melville, JMAD 41–42. 8 ╇ Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, tome III 1565–1574 (eds.), Olivier Fatio and Olivier Labarthe (Genève, 1969), 23; Charles Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” American Historical Review, 5:2 (1899), 287; Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 109; Maag, Seminary or University? 9. 9 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 86; P. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan Centre d’Influence Française A Propos d’un Manuscrit du XVII Siècle (Paris, 1913), 155–163; 167–168. Alan R. MacDonald repeats this error in “Best of Enemies: Andrew Melville and Patrick Adamson, c. 1574–1592 in Julian Goodare and Alasdair A. MacDonald (eds.), Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden and Boston, 2008), 262. Both the Carmen Mosis and verse paraphrase of Job chapter 3 may also be found in Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiæ Pœtarum Scotorum (Amsterdam, 1637), 84–90. The full title of this rare 1574 edition as provided by McCrie is: Carmen Mosis, ex deuteron, cap. XXXII. quod ipse moriens Israëli tradidit ediscendum & cantandum perpetuò, latina paraphrasi illustratum. Cui addita sunt nonnulla epigrammata, & Iobi Cap. III. latino carmine redditum. Andrea Melvino Scoto avctore. Basileæ M.D. LXXIIII. 4 5



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

37

conflicting evidence and occasional inaccuracies, James Melville’s Diary and True Narratioune remain a substantially reliable source of information, providing insight and knowledge unavailable in other sources and documents of the period. The value of the Diary and True Narratioune for reassessing Melville’s contribution to the Renaissance in Scotland may be seen especially in his unique qualifications as an author. James Melville’s intimate association with his uncle, his role within the intellectual and religious life of Scotland, and his remarkable attention to detail peculiarly qualified him to write not only a narrative history of the period but an account of his uncle’s role within it. His firsthand observations and experience working with his uncle at the Universities of Glasgow and St Andrews enabled him to offer not merely his own assessments but a personal and intimate account from Melville’s closest humanistic companion. Although Melville served as James’ tutor, academic mentor, and university colleague, they were for four decades the best of friends. Separated by only 11 years, James admired and revered Andrew more as a father figure than a mere uncle. Their intimate association and devotion to one another, while preventing a more critical and dispassionate narrative, provides a unique perspective into the personal dimensions of Melville’s life as a humanist, university reformer, ecclesiastical statesman, and man. His literary adroitness in vividly depicting those anecdotes and vignettes of his uncle’s life have provided not merely “a certain animated savour,” but a vivacity seldom captured in narrative histories.10 The Diary and True Narratioune continue to occupy a strategically vital place as the principal authoritative source documents for the life and work of Melville. Given the proximity of the author to his subject and his firsthand experience of many of the events he records, it is the next best thing to an actual memoir or correspondence by Melville himself. Childhood and Family Andrew Melville was born the youngest of nine children to Richard Melville and Giles Abercrombie on 1 August 1545 on the estate of Baldovy on the South Esk, one mile southwest of Montrose, Angus.11

╇ Maurice Lindsay, History of Scottish Literature, (London, 1977), 127. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 38; Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 15–16. Reid has helpfully observed that Melville himself confirmed the day of his birth in Bucholtzer’s 10 11

38

chapter two

The Melvilles of Baldovy in Angus were members of the lesser gentry or lairds and were those who early on had been receptive to Protestantism. Due to the loss of his father during the last phase of the ‘Rough Wooings’ at the disastrous Battle of Pinkie in 1547 when he was only two and the death of his mother when he was only twelve, Andrew was brought up by his eldest brother, Richard and his wife Isobel Scrimgeour.12 Richard’s role in young Andrew’s life was more akin to that of a father than an eldest brother, and his religious views and humanistic sensibilities undoubtedly shaped Andrew’s own intellectual outlook and confirmed the Protestant trajectory of his thought. Even before Andrew’s birth, the Melvilles of Baldovy had become advocates of religious reform and the Protestant cause.13 Indeed, it has been suggested that Richard Melville senior may have been one of those who John Knox had in mind when he wrote of men who professed the gospel and who died at the Battle of Pinkie under the Earl of Angus.14 Andrew’s immediate family was wellsituated within Scottish society. Several of his brothers served as either clergymen in the case of Richard, James, and John or civil servants in the case of Thomas, Walter, and Roger. Whereas Walter served as a magistrate of Montrose and Roger a burgess of Dundee, Thomas rose to become secretary deputy of Scotland.15 Several, though not all, of the Melville brothers received a university education and by it were exposed to the humanism of the Renaissance. Although Robert, David, and Roger did not enjoy the advantages of such advanced study, it was said of the last by Robert Bruce of Edinburgh that if he had been given the educational experience of Andrew, Roger “would have been the most singular man in Europe.”16 Whereas James received his university education from St Salvator’s, St Andrews Isagoge Chronologica. Cf. Abraham Bucholtzer, Isagoge Chronologica, Id est: Opusculam ad Annorum Seriem in Sacris Bibliis Contexendam, Compendio Viam Monstrans ac Fundamenta Indicans (In Officina Sanctandreana, false imprint, 1596), National Library of Scotland, E.84.f.16.f. OO VIIIv. 12 ╇ McFarland, “The Education of James Melvill (1556–1614),” 362; Melville, JMAD, 38; Leask, Musa Latina Aberdonensis III, 124. On the Rough Wooings see Alec Ryrie, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation (Manchester, 2006), 72–94; Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings: Mary Queen of Scots, 1542–1551 (East Linton, 2000); “The assured Scots: Scottish collaborators with England during the Rough Wooing,” Scottish Historical Review, 47 (1968), 10–34. 13 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 10. 14 ╇ Frank D. Bardgett, Scotland Reformed: The Reformation in Angus and the Mearns (Edinburgh, 1989); 33–34; James Kirk, “John Knox and Andrew Melville: A Question of Identity?” Scotia: American-Canadian Journal of Scottish Studies, 6 (1982), 16. 15 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 38. 16 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 14–15, 38–39; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 3–4, 10–11.



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

39

Â� matriculating in 1555, Richard and Thomas were given the advantage of traveling to the continent where they encountered the New Learning of the Renaissance and the ideas of the Reformation.17 Thomas, who is described by his nephew as “a fyne schollar,” could not have avoided direct contact with the ideals, values, and fruits of the Renaissance as he€ traveled in both Italy and France during the sixteenth century.18 Likewise, Richard in 1542, traveling with John apparent of Dun the son of John Erskine of Dun as his tutor, spent two years on the continent and was thoroughly exposed to the humanistic methods and values of continental humanism as well as to Reformation thought.19 He studied first in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen under John Macalpine (or Johannes Machabæus as Philip Melanchthon Latinized his name).20 Upon completing his studies in Denmark under Macalpine, Richard traveled to Germany where he studied under one of Germany’s preeminent Christian humanists Philip Melanchthon at the University of Wittenberg.21 He also apparently studied at the Lutheran University of Greifswald where he matriculated in 1546.22 Richard’s association with John Erskine of Dun and his son over this period, as well as his time of study under Macalpine and Melanchthon, indicate that his earliest Protestant influences were Lutheran and his formative academic influences were thoroughly humanistic in Â�character.

17 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 261; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 4. 18 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 38. 19 ╇ On John Erskine of Dun see Thomas Crockett, “The Life of John Erskine of Dun” (Edinburgh D. Litt. Diss., 1924); Bardgett, Scotland Reformed; “John Erskine of Dun: A Theological Reassessment,” Scottish Journal of Theology, 43 (1990), 59–86; James S. McEwen, “John Erskine of Dun, 1508–91” in Ronald Selby Wright (ed.), Fathers of the Kirk (London, 1960), 17–27; D. F. Wright, “Erskine, John, of Dun (1509–1590),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 18 (Oxford, 2004), 540–542; Robert Wodrow, Collections upon the Lives of the Reformers and Most Eminent Ministers of the Church of Scotland Vol. I (Glasgow, 1834), 3–68. 20 ╇ Bardgett, Scotland Reformed, 34; “John Erskine of Dun: A Theological Reassessment,” 61; Thorkild Lyby Christensen, “Scots in Denmark in the sixteenth century,” SHR, 49 (1970), 137. Cf. Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 263; Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 16. Kirk and Reid have inverted the chronology maintaining that Richard Melville went first to Germany to study with Melanchthon and then to Denmark to study with Macalpine. This chronology is not supported by James Melville’s Diary. Cf. Melville, JMAD, 14. 21 ╇ Leask, Musa Latina Aberdonensis III, 123–124. 22 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 263; Th. A. Fischer, The Scots in Germany: Being a Contribution Towards the History of the Scot Abroad (Edinburgh, 1902), 314. On Melanchthon see Manfred P. Fleischer, “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 20:4 (1989), 559–580.

40

chapter two

Erskine of Dun’s trip to the continent had earned him the religious soubriquet Lutheran though we cannot say for certain that he himself accompanied his son John and Richard Melville to the universities of Copenhagen and Wittenberg.23 Lutheranism, of course, in Scotland had first appeared in the 1520s. Despite James V’s ambiguous political policy towards Protestantism seen in his vigorous opposition to ‘heresy’ on the one hand and his tolerance of moderate reformers on the other, his firm adherence to the Catholic faith and his efforts to suppress Protestantism won him from the papacy the prestigious honor of the Blessed Sword and Hat.24 Notwithstanding James V’s efforts to repress Protestantism, Lutheran teaching had won over to its cause such individuals as the Observant Franciscan James Melville, George Gilbert, Alexander Allane or Alesius25, and Patrick Hamilton26 and had made inroads into Edinburgh, Leith, Ayr, Stirling, St Andrews,27 Dundee,28 Perth and even, albeit in a much more limited way, the Catholic stronghold of Aberdeen.29 South of Aberdeen in Angus Lutheranism was influential and contributed to the Protestant culture that produced George Wishart,30 23 ╇ Bardgett, Scotland Reformed, 34. For a helpful analysis of the progressive development of Erskine of Dun’s life and thought see Bardgett, “John Erskine of Dun: A Theological Reassessment.” 24 ╇ Ryrie, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation, 7–8, 40. 25 ╇ John T. McNeill, “Alexander Alesius, Scottish Lutheran (1500–1565),” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 55 (1964), 161–191; J. H. Baxter, “Alesius and other Reformed Refugees in Germany,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 5 (1934), 93–120; O. Clemen, “Melanchthon und Alexander Alesius,” ARG, 5 (1929), 17–31; Gerhard Müller, “Protestant Theology in Scotland and Germany in the Early Days of the Reformation,” RSCHS, 22:2 (1985), 103–117. 26 ╇ James Edward McGoldrick, “Patrick Hamilton, Luther’s Scottish Disciple,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 18 (Spr., 1987), 81–88. 27 ╇ Gotthelf Wiedermann, “Martin Luther versus John Fisher: Some Ideas concerning the Debate on Lutheran Theology at the University of St Andrews, 1525–30,” RSCHS, 22:1 (1984), 13–34. 28 ╇ On the Reformation in Dundee, “the Geneva of Scotland” see Bardgett, Scotland Reformed; J.H. Baxter, Dundee and the Reformation (Dundee, 1960). 29 ╇ McGoldrick, “Patrick Hamilton, Luther’s Scottish Disciple,” 87; Gordon Donaldson, “Aberdeen University and the Reformation,” Northern Scotland, 1 (Dec., 1972), 133; Bruce McLennan, “The Reformation in the Burgh of Aberdeen,” NS, 2 (1974–75), 124– 126. On the Reformation in Aberdeen see Allan White, “The Impact of the Reformation on a Burgh Community: The Case of Aberdeen” in Michael Lynch (ed.), The Early Modern Town in Scotland (London, 1987), 81–101; “The Reformation in Aberdeen” in J.S. Smith (ed.), New Light on Medieval Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1985); Charles H. Haws, “The Diocese of Aberdeen and the Reformation,” IR, 12 (Aut., 1971), 72–84; Gordon Donaldson, “Scotland’s Conservative North in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1985), 191–203. 30 ╇ On Wishart see John Durkan, “ Scottish Reformers: the Less than Golden Legend,” IR, 45 (Spr., 1994), 2–10; “George Wishart: His Early Life,” SHR, 32 (Apr., 1953), 98–99;



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

41

Henry Balnaves,31 Erskine of Dun, and the Melvilles. Thus, the early presence and reception of Lutheranism in Angus may have served as the initial impetus in Erskine of Dun’s choice of Copenhagen and Wittenberg rather than Zurich and Geneva.32 Erskine of Dun undoubtedly chose Denmark due to the presence of the Scottish scholar Macalpine who, prior to his decision to join the Protestant movement in 1534, had labored as prior of the Dominican convent in Perth.33 Having adopted Protestant views, the prior was summoned by James Hay, bishop of Ross, to give an account of them at Holyrood. Instead, he fled to England and remained there several years.34 After his time in England, he traveled to Germany where he studied at€ the University of Wittenberg, meeting Luther and becoming a close€ friend of Melanchthon.35 His close association with MelanchÂ� thon€ accounts for both his Lutheranism and his humanism. Prior to Macalpine’s conversion to Protestantism, he had been thoroughly trained in late medieval scholasticism at the University of Cologne, completing his course of study in 1525. Although a proponent of Protestant thought and an advocate of Renaissance humanism, he still retained some aspects of his scholastic training as evidenced by his participation in a formal scholastic disputation conducted under Luther’s supervision at WittenÂ� berg in 1541.36 Nevertheless, Macalpine is said to have been “deeply influenced” by Melanchthon’s humanism and the humanistic tradition

Jasper Ridley, John Knox (Oxford, 1968), 27–44; Margaret H.B. Sanderson, Ayrshire and the Reformation: People and Change 1490–1600 (East Lothian, 1997), 65–68. 31 ╇ On Henry Balnaves see Hugh Watt, “Henry Balnaves and the Scottish reformation,” RSCHS, 5 (1935), 23–29. 32 ╇ Gerhard Müller, “Protestant Theology in Scotland and Germany in the Early Days of the Reformation,” RSCHS, 22:2 (1985), 103–117; W. Stanford Reid, “Lutheranism in the Scottish Reformation,” Westminster Theological Journal, 7 (May, 1945), 91–111; James K. Cameron, “John Johnsone’s ‘An Confortable Exhortation of Our Mooste Holy Christen Faith and Her Frutes’: An Early Example of Scots Lutheran Piety” in Derek Baker (ed.), Reform and Reformation: England and the Continent c.1500-c.1750 (Oxford, 1979), 133–147; “Aspects of the Lutheran Contribution to the Scottish Reformation 1528– 1552,” RSCHS, 22:1 (1984), 12. 33 ╇ Christensen, “Scots in Denmark in the sixteenth century,” 137. 34 ╇ Richard L. Greaves, “Macalpine, John (d. 1557),” ODNB, Vol. 34 (Oxford, 2004), 1026–1027. 35 ╇ Leask, Musa Latina Aberdonensis III, 111; Christensen, “Scots in Denmark in the sixteenth century,” 137. 36 ╇ Anthony Ross, “Some Notes on the Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation Scotland” in David McRoberts (ed.), Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 (Glasgow, 1962), 200–201.

42

chapter two

during his stay in Germany.37 In 1542 he was made a doctor of theology and was appointed professor at the University of Copenhagen. Thus, when the son of Erskine of Dun and Richard Melville arrived in Denmark€to study under Macalpine they were thoroughly exposed to Lutheran theology and the German humanism38 that characterized both MelanÂ�chthon’s and Macalpine’s thought.39 Of course, if there had been any doubt regarding either their ProtesÂ� tantism or their advocacy of Renaissance humanism following their time of study in Copenhagen under Macalpine, their decision to study under Melanchthon at Wittenberg removes any suspicion of their religious and intellectual orientation. Although Philip Melanchthon did not enjoy the same degree of notoriety for his humanism as did Budé and Erasmus, he emerged over the course of his career as a humanist of the first order who became “the source from which neo-Latin circles of poets flowed wave after wave.”40 He has been called “the father of the ‘younger Wittenberg circle of poets’â•›”41 and Peter Lotz, “Germany’s foremost poet” of the sixteenth century,42 regarded MelanÂ�chthon as “the center around which the literature and learning of Protestant humanism had revolved.”43 From his earliest days as a student and teacher at Tubingen, Melanchthon was firmly grounded in the humanism of the Renaissance, reading widely in the ancient authors. Having been profoundly influenced by the prince of the humanists, Erasmus himself, he studied the writings of Aristotle, Homer, Vergil,

╇ Christensen, “Scots in Denmark in the sixteenth century,” 137. ╇ On German humanism see Lewis W. Spitz, The Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists (Cambridge, MA, 1963). On Melanchthon’s evangelical humanism see John Schofield, Philip Melanchthon and the English Reformation (Aldershot, 2006), 1–54. 39 ╇ On Macalpine see John Durkan, “Scottish ‘Evangelicals’ in the Patronage of Thomas Cromwell,” RSCHS, 21 (1981–1983), 139–140; A. F. B. Petersen, “Dr Johannes €Macchabeus: Scotland’s contribution to the Reformation in Denmark” (PhD Thesis, Edinburgh., 1935). 40 ╇ Fleischer, “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” 560. On MelanchÂ� thon’s humanistic influence throughout Europe see Karin Maag (ed.), Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg (Grand Rapids, 1999); Maria Grossman, Humanism in Wittenberg, 1485–1517 (Nieuwkoop, 1975). 41 ╇ Ibid., 561. 42 ╇ Eckhard Bernstein, “Review: Petrus Lotichius Secundus: Neo Latin Poet,” SCJ, 15:4 (1984), 511. Martin Opitz designated Melanchthon “unser Lotichius der Fürst aller Deutschen Poeten.” 43 ╇ Fleischer, “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” 561. Just as he had done with Macalpine and in traditional humanist fashion, Melanchthon persuaded Lotz to Latinize his name. Cf. Bernstein, “Review: Petrus Lotichius Secundus: Neo Latin Poet,” 511. 37 38



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

43

Terence, and Cicero and, like his relative Reuchlin, devoted himself to the study of Hebrew.44 Over the course of his life, he never abandoned his love of writing poetry and plays. Indeed, he has been credited with influencing some one hundred poets.45 For roughly half a century Luther’s colleague contributed to Germany’s neo-Latin literature by producing prologues for the Latin and Greek plays he directed, Latin paraphrases from such classical authors as Hesiod, Homer, Plato, Opianus, and Plutarch and approximately four hundred epigrams and carmina.46 He extolled the eloquence and erudition of poetry to his students and urged them to write neo-Latin verse, providing them with his own example. Despite his self-deprecation, calling himself “malus poeta,” Melanchthon provided his students with a model of how to cultivate this humanist art form and thereby contribute to this growing body of neoLatin literature in Reformation Germany.47 In light of Melanchthon’s influential role in the promotion of neo-Latin literature in Germany during the sixteenth century, Richard Melville’s own cultivation of bonae litterae and of the art of neo-Latin poetry was undoubtedly enhanced and augmented. Indeed, in this respect Andrew Melville may be viewed as the intellectual benefactor of his eldest brother’s education and association with the German scholar as well as an intellectual descendant of Melanchthon, the neo-Latin poet. Richard Melville’s Protestant humanism was further cultivated by his fellow companions during his time abroad. The leader of this continental expedition, John Erskine of Dun, demonstrated his own commitment to the New Learning of the Renaissance not only by his choice of Copenhagen and Wittenberg but also by the intellectual foresight he exhibited in recruiting Pierre de Marsilier to return with him in 1543 to Scotland to teach Greek at the Montrose grammar school.48 During the late 1530s the school had employed the services of George Wishart, who

44 ╇ David A. Gustafson, “Review: Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg,” SCJ, 31:2 (2000), 490; Schofield, Philip Melanchthon and the English Reformation, 4. 45 ╇ Fleischer, “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” 561, 563. On Petrus Lotichius Secundus see Stephen Zon, Petrus Lotichius Secundus: Neo-Latin Poet (New York, Frankfurt on the Main, Berne, 1983). 46 ╇ Ibid., 562. Melanchthon himself did not publish most of these poetic effusions. Instead, they were published by his admirers against his wishes. 47 ╇ Ibid., 564. 48 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 39; Bardgett, “John Erskine of Dun: A Theological Reassessment,” 61–62.

44

chapter two

himself had been hired to teach the New Testament in Greek.49 Given Erskine of Dun’s relationship with Wishart as both a neighbor and an extended relative, as well as his subsequent recruitment of Marsilier to teach Greek at Montrose, it seems likely that he supported Wishart’s efforts at teaching Greek at the school in the 1530s. While the traditional date for Marsilier’s arrival in Scotland has been 1534,50 the year 1543 seems to coincide better with the limited evidence available.51 NeverÂ� theless, Erskine of Dun’s recruitment of Marsilier underscores his own humanistic values and Renaissance sensibilities, which were, in turn, undoubtedly influential in Richard Melville’s own humanistic formation. Indeed, Erskine of Dun’s influence on Richard Melville may be seen most vividly in the latter’s decision to send young Andrew to study under Marsilier at Montrose.52 The influence of the Renaissance on Richard’s own educational experience on the continent may be seen most vividly in his love of the neoLatin poetry of the Italians in general and of the verses of Pier Angelo Manzolli or Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus in particular.53 Although little is known about Palingenius, he was present in Rome during Leo X’s pontificate and apparently studied medicine about the year 1530 in Rimini. As is evident from the Zodiacus Vitae,54 he also studied Neoplatonic philosophy and experimented with alchemy, magic, and astrology.55 While there is some debate regarding the exact year of publication, it seems to have been printed about the year 1531.56

49 ╇ John Durkan, “Scottish Reformers: the Less than Golden Legend,” IR, 45 (Spr., 1994), 5; Jane E. A. Dawson, “Knox, John (c.1514–1572),” ODNB, Vol. 32 (Oxford, 2004), 15–30. 50 ╇ Thomas McCrie, Life of John Knox (Edinburgh and London, 1850), 4. 51 ╇ Wright, ‘Erskine, John, of Dun (1509–1590).’ 52 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 39; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 6, 11. 53 ╇ The author of the Zodiacus Vitae, Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus, is generally identified as Pier Angelo Manzolli of the town of La Stellata in the province of Ferrara. Marcello Palingenio is the anagrammatic pseudonym of Pier Angelo Manzolli. Cf. Corinne Mandel, “Review: Le Zodiaque de la vie (Zodiacus Vitae) XII Livres” by Jacques Chomarat, SCJ, 29 (Spr., 1998), 143–145; Alessandro Perosa and John Sparrow (eds.), Renaissance Latin Verse: An Anthology (London, 1979), 295. 54 ╇ Jacques Chomarat, (trans. and ed.), Le Zodiaque de la vie (Zodiacus Vitae) XII€Livres. Palingène (Pier Angelo Manzolli dit Marzello Palingenio Stellato) (Geneva, 1996). 55 ╇ Perosa and Sparrow, Renaissance Latin Verse: An Anthology, 295; Francis R. Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England (Baltimore, 1937), 146. 56 ╇ Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, 145; Rosemond Tuve, “Introduction” in The Zodiake of Life by Marcellus Palingenius, trans. Barnabe Googe (New York, 1947), vi.



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

45

His neo-Latin poetry was viewed as subversive due to its stinging critique of the clergy, condemned as heretical by Pope Paul IV, and included in the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559. As a heretic, not only was the Zodiacus Vitae denounced, but his bones were actually exhumed and burned as a final insult and condemnation. Indeed, so little is known for certain about him that questions still remain regarding his profession, whether he was a professor of grammar, a physician, or even a former priest.57 What is clear about Palingenius’ poetry is that it was exceedingly popular with Protestants, like Richard Melville, going through some sixty editions and numerous translations and becoming “a staple in the classrooms of Protestant England.”58 As Barnabe Googe translated the Zodiacus Vitae59 into English between 1560 and 1565 producing both partial and complete translations, it became the “most popular astronomical poem of the English Renaissance.”60 Far from being a purely Protestant document, the Zodiacus Vitae contains attacks upon Luther as well as the Catholic Church.61 Comprised of twelve books with each chapter named after one of the signs of the Zodiac and consisting of approximately 10,000 lines, this neo-Latin didactic poem was written in hexameters and was, like so many lengthy Renaissance poems, calculated to provide a comprehensive account of all learning.62 It has been described as “a mine of Renaissance commonplaces, most of them with a long history in medieval or classical literature.”63 As an advocate of the New Learning, Richard admired the classical purity and style of Palingenius as well the moral quality of his Latin

57 ╇ Mandel, “Review: Le Zodiaque de la vie (Zodiacus Vitae) XII Livres,” 143–144; Tuve, “Introduction,” vi. 58 ╇ Perosa and Sparrow, Renaissance Latin Verse: An Anthology, 295; Mandel, “Review: Le Zodiaque de la vie (Zodiacus Vitae) XII Livres,” 143–144. Cf. Michael West, “The Internal Dialogue of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 146,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 25 (Win., 1974), 115. West calls the Zodiacus Vitae “a common textbook that Shakespeare may have read as a schoolboy.” Cf. Arthur F. Marotti, “Patronage, Poetry, and Print,” Yearbook of English Studies, 21 Politics, Patronage, and Literature in England 1558–1658 Special Number (1991), 5; Foster Watson, The Zodiacus Vitae of Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus: An Old School-Book (London, 1908). 59 ╇ Palingenius, The Zodiake of Life by Marcellus Palingenius trans. Barnabe Googe; Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, 145–146. 60 ╇ Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, 149; Perosa and Sparrow, Renaissance Latin Verse: An Anthology, 295. 61 ╇ McFarland, “The Education of James Melville (1556–1614),” 363. 62 ╇ Perosa and Sparrow, Renaissance Latin Verse: An Anthology, 295; Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, 146; Tuve, “Introduction,” ix. 63 ╇Tuve, “Introduction,” xii.

46

chapter two

poetry.64 In contrast to the Catullan style of poetry cultivated by Giovanni Pontano, who seemed to delight himself in stimulating the prurient impulses of his readers by means of his fescennine verse, the morally upright character of Palingenius’ poetry possessed a strong appeal to Richard Melville.65 Indeed, it has been argued that the Zodiacus Vitae represents in essence “a moral tract in the Erasmian tradition.”66 Growing up in his father’s house, James Melville testified to the fact that Richard not only delighted himself in Palingenius’ Zodiacus Vitae by repeating passages from it to his children, but he actually had them memorize portions of the Italian poet’s Latin verse from the Cancer, the fourth book of the poem.67 Growing up under the influence of his older brother and surrogate father Richard, Andrew cultivated a love of neo-Latin verse at any early age and his poetic sensibilities were developed by the frequent and casual exposure to the poetry of Palingenius. Even in his old age at the University of Sedan, Melville wrote to his nephew James quoting the poet, referring to him as “your favourite Palingenius,” and declaring that “the very mention of whose name gives me new life.”68 In addition to its literary elegance and moral integrity, the Zodiacus Vitae may have functioned in the life of the young humanist as his earliest model of Aristotelian criticism and dissent. Against those sixteenthcentury Aristotelians who dogmatically maintained the philosopher’s infallibility in matters of natural science, Palingenius’ poem was cited by the English mathematician Thomas Digges in his treatise on the theory of Copernicus. Digges, like Richard Melville, was so familiar with

╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 16. Melville, JMAD, 20. ╇ Walther Ludwig, “The Origin and Development of the Catullan Style in Neo-Latin Poetry” in Peter Godman and Oswyn Murray (eds.), Latin Poetry and the Classical Tradition: Essays in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Oxford, 1990), 189, 196; Melville, JMAD, 20. Cf. Mary Morrison, “Catullus in the Neo-Latin Poetry of France before 1550,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 17 (1955), 365–394; “Ronsard and Catullus: The Influence of the Teaching of Marc-Antoine de Muret,” BHR, 18 (1956), 240–274; Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500– 1925 (New York and London, 1940), 149; James W. L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry A Critical Survey (London, 1955), 84. Bradner identifies Thomas Maitland as the Latinist who introduced into Scotland the imitation of Ovid and Catullus in his elegies and epigrams. 66 ╇ Mandel, “Review: Le Zodiaque de la vie (Zodiacus Vitae) XII Livres,” 144. 67 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 19–20; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 16; McFarland, “The Education of James Melville (1556–1614),” 363. Cf. Palingenius, The Zodiake of Life trans. Googe, 40–61. 68 ╇ Andrew Melville, Melvini epistolae, 295; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 287. 64 65



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

47

Palingenius’ poem that he is reported to have “the whole Aquarius of€Palingenius bie hart: & takes mutch delight to repeate it often.”69 By criticizing Aristotle and debunking his infallibility, Palingenius in the Zodiacus Vitae may have provided a model of Aristotelian dissent for the young humanist or, at the very least, contributed to the weakening hold the philosopher had on so many fields of study. While presenting in many respects the conventional sixteenth-century cosmology, he nevertheless disagreed with and criticized Aristotle. Indeed, a number of Palingenius’ ideas subsequently came to be identified with Copernicus and the new astronomy.70 Within this domestic intellectual milieu Andrew’s earliest attitudes were formed. Some of his brothers, while traveling extensively on the continent, had been exposed to the ideals, values, and sensibilities of the Renaissance. In the case of Richard, he received the benefits of university instruction under some of the most prominent humanist Protestant scholars of the sixteenth century. In such circumstances, it is not surprising that Andrew would cultivate early a love for humane studies and bonae litterae. Early Education As a rather sickly young boy growing up in the home of his brother Richard, Andrew delighted himself in study. Perceiving at an early age his intellectual aptitude and disposition for learning, Richard placed Andrew at the Montrose grammar school under the tutelage of one Thomas Anderson.71 At Montrose Melville received a thorough foundation in the Latin language and literature as well as in French. While we have no direct record of what precisely was taught at the Montrose ╇ Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, 162–163, 192. ╇ Ibid., 69, 147, 149. Palingenius wrote in Book VIII, “Scorpius” the following: “Whatsoeuer Aristotle saith, or any of them all, / I passe not for: since from the truth they many times doe fall. / Oft prudent, graue, and famous men, in errors chance to slide, / And many wittes with them deceiue when they themselues go wide: / Examples only serue, so much must errors folowed bee, / Let no man iudge me arrogant, for reason ruleth mee, / She faithfull guide of wisemen is: let him that seekes to finde / The Truth, loue hir, and followe hir with all his might, and minde.” 71 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, x, 244. Although we cannot be certain due to the limited historical evidence available, there is a Thomas Anderson listed as having matriculated at St Andrews in 1539 who belonged to the northern Nation of Albania, one of the four Nations (Angusia, Albania, Laudonia, Britannia) into which the University had been divided. Both the chronology and the geography suggest that this may be the Thomas Anderson associated with the Montrose grammar school. 69 70

48

chapter two

grammar school during Andrew’s time there in the 1550s, we do have a limited sketch of the curriculum provided by his nephew, who attended schools in both Logie and Montrose in the 1560s.72 Given the short period of time that elapsed between Andrew’s and James’ education in the schools of Logie and Montrose, it seems reasonable to assume an essential similarity and continuity in the curriculum.73 According to James Melville, in addition to a thorough grounding in Latin grammar, syntax, and etymology, as well as instruction in French pronunciation and reading, students at Logie studied the Eclogues of Vergil, the Epistles of Horace, the Epistles ad Terentiam of Cicero, and the Minor Colloquia of Erasmus. When James was sent to Montrose, he was again taught Latin grammar and was further instructed in Terence’s Phormio and Vergil’s Georgics. Thus, even at the most rudimentary level of education in Scotland, the effects of northern European humanism and the flowering of the Renaissance were felt. Indeed, we learn from the brief sketch provided by James Melville that the writings of Erasmus were as much a part of the student’s education as were Vergil, Horace, and Cicero.74 In Aberdeen in 1553, with the exception of the “elementarians” who were given the concession of speaking in Scots since their conversational Latin was inadequate, students were prohibited from speaking in the vernacular and required to speak only in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Gaelic.75 While the Aberdeen grammar school may not have been entirely representative of Scottish primary education in the middle of the sixteenth century, when Melville completed his course of study at Montrose, he chose to remain an additional two years under the private tutelage of the French scholar Pierre de Marsilier. Under Marsilier he received intensive instruction in Greek and benefited from the

╇ Melville, JMAD, 38–39. ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 7. 74 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 17, 21. 75 ╇ John Strong, “The Development of Secondary Education in Scotland,” School Review, 15 (Oct., 1907), 595; John Durkan, “Education in the Century of the ReforÂ� mation”€ in David McRoberts (ed.), Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 (Glasgow, 1962), 149, 152. Grammar schools, sometimes referred to as “great schools” or “high schools,” stood in contrast to “little schools” which by the sixteenth century had abandoned the effort of teaching everything in Latin. For a thorough discussion of education in Scotland during the sixteenth century see John Durkan, “Education: The Laying of Fresh Foundations” in John MacQueen (ed.), Humanism in Renaissance Scotland (Edinburgh, 1990), 123–160; John Kerr, Scottish Education School and University from Early Times to 1908 (Cambridge, 1910), 1–29. 72 73



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

49

Â� opportunity to improve his command of French from a native speaker. Perhaps his decision to put off going directly to university suggests that he thought he could not receive such classical instruction in any of Scotland’s universities and that this local opportunity with Marsilier was simply too promising to pass up. Whatever his precise reasons for delaying, Melville’s decision to place himself under the tutelage of this French scholar of the Greek language intimates that even at this early stage in his life he had his sights set on France and the humanistic studies of the Renaissance.76 Whereas James Melville is certainly correct that his uncle was given an uncommon opportunity to study Greek, he seems to have exaggerated its rarity.77 The slogan Graecum est, non legitur describing the allegedly Greekless state of Scotland before the time of Row and Melville is, in certain respects, questionable and in others simply erroneous.78 Despite efforts at St Andrews in 1538 to establish a trilingual college for Scotland at St Mary’s College on the pattern of the Collegium trilingue at Louvain and the Collège Royal in Paris, the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow prior to the 1550s provided little, if any, instruction in Greek.79 Referring to the study of Greek and Hebrew, James Melville declared, “bot the langages war nocht to be gottine in the land.”80 While Melville stated that only the most rudimentary instruction was even provided at St Andrews, there is evidence that a university student in 1564 offered to provide instruction in both Greek and Hebrew in Elgin for the year 1566.81 If we may accept James Melville’s generalization to be true in some€centers of Scottish society, the most notable exception, of course,€was€King’s College, in Old Aberdeen where it appears the university had made the ╇ Melville, JMAD 39. ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 263. 78 ╇ John Durkan, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland” in David McRoberts (ed.), Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 (Glasgow, 1962), 288–89. 79 ╇ Cf. James K. Cameron, “A Trilingual College for Scotland: The Founding of St Mary’s College” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners (St Andrews, 1990), 29–42; Ronald Gordon Cant, The University of St Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 41–50. 80 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 30. 81 ╇ Cameron, “A Trilingual College for Scotland,” 29–42; “St Mary’s College 1547– 1574-The Second Foundation: The Principalship of John Douglas” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners (St Andrews, 1990), 43–57; Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 16. Reid notes that the earliest recorded example of formal Greek instruction occurred in 1556 when bishop Robert Reid appointed Edward Henryson to deliver a series of public lectures in Edinburgh. Cf. William Forbes-Leith, Pre-Reformation Scholars in Scotland in the Sixteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1974), 8. 76 77

50

chapter two

study of the Greek language and literature a part of its curriculum.82 During the first third of the sixteenth century, the scholars at Elphinstone’s college in Old Aberdeen under the leadership of the Renaissance humanist and principal Hector Boece were widely regarded by the broader European community for their intellectual distinction.83 Elphinstone himself had from the very beginning established the trajectory at King’s in favor of the New Learning and is generally recognized as “the intellectual leader of the revival of learning under James IV.”84 Regarded as “one of the leading Scottish humanists of the early sixteenth century,” Hector Boece is said to have “brought to Scotland the first glimmerings of the RenaisÂ�sance€dawn.” His 1527 Scotorum Historiae, while devoid of the skepticism towards medieval chronicles exhibited by other humanists of the period and despite his own penchant toward historical embellishment, embodies the elegant Latin promoted by the advocates of the New Learning.85 Under his leadership the study of the classics flourished and King’s College emerged as the only Scottish university where there is evidence€to support the contention that Greek was taught beyond the

╇ Durkan, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland,” 288–89; John Veitch, “Philosophy in the Scottish Universities” Mind, 2 (Jan., 1877), 75; Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years (London, 1884), 44. Despite Grant’s assertion that there was “no trace of Greek having been taught in any Scottish University prior to the Reformation,” the Greek orations at King’s College in 1541 at the time of James V’s visitation at least suggest the possibility that it was taught. Indeed, Grant’s own supposition that such Greek orations “must have been the work of some scholar, happening to be in Aberdeen” is devoid of historical evidence. 83 ╇ Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Vol. II eds. F.M. Powicke and A.B. Emden (Oxford, 1936), 319; I.D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 8. On Hector Boece see J.H. Burns, The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarch in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), 54–92; N. R. Royan, “The Relationship between the Scotorum Historia of Hector Boece and John Bellenden’s Chronicles of Scotland” in Sally Mapstone and Juliette Wood (eds.), The Rose and the Thistle: Essays on the Culture of Late Medieval and Renaissance Scotland (East Linton, 1998), 136–157; D. Broun, “The Birth of Scottish History,” SHR, 76 (1997), 4–22; A.A.M. Duncan, “Hector Boece and the Medieval Tradition” in Scots Antiquaries and Historians (Dundee, 1972), 1–11; Roger A. Mason, “Scotching the Brut: Politics, History and National Myth in Sixteenth-Century Britain” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scotland and England 1286–1815 (Edinburgh, 1987), 60–84; W. Douglas Simpson “Hector Boece” in Quartercentenary of the Death of Hector Boece First Principal of the University (Aberdeen, 1937), 7–29; J.B. Black, “Boece’s Scotorum Historiae” in Quartercentenary of the Death of Hector Boece First Principal of the University (Aberdeen, 1937), 30–53. 84 ╇ John Durkan, “The Beginnings of Humanism in Scotland,” IR, 4 (Spring, 1953), 5. 85 ╇ Roger A. Mason “Scotching the Brut,” 64; McEwen, “John Erskine of Dun, 1508– 91,” 18. Cf. also John Durkan, “Early Humanism and King’s College,” AUR, 48 (Spring, 1980), 259–279. 82



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

51

most Â�elementary rudiments of the language.86 Following Elphinstone’s death in 1514, Boece, along with his colleague John Vaus, continued to promote the New Learning until by the year 1534 the Italian humanist Giovanni Ferrerio87 on his visit to King’s College, Aberdeen praised it as the most celebrated of Scotland’s universities.88 When James V and his wife Mary of Guise paid a royal visit to Aberdeen in 1541, they were greeted with Greek prose offered by the students of King’s College.89 Curiously, even the statutes of King’s for the year 1553 evidence the further influence of the Greek language upon the institution where “a Latinised Greek” was employed to describe the offices of headmaster, under-teachers, and the enforcers of statutes as “archididascalus,” “hypodidascali,” and “nomophylaces” respectively.90 Though there is evidence of decline at the university by the time of Alexander Galloway’s 1549 visitation, it is unclear how this impacted the study of Greek.91 Moreover, the study of Greek was by no means confined to Old Aberdeen and its medieval university. Knowledge of the Greek language 86 ╇ McEwen, “John Erskine of Dun, 1508–91,” 18; Melville, JMAD, 30. As James Melville testified, “Our Regent begoud and teatched us the A, B, C, of the Greik, and the simple declintiones, bot went no farder.” 87 ╇ On Ferrerio see John Durkan, “Giovanni Ferrerio, Humanist: His Influence in Sixteenth-Century Scotland” in K. Robbins (ed.), Religion and Humanism (Oxford, 1981), 181–94; “Giovanni Ferrerio: A Brief Chronology” in John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 404–405. 88 ╇ McLennan, “The Reformation in the Burgh of Aberdeen,” 119; David Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641: From Protestant Reformation to Covenanting Revolution (Aberdeen, 1990), 12; Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh, 43. For an excellent account of King’s College, Aberdeen during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries see Leslie J. Macfarlane, William Elphinstone and the Kingdom of Scotland 1431–1514 (Aberdeen, 1985), 290–402; “King’s College, Aberdeen: The Creation of the Academic Community, 1495–1532,” AUR, 56 (Aut., 1995), 211–222; “A Short History of the University of Aberdeen,” AUR, 48 (Spr., 1979), 1–18; John M. Fletcher, “Welcome Stranger or Resented Intruder? A Reconstruction of the Foundation of the University of Aberdeen in the Context of European University Development in the Later Middle Ages,” AUR, 52 (Aut., 1988), 298–313. Ferrerius wrote: “What can be more learned and elegant in the round of educational subjects, and especially in history, than Hector Boece? What more finished and delightful in the mysteries of theology than William Hay? What more apt in the relief of sickness and in knowledge of geography than Robert Gray, the Professor of Medicine? In canon law you will hardly find any one to surpass Arthur Boece; and to pass over other accomplished and learned men, what more exact in grammar than John Vaus?” 89 ╇ Robert Sangster Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1895), 81–82; John Malcolm Bulloch, A History of the University of Aberdeen (London, 1895), 60; Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh (London, 1884), 44. 90 ╇ Durkan, “Education in the Century of the Reformation,” 152. 91 ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 12; Bulloch, A History of the University of Aberdeen, 66–67; Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen, 81–92.

52

chapter two

and its literature was also possessed by such fifteenth-century Scottish scholars as the humanist and classicist Archibald Whitelaw, secretary of James III, and John Ireland92 courtier-cleric to James III and James IV. In addition to these individuals, a number of sixteenth-century Scots, such as John Mair,93 George Buchanan,94 Florence Wilson,95 George Wishart, Archibald Hay,96 George Hay,97 and Ninian Winzet,98 also possessed a knowledge of the language. Many Scots, like Wishart, may have acquired their knowledge of Greek from places like Louvain and Paris, and upon their return to their native land only made the knowledge and study of the Greek language and its literature more available.99 Some scholars, such as Buchanan, following in the steps of Erasmus and Budé, and in company with Joseph Justus Scaliger, taught themselves Greek with little or no external assistance.100 Thus, while Andrew Melville’s early ╇ 92 ╇ On John Ireland see J. H. Burns, “John Ireland: theology and public affairs in the late fifteenth century,” IR, 41 (1990), 151–181. ╇ 93 ╇ On John Mair see John Durkan, “John Mair” in The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 155–165; “John Major: After 400 Years,” IR, 1 (Dec., 1950), 131–139. ╇ 94 ╇ On George Buchanan see I.D. McFarlane, “George Buchanan and French Humanism” in A.H.T. Levi (ed.), Humanism in France at the end of the Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance (Manchester, 1970), 295–319; “George Buchanan and France” in J.C. Ireson, I.D. McFarlane, and Garnet Rees (eds.), Studies in French Literature presented to H.W. Lawton by colleagues, pupils and friends (Manchester, 1968), 223–245; “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” Yearbook of English Studies, 15 Anglo-French Literary Relations Special Number (1985), 33–47; D.F.S. Thomson, “George Buchanan: The Humanist in the Sixteenth-Century World,” Phoenix, 4 (Win., 1950), 77–94. ╇ 95 ╇ On Florence Wilson see D. Baker-Smith, “Florens Wilson and His Circle: Émigrés in Lyons, 1539–1543” in G. Castor and T. Cave (eds.), Neo-Latin and the Vernacular in Renaissance France (Oxford, 1984), 83–97; “Florens Wilson and the politics of irenicism” in A. Dalzell, C. Fantazzi, and R.J. Scheck (eds.), Acta conventus neo-Latini Torontonensis (1991), 189–198; John Durkan, “â•›‘heresy’ in Scotland: The Second Phase,” RSCHS, 24 (1990–92), 342–343. ╇ 96 ╇ On Archibald Hay see Euan Cameron, “Archibald Hay’s ‘Elegantiae’: Writings of a Scots Humanist at the Collège de Montaigu in the Time of Budé and Beda” in JeanClaude Margolin (ed.), Acta conventus neo-Latini Turonensis (Paris, 1980), 277–301. ╇ 97 ╇ John Durkan, “George Hay’s Oration at the Purging of King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1569: Commentary,” NS, 6 (1984), 97–112. ╇ 98 ╇ On Ninian Winzet see J.H. Burns, “Three Scots Catholic Critics of George Buchanan,” IR, 1 (1950), 92–109; “Catholicism in Defeat: Ninian Winzet, 1519–1592,” History Today, 16 (1966), 788–795; Mark Dilworth, “Ninian Winzet: Some New Material,” IR, 24 (1973), 125–132. ╇ 99 ╇ Durkan, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland,” 289. 100 ╇ On Erasmus’ acquisition of Greek see Rachel Giese, “Erasmus’ Greek Studies,” Classical Journal, 29 (Apr., 1934), 517–526. On Budé see Tilley, “Humanism under Francis I,” 457; David O. McNeil, Guillaume Budé and Humanism in the Reign of Francis I (Genève, 1975), 8–10; Linton C. Stevens, “How the French Humanists of the Renaissance Learned Greek,” Proceedings of the Modern Language Association, 65 (Mar., 1950), 240–48. On Scaliger see Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

53

acquisition of Greek was not unprecedented or as rare as his nephew suggests, his knowledge of the language was certainly uncommon in Scotland. It also indicates that he had embraced the humanistic sensibilities cultivated by his eldest brother Richard during his time on the continent€and that he possessed at a young age the deeply held conviction regarding the necessity of a knowledge of Greek for a thoroughly educated scholar.101 The University of St Andrews Melville entered the class of 1559-60 at St Mary’s College, where John Douglas presided as provost, to pursue his university education.102 While the reasons for choosing St Andrews over Glasgow and Aberdeen may seem obvious given Glasgow’s decrepit condition and Aberdeen’s religious environment, the reason for the choice of St Mary’s over the more overtly Protestant St Leonard’s is unclear. Unlike Catholic Aberdeen in the conservative North, which, for all of its promotion of the New Learning, remained resistant to Protestantism, St Andrews had proved itself to be a breeding ground for ‘heresy’ and appealed to those inclined toward the new theology arriving from the continent. While the choice of St Andrews underscores the Protestant orientation of the Melvilles of Baldovy, the choice of St Mary’s is not immediately obvious. Perhaps the presence and leadership of Douglas at the College attracted the Melvilles.103 Douglas’s personal qualities may have been a compelling factor contributing to the choice of St Mary’s. According to James Melville, the provost of the College and rector of the Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983), 101–103; “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 38 (1975), 155–156; Warren E. Blake, “Joseph Justus Scaliger,” Classical Journal, 36 (Nov., 1940), 85; George W. Robinson, (trans.), Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger with Autobiographical Selections from his Letters his Testament and the Funeral Orations by Daniel Heinsius and Dominicus Baudius (Cambridge, 1927), 30–31. 101 ╇ P. Hume Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer (Edinburgh, 1890), 13. 102 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 267; Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 16. Reid observes that, despite the official records, Melville himself stated that he commenced his studies at St Mary’s in 1560. Cf. Bucholtzer, Isagoge€ Chronologica, f. QQ IIIr. On John Douglas see Cameron, “St Mary’s College 1547–1574-The Second Foundation: The Principalship of John Douglas,” 43–57. 103 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 264. Cameron, “St Mary’s College 1547–1574-The Second Foundation,” 43–44.

54

chapter two

University exhibited great tenderness to the young Melville, taking “him betuix his legges at the fyre in wintar, and warm his hands and cheiks, and blessing him, say, ‘My sillie fatherles and motherles chyld, it’s ill to wit what God may mak of thie yit!”104 He also seems to have moved progressively in the direction of Protestantism during the late 1550s. Although he was apparently involved in condemning to death Scotland’s last Protestant martyr Walter Milne in 1558, by the middle of 1559 he appears to have favored the establishment of a reformed congregation in St Andrews. Of course, by 1560 his allegiance to the Protestant cause was unmistakable as he was appointed to the commission of six that drafted the Scots Confession and First Book of Discipline.105 Prior to his commitment to Protestantism, Douglas’s own humanistic sensibilities may have served as a further inducement in favor of St Mary’s. As head of the College, Douglas was the driving force behind the implementation of archbishop John Hamilton’s nova fundatio of 1555, which endeavored to breathe new life into a moribund institution by incorporating, among other things, specifically humanist reforms.106 The reforms proposed by Hamilton and implemented partially by Douglas were part of a much broader program of Catholic reform associated with the provincial councils of 1549, 1552, 1556, and 1559. In keeping with Catholic reform on the continent as embodied in the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, these provincial councils attempted to suppress ‘heresy’ by establishing lectureships in theology at collegiate churches and cathedrals, promoting the importance of preaching and giving bishops broad discretionary powers in regulating it, and requiring members of monastic orders to attend university to be formally trained in theology.107 From the time of his appointment to the archepiscopal see in 1549, Hamilton had desired to implement at St Mary’s a distinctively humanist course of study encompassing grammar, rhetoric, poetry, music, arts, medicine, theology, and laws. In the

╇ Melville, JMAD, 39. ╇ On the Scots Confession and First Book of Discipline see W. Ian Hazlett, “The Scots Confession 1560: Context, Complexion and Critique,” ARG, 78 (1987), 287–320; G.D. Henderson, The Burning Bush: Studies in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1957), 23–41; W. Stanford Reid, “French Influence on the First Scots Confession and Book of Discipline,” WTJ, 35 (1972/73), 1–17; The First Book of Discipline ed. James K. Cameron (Edinburgh, 1972). 106 ╇ Cameron, “A Trilingual College for Scotland,” 42; Cameron, “St Mary’s College 1547–1574-The Second Foundation,” 46. 107 ╇ Ryrie, The origins of the Scottish Reformation, 95–97. 104 105



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

55

early 1550s Douglas emerged at St Andrews as the individual who could lead the University in reform. Despite his auspicious beginning as rector in 1552 when the University was described as “florentissima respublica litteraria,” under Douglas’s leadership the New Foundation charter was only partially implemented.108 Nevertheless, the changes at the College from 1555-1559 would have appealed to Melville’s growing humanist sensibilities and may have contributed in his selection of St Mary’s. At St Mary’s Melville continued his humanistic studies, drawing the attention of his regents and fellow students by his ability to read Aristotle in Greek rather than relying, like everyone else, on a Latin translation of his writings. His practice of reading Greek texts was accentuated by the fact that the regents in the college were unable to read Greek and were thus dependent upon Latin translations.109 According to his nephew, Andrew emerged from his course of study at St. Andrews having earned the distinguished reputation as “the best philosopher, poet, and Grecian, of anie young maister in the land.”110 Even while a student, his reputation as a scholar of humane studies and bonae litterae reached the attention of the visiting Italian poet Pietro Bizzarri. Trained in classical letters at Venice, Bizzarri left Italy in 1545 due to his support of the Reformation and spent some time pursuing his studies in Germany. In 1549 he traveled to England where he became a fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge and subsequently attached himself to Francis Russell, the Earl of Bedford, who had been appointed the governor of Berwick. While in the service of Russell as probably his secretary and Italian tutor, he became associated with the court of Mary Stewart.111 At this time Melville met his fellow humanist and neo-Latin poet and apparently made such an impression upon him that Bizzarri composed twelve lines of Latin verse in honor of the young Scot.112

╇ Cameron, “St Mary’s College 1547–1574-The Second Foundation,” 46. ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 267; Melville, JMAD, 30, 39. McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 12; H.M.B. Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, (Glasgow, 1917), 5; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 265. 110 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 39. 111 ╇ Kenneth R. Bartlett, “Bizzarri, Pietro (b. 1525, d. in or after 1586),” ODNB, Vol. 5 (Oxford, 2004), 886–888. 112 ╇ Petri Bizzari, “Ad Andream Milvinum” in Janus Gruterus (ed.), Delitiae cc. Italorum Poetarum, huius superorisque aevi illustrium Vol. I (Francofurti, 1608), 437–438; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 16–17; Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 18. Despite Reid’s assertion that “Melville must have met Bizarri through Buchanan,” there is little evidence to support this conjecture. 108 109

56

chapter two

The only other Scottish scholar to receive such a tribute was the humanist and neo-Latin poet George Buchanan.113 The fact that the young Melville, as a mere university student, shared this honor with the accomplished Buchanan corroborates James Melville’s statement regarding his reputation during his student days at St Andrews. Melville’s growing reputation as a young classical scholar who possessed a remarkable degree of intellectual ability and learning as well as one who held out great promise as a purveyor of the New Learning in Scotland was only enhanced by his association with Bizzarri and the later’s Latin verses written in honor of him. The year 1560 was not only the first full year of Melville’s university studies at St Andrews, but more importantly it was the year of the formal recognition of Protestantism in Scotland. The revolution of 1560 effected profound religious, political, social, and educational changes in Scotland and has been called “arguably the first modern revolution.”114 In addition to outlawing Catholicism, establishing Protestantism, terminating ‘the auld alliance,’ and forming a new political relationship with England, a significant part of the Reformation agenda involved the reforming of the Scottish university system.115 By the time of the Reformation all three of Scotland’s fifteenth-century foundations were in desperate need of reform and renewal, and specific measures were prescribed to resuscitate and reorganize them. Despite the proposals for reform embodied in the 1560 First Book of Discipline and the specific recommendations for the reform of St Andrews offered by George Buchanan, Scotland’s medieval universities changed very little, and St Andrews in particular from 1560 until 1579 repeatedly experienced reformatory delays.116 Indeed, the conditions in the days of Knox had deteriorated to such an extent that James Melville referred to the “ignorance and negligence of tham that sould haiff teatched Theologie” with the result that “Regents and schollars carit na thing for Divinitie.”117 The condition of St Andrews during the 1560s provided little incentive for those interested in the study of theology.118 Melville accordingly ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 17. ╇ Ryrie, The origins of the Scottish Reformation, 1. 115 ╇ On the extensive provisions made in the First Book of Discipline see First Book of Discipline, 137–155. 116 ╇ Cant, The University of St Andrews, 51, 54–57, 59. 117 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. 118 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 263; Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 9. Cf. Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 267, 348. 113 114



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

57

avoided a theological course of study altogether, and went through the standard arts course, building upon the humanistic foundation that had been laid at Montrose under Marsilier. James Melville, who studied at St Leonard’s during the early 1570s, has left a brief description of the course of study he pursued. Given the tardiness of university reform throughout Scotland, we may reasonably assume that the curriculum at St Mary’s resembled that of St Leonard’s.119 Students at St Andrews received extensive instruction in Aristotle’s philosophy, beginning with his dialectic or logic and proceeding to a study of his ethics, physics, and finally to his metaphysics or prima philosophia. In addition to the study of Aristotle, they studied arithmetic and attended, with the exception of the first year students, the lectures delivered by the principal.120 Despite the efforts to reform the University prior to the Reformation, the efforts to restructure the curriculum to incorporate the New Learning of the Renaissance fell short of what humanists, such as Archibald Hay and John Douglas, had envisioned. As Rashdall has remarked, the curriculum at St Andrews was still in many respects thoroughly “medieval in character.”121 Although James Melville has remarked that his uncle “past his cuirse” at St Mary’s, there is no evidence in the official records of the University that Melville ever completed his course of study and took his degree. Despite St Mary’s incomplete records, it is possible that he did complete his course of study and graduate. It is curious that among the names of graduates listed for the year 1563, none are from St Mary’s College. Melville had matriculated at St Mary’s in the same year that John Gordon, William Collace, Archibald Bankhead, Andrew Simson, Thomas Beggart, William Braidfut, and Archibald Hog had all matriculated at St Leonard’s. Given that all of these students also graduated in 1563, one would naturally expect Melville to have graduated at this time as well. In light the incomplete records, one is only warranted in affirming that he probably completed his course of study and was graduated M.A. in 1563/4.122 119 ╇ Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 279. Cf. James K. Cameron, “St. Mary’s College 1547–1574-The Second Foundation: The Principalship of John Douglas” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners: A St Mary’s Miscellany (St Andrews, 1990), 29–42. 120 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 24–29; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 346–347. 121 ╇ Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, II, 310–311. 122 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 39. Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 158, 267. Cf. also Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 265; Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 9.

58

chapter two

Perhaps due to the inadequate incorporation of the New Learning at St Andrews Melville chose to discontinue his course of study and go instead to Paris, the epicenter of the northern European Renaissance, to cultivate further his humanist learning.123 If, as the official records of the University seem to indicate, he commenced his studies in the autumn or winter of 1559, then, as Durkan and Kirk have suggested, it is much more likely that the young scholar left St Andrews in 1563 rather than 1564 and headed to the continent. However, as Reid has pointed out, the Latin verses of Bizzarri offered to the young Melville during the former’s visit to the Scottish court during the late spring of 1564 complicate the issue.124 If Melville met Bizzarri at this time, then a departure date of 1564 seems more likely. Whether he departed in 1563 or 1564 his choice of Paris rather than Geneva or Wittenberg is significant and intimates that his priority was not theological instruction but rather a more extensive training in and exposure to the studia humanitatis of the French Renaissance.125 Conclusion Despite the contention that the “limited evidence” regarding Melville’s early life “inhibits any further analysis,” a careful reading of James Melville’s Diary and an investigation of the historical particulars surrounding it reveals a number of significant observations regarding his early humanism.126 Melville’s earliest exposure to the New Learning of the Renaissance was mediated through his eldest brother Richard who himself had studied under two of the most prominent Protestant humanists on the continent, namely, Macalpine and Melanchthon, and was on intimate terms with one of Scotland’s earliest promoters of the study of Greek, Erskine of Dun. Having imbibed the humanist values of the northern European Renaissance, Richard cultivated a love for neo-Latin poetry and instilled that passion in the members of his household. In promoting the poetry of Palingenius, Richard set before Andrew a model of literary elegance, a comprehensive account of all learning, strong 123 ╇ Cameron, “St Mary’s College 1547–1574-The Second Foundation: The Principalship of John Douglas,” 46; “A Trilingual College for Scotland: The Founding of St Mary’s College,” 34–42. 124 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 18; McFarlane, Buchanan, 228. 125 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 265. 126 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 43.



the formative years (1545–1563/4)

59

moral virtues, Aristotelian criticism and dissent, and an incisive critique of the clergy. We know from Melville’s subsequent correspondence that the very mention of Palingenius’ name brought him joy and a renewed invigoration.127 While James Melville’s exaggeration regarding his uncle’s acquisition of Greek has contributed to the development of the Melville legend, his uncle’s knowledge was uncommon in Scotland at this time and remarkable for one so young. His skill in the Greek language was complemented by his ability to craft Latin verse for which he was praised by Bizzarri. Though Melville was by no means viewed as Buchanan’s poetic equal, he was nevertheless given the unusual distinction of being honored along with Buchanan by Bizzarri’s encomiastic Latin verse. While St Andrews during Melville’s student days was far from a thriving center of the New Learning, Melville continued to tutor himself in Greek, reading Aristotle in the original rather than in Latin translation as the regents were forced to do. Thus, the reputation he acquired as a young classical scholar during these years while exaggerated by his nephew, is substantially confirmed by his early acquisition of Greek at Montrose, his practice of reading Aristotle at St Andrews, and the Latin encomium he received from Bizzarri.

127

╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 295.

Chapter three

FRANCE: PARIS AND POITIERS (1563/4–1569) The Collège Royal and University of Paris Having concluded his education at St Andrews in 1563/4, Melville undertook a perilous journey to France sailing first to England and then, due to an enormous storm which carried him south to Bordeaux, traveled north to Dieppe before eventually arriving at Paris to commence his studies at the University.1 In traveling to France to continue his university education, Melville aligned himself with a long tradition of Scottish scholars who, prior to the fifteenth century, were forced to seek their education abroad due to the absence of a university in Scotland. From the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries Scottish students wandered all over Europe studying at universities in France, Italy, Spain, England, and Germany among others. Even with the founding of universities in St Andrews, Glasgow, and Old Aberdeen during the fifteenth century, Scottish students continued to travel abroad for university instruction. On account of the intermittent warfare between England and Scotland throughout the late Middle Ages, the political implications the ‘Auld Alliance’ had for the Hundred Years’ War, and the alignments taken by each country following the Schism of 1378, Scottish students overwhelmingly preferred France over any other country in Europe and predominantly chose “the queen of universities north of the Alps,” the University of Paris. Of the more than 400 Scots who traveled abroad to pursue their education in the fourteenth century, nearly two-thirds of them attended the University of Paris.2 1 ╇ James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melvill ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 39; J. D. Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951 (Glasgow, 1954), 64. Melville was apparently “tormented with sie-seiknes and storme of wather” such that he was in real danger of “schipwrak.” 2 ╇ Donald E.R. Watt, “Scottish Masters and Students at Paris in the Fourteenth Century,” Aberdeen University Review, 36 (Aut., 1955), 169–171; Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages Vol. I eds. F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden (Oxford, 1936), 276; Vol. II, 302. Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh (London, 1884), 2. There does seem to have been a temporary change in policy during the thirty-five year period from 1357–1393 when passages of safe

62

chapter three

The choice of Paris over the much closer institutions to the south, Oxford and Cambridge, may be explained in part by the friendship cultivated between the two countries made possible by the ‘Auld Alliance’ established in 1295 and renewed by every French and Scottish monarch, with the exception of Louis XI, until the mid-sixteenth century. The alliance culminated in 1558 with the union of the French and Scottish crowns but was shortly terminated upon the death of François II on 5 December 1560.3 Although by the time Melville completed his course of study at St Andrews Scotland had rejected the ‘Auld Alliance’ in favor of an alliance with Protestant England, Scottish students continued to flock to Paris to avail themselves of the New Learning of the French Renaissance. Melville’s friend and fellow neo-Latin poet Joseph Justus Scaliger, who attended the University of Paris in 1559 just before Melville commenced his studies there, estimated that there were then approximately 30,000 students studying at the University.4 Even more significant than the prestigious reputation and honored place of the University of Paris among the universities of Europe was the role that the newly established Collège Royal played in the promotion of the New Learning of the French Renaissance.5 Many sixteenth-century scholars from John Mair, Guillaume Budé, and John Annand to George Buchanan and Andrew Melville held the opinion that a translatio studii had occurred which made Paris, and no longer Rome, “the new Athens” and “the real heir” of that great city.6 Institutions, such as the Collège conduct were extended to Scottish masters and students but “proof of their activities at Oxford or Cambridge is all but non-existent.” 3 ╇ Elizabeth Bonner, “French Naturalization of the Scots in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries,” Historical Journal, 40 (Dec., 1997), 1085–1086. Many French and Scots alike believed that their alliance went back some 800 years to the time of Charlemagne and€ Achaius, sixty-fifth King of Scots. Interest in the ‘Auld Alliance’ was renewed by Henry IV and James VI during the 1590s but declined slowly after the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603 and then rapidly declined after the parliamentary union of 1707. 4 ╇ Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. I (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824), 18–19; Anthony T. Grafton, “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 38 (1975), 155; Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983), 126. 5 ╇ Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, 1936), 12; Walter Ong, “Educationists and the Tradition of Learning,” Journal of Higher Education, 29, (Feb., 1958), 61. On the University of Paris see André Tuilier, Histoire de L ’Université de Paris et de La Sorbonne Tome I Des origines à Richelieu (Paris, 1994); Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages I, 269–583. 6 ╇ John Durkan, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland,” in David McRoberts (ed.), Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 (Glasgow, 1962), 283.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

63

Royal founded in 1530 by François I to promote the study of disciplines either not taught or taught very poorly at the conservative University of Paris, only provided further warrant for designating Paris “the Athens of the North.”7 Just as Scots, such as Robert Bruce, Alexander Cockburn, Peter Young, Gilbert Walker, and Alexander Arbuthnot, traveled to Louvain, Basel, Geneva, Rostock, and Bourges respectively to pursue their university studies, so Melville’s path from St Andrews to Paris was a well-worn one which Scottish students had trod for generations.8 One need only think of George Buchanan who, after completing his course in arts at St Andrews, traveled to Paris following his teacher John Mair.9 When Melville arrived in Paris, he found himself in the company of a sizeable Scottish contingent, consisting of both Catholics and ProtesÂ� tants. With the outlawing of Catholicism at the time of the Reformation some Scots chose to go into exile in France with a view to returning with the restoration of the old faith. Catholics, such as the Jesuits Edmund Hay10 and Thomas Smeaton,11 as well as Protestants such as Melville’s

Cf. Colin M. MacDonald, “John Major and Humanism,” Scottish Historical Review, 13 (Oct., 1915), 149–158. On the conservative University of Paris see James K. Farge, Orthodoxy and Reform in Early Reformation France: The Faculty of Theology of Paris, 1500–1543 (Leiden, 1985). ╛╛╛↜渀屮7 ╇ Isabelle Pantin, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” Science and Education, 15:2–4 (2006), 189; I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 2, 10. On the Collège Royal see Marc Fumaroli (ed.), Les origines du College de France (Paris, 1998); A. Lefranc, Le Collège de France (1530–1930) (Paris, 1932); Histoire du Collège de France (Paris, 1893). ╛╛╛↜渀屮8 ╇ I.D. McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” Yearbook of English Studies, 15, Anglo-French Literary Relations Special Number (1985), 33; Hans Georg Wackernagel (ed.), Die Matrikel der Universität Basel, (Basel, 1956), Vol. II, 95; S. Stelling-Michaud, (ed.), Le Livre du Recteur de L’Académie de Genève (1559–1878) (Geneva, 1959), Vol. I, 81; Adolph Hofmeister (ed.), Die Matrikel der Universität Rostock, (Rostock, 1889), Vol. II, 148; Francisque-Michel, Les Écossais en France, les Français en Écosse Vol. II, (London, 1867), 119; John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 265–266. On Alexander Arbuthnot see James Kirk, “The Development of the Melvillian Movement in Late Sixteenth Century Scotland,” (PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1972), 359–364. ╛╛╛↜渀屮9 ╇ P. Hume Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer, (London, 1890), 34–46, 47–60; McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 33. On John Mair (or Major) see Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 155–165; John Durkan, “John Major: After 400 Years,” Innes Review, 1 (Dec., 1950), 131–139; Francis Oakley, “From Constance to 1688: The Political Thought of John Major and George Buchanan,” Journal of British Studies, 1 (1962), 12–19. 10 ╇ On Edmund Hay see Alasdair Roberts, “Hay, Edmund (c.1534–1591),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 25 (Oxford, 2004) 991. 11 ╇ On Thomas Smeaton see John Durkan, “Smeaton, Thomas (1536–1583),” ODNB, Vol. 50 (Oxford, 2004), 985–986.

64

chapter three

former classmate at St Andrews Thomas Maitland12 and his associate at Geneva Gilbert Moncrieff, the future physician to James VI, together constituted a portion of the Scottish community at Paris during Melville’s residence.13 James Melville identified Maitland’s Protestantism when he described him as “a young gentilman of guid literature and knawlage in the treuthe of religion.” Similarly, Moncrieff ’s Protestantism is implied in his association with Melville as those with whom the Catholic Smeaton consulted first in Paris and subsequently in Geneva regarding the religious controversies of the day.14 In 1564 Edmund Hay became rector of the Collège de Clermont in Paris and in this capacity Melville may have had occasion to make his acquaintance.15 Certainly, their mutual friendship with Smeaton in connection with their ethnic ties may also have provided the circumstances for their association. While the evidence for Melville’s relationship with Hay is at best suggestive, his interactions with Maitland, Moncrieff, and Smeaton are well substantiated and indicate that, in addition to his devotion to the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance, he freely engaged in religious discussions with the Catholic Smeaton during his student days at Paris. This is clearly implied by James Melville when, after mentioning Smeaton’s preoccupation with “the trew way of salvation” and his association with Melville and Moncrieff in Paris, he adds that he was “Yit lothe to alter his mynd wherein he was brought upe.” Melville, Moncrieff, and Maitland were among those Protestant advocates whom James Melville describes as Smeaton’s “loving frinds and companions.”16 During Melville’s time in Paris, more than a dozen Scottish students are known to have studied at the University. Among those whom Melville may have had contact with were two St Andrews graduates, George Bellenden, who attended St Mary’s while Melville was there, and the future bishop of Aberdeen, David Cunningham.17 12 ╇ On Thomas Maitland see William S. McKechnie, “Thomas Maitland,” SHR, 4 (1907), 274–293; James Maitland Anderson (ed.), Early Records of the University of St Andrews, (Edinburgh, 1926), 267. 13 ╇ Stelling-Michaud, Le Livre du Recteur de L’Académie de Genève (1559–1878), Vol. I, 96; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 266; Melville, JMAD, 72–73; Charles Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” American Historical Review, 5:2 (1899), 288. 14 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 73. 15 ╇ Alasdair Roberts, “Hay, Edmund (c.1534–1591),” 991. 16 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 73. 17 ╇ W. A. McNeill, “Scottish Entries in the Acta Rectoria Universitatis Parisiensis, 1519 to c. 1633,” SHR, 43 (Apr., 1964), 85; Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 157, 265.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

65

While Melville’s Scottish compatriots formed an important part of his intellectual culture while in Paris, even more significant for his development as a humanist were the teachers he sat under. There exists a most unfortunate gap in the records of the Acta Rectoria of the University of Paris during the years 1554–1567, so that it is impossible to confirm either the rectorate of Adam Blackwood or the incorporation of Gilbert Moncrieff, Thomas Craig, Thomas Maitland, and Andrew Melville. However, James Melville remarked that his uncle “remeanit in the Universitie twa yeiris at his awin studies” perhaps intimating that he was not an incorporated member of the University.18 If “at his awin studies” indicates that Melville resided in Paris as an independent scholar not matriculated at the University, then the lacunae in the records of the Acta Rectoria for these years are not problematic. However, the fact that these records no longer exist leaves open the possibility that Melville was in fact an incorporated member of the University. James Melville’s remark that his uncle “remeanit in the Universitie” may indicate his incorporation. We are told that during his second year in Paris “he grew sa expert in the Greik, that he declamit and teatchit lessones, uttering never a word bot Greik, with sic readines and plentie, as was mervelus to the heirars.”19 Unfortunately, we are not told by James Melville where, how long, and in what capacity he lectured in Paris nor does it necessarily constitute proof of his incorporation. While such details would be helpful in forming a clearer view of Melville’s involvement, the fact of his lecturing remains a strong indicator of his own involvement in the intellectual life of Paris and his contributions to the humanistic studies promoted at both the University and Collège Royal during the highpoint of the French Renaissance of the 1560s.20 While at Paris Melville attended a wide variety of lectures “heiring the lightes of the maist scyning age in all guid lettres, the king’s publict professors.”21 From this description and the names provided by his nephew it is clear that, in addition to lectures he attended at the University, Melville also studied at the Collège Royal, auditing lectures in mathematics, Hebrew, and Greek and Latin literature. The Collège Royal had been initially established with five lecteurs royaux with two scholars 18 ╇ Ibid., 66; Melville, JMAD, 39; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451– 1577, 267. On Adam Blackwood see J.H. Burns, “Three Scots Catholic Critics of George Buchanan,” IR,1 (1950), 95–99. 19 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. 20 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 267. 21 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 39–40.

66

chapter three

appointed in both Hebrew and Greek and one in mathematics. While these subjects maintained a priority, other fields of study were soon introduced, such as the elegant Latin of the humanists, philosophy, rhetoric, oriental languages, and medicine.22 Patterned on the trilingual model of Louvain, the Collège Royal in typical humanist fashion stressed the centrality of the three ancient languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.23 Joining the mathematician Oronce Finé were the Hebrew scholars François Vatable and Agazio Guidacerio and the Greek scholars Pierre Danès and Jacques Toussaint. Together these scholars constituted the original core of lecteurs royaux who attracted scholars from all over Europe in search of the New Learning.24 Budé had hoped that Erasmus himself would lead this college of humanists and ensure its success by appealing to the largest audience possible and stimulating the humanistic movement of the Renaissance through publication.25 By conferring no degrees and making their lectures available to the general public on a wide variety of subjects the Collège Royal appealed to independently-minded scholars, such as Joseph Scaliger and Andrew Melville.26 Since the lecteurs royaux were paid out of the Royal treasury and were not subject to the faculties of the University, the independence, creativity, and critical thinking fostered there attracted many humanists who were eager to cast off the shackles of late medieval scholasticism and promote the New Learning. The broad application of the New Learning to a number of fields of growing

22 ╇ Pantin, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” 189. Pantin maintains that a third Royal Lecturer in Hebrew was added in€ 1531. Cf. Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 19. Lefranc differs from Pantin at this point€ recording three Royal Lecturers appointed in 1530. He identifies them as Agathias€ Guidacerius (1530–1540), François Vatable (1530–1547), and Paul Paradis (1530–1549). 23 ╇Tuilier, Histoire de L ’Université de Paris et de La Sorbonne, 313. Cf. also Jean-Claude Margolin, “Érasme et la ‘Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense” in Marc Fumaroli (ed.), Les origines du Collège de France (1500–1560) (Paris, 1998), 257–278. 24 ╇ Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 15, 19, 21; Tuilier, Histoire de L ‘Université de Paris et de La Sorbonne, 313. On the first Lecteurs Royaux see Marie-Madeleine de La Garanderie, “Émergence de la notion de lecteur royal: Préfigurations du nouvel enseignement” in Marc Fumaroli (ed.), Les origines du Collège de France (1500–1560) (Paris, 1998), 3–18; Lefranc, Histoire du Collège de France, 169–201. 25 ╇ David O. McNeil, Guillaume Budé and Humanism in the Reign of Francis I (Geneva, 1975), 34; Pantin, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” 191. 26 ╇ Grafton, “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” 155.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

67

importance in the sixteenth century such as historiography, philosophy, jurisprudence, medicine, political theory, and the sciences only increased the international standing of the Collège Royal and attracted scholars from all over Europe27 In the field of mathematics Melville attended the lectures of Pascal Duhamel, Pierre Forcadel, and Jacques Charpentier.28 Pascal Duhamel joined Finé in 1540 as a second lecturer in mathematics and remained there until his death in 1565.29 Although it has been said that Duhamel was not as creative as Finé, he was successful at importing and adapting foreign works on mathematics. In 1560 Pierre Forcadel, with assistance from his former teacher Pierre de la Ramée or Petrus Ramus, was appointed royal lecturer in mathematics and continued in this capacity until 1573. Unlike his humanist counterparts at the Collège, Forcadel was described by Ramus as “sine litteratura, sine philosophia” and as one who possessed “little in the way of letters.”30 He consequently taught in French only and restricted himself to arithmetic and Euclid. Despite these humanistic detractions, he has been credited with introducing a new type of arithmetic text that was written in French and included commercial rules and illustrations from the world of business. In doing this he was able to bring a new prestige to commercial arithmetic.31 Forcadel’s colleague Jacques Charpentier joined him in 1566 when he was appointed lecturer in mathematics, and he continued in this capacity until his death in 1574.32 Charpentier was a well-known Aristotelian who had earlier opposed Ramus’ views, accusing him of treason to the 27 ╇ “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” Yearbook of English Studies, 15 Anglo-French Literary Relations Special Number (1985), 36–37. 28 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 267. On Pierre Forcadel see Natalie Zemon Davis, “Sixteenth-Century French Arithmetics on the Business Life,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 21:1 (1960), 18–48. Cf. also Pantin, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” 189–207. 29 ╇ Pascal Duhamel is sometimes spelled Pasquier and Du Hamel. Lefranc, Histoire du Collège de France, 381; Davis, “Sixteenth-Century French Arithmetics on the Business Life,” 31; Pantin, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” 190–191. Finé’s fellow humanists called him the “restorer of mathematics” while modern historians have regarded him as “the best French mathematician of his generation.” Less than generous estimates of Finé’s academic stature include that of Natalie Davis, who has remarked that Finé was “not a great mathematician.” On Finé see Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 36. 30 ╇ Pantin, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” 191–192, 202; Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 15; Histoire du Collège de France, 382; Davis, “Sixteenth-Century French Arithmetics on the Business Life,” 35. 31 ╇ Davis, “Sixteenth-Century French Arithmetics on the Business Life,” 31, 34–35. 32 ╇ Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 15; Histoire du Collège de France, 382.

68

chapter three

University. Subsequent to his appointment at the Collège, he disdained teaching arithmetic, geometry, and technical astronomy and chose instead to assume the title of philosopher. While it is impossible to determine how much mathematical instruction Melville received from Charpentier, the lecturer’s assumption of the mantle of philosopher suggests that along with the teaching of mathematics he also taught philosophy.33 Along with his study of mathematics, Melville is said to have attended the medical lectures of Louis Duret.34 Although there is no mention of Melville having attended the medical lectures of Jean Goupyl, who served as a lecteur royal from 1555–1564, James Melville does record that his uncle sat under the medical scholar Louis Duret.35 Duret did not receive his appointment at the Collège Royal until 1567 when Melville was in Poitiers, yet he may have been given, as Melville apparently had been given in Greek, the opportunity to lecture without holding an official position. It is likely that it was in the capacity of an unofficial lecturer that Duret delivered a series of medical lectures at the Collège which Melville attended. With the assistance of his son Jean, Duret edited and translated into Latin Hippocrates’ Prognostics. The work was published in Paris posthumously in 1588 under the title Hippocratis Magni Coacae Praenotiones. In addition to lecturing at the Collège for approximately two decades from 1567 until 1586, Duret served both Charles IX and Henry III with distinction, earning their confidence and becoming their favorite physician.36 In addition to Duret’s medical lectures, Melville audited the legal lectures delivered at the Collège by François Baudouin.37 Like Duret and Melville, Baudouin was permitted to deliver lectures without himself 33 ╇ Pantin, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” 192–193; Frank Pierrepont Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1912), 46. Charpentier was required to remedy his mathematical deficiencies by reading Aristotle’s De Cælo, Proclus’s book of the Sphere or Euclid’s Elements, and Sacrobosco. 34 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 39. 35 ╇ Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 16; Histoire du Collège de France, 382. Lefranc lists both 1567 and 1568 as the year Duret officially assumed his post as a lecteur royal. 36 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 24. 37 ╇ On François Baudouin see Donald R. Kelley, “Historia Integra: François Baudouin and His Conception of History,” JHI, 25 (Jan.-Mar., 1964), 35–57; Gregory B. Lyon, “Baudouin, Flacius, and the Plan for the Magdeburg Centuries,” JHI, 64 (Apr., 2003), 253–272; Julius Heveling, De Francisco Balduino jurisconsult (Arras, 1871); J. Duquesne, “François Bauduin et la réforme,” Bulletin de l’Académie delphinal, 5e sér., IX (1917), 55–108.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

69

holding an official lectureship within the Collège Royal. During Melville’s time in Paris, Baudouin’s lectures to large audiences on the Pandects or Digest of Justinian were said to have been enthusiastically received.38 In 1542 he had begun his academic career by publishing a work on Justinian’s agricultural legislation entitled Justiniani leges de re rustica. In this work he exhibited his enthusiasm for the new jurisprudence by applying himself to the task of restoring the text.39 In 1545 he published his own commentary on Justinian’s institutes entitled Justiniani institutionem seu elementorum libri quattuor, and in 1546 he made his most famous contribution to the legal humanism of the sixteenth century by publishing the Justinian, a succinct history of Roman law up until his own century.40 His history has been called “perhaps the first history of Roman legal science” and his “encyclopedic humanism” was clearly exhibited in his De institutione historiae universae et eius cum jurisprudentia conjunctione written in 1561. Based upon lectures he had delivered at the University of Heidelberg earlier that year, the work was at once a public declaration of legal humanism and an historical method.41 It demonstrated that he was not simply a humanist and a grammarian, but he was an historian of the mos gallicus school of law. Baudouin adopted this historical and philological method of studying Roman law established by Budé and Andrea Alciato and became, along with Jacques Cujas, one of the most significant restorers of classical Roman law in the sixteenth century.42 In conjunction with Baudouin, Alciato’s and Budé’s French disciples included such prominent legal scholars as François Hotman, Jacques Cujas, and François le Douaren.43 Together they helped ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 28. ╇ Donald R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship: Language, Law, and History in the French Renaissance (New York, 1970), 118. 40 ╇ Kelley, “Historia Integra: François Baudouin and His Conception of History,” 41. 41 ╇ Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, 118, 129. 42 ╇ Kelley, “Historia Integra: François Baudouin and His Conception of History,” 37, 41–42. On Cujas see Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, 112–115; Coleman Phillipson, “Jacques Cujas,” Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, New Ser., 13:1 (1912), 87–107. Cf. also Linton C. Stevens, “The Contribution of French Jurists to the Humanism of the Renaissance,” Studies in the Renaissance, 1 (1954), 92–105; Donald R. Kelley, “The Rise of Legal History in the Renaissance,” History and Theory, 9:2 (1970), 174–194; “Legal Humanism and the Sense of History,” SR, 13 (1966), 184–189. On the mos gallicus school of legal scholarship see Zachary Sayre Schiffman, “An Anatomy of the Historical Revolution in Renaissance France,” Renaissance Quarterly, 42 (Aut., 1989), 507–533; McNeil, Guillaume Budé and Humanism in the Reign of Francis I, 15–25. 43 ╇ On Hotman and Douaren see Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, 87–115. 38 39

70

chapter three

to usher in what has been called a “golden age of Roman law” which began in 1550 with the death of Alciato and the emergence of Le Douaren and concluded in 1590 with Cujas’ and Hotman’s deaths.44 During this “golden age of Roman law” Melville sat under one of the leading legal scholars of the mos gallicus school. The historical and philological methods of the mos gallicus school undoubtedly appealed to Melville’s humanistic instincts and his attendance of Baudouin’s lectures in Paris represents the beginning of his legal training, which he continued in Poitiers and Geneva under Hotman. Baudouin was both a legal humanist in the model of Alciato and a Christian humanist in the pattern of Erasmus, and this model, the combination of an historical and philological approach to jurisprudence with a program for ecclesiastical reform, was set before young Melville in Paris.45 Melville’s devotion to the study of the new jurisprudence, mathematics, medicine, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic emphatically underscores his deep-seated humanism and his own penchant towards Renaissance polymathy. His study of medicine, mathematics, and jurisprudence was not intended to prepare him for a professional career as a physician, mathematician, or attorney but was viewed as possessing intrinsic value and as indispensable in becoming a well-rounded scholar. In the pattern of Erasmus, Melville delayed his pursuit of biblical study and first immersed himself in the languages and literature of antiquity.46 His humane studies, like those of Budé’s, were focused primarily upon the study of Greek and Latin authors as indicated by his attendance of the lectures of Petrus Ramus, Professor of Philosophy and Eloquence, and Adrien Turnèbe,47 regius professor of Greek. In this respect, Melville’s humanist pursuits mirrored the path established by Budé himself.48 Budé had approached classical studies as preparatory to the study of Scripture. In his work De studio, Budé advanced the view that the study of the Greek and Roman authors prepared one’s mind for€ the study of the biblical text.49 Although Melville himself never ╇ Donald R. Kelley, “Guillaume Budé and the First Historical School of Law,” 828. ╇ Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, 122. On Baudouin’s Christian humanism see 122–128. 46 ╇ Rachel Giese, “Erasmus Greek Studies,” Classical Journal, 29 (Apr., 1934), 526. 47 ╇ On Turnèbe see John Lewis, Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565): A Humanist Observed, (Geneva, 1998). 48 ╇ David O. McNeil, Guillaume Budé and Humanism in the Reign of Francis I (Geneva, 1975), 12. 49 ╇ R.R. Bolgar, “Humanism as a Value System with Reference to Budé and Vivès” in A.H.T. Levi (ed.), Humanism in France at the end of the Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance (Manchester, 1970), 203–204. 44 45



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

71

consciously identified his classical studies in these terms nor did he make any effort while in Paris to pursue a theological course of study, his devotion to the cultivation of elegant Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and its ancient near-eastern cognates suggests that he believed that a knowledge of them was necessary to the study of Scripture. Despite no indication from Melville himself that he, in fact, intended to pursue theological study, his nephew identified the purpose of his uncle’s legal studies in Poitiers as “Theologie, wherto he was dedicat from his mother’s wombe.”50 If his study of Renaissance law was viewed as preparatory for his subsequent study of divinity, certainly his study of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic may also be viewed in that light. Indeed, his devotion to the study of these languages as the basic linguistic and philological tools needed for interpreting ancient texts at least intimates that he may have had theological studies on his intellectual horizon. Certainly, his own encyclopedic humanism would not rule this out. The most distinguished classical scholar Melville sat under in Paris was the French humanist Adrien Turnèbe. Regarded by some as “the most renowned Greek scholar of the day in Europe,” Turnèbe succeeded Jacques Toussaint in 1547 as a lecteur royal in Greek at the Collège and served in that capacity until 1561.51 At that time he became a royal lecturer in Greek and Latin Philosophy and occupied that post until his death in 1565.52 In 1551 Henry II appointed Turnèbe imprimeur royal with the responsibility of overseeing the production of Greek texts. As a noted scholar and printer Turnèbe assisted Denis Lambin in preparing€ his 1563 edition of Lucretius’ De rerum natura. Lambin, in turn, praised Turnèbe’s classical expositions of Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Plutarch, Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, Aristophanes, HeroÂ� dotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Demosthenes, Cicero, Horace, and others. Recognized for his immense classical scholarship and erudition, Turnèbe exercised an extraordinary influence over the rising generation of humanist scholars to which Melville belonged and of which Joseph Scaliger was the most prominent. Indeed, Joseph Scaliger declared that “Turnèbe was the greatest and most learned man” (“Turnebus vir maximus erat doctissimusque”) of his age.53 Highly regarded as both a ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. ╇ Warren E. Blake, “Joseph Justus Scaliger,” Classical Journal, 36 (Nov., 1940), 85; Lefranc, Histoire du Collège de France, 381; Le Collège de France, 18, 21. 52 ╇ Donald R. Kelley, “Review: Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565): A Humanist Observed,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 31 (Sum., 2000), 519; Lefranc, Histoire du Collège de France, 381; Le Collège de France, 18, 21. 53 ╇ Lewis, Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565) A Humanist Observed, 16, 105–106. 50 51

72

chapter three

neo-Latin poet and a proponent of the conjectural method of textual criticism, Turnèbe brought together the creative, literary sensibilities of a bard with the rigorous, scientific methods of a textual critic.54 His quarrel with Ramus over Cicero’s De fato in the 1550s involved not only academic and ideological but personal differences which degenerated into bitter polemics.55 In addition to Ramus’ distinctive humanistic influence on the young Scot, Melville’s decision to audit Turnèbe’s lectures indicates that he was made aware of the methodological differences between his two great masters. Melville’s love of classical literature was undoubtedly fueled by Turnèbe’s own ardent affection for the classical life and letters. Turnèbe’s opinion that Greek was the “creator and guardian of all true learning” was a sentiment which resonated deeply in the heart of the Scottish humanist.56 Indeed, Melville’s own love for the Greek language, as manifested by his “uttering never a word bot Greik” in his public lectures on the subject, stands as a tribute to Turnèbe’s influence upon the young classical scholar.57 The decided emphasis of Melville’s university studies in Paris was upon the languages of antiquity. His nephew described his devotion to the study of the Hebrew language by stating that upon it “he was specialie sett.” At the Collège Royal he attended the Hebrew lectures of Jean Mercier and Jean de Cinqarbres. Although James Melville includes as a marginal note a certain Salinacus along with the mathematicians Pascal Duhamel and Pierre Forcadel, Lefranc does not mention Salinacus teaching either mathematics, as James Melville seems to suggest, or Hebrew as McCrie has conjectured.58 Neither is there any evidence from James Melville’s Diary to support Kirk’s claim that Melville studied Hebrew under Joseph Scaliger in Paris.59 As with Duret and Baudouin,

54 ╇ Kelley, “Review: Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565): A Humanist Observed,” 519. On Turnèbe’s poetry see Lewis, Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565) A Humanist Observed, 263–294. 55 ╇ Lewis, Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565) A Humanist Observed, 213–261. 56 ╇ Ibid., 223–225. 57 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. 58 ╇ Ibid., 39; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 25; Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 15, 19; Histoire du Collège de France, 381–382; James Kirk, “Melvillian Reform in the Scottish Universities” in A.A. MacDonald, Michael Lynch, and Ian B. Cowan (eds.), The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion and Culture (Leiden, 1994), 280. McCrie identifies Salinacus with Joannes Salignacus who he describes as “the favorite scholar of Vatablus.” François Vatable served as a royal lecturer in Hebrew from 1530 until 1547. 59 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 267.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

73

Salinacus may have lectured unofficially in mathematics or Hebrew. Which discipline he lectured on is difficult to determine.60 Known as “the celebrated Mercerus,” Mercier began his lecturing on the Hebrew language and literature in 1547 and continued until his death in 1570.61 While at the Collège Royal, Mercier achieved such a distinguished reputation that “the Jews went to hear him and owned that he understood Hebrew the best of any man of that age.”62 Recognizing Mercier’s eminent qualifications as “a leading French Hebraist” and desiring to obtain his services for his soon to be established Academy, in March 1558 John Calvin endeavored to persuade Mercier to abandon his position at the Collège Royal and accept a position lecturing in Geneva.63 Although Mercier declined the appealing offer citing family reasons, the offer itself provides insight into his own religious position.64 Given the distinctively religious character and discipline of the Genevan Academy, Calvin’s solicitation of Mercier suggests that the latter was Protestant in sympathy if not in commitment and may even have discretely adhered to the Huguenot cause. Mercier established his place as one of the sixteenth century’s foremost Hebraists and scholars of the languages of the ancient near-east by publishing in 1560 in Paris the first separate treatise on Chaldaic grammar entitled Tabulæ in grammaticen linguæ Chaldææ.65 In addition to his Old Testament commentaries, he€published elementary treatises as well as translations from Hebrew and Aramaic.66 60 ╇ Jean-Eudes Girot, “The notion de lecteur royal: le cas de René Guillon (1500–1570)” in Marc Fumaroli (ed.), Les origines du Collège de France (1500–1560) (Paris, 1998), 78, 92. Girot refers to L. Salignac as among nine lecturers in March of 1566. Along with Salignac he identifies L. Duret, L. Du Chesne, J. Dorat, D. Lambin, E. Forcadel, and J. Mercier “plus deux lecteurs non nommés.” 61 ╇ Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 19; Histoire du Collège de France, 381. 62 ╇ Israel Baroway, “The Hebrew Hexameter: A Study in Renaissance Sources and Interpretation,” ELH, 2 (Apr., 1935), 85. 63 ╇ Karin Maag, Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 (Aldershot, 1995), 13. 64 ╇ Charles Borgeaud, Histoire L’Université de Genève L’Académie de Calvin 1559–1798 (Genève, 1900), 36–37. 65 ╇ Joannes Mercerus, Tabulæ in grammaticen linguæ Chaldææ: quae & Syriaca dicitur (Paris, 1560). 66 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 23. Cf. Joannes Mercerus, Commentarii locupletiss. In prophetas quinque priores inter eos qui minores vocantur: quibus adiuncti €sunt aliorum etiam … commentarii, ab eodem excerpti. (Geneva, 1583); CommenÂ� tarij€in librum Iob: Adiecta est Theodori Bezae epistola, in qua de huius viri doctrina, & istorum€ commentariorum vtilitate disseritur. (Geneva, 1573); Commentarij in SaloÂ� monis € Prouerbia, Ecclesiasten, & Canticum canticorum (Geneva, 1573); Euangelium

74

chapter three

Jean de Cinqarbres joined Mercier in 1554 as a royal lecturer in Hebrew and Aramaic and labored in that capacity until 1587.67 Although it has been said that Cinqarbres did not possess the intellectual genius of Mercier, he nevertheless exhibited a thorough mastery of Hebrew grammar. He displayed his extensive knowledge of Hebrew grammar and syntax in his 1556 De re grammatica Hebræorum opus.68 Together Mercier and Cinqarbres constituted an impressive faculty of Hebraic and Aramaic language and literature which was not easily surpassed in the universities of Europe. From them Melville received the foundation of his Hebraic and ancient near-east studies which were so highly prized by the young humanist that when he left Poitiers in 1569 for Geneva, he left behind all of his books except for “a litle Hebrew Byble in his belt.”69 Petrus Ramus While it is evident that the young Melville was influenced by a number of humanists associated with the University of Paris and the Collège Royal, one of the most influential figures in his intellectual development while on the continent was the controversial and celebrated Petrus Ramus.70 Melville, who first attended Ramus’ lectures in Paris, was so

Hebraicum Matthæi, recèns è ludæorum penetralibus erutum, cum interpretatione Lat. (trans.) (Paris, 1555); Chaldaea translatio Abdiae et Ionae prophetarum:Latino sermone recens donata, cum scholiis … per Iohannem Mercerum, (Paris, 1550). 67 ╇ Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 19; Histoire du Collège de France, 381. 68 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 23. 69 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 41. 70 ╇ On Ramus see Howard Hotson, Commonplace Learning: Ramism and its German Ramifications, 1543–1630 (Oxford, 2007); C. Perelman, “Pierre de la Ramée et le decline de la rhétorique,” Argumentation, 5 (Nov., 1991), 347–356; Kees Meerhoff, “Logic and Eloquence: A Ramusian Revolution,” Argumentation, 5 (No., 1991), 357–374; Guido Oldrini, “En Quête d’une méthodologie: la position du ramisme,” Argumentation, 5 (Nov., 1991), 387–401; Peter Sharratt, “The Present State of Studies on Ramus,” Studi Francesi, 47–48 (1972), 201–213; “Peter Ramus and the Reform of the University: the Divorce of Philosophy and Eloquence?” in Peter Sharratt (ed.), French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 4–20; Walter J. Ong, S.J. Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (Cambridge, MA, 1958); Ramus and Talon Inventory: A Short-Title Inventory (Cambridge, MA, 1958); “Ramist Classroom Procedure and the Nature of Reality,” Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, 1 (Win., 1961), 31–47; Wilbur Samuel Howell, Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500–1700 (Princeton, 1956); Reijer Hooykaas, Humanisme, Science et Réforme, Pierre de la Ramée, 1515–1572 (Leyden, 1958); Pierre Albert Duhamel, “The Logic and Rhetoric of Peter Ramus,” Modern Philology, 46 (Feb., 1949), 163–171; Norman E. Nelson, Peter Ramus and the Confusion of Logic,



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

75

impressed by the classical scholarship of the French humanist that he not only attended his lectures on Cicero’s Catilinarian orations from his In Catilinam when he came to Geneva, but he also made a special trip with his fellow Scot Gilbert Moncrieff to Lausanne in July 1570 to attend his lectures on dialectic.71 Ramus held the unique distinction of being “the first and only” professor of philosophy and eloquence in the history of the Collège Royal, and he was granted a royal writ in 1557 that has been described as “perhaps the most sweeping copyright in the history of publishing,” protecting not only his previously published works but any future publications as yet unwritten.72 Undoubtedly, his fame was linked with the prestigious position he held at the Collège. Appointed regius professor in 1551, he continued in that capacity for many years and was even appointed, upon the death of Pascal Duhamel in 1565, dean of the whole college of regius professors.73 Although he had previously held posts at the Collège du Mans, the Collège de l’Ave Maria, and€the Collège de Presles, his rise to fame was inextricably linked to his€high-profile position as regius professor as well as to the boldness of€ his ideas, the exquisite elegance of his Latin, and the dynamism of his€ rhetorical performances. His fame and reputation also benefited from his relationship with his longtime friend Charles of Lorraine, Cardinal of Guise, who succeeded in persuading Henry II to lift the ban against the teaching and writing of Ramus which had been imposed on him by Francis I in 1544.74 As a court favorite in the late 1540s, Ramus remained popular with Charles IX and his mother even at the time of

Rhetoric, and Poetry, The University of Michigan Contributions in Modern Philology, No. 2 (Ann Arbor, 1947); Howard C. Barnard, The French Tradition in Education: Ramus to Mme Necker de Saussure (Cambridge, 1922); Frank Pierrepont Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1912); Charles Waddington, Ramus: sa vie, ses écrits et ses opinions (1855). 71 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40; Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 288; Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 99–100; Gillian Lewis, “The Geneva Academy” in Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke, and Gillian Lewis (eds.), Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1620 (Cambridge, 1994), 60. 72 ╇ Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 4, 25. 73 ╇ Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 18; Histoire du Collège de France, 381; Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 25. 74 ╇ Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 21–22, 24–25, 33. As Ong tells us, Nicholas de Nancel in his 1599 Life of Peter Ramus maintained that Ramus was “by far the leader of his whole age” in speaking and writing Latin. Ong remarks that, despite the rather obvious Gallic bias of Nancel, his assessment “is representative of the general opinion of him held by contemporaries who were avid connoisseurs of Latinity.”

76

chapter three

his€ brutal assassination in 1572 during the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres.75 His fame and influence in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were matched only by the seemingly endless controversies in which he was embroiled.76 Even if one dismisses Ramus’ 1536 MA thesis at the Collège de Navarre, entitled “Quaecumque ab Aristotele dicta essent, commentitia esse” (“Everything that Aristotle has said is false”) as either unattested during his own life or meaning something other than merely “false,” his earliest publications on logic in 1543 enmeshed him in controversy from which he was unable, and perhaps unwilling, to extricate himself.77 His Dialecticae partitiones and Aristotelicae animadversiones provoked a violent response from various quarters. These works were opposed by the faculty of theology at the University of Paris, the rector of the faculty of arts Pierre Galland, and the Portuguese legal scholar Antoine de Gouveia.78 Unfortunately, his writings won him the unwarranted and unwanted image of “the archenemy of Aristotle.”79 Far from being an antiAristotelian, Ramus’ approach to Aristotle was essentially conservative in character, endeavoring to revise and adapt his writings on logic and rhetoric by stripping away the accumulated accretions and errors of previous centuries and restating in a succinct and practical fashion the 75 ╇ Histoire du Collège de France, 381; Lefranc, Le Collège de France, 18; Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 25; Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 103–107. Ramus was apparently shot, stabbed, and thrown from a window whereupon his body was dragged with a rope to the Seine where a surgeon decapitated him and had the torso thrown into the river. His body was subsequently drawn back to shore and mutilated further. 76 ╇ On Ramus’ influence in the field of theology see Donald K. McKim, “The Functions of Ramism in William Perkin’s Theology,” SCJ, 16 (Win., 1985), 503–517; Keith L. Sprunger, “Ames, Ramus, and the Method of Puritan Theology,” Harvard Theological Review, 59 (Apr., 1966), 133–151. 77 ╇ Philip W. Cummings, “A Note on the Transmission of the Title of Ramus’s Master’s Thesis,” JHI, 39 (Jul., 1978), 481; Sharratt, “Peter Ramus and the Reform of the University,” 5. An excellent examination of the M.A. thesis and term “commentitia” may be found in Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 36–47. Ong provides the following paraphrase of Ramus’ Quaecumque: “All the things that Aristotle has said are inconsistent because they are poorly systematized and can be called to mind only by the use of arbitrary mnemonic devices.” Samuel Eliot Morison rendered the Ramist thesis as “everything in Aristotle was forged or false.” Cf. Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 26. Graves translated “commentitia” as simply “false”; Duhamel, “The Logic and Rhetoric of Peter Ramus,” 163. Duhamel renders the statement as, “Whatever is to be found in Aristotle is false.” 78 ╇ Sharratt, “Peter Ramus and the Reform of the University,” 5–6. 79 ╇ Sharratt, “The Present State of Studies on Ramus,” 207.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

77

advances of other scholars.80 Despite his outspoken criticisms of Aristotle, it was the Aristotle which had been disfigured beyond recognition by the late medieval scholastics which he rejected. His criticisms appealed to sixteenth-century humanists who wanted education to be liberated from the tyranny of the scholastic Aristotle and the barbarisms associated with the Middle Ages. Ramus was himself an Aristotelian who based his reform of logic squarely upon the work of the ancient Greek philosopher.81 By repeatedly pitting the medieval interpretations of Aristotle against what Aristotle actually said, Ramus endeavored to restore what he considered the proper interpretation of his writings.82 Just as there were many different Renaissance Aristotelianisms in the sixteenth century, so there were many different medieval Aristotelianisms during the High and Later Middle Ages.83 One need only think of the different philosophical schools represented by Averroism, Thomism, Scotism, Albertism, and Ockhamism to gain a sense of the diverse approaches to the interpretation of Aristotle’s writings and the divergent ways in which his thought was respectively appropriated. During the Renaissance each of these schools of thought continued their allegiance to the philosopher’s writings and yet frequently there were basic areas of disagreement. Thus, Ramus’ opposition to the ancient Greek philosopher, and by extension Melville’s, must be understood within the broader context of the diverse forms of Renaissance Aristotelianism and their different interpretive approaches to the text of Aristotle.84 In sharply criticizing Aristotelian thought, Ramus was but one critic among “the widespread anti-Aristotelian movements of the age.” His contemporary critic Pierre Galland viewed him as repeating what had already been expressed by Lorenzo Valla, Juan Luis Vives, Cornelius ╇ Duhamel, “The Logic and Rhetoric of Peter Ramus,” 163. ╇ Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 16–17, 156; Duhamel, “The Logic and Rhetoric of Peter Ramus,” 163. On Renaissance Aristotelianism see Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and Its Sources (New York, 1979), 32–49; Charles B. Schmitt, “Towards a Reassessment of Renaissance Aristotelianism,” History of Science, 11 (1973), 159–193; Neal Gilbert, “Renaissance Aristotelianism and Its Fate: Some Observations and Problems” in John P. Anton (ed.), Naturalism and Historical Understanding: Essays on the Philosophy of John Herman Randall, Jr. (New York, 1967), 42–52. 82 ╇ Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 42. 83 ╇ Gilbert, “Renaissance Aristotelianism and Its Fate: Some Observations and Problems,” 48–49. Gilbert describes the different forms of Renaissance Aristotelianism in national and geographic terms when he writes of “Italian Aristotelianism,” “Iberian Aristotelianism,” and “Germanic Aristotelianism.” 84 ╇ Schmitt, “Towards a Reassessment of Renaissance Aristotelianism,” 160. 80 81

78

chapter three

Agrippa, Rudolf Agricola, and Philip Melanchthon. Likewise, his longtime colleague and biographer, known by the disparaging epithet “little€ Ramus,” Nicolas de Nancel, identified Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples, Bartholomew Latomus, and Johann Sturm as those who preceded Ramus in criticizing Aristotelianism.85 Criticism of Aristotle and selective opposition to Aristotelianism had been present during the Middle Ages in such thinkers as Al-Ghazzali, Bonaventura, Crescas, and Nicolas of Autrecourt, as well as in such Renaissance figures as Petrarch, LeonÂ� ardo €Bruni, Thomas More, and Erasmus.86 Thus, Ramus’ criticisms of Aristotelianism were not exceptional or unprecedented but were a part of a broader pattern of Aristotelian dissent prevalent in the early modern period. The early Ramus, as seen in his 1543 Aristotelicae animadversiones, failed to recognize the merits of Aristotle’s logic and accused the Greek philosopher of being obscure, confused, contradictory, puerile, and inept.87 His ferocious and immoderate attack upon the Greek philosopher attracted much attention from both critics and supporters. The later Ramus, as seen in those editions of the animadversiones and in the Studies on Dialectic, exhibited a completely different attitude and tone towards Aristotle. Much milder, Ramus expressed his deep admiration of Aristotle and even claimed to be a better Aristotelian than his Aristotelian opponents. While it is true that he never accepted Aristotle’s philosophical system in its entirety, Ramus, nevertheless, demonstrated his own Aristotelianism by appropriating certain principles from the philosopher’s writings and employing them in strategic ways in his own works.88 One need only think of the three basic principles of reform which undergirded his proposals to restructure the course of university instruction and which were embodied in the terms natura (nature), ratio€ (system), and exercitatio (practice), which he appears to have

85 ╇ Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 22, 38. On Johann Sturm see Barbara Sher Tinsley, “Johan Sturm’s Method for Humanistic Pedagogy,” SCJ, 20 (Spr., 1989), 23–40; Pierre Mesnard, “The Pedagogy of Johann Sturm (1507–1589) and Its Evangelical Inspiration,” SR, 13 (1966), 200–219. 86 ╇ Schmitt, “Towards a Reassessment of Renaissance Aristotelianism,” 162–163. 87 ╇ Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 143–144; Ong, Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue, 30. Ong describes Ramus’ 1543 dialectical works critiquing Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian as savage in character. 88 ╇ Ibid. On Ramus’ use of Aristotle’s class of causes and the categorical syllogism see 149–151. Cf also Duhamel, “The Logic and Rhetoric of Peter Ramus,” 165.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

79

borrowed from Quintilian and may ultimately be traced back to Aristotle€himself.89 The impact of Ramus’ criticisms of the medieval interpretations of Aristotle and the influence of his logical, rhetorical, and educational reforms on Melville may be seen most vividly in Melville’s own opposition to the St Andrews’ axiom “Absurdum est dicere errasse Aristotelem” (“It is absurd to say that Aristotle erred.”). Even as Ramus had endeavored to overthrow the scholastic readings of Aristotle by going directly to the Greek text and avoiding altogether the Latin versions of the schoolmen which had polluted the purity of the philosopher’s thought, so Melville at Glasgow attempted “to schaw that Aristotle could err, and haid erred.”90 Similarly, when he was relocated to St Mary’s, he opposed those regents at St Leonard’s who were presumably advocating one or more of the late medieval approaches to Aristotle’s writings and thought. Melville’s critique of Aristotle occurred within the context of his theological lectures and addressed the material differences between Aristotelian philosophy and historic Christian thought on, among other subjects, the doctrines of God, providence, and creation. While it is tendentious to suppose that the opposition to Melville amounted to “something like an organized conspiracy among Melville’s colleagues,”91 his critique initiated an ‘oratorical war’ between himself and the St Leonard’s regents and students who offered “publict orations against Mr Androe’s doctrine.”92 In addition to the orations by the regents, a number of student theses were presented publicly at the time of the annual summer commencement, which challenged Melville’s critique by defending and upholding the philosopher’s views and arguments.93 As dean of the faculty of theology, Melville served as either praeses or moderator on many of these occasions and availed himself of the opportunity to reply to their arguments.94 While James Melville’s remarks regarding his uncle’s

╇ Ibid., 109. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 67. 91 ╇ Robert S. Rait, “Andrew Melville and the Revolt Against Aristotle in Scotland,” English Historical Review, 14 (Apr., 1899), 257. 92 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 123–124. 93 ╇ Ronald Gordon Cant, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 2.2 (1941), 105–150; Ronald Gordon Cant, “Supplement to The St Andrews University Theses,” EBST, 2.2 (1941), 263–273; Melville, JMAD, 124. 94 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124; Cant, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” 115. James Melville wrote: “and when thair counned 89 90

80

chapter three

glorious triumph “within a yeir or twa” should not be taken at face value since late medieval interpretations of Aristotelian philosophy persisted at St Andrews, some, such as Andrew Duncan and John Malcolm, were won over to Melville’s point of view.95 Both Duncan and Malcolm, who graduated MA from St Leonard’s in 1575 and 1578 respectively, were among the regents who opposed Melville’s teaching.96 While James Melville has exaggerated the extent and success of his uncle’s reforming efforts at St Andrews, at the heart of Melville’s proposal lay the fundamental humanistic conviction that the restoration and critical appropriation of Aristotelian thought was only possible through a careful reading of his writings in their original language and with historical sensitivity. Only by going ad fontes and perusing not “a few buikes of Aristotle” in Latin translation but a number of texts throughout his broader corpus in the original Greek paying particular attention to historical and philological issues could a true understanding of Aristotle’s thought be possible and a critical appropriation of it be made.97 Melville’s efforts to subvert the scholastic version of Aristotle espoused at Glasgow and St Andrews should not be interpreted as constituting opposition to Aristotle himself. While Melville, along with the 1583 General Assembly, recognized the basic incompatibility of certain tenets of Aristotle’s philosophy with historic Christian teaching, his own advocacy of Aristotelian thought was indicated in his use of such ‘Aristotelian texts’ at Glasgow as the Physica, De ortu et interitu, De cælo, and De virtutibus et vitiis, as well as the philosopher’s writings on logic and ethics.98

haranges cam at thair Vickes and promotiones of Maisters, he lut tham nocht slipe, but af-hand answerit to tham presentlie with sic force of treuthe, evidence of reasone, and spirituall eloquence, that he dashit tham, and in end convicted tham so in conscience, that the cheiff Coryphoes amangs tham becam grait students of Theologie, and speciall professed frinds of Mr Andro, and ar now verie honest upright pastors in the Kirk.” 95 ╇ Ibid., 124. James Melville wrote: “Bot within a yeir or twa, Mr Andro, be his delling in publict and privat with everie an of tham, prevalit sa, that they fell to the Langages, studeit thair Artes for the right use, and perusit Aristotle in his awin langage; sa that, certatim et serio, they becam bathe philosophers and theologes, and acknawlagit a wounderfull transportation out of darknes unto light. Bot, indeed, this was nocht done without mikle feghting and fascherie, and the authoritie of the Generall Assemblie interponit, in end.” 96 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 171, 173 175, 179, 281, 285. 97 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. 98 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 279–280; Melville, JMAD, 49, 54. On Aristotle’s De ortu et interitu see Cf. Charles H. Lohr, “Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors Pi-Sm,” Renaissance Quarterly, 33 (Win., 1980),



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

81

Although De virtutibus et vitiis is regarded by some scholars as spurious and is excluded from the list of authentic works of Aristotle, many in the sixteenth century, such as James Melville, believed it to be authentic and referred to it as “Aristotle de Virtutibus.”99 When one considers the possible range of texts included under the rubric of Aristotle’s “Ethiks,” such as Ethica nicomachea, Ethica eudemia, and Magna moralia and his “Logic,” which could include the Categoriae, De interpretatione, Analytica priora, Analytica posteriora, Topica, and De sophisticis elenchis, the distinct impression is formed that the Aristotelian corpus taught at Glasgow, while not exhaustive, was fairly represented. Rather than jettisoning the entire corpus of Aristotle’s works, Melville appears to have made liberal use of them. His unwillingness to abandon Aristotle’s writings and his efforts to restore the true meaning of the Aristotelian text simultaneously reveal both the profoundly conservative and progressive aspects of his thought. Ramus’ influence on the young Melville while in Paris and subsequently in Geneva and Lausanne may be seen in his adoption of many of the academic reforms that had been proposed by the French humanist in his 1562 Advertissements sur la réformation de l’université de Paris au roy. The popularity of Ramus’ new approach to logic and rhetoric based on a method of dichotomized classifications that made communicating and learning the art of reasoning easier possessed a strong appeal to those eager to see the old scholastic approach supplanted by the advances of the New Learning. By applying the dichotomous classification of logic to the entire arts course covering both the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) and the quadrivium (mathematics, physics, metaphysics, ethics), Ramus was able to propose a comprehensive scheme for reforming the university curriculum.100 This Ramist model of university reform had been set before Melville while studying in Paris at the Collège Royal, and he endeavored to implement it to some extent upon his return to Scotland in 1574. When Melville was appointed principal of the University of Glasgow, he immediately introduced many of the humanistic reforms that had been modeled for him while on the

633–634. Aristotle’s works on logic or the Organon include the following six works: Categoriae, De interpretatione, Analytica priora, Analytica posteriora, Topica, and De sophisticis elenchis. It is unclear how many of these texts were used at Glasgow under Melville’s supervision. ╛╛╛╛99 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. 100 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 276.

82

chapter three

continent. Combining the latest humanist learning and methods from the continent with the more traditional elements of the university curriculum, Melville introduced the Dialecticae and Geometriae of Ramus, the Rhetorica of Ramus’ colleague Omer Talon, and the 1566 Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem of Jean Bodin whose work embodied Ramist tendencies.101 While Melville’s intellectual loyalties to his Parisian master were not exclusive or unqualified, the influence of Ramus’ humanistic reforms on his own thought and subsequent university modifications was undeniably palpable. George Buchanan Along with Ramus a second and even more formative influence in Melville’s humanistic development during his time in Paris was the Scottish scholar George Buchanan.102 Contrary to McCrie’s supposition that Melville met Buchanan when the latter visited St Andrews, Melville appears to have first met him in 1565–1566 in Paris. While it is possible that the two may have crossed paths while Melville was a student at St Andrews given Buchanan’s return to Scotland about the year 1561 and their mutual humanistic interests, it is impossible to affirm this with 101 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 46, 49; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 276; Kenneth D. McRae, “Ramist Tendencies in the Thought of Jean Bodin,” JHI, 16 (Jun., 1955), 306–323; “A Postscript on Bodin’s Connections with Ramism,” JHI, 24 (Oct., 1963), 569–571. Cf. also Julian M. Franklin, Jean Bodin and the SixteenthCentury Revolution in the Methodology of Law and History, (New York, 1963). 102 ╇ On Buchanan see I.D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981); “George Buchanan and French Humanism” in A.H.T. Levi (ed.), Humanism in France at the end of the €Middle Ages and in the Early Renaissance (Manchester, 1970), 295–319; “George Buchanan and France” in J.C. Ireson, I.D. McFarlane, and Garnet Rees (eds.), Studies in French Literature presented to H.W. Lawson by colleagues, pupils, and friends (Manchester, 1968), 223–245; “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 33–47; “A Scottish European: George Buchanan, 1582–1982,” College Courant, 70 (1983), 9–14; D.F.S. Thomson, “George Buchanan: The Humanist in the Sixteenth-Century World,” Phoenix, 4 (Winter, 1950), 77–94; Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith, “Introduction” in Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith (eds. and trans.), A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots (Aldershot, 2004), xv–lxxi; Roger A. Mason, “George Buchanan and Mary Queen of Scots,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 30 (2000), 1–27; “Rex Stoicus: George Buchanan, James VI and the Scottish Polity” in John Dwyer, Roger A. Mason, and Alexander Murdoch (eds.), New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 1982), 9–33; “George Buchanan’s Vernacular Polemics, 1570–1572,” IR, 54 (Spr., 2003), 47–68; J.H. Burns, “Political Ideas of George Buchanan,” SHR, 30 (1951), 60–68; “Three Scots Catholic Critics of George Buchanan,” IR, 1 (1950), 92–109; John Durkan, “Buchanan’s Judaising Practices,” IR, 50, (1964), 186–187; P. Hume Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer (Edinburgh, 1890).



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

83

certainty.103 In light of their common association with Pietro Bizzarri, they may have met prior to 1565 but there is simply no way of confirming this.104 We do know that they most certainly did not meet in Paris during the late 1550s.105 It is curious and startling in light of other evidence that James Melville makes no mention of his uncle having spent any time with Buchanan in Paris during their stay. Even when it is conceded that James’ list of scholars with whom his uncle studied was not exhaustive but representative, the ommission of a scholar of Buchanan’s stature is as inexplicable as it is glaring. In an introductory poem to Buchanan’s Rerum scoticarum historia, Melville claimed in the title that Buchanan had been his tutor when he wrote “Andreas Melvinus Geo[rgio] Buchanano Præceptori suo & Musarum parenti.”106 Melville’s claim to have been tutored by Buchanan is substantiated by a letter he wrote from Geneva to Peter Young in April 1572. Reflecting upon his student days in Paris, he remarked that Buchanan had courteously explained to him the “locos difficiliores” of his Psalm paraphrases and epigrams. He characterized his relationship with Buchanan as similar to that of a father and son and claimed to have been “amantissime complexus” (“lovingly embraced”) and to have been shown “tanti beneficij” (“much kindness”) by the elder scholar. Given the generational difference between them and the absence of Melville’s own father growing up, the statement “and having lovingly embraced me as a son” suggests that he viewed Buchanan as a father-figure and his corresponding respect, admiration, affection, and actions support this understanding.107 There can be no question from this letter and his

103 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 206, 240; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 264. 104 ╇ Ibid., 228. 105 ╇ Mason and Smith, “Introduction,” xlii. Melville did not arrive in Paris until late in 1563 or 1564, making this an impossibility. 106 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 15; Thomas Ruddiman (ed.), Georgi Buchanani€… Opera Omnia Vol. I (Edinburgh, 1714–1715), 21. McFarlane, Buchanan, 240. On BuchaÂ� nan’s Historia see McFarlane, Buchanan, 416–440; Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer, 293–328; Roger A. Mason, “Scotching the Brut: Politics, History and National Myth in Sixteenth-Century Britain” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scotland and England 1286–1815 (Edinburgh, 1987), 60–84; J.H. Burns, The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarchy in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), 185–221. 107 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, 14 April 1572, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 27–28.

84

chapter three

subsequent actions that he numbered himself among the “studiosissimi” and “admiratores” of Buchanan.108 While in Paris, Melville cultivated a relationship with the elder humanist, enjoying his stimulating companionship and learned conversations. He expressed his deep-felt gratitude for Buchanan’s kindness when he remarked that from those days in Paris he never forgot what had been done for him. Melville read privately with Buchanan and attended his public lectures where the humanist commented on his Psalm paraphrases and epigrams.109 One of the century’s finest neo-Latin poets showed Melville the literary nuances of his own distinctive poetry, ranging from his use of language, versification, and themes to the different poetic forms of paraphrases and epigrams. In short, the young scholar received a thorough introduction to the art of poetic construction. It is possible that Buchanan’s poetic instruction went well beyond merely studying his Psalm paraphrases and epigrams to include other poetic forms used by the Latin poets of the sixteenth-century Renaissance, such as elegies, epitaphs, icons, and sylvae. While we lack the evidence to affirm this with certainty, the possibility remains distinct, as Buchanan’s stay in Paris was of some length and this private instruction was much more than a couple of tutorials.110 Profoundly impressed with Buchanan’s neo-Latin poetry, referring to his paraphrases and epigrams in rhapsodic terms as “aureum” (“splendid”) and a “plane diuinum” (“plainly divine”) work, Melville seriously contemplated devoting his time to exegeting his Psalm paraphrases and providing succinct glosses, thereby illustrating “artem Poetæ et mentem Prophetæ” (“the art of the poet and mind of the prophet”).111 Preoccupied with the long-awaited publication of Buchanan’s Sphæra,112 Melville wrote of how “we are consumed every day with eagerness” to receive

╇ Ibid; McFarlane, Buchanan, 256. ╇ Ibid. 110 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 241. For an excellent discussion of these poetic forms see Kirk Summers, A View from the Palatine: The Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze (Temple, AZ, 2001), 38–39, 92–93, 144–145, 318–319. 111 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, 14 April 1572, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 27; McFarlane, Buchanan, 256. 112 ╇ On the Sphæra see McFarlane, Buchanan, 355–378; “The History of George Buchanan’s Sphæra” in Peter Sharratt (ed.), French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 194–212. 113 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, April 1572, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 28. Melville wrote: “Quin et Sphæræ mundi diuturno iam desiderio contabescimus.” McFarlane, Buchanan, 360. On the Sphæra see McFarlane, Buchanan, 355–378; 108 109



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

85

it.113 His love of neo-Latin poetry was fueled by the example, personal interaction, and instruction provided by Buchanan. In Paris under the tutelage and personal influence of Buchanan Melville began to lay the foundations for his own neo-Latin verse. In a letter dated June 1573 Melville once again expressed his deep admiration for the elder humanist, calling him “Scotiæ nostræ lumen” (“the glory of our Scotland”) and expressing his abiding affection for him declaring that he would “gladly embrace, Buchanan … almost face to face and in person.”114 Following his time of study under Buchanan in Paris during the mid 1560s, Melville maintained his contact with the senior humanist during the 1570s and 1580s. When he returned to Scotland from the continent in 1574, he was visited in Edinburgh by Buchanan who, along with Alexander Hay and James Halyburton, attempted to persuade the young scholar to accept the position as domestic instructor to James Douglas, fourth earl of Morton and regent of Scotland.115 Although Melville declined the offer, preferring instead to wait for a university post akin to the lecteurs royaux at the Collège Royal, his relationship with Buchanan was in no way damaged. Both Melville and Buchanan, along with Peter Young and James Lawson, served on a committee of the 1574 General Assembly to evaluate Patrick Adamson’s history of the book of Job in Latin verse.116 When Melville was on his way to assume his post at the University of Glasgow in late October 1574, he stopped in Stirling for two days where he met James VI but more importantly “conferrit at lynthe” with his dear friend and senior humanist Buchanan.117 It is a

“The History of George Buchanan’s Sphæra” in Peter Sharratt (ed.), French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 194–212. 114 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, June 1573, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 29; Quoted in McFarlane, Buchanan, 470. Melville wrote: “Buchananum, Scotiæ nostræ lumen, fere in oculis, et præsens præsentem libenter amplectar.” Cf. also Andrew Melville, Viri clarissimi A. Melvini musae et P. Adamsoni vita et palindoia [sic] et celsae commissionis ceu delegatae potestatis regiae in causis ecclesiasticis brevis & aperta descriptio (1620), 6; Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (Amsterdam, 1637), 115. In addition to Ad regem de Buchanani historia and Ad G. Buchananum, Melville’s estimation and affection for Buchanan may be seen in the epitaph “Georgij Buchanani epitaphium. Obijt 28. Septemb. 1582.” 115 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 45. On Alexander Hay see Reid R. Zulager, “A Study of the Middle Rank Administrators in the Government of King James VI of Scotland, 1580–1603” (PhD Thesis, Aberdeen, 1991). On the Regent Morton see George R. Hewitt, Scotland under Morton 1572–80 (Edinburgh, 1982). 116 ╇ Acts and proceedings of the general assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland from the Year M.D.L.X. Part I ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1839), 310. 117 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 45, 48.

86

chapter three

testimony to Melville’s deep admiration and respect for Buchanan’s extensive academic experience and the elder scholar’s personal influence that he would take the time to consult with him before assuming his post at Glasgow. Aware of his own relative youth and inexperience, Melville recognized the need to confer with one who had recently served as principal of St Leonard’s College from 1566 to 1570 and who previously had spent more than three decades of his life on the continent, and many of those years in academic positions.118 Melville’s respect, deference, and admiration for Buchanan’s abilities as a classical scholar may also be seen in his recommendation to Thomas Jack in 1574 to submit a draft to Buchanan of his own Onomasticon poeticum, a classical dictionary in verse later published in 1592 in Edinburgh.119 In 1579 Buchanan and Melville were once again reunited, this time to serve on the committee to assess the current dissatisfactory state of the University of St Andrews and to propose ways of reforming the institution. Although by this time Melville had played a leading role in successfully reforming the University of Glasgow and had emerged as “the leading committee member,” there can be no doubt given their relationship and Buchanan’s eminence as a European humanist that his input and counsel weighed heavily in Melville’s own thinking.120 Indeed, while many with good reason may have regarded Melville as “the leading committee member” in 1579 given the dramatic reversal of fortune at Glasgow under his leadership, Melville himself, never regarded himself as Buchanan’s superior. His actions, quite to the contrary, were characterized by the bold familiarity of one supremely confident in his own assessments yet filled with a profound admiration and respect for the one whom he called “Scotiæ nostræ lumen.”

118 ╇ McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 33; Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer, 241. Apart from the years 1535–1539 when he was in Scotland, Buchanan was in France and Portugal from c.1525–1561 occupying positions at the Collège de Ste Barbe, the Collège de Guyenne in Bordeaux, and the college at Coimbra. 119 ╇ Ronald Bayne, “Jack, Thomas (d. 1598),” rev. James Kirk, ODNB, Vol. 29 (Oxford, 2004), 461–462; McFarlane, Buchanan, 421–422. The full title of Jack’s classical dictionary is Onomasticon poeticum, sive, propriorum quibus in suis monumentis usi sunt veteres poetae, brevis descriptio poetica. 120 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 444–445. On the New Foundation at St Andrews see Ronald Gordon Cant, The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective (St Andrews, 1979); The University of St Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 51–67; James K. Cameron, “The Refoundation of the University in 1579,” Alumnus Chronicle of the University of St Andrews, 71 (Jun., 1980), 3–10.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

87

During the last days of Buchanan’s life Melville became one of his companions. Despite the great disparity in their ages and temperaments, they possessed a mutual respect and admiration for the other’s intellectual ability and disposition.121 They also shared common humanistic interests, such as a desire to reform university studies in Scotland by bringing them into conformity with the latest and most innovative learning of the European Renaissance, a mutual love of the classical literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and a frequent recourse to the art of Latin verse composition. The convergence of their religious and political views also served to strengthen their relationship. Whereas Buchanan eventually came to share Melville’s commitment to presbyterian polity, so Melville became an ardent supporter of Buchanan’s radical politics.122 In contrast to Hercules Rollock, who appears to have been in awe of the great humanist and unable to forge any type of close association, Melville, as a close friend of Buchanan’s and fellow humanist, offered his own unsolicited criticisms of the Historia.123 In September 1581 after hearing of his declining health, Melville, along with his nephew and Thomas Buchanan, visited the aged scholar at his home eager to spend time with him and consult the Historia. Upon entering Buchanan’s room and finding him tutoring a young servant in the alphabet, Melville, with the familiarity and ease of a dear friend remarked, “I sie, Sir, yie are nocht ydle” to which he responded, “Better this … nor stelling sheipe, or

╇ Ibid. 470. ╇ Mason and Smith, “Introduction,” xlii. Melville’s copy of Buchanan’s Historia (1582) is one of only eight volumes in the possession of the University of St Andrews which have survived from his original library. The other volumes at St Andrews which we know came from his library are: Walter Travers, Ecclesiasticae disciplinae (Heidelberg, 1574); Lorenz Rhodoman, Poiesis Christiane (Frankfurt, 1589); Johann Jacob Grynaeus, Christè Euódoson … disputabitur VI (Basel, 1589); Dionysius Periegetes, Dionysii Alex. Et Pomp. Melae situs orbis descriptio (Geneva, 1577); Marcus Verrius Flaccus, M. Verrij Flacci quae extant (1576); Théodore de Bèze, Theodori Bezae Vezelii volumen tractationum theologicarum (Geneva, 1570); Jean Calvin, Commentaires de M. Iean Calvin, sur les conq livres de Moyse (Geneva, 1564); Carolus Bovillus, Aetatum mundi septem supputatio, per Carolum Bouillum Samarubrinu[m]… (Paris, 1520). 123 ╇ Letter of Hercules Rollock to Peter Young, 1573, Bodleian, Smith ms. 77, 33–34; McFarlane, Buchanan, 471. On Hercules Rollock see Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925, 125–126; James W. L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry a Critical Survey (London, 1955), 85; James Maitland Anderson (ed.), Early Records of the University of St Andrews (Edinburgh, 1926), 160, 162, 271. Melville, JMAD, 120. James Melville wrote, “Thairefter he shew us the Epistle Dedicatorie to the King; the quhilk, when Mr Andro haid read, he tauld him that it was obscure in sum places, and wanted certean words to perfyt the sentence.” 121 122

88

chapter three

sitting ydle, quhilk is als ill!” After Melville offered his own improvements to the text and Buchanan indicated that such alterations would have to be made by others, the three men proceeded to see the work through the press.124 Melville’s enthusiasm for the Historia may be seen in the extensive annotations he made in his own copy of the work.125 His visit and conversation with Buchanan at his home reveals a certain intimacy and familiarity that had been cultivated over many years but which has its roots during the young Scot’s student days in Paris when he studied under the great humanist and was treated as a son. Buchanan’s impact on Melville’s development as a young humanist may be seen particularly in the area of neo-Latin poetry in general and in his imitation of the Psalm paraphrases in particular.126 Buchanan’s poetry has been called “an impressive example of Renaissance culture” and his Psalm paraphrases “the classical translation of the century.”127 Henri Estienne in his edition of the Psalm Paraphrases called Buchanan “poetarum nostri saeculi facile princeps” (“easily the chief of the poets of our age”) while Florent Chrestien described Buchanan in his translation of the Jephthes as “prince des poètes de nostre siècle” (“prince of the poets of our century”).128 Although it may be the case that Estienne’s remark was nothing more than typical humanist hyperbole, which meant “distinguished” and was applied to many poets of the age, the fact remains that Buchanan’s neo-Latin poetry occupied a place of

╇ Melville, JMAD, 120. ╇ Roger A. Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994), 125. 126 ╇ On Buchanan’s neo-Latin poetry and Psalm paraphrases see W. Leonard Grant, “The Shorter Latin Poems of George Buchanan, 1506–1582,” CJ, 40 (Mar., 1945), 331– 348; D.F.S. Thomson, “The Latin Epigram in Scotland: The Sixteenth Century,” Phoenix, 11 (Sum., 1957), 63–78; Roger Green, “George Buchanan’s Psalm Paraphrases” in I.D. McFarlane (ed.), Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Sanctandreani (New York, 1986), 51–60; I.D. McFarlane, “George Buchanan’s Latin Poems from Script to Print: A Preliminary Survey,” Library, 24 (Dec., 1969), 277–332; “Notes on the Composition and Reception of George Buchanan’s Psalm Paraphrases” in I.D. McFarlane (ed.), Renaissance Studies, Six Essays (Edinburgh and London, 1972), 21–62. 127 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 484; Johannes A. Gaertner, “Latin Verse Translations of the Psalms 1500–1620,” Harvard Theological Review, 49 (Oct., 1956), 278, 287. While it is difficult to deny the elegance of Buchanan’s Psalm paraphrases, it has been observed that “elegant Latin is about the last kind of medium suitable to Hebrew poetry.” 128 ╇ Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer, 241; McFarlane, Buchanan, 17. McFarlane records Estienne’s words as “poeta sui saeculi facile princeps” (“easily the chief poet of his age”). 124 125



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

89

preeminence among the neo-Latin poetry of the sixteenth century.129 His Psalm paraphrases, which were augmented by the Psalm translations of Theodore Beza, first appeared in 1566 and became “the most famous of all 16th century translations.” The sixteenth century exhibited a ravenous appetite for Latin poetry and the popularity of these metrical translations underscores this phenomenon. Not only were Buchanan’s Psalm paraphrases “phenomenally successful,” but popular complete translations were produced by Eobanus Hesse, Theodore Beza, FlaminoSpinula, and Latomus-Nannius. Latin verse translations of the Psalms were produced by Protestants and Catholics alike and the Penitential Psalms (Ps. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) were a favorite portion of the Psalter which attracted translators. Perhaps due to their therapeutic character, Buchanan began his Psalm paraphrases while he was imprisoned by the Inquisition in a Portuguese monastic jail during the years 1560–1561, while Melville himself, in addition to his other neo-Latin poetry, composed his Latin paraphrases of the Psalms while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London from 1607–1611.130 Indeed, based on a letter Melville wrote to his nephew “Ex Turri, Jan. 8, 1610,” Melville actually published a portion of the Psalm paraphrases during his imprisonment.131 Despite James Melville’s efforts to discourage his uncle from duplicating what Buchanan himself had already executed, Melville produced Latin paraphrases of Psalms 1, 2, 16, 36, and 129.132 While he recognized that his own Psalm paraphrases were not of the same order as those of Buchanan, he viewed himself as one who was compelled to yield to the muse.133 He may have written others that simply have not survived, as his poetical effusions were frequent, recreational, and a regular part of his correspondence with his nephew.134 As an ardent admirer of

129 ╇ Gaertner, “Latin Verse Translations of the Psalms 1500–1620,” 287; J. W. L. Adams, “Scottish Neo-Latin Poetry” in P. Tuynman, G. C. Kuiper, and E. Keßler (eds.), Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Amstelodamensis (Müchen, 1979), 5. Joseph Scaliger praised Buchanan as “unus in tota Europa omnes post se relinquens in Latina poesi.” 130 ╇ Ibid., 275–278; Melvini epistolae, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh, 87, 93. 131 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 216; Melvini epistolae, 144. 132 ╇ Andrew Melville, Paraphrases des Psaumes I–II–XVI–XXXVI–CXXIX. MSS, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh; Melvini epistolae, 87, 93; P. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan Centre d’Influence Française A Propos d’un Manuscrit du XVII Siècle (Paris, 1913), 202–207. 133 ╇ Melvini epistolae, 87, 101. 134 ╇ Ibid., 87, 93, 100–102.

90

chapter three

Buchanan’s Latin Psalm paraphrases, he looked to them as a model of how such poetry should be written.135 Buchanan’s Psalm paraphrases were themselves vehicles which promoted the humanism of the Renaissance and introduced the student by vivid example to Horatian meters. In contrast to Eobanus Hesse, who wrote all of his paraphrases in elegiac couplets, Buchanan adapted Horatian meters to the entire body of paraphrases. In the pattern of Jean de Gagnay, whose paraphrases were published approximately twenty years before Buchanan’s during the years 1546–1547, the humanist maintained that the mood of the Psalm should be expressed through its meter.136 By employing Horatian meters, Buchanan provided an elegant model of poetic composition that was both appealing to the literary sensibilities of the young classicist and extremely useful for his own future poetic compositions. In addition to his Psalm paraphrases, there is evidence that Buchanan’s influence may also be seen in Melville’s epigrams Classicum and TyrÂ� annus both published in his 1574 Carmen Mosis. Recent study of these epigrams has revealed similarities of style and material content between Buchanan’s and Melville’s poetry, suggesting that the latter learned more than mere literary form or artistic technique from him but was actually introduced to his radical politics as subsequently embodied in his 1579 De iure regni apud Scotos dialogus.137 While it remains a point of speculation that the two men may have discussed Buchanan’s radical politics during their time in Paris or even that he may have sent a copy of the De iure regni to Melville via their mutual humanist associate Peter Young, it has been correctly observed that the tone of the Classicum reflects the sentiments of popular resistance, and the reference to Brutus in the Tyrannus is similar to Buchanan’s own poetic reference made in his 1552/3 preface to Marc-Antoine de Muret’s work Julius Caesar.138 Moreover, the accusation brought against Melville at the royal visitation of the University in 1597 that he had made€rather liberal use of Buchanan’s ideas in his lectures on the civil magistrate at St Andrews appears to be justified.139 Given Melville’s time ╇ McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 45. ╇ Ibid., 46. 137 ╇ Steven John Reid, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville: The Carmen Mosis (1574) and the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres,” Renaissance and Reformation, 30.4 (Fall 2006/2007), 71–72. 138 ╇ Ibid. Cf. Arthur Williamson and Paul McGinnis, (eds.), George Buchanan: The Political Poetry (Edinburgh, 1995). Johnston, Delitiae poetarum scotorum, 112. 139 ╇ Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians,” 125; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 26–27. 135 136



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

91

studying under Buchanan in Paris and the influence that the latter exerted in the young humanist’s formation, such similarities are not surprising. Poitiers By the year 1566 Melville had studied for two years under some of the leading exponents of the French Renaissance and had decided to pursue his legal studies further at Poitiers.140 His choice of Poitiers over the other legal schools at the universities of Toulouse, Orléans, and Bourges is not immediately obvious. The law school at the University of Toulouse during the reign of Francis I (1515–1547) has been called “the most celebrated” in France. The medieval legal scholars Francesco Accorso and Bartolo da Sassoferrato were revered at Toulouse, a conservative stronghold of medieval jurisprudence. Despite its conservative character and its scholastic approach, the humanist professor of civil law Jean de Boyssoné was one of the earliest advocates of the new jurisprudence at the University.141 In 1547 Jacques Cujas began teaching at Toulouse and while he was there published a work of Ulpian based upon a newly discovered manuscript. As a philological and legal humanist, Cujas earned such a reputation as a legal scholar that he has been called “the final authority in the interpretation of classical jurisprudence.”142 At the University of Orléans the distinguished Professor of Roman Law Pierre de l’Estoile established himself as “the keenest lawyer of all the doctors of France” and contributed greatly to the University’s international reputation. Despite his own conservative approach utilizing the Accursian and Bartholian commentaries, L’Estoile and the seven other doctors of jurisprudence at Orléans attracted the likes of John Calvin, François Hotman, and Theodore Beza.143

140 ╇ Prosper Boissonnade, Histoire de l’ Université de Poitiers passé et present (1432– 1932) (Poitiers, 1932), 96. 141 ╇ Raymond A. Mentzer, Jr., “The Legal Response to ‘heresy’ in Languedoc, 1500– 1560,” SCJ, 4 (Apr., 1973), 20–21; Arthur Tilley, “Humanism under Francis I,” English Historical Review, 15 (Jul., 1900), 473. On the University of Toulouse see G. Boyer and P. Thomas, (eds.), L’université de Toulouse: son passé, son présent (1929). 142 ╇ Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, 113–114. 143 ╇ Quirinus Breen, John Calvin: A Study in French Humanism, (Hamden, CT, 1968), 4, 41; Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, 107; Robert D. Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” Church History, 44 (Jun., 1975), 170. Cf. Michael L. Monheit, “Guillaume Budé, Andrea Alciato, Pierre de l’Estoile: Renaissance Interpreters of Roman Law,” JHI, 58 (Jan., 1997), 32. Monheit has argued that Estoile’s

92

chapter three

Perhaps the most attractive school of law from a humanist point of view was the University of Bourges. In 1529 a new trajectory in legal studies was established with the acquisition of Andrea Alciato, making Bourges a leading center of the new jurisprudence. Although Alciato remained in Bourges only four years (1529–1533), he was able to introduce legal humanism into the field of history and was succeeded by such distinguished legal scholars as François le Douaren, François Baudouin, Jacques Cujas, and François Hotman.144 With such an illustrious succession of legal scholars of the new jurisprudence and such eminent students of the Protestant persuasion as John Calvin, the University of Bourges possessed a powerful appeal to the young Scottish humanist. Moreover, Scots, such as James Boyd, the future archbishop of Glasgow, and Alexander Arbuthnot, the future principal of King’s College, Aberdeen, had traveled to Bourges to be trained in the new jurisprudence and contributed to the pattern of Scottish students who traveled to study at the University.145 The University of Poitiers, while not able to boast of such renowned legal humanists of the new jurisprudence as were associated with the law school at Bourges, nevertheless, had produced such distinguished legal scholars as the practicing lawyer and Bartolist André Tiraqueau whom François Rabelais praised as “le bon, le docte, le sage, le tant humain, tant débonnaire et equitable Tiraqueau.”146 Part of Poitiers’ appeal to Melville was undoubtedly its place in the promotion of the French Renaissance. As Bernstein has remarked, sixteenth-century Poitiers was “a center of Renaissance culture in its own right.”147 Similarly, Boissonnade has maintained that Poitiers occupied “la troisème place après Paris et Lyon dans l’histoire de la Renaissance” and that it flattered itself with the ambitious name “d’Athènes de la France.”148 Poitiers’ school of law has been called “la seconde de France, après celle de Paris” and its distinguished reputation enabled it to attract notable masters to its

interpretive approach to the Corpus iuris Civilis of Justinian was “completely alien to those of the humanists.” 144 ╇ Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, 103, 107, 112, 118. 145 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 272. 146 ╇Tilley, “Humanism under Francis I,” 473; Donald R. Kelley, “History, English Law and the Renaissance,” Past & Present, 65 (Nov., 1974), 28. On Tiraqueau see J. Bréjon, André Tiraqueau (1488–1558) (Paris, 1937). 147 ╇ Hilary J. Bernstein, Between Crown and Community: Politics and Civic Culture in Sixteenth-Century Poitiers (Ithaca, 2004), 10. 148 ╇ Prosper Boissonnade, Histoire de Poitou (Paris, 1977), 188.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

93

chairs, such as Règnier, Irland, Longueil, Le Sage, and Sainte-Marthe, as well as “une foule d’étudiants” coming from different places throughout Europe.149 The arts faculty at the university with its nine colleges contained representatives “des vieilles traditions,” as well as “des humanistes fameux” and could boast of such illustrious scholars as Marc-Antoine Muret and Jacques Peletier du Mans.150 In addition to the University’s reputation in promoting the New Learning and its prestigious law school, the city itself was one of the most significant centers for jurisprudence in France. Possessing one of€the country’s “â•›‘great’ presidial courts” after 1552 as well as an unusually large and extremely active royal sénéchaussée court, Poitiers attracted€an uncommonly sizeable legal contingent of judges, lawyers, and other legal personnel. Due to Paris’ relative inaccessibility, litigants often traveled to the much closer Poitiers to resolve their disputes. Consequently, the court’s legal jurisdiction was “unusually large” and only contributed to the legal character of the city.151 Thus, both the University and the city offered much to Melville the humanist in search of further legal study, as well as the opportunity to utilize his training as a classical scholar. James Melville maintained that Andrew taught as a regent in the Collège of St Marcean. If we may understand the reference to St Marcean as equivalent to St Marthe, then it appears that he taught for three years at the University of Poitiers in the Collège Royal de Sainte-Marthe. We are also told that Melville, in the opinion of his nephew, “haid the best lawers” at Poitiers.152 In light of the absence of any confirming evidence, it is possible that he taught in an unofficial capacity as he had previously done in Paris. It is also possible that he was employed as a classical instructor along the lines of his subsequent service in Geneva in the schola privata. Whatever his precise academic capacity, we may infer from his subsequent service as a private classical tutor in Poitiers that he

149 ╇ Ibid. 185–186; Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 10. Bernstein maintains that Poitier’s school of law was the University’s pride and was “ranked second only to Paris, Bourges, or Toulouse.” 150 ╇ Ibid. 185–186. 151 ╇ Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 7. 152 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 269; Melville, JMAD, 40; Francisque-Michel, Les Écossais en France Les Français en Écosse, 165, 205; Charles Borgeaud, Histoire de L’Université de Genève L’Académie de Calvin 1559–1798 (Genève, 1900), 109.

94

chapter three

was actively employed in promoting the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance. Melville’s decision to go to Poitiers was not in any sense unusual or unprecedented. Many Scottish scholars, who sought to study or even teach jurisprudence, progressed from Paris to Poitiers.153 Prior to Melville’s arrival in 1566, Robert Ireland and Duncan McGruder had taught law at Poitiers while a certain Richard Lawson apparently pursued his study of jurisprudence at the University during the 1560s. Ireland was appointed an ordinary reader in law and taught up until his death in 1561 while McGruder served as a regent in law in 1562.154 Even after Melville’s time of study in Poitiers, Scottish scholars such as Thomas Bicarton, Adam Blackwood, and Thomas Barclay among others continued to travel to Poitiers to study and teach jurisprudence.155 Perhaps some of the Scottish appeal of Poitiers was tied to the generosity and beneficence of the exiled archbishop and former chancellor of the University of Glasgow James Beaton II. Several years after Melville had left, Beaton was elected chancellor of the University in 1573 and served in that capacity until 1582.156 During the 1560s while he was in exile Beaton seems to have provided Scottish students in Paris and perhaps also in Poitiers with bursaries. While it is impossible to say for certain that Melville was the recipient of such a bursary or the beneficiary of Beaton’s influence in helping to secure his academic appointment at Poitiers, it remains a distinct possibility.157 Melville may have been attracted to Poitiers by the presence of the Ramist scholar Duncan McGruder who edited and published a work of Talon entitled Tabulae in rhetoricam in Paris in 1559. George Buchanan

╇ Ibid. ╇ Boissonnade, Histoire de l’Université de Poitiers, 153; John Durkan, “Scottish Reformers: the Less than Golden Legend,” IR, 45 (Spr., 1994), 18; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 269. 155 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 268. On Adam Blackwood see J.H. Burns, “Three Scots Catholic Critics of George Buchanan,” IR,1 (1950), 95–99. Cf. also Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940), 125, 129. There is evidence that both Hercules Rollock and William Hegate studied and/or taught at the University of Poitiers. 156 ╇ Boissonnade, Histoire de l’ Université de Poitiers, 45; Francisque-Michel, Les Écossais en France, Vol. II, 139. 157 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 268. On James Beaton see Mark Dilworth, “Archbishop James Beaton II: a career in Scotland and France,” RSCHS, 23 (1987–1989), 301–316; William James Anderson, “On the early career of James Beaton II, archbishop of Glasgow,” IR, 16 (1965), 221–224. 153 154



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

95

has also been identified as a possible source who may have influenced the young Scot in the direction of Poitiers while he was in Paris in 1565– 1566.158 While both of these conjectures have merit given Melville’s adoption of certain aspects of Ramus’ thought and his close relationship with Buchanan, it is impossible to affirm either with certainty. We do know that, in the judgment of James Melville, the purpose of his study of jurisprudence “was Theologie, wherto he was dedicat from his mother’s wombe.” We also know from this same source that during his time in Poitiers Melville covertly identified with the French Huguenots. After bluffing his way out of a precarious situation involving the Catholic forces of Henry I, Duke of Guise, James Melville remarked “Giff it haid com to the warst, he was resolved, being weill horst, to haiff gottin him to the campe of the Admirall, wha was in persone beseageand the town.”159 While Melville’s guile reveals as much about his own instincts toward self-preservation as it does regarding his religious orientation, Poitiers’ reputation from the late 1550s “as a center for the dispersion of Reformed belief ” probably attracted Melville to the city and its distinguished university.160 In light of Melville’s reported intention and his own religious commitments, the presence of members of the law faculty who either embraced Reformed Protestantism or were at least sympathetic to it may have attracted Melville to Poitiers. As early as 1534 Calvin had traveled to Poitiers where he found sympathy for the new faith and gained what Biossonnade has called “le premier groupe de novateurs.” Calvin is said to have taught all over Poitiers, instructing not only clerics and magistrates but students and professors of the University.161 He is even said to have celebrated the Lord’s Supper first for “la petite église qu’il forma.” Both in Poitiers and in the region of Poitou Calvin recruited adherents to the Reformed faith among whom were Vernou and the professor of jurisprudence Babinot or Bonhomme. These “ardents apôtres” of Calvin propagated the new faith all throughout the region.162 By 1555 one of the earliest Protestant churches in France was established in Poitiers and it has been suggested that it was here that the notion of a national Protestant

╇ Ibid., 269. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. 160 ╇ Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 154. 161 ╇ Boissonnade, Histoire de Poitou, 200; Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 154. 162 ╇ Ibid. 158 159

96

chapter three

synod was conceived. Although Beza in his Histoire ecclésiastique in discussing Calvin’s travels during the years 1533–1535 does not mention that he spent any time in Poitiers, local tradition affirms that he, in fact, did.163 By the 1550s and 1560s “Genevan-inspired churches” emerged throughout the area as the Protestant faith spread in France.164 Certainly Poitiers itself, while maintaining the image of a Catholic city, possessed a respectable Huguenot contingent. In 1557 Poitiers became the place where the first failed attempt by the French Reformed churches to form a collective ecclesiastical government occurred when they drafted the Articles Polytiques.165 The Protestant church of Poitiers in 1559 sent delegates to Paris for the first National Synod of the French Protestant churches while in 1561 they hosted the second National Synod.166 The region of Poitou in 1560 possessed sixteen Reformed churches with the principle ones located in Poitiers, Loudun, Châtellerault, Niort, and Fontenay. By 1561, only one year later, the number of Reformed churches in the region had grown to twenty-two. Members of the nobility of both the “Haut” and “Bas Poitou,” the clergy, abbots and abbesses, the upper middle class of merchants and attorneys, and many of the craftsmen of the Bas-Poitou and villages “adoptaient avec ferveur les principes calvinistes.”167 When Protestantism in 1562 emerged as a political and military force to be reckoned with and civil war broke out in France, French Protestant communities were forced to decide whether they would defend militarily their new faith. Whereas some Protestant communities, like La Rochelle, decided not to merge their religion with national politics 163 ╇ Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 154. The full title of Beza work is: Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées au royaume de France, 3 vols. (Paris, 1883–1889). 164 ╇ Judith Pugh Meyer, “La Rochelle and the Failure of the French Reformation,” SCJ, 15 (Sum., 1984), 171. On the growth of Protestantism in France see Pierre Dez, Histoire des protestants et des églises réformées du Poitou (La Rochelle, 1936); Samuel Mours, Le Protestantisme en France au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1959); Menna Prestwich, “Calvinism in France, 1555–1629” in Menna Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541–1715 ed. Menna Prestwich (Oxford, 1985), 71–107; David Nicholls, “France” in Andrew Pettegree (ed.), The Early Reformation in Europe (Cambridge, 1992), 120–141. 165 ╇ Glenn S. Sunshine, “Geneva Meets Rome: The Development of the French Reformed Diaconate,” SCJ, 26 (Sum., 1995), 333. 166 ╇ John Quick, Synodicon in Gallia Reformata (London, 1692), Vol. I, 2–20; Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 153; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451– 1577, 269; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 29. 167 ╇ Boissonnade, Histoire de Poitou, 201. Among the clergy he mentions abbots from Laréau, Valence, and Saint Maixent while he specifically mentions an abbess of SaintJean de Bonneval “s’enfuyait à Genève.”



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

97

and support the Prince of Condé, Louis I de Bourbon, until 1568, other Protestant centers during the early 1560s, such as Poitiers, Rouen, and Lyon, declared their allegiance to the cause of Protestantism and supported the union of their political and military views with their religion.168 In 1562 the Protestant constituency in Poitiers was strong enough to take control of the city, and by the summer of that year the city had become “a haven for Protestant troops from the entire region.” Although Poitiers was recaptured by the Catholics after only a few months, a Huguenot presence remained and Protestants continued to come to the University to study and teach.169 During Melville’s time in Poitiers, the French wars of religion again broke out, forcing the University to close temporarily. James Melville writes that “the Collages war giffen upe, because of the seage leyed to the town, quhilk was lang and feirfull.”170 On 24 July 1569 the French Huguenots under the command of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny laid siege to the capital of Poitou for seven weeks. Poitiers was defended by the young Catholic Henry I, Duke of Guise, who repeatedly pushed back and defied Coligny’s attempts to take the city.171 During the siege, with the closing of the University Melville found employment as a tutor to the son of “an honourable councellar” of Parliament.172 Like his own paternal mentor George Buchanan, who served as the personal tutor to Gilbert Kennedy, Lord James Stewart, Timoléon de Cossé, and James VI, and in the tradition of the prince of the humanists Erasmus, Melville fulfilled the role of a private purveyor of the New Learning.173 As a classical scholar, he undoubtedly tutored

168 ╇ Meyer, “La Rochelle and the Failure of the French Reformation,” 171–172. On the French wars of religion see N.M. Sutherland, The Huguenot Struggle for Recognition (New Haven, 1980); The Massacre of St. Bartholomew and the European Conflict 1559– 1572 (London, 1973); “The Role of Coligny in the French Civil Wars” in Acts du Colloque L’Amiral de Coligny et son temps (Paris, 1974), 323–339; Philip Benedict, Rouen During the Wars of Religion (Cambridge, 1981); Robert M. Kingdon, Geneva and the Coming of the Wars of Religion 1555–1563 (Geneva, 1956); Geneva and the Consolidation of the French Protestant Movement 1564–1572 (Genève, 1967); James Westfall Thompson, The Wars of Religion in France 1559–1576 (New York, 1957). On the region of Poitou and the wars of religion see Boissonnade, Histoire de Poitou, 199–217 and Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 153–163. 169 ╇ Bernstein, Between Crown and Community, 153, 156. 170 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. 171 ╇ Boissonnade, Histoire de Poitou, 204. 172 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 29. 173 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 42–51, 174–177; Melville, JMAD, 48; Grant, “The Shorter Latin Poems of George Buchanan, 1506–1582,” 334. On Gilbert Kennedy see Marcus

98

chapter three

his young pupil in the language and literature of the Greeks and Romans. The humanistic character of his instruction may be seen vividly in the tragic account of his student’s death recorded by James Melville. In this vignette the nature and emphasis of Melville’s instruction, as well as the paternal character of his relationship with his young pupil, are revealed. As Admiral Coligny’s troops were assaulting Poitiers, a shot of artillery misfired, penetrated the wall of the young boy’s room, and pierced his thigh, mortally wounding him.174 Calling out in distress for his tutor, Melville rushed to his room where he “caught him in his armes” and listened to his pupil utter the words “διδασκαλη, τὸν δρομον μοῦ τετεληκα” (“Master, I have completed my course.”). If this account is authentic, it reveals a personal side to Melville’s instruction that is often overshadowed by his more flamboyant theatrics and volatile disposition. The same paternal tenderness and compassion which Melville had received from Buchanan as his pupil in Paris, he expressed as he held his dying student in his arms. James Melville remarked “that bern gaed never out of his hart; bot in teatching of me, he often rememberit him with tender compassion of mynd.” When Coligny lifted the siege of Poitiers in September 1569 after weeks of intermittent cannon fire, Melville took the opportunity to leave the city where he might pursue his studies in peace at Geneva.175 Conclusion A careful examination of Melville’s time in Paris and Poitiers yields a number of important insights regarding his relationship to the European Renaissance and French humanism. Far from the portrait of “a restless young intellectual” who seemed to lack focus and direction, Melville’s early course of study in Paris and Poitiers reveals a young scholar whose deep-seated humanism and penchant towards Renaissance polymathy€led him to engage in a broad course of study.176 In the pattern of other sixteenth-century humanists who went to great lengths to expose Merriman, “Kennedy, Gilbert, third earl of Cassillis (c.1517–1558),” ODNB, Vol. 31 (Oxford, 2004), 241–242; On James Stewart see Andrea Thomas, “Stewart, James, earl of Moray (1500–1544/5),” ODNB, Vol. 52 (Oxford, 2004), 684–685. 174 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 29; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 269. McCrie interpreted James Melville’s description as referring to a cannon ball while James Kirk interpreted this as a stray bullet. 175 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40–41; 158. 176 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 43.



france: paris and poitiers (1563/4–1569)

99

themselves to the latest developments of the European Renaissance, Melville embarked on a liberal course of study, which included mathematics, medicine, and law, as well as the ancient languages, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic among others. Privileged to study under such distinguished scholars as Duhamel, Forcedel, Charpentier, Duret, Baudouin, Turnèbe, Mercier, Cinqarbres, Ramus, and Buchanan, Melville’s academic and intellectual trajectory was profoundly shaped by these advocates of the New Learning. While it is important not to exaggerate the influence of Ramus on Melville’s development, the latter’s subsequent critical and selective appropriation of the Frenchman’s insights at Glasgow and St Andrews finds its origins in his attendance upon the humanist’s lectures at the Collège Royal. Despite James Melville’s omission of any reference in his Diary to his uncle having studied with Buchanan during his days in Paris, the elder humanist exerted the most profound influence on the young scholar during these years. His private and public instruction in the composition of Latin verse provided a model of literary elegance and poetic dexterity which remained with the young humanist for the rest of his life. When viewed from the perspective and context of European humanism, Melville’s broad course of study was neither remarkable nor unprecedented. Nor was it as comprehensive as it might have been. The young scholar, while exploring numerous fields of study, left others essentially untouched. There is no evidence that he showed even the slightest interest in the Renaissance approach to music, the visual arts, and NeoPlatonic philosophy.177 While the University of Poitiers was certainly among the leading centers in the study of jurisprudence in France in the sixteenth century, there seems to be little justification for James Melville’s boast that his uncle “haid the best lawers.”178 Melville’s study of the new jurisprudence under Baudouin in Paris, as well as his subsequent legal studies at Poitiers, emphatically underscores his commitment to the New Learning and places him within the broader tradition of European humanists who were eager to apply the latest critical methods to this field of study. Notwithstanding his initial study of law in Paris and Poitiers, Melville would continue to exhibit his seemingly insatiable humanistic appetite for the New Learning by auditing the legal lectures of François Hotman in Geneva.

177 178

╇ McFarlane, “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” 33. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40.

Chapter four

SWITZERLAND: GENEVA (1569–1574) The Academy of Geneva In late 1569 Melville assessed the political and social instability of France created by the wars of religion and, with no foreseeable end to the conflict, determined to travel to Switzerland where he hoped to find a more suitable environment to pursue his studies.1 While there is little evidence to suggest that Geneva was Melville’s next logical stop, it is not difficult to see how his previous humanistic studies in Scotland and France, as well as his early Protestant influences, might converge in his own formation leading him to Geneva and the study of theology.2 Although La Rochelle as a primary political and military center for the national Reformed movement was much closer and more convenient than distant Geneva, it could not offer either the social stability or the academic opportunities available in the Swiss city.3 Protestant England remained an option for the young humanist, but Melville during these early years never seems to have been greatly attracted to either Oxford or Cambridge, preferring instead the continental universities of Paris and Poitiers as well as those newer institutions which led the way in promoting the New Learning of the Renaissance in the sixteenth century, such as the Collège Royal (1530) and the Academy of Geneva (1559).4 Just as Geneva was a 1 ╇ James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melvill ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 41. 2 ╇ John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 269–270. 3 ╇ Judith Pugh Meyer, “La Rochelle and the Failure of the French Reformation,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 15 (Summer, 1984), 171. On La Rochelle see Kevin C. Robbins, City on the Ocean Sea: La Rochelle, 1530–1650 Urban Society, Religion, and Politics on the French Atlantic Frontier (Leiden and Boston, 1997). 4 ╇ Menna Prestwich, “Calvinism in France, 1555–1629” in Menna Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541–1715 (Oxford, 1985), 85; Paul F. Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959 (Genève, 1959), 23; James Bass Mullinger, The University of Cambridge: From the Royal Injunctions of 1535 to the Accession of Charles the First (Cambridge, 1884), 368; James W. L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry a Critical Survey (London, 1955), 82; Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940), 151–152. Andrew Melville, “Antitamicamicategoria” in Parasynagma Perthense et Iuramentum Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ et A.M. Antitamicamicategoria (1620), 43. Although

102

chapter four

city of refuge for Protestants, such as Joseph Scaliger three years later, following the horrific events of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572, so in 1569 in the midst of France’s bloody civil war Melville traveled to Geneva in search of a safe environment for further study.5 Like Lambert Daneau who had been attracted to the Academy in 1560 because “it offered the purest source of that celestial doctrine” and embodied “one of the richest markets of commerce in humanist literature,”6 Melville, aware of the Academy’s humanistic character and intent upon pursuing a theological course of study, resided in Geneva for five years “during the quhilk tyme his cheiff studie was Divinitie.”7 To study at the Genevan Academy from an intellectual and religious standpoint was compelling, appealing to Melville’s humanist sentiments as well as his Protestant sensibilities. From the very beginning, Calvin’s Academy bore the humanistic imprint of its founder and most Â�influential voice.8 He was assisted early on by one of his most trusted associates and fellow humanist Pierre Viret, who aided the reformer in recruiting faculty and planning the curriculum.9 Just as Viret had recruited Christian humanists such as Mathurin Cordier in 1545 and Theodore Beza among others in 1549 to serve on the faculty at the Academy of Lausanne, so he aided Calvin in attracting some of the leading humanists to constitute the first faculty of the Academy of Geneva.10 Melville later attacked the English universities in his poem Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria (1604) due to their opposition to the Millenary Petition and their role in the Episcopal controversy, he, nevertheless, expressed his sincere admiration for both seats of learning and during his visits to both universities developed an appreciation for William Whittaker, John Rainolds, George Carleton, and Thomas Savile. ╇ 5 ╇ Karin Maag, Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 (Aldershot, 1995), 36. Cf. R. G. Philip, “Scottish Scholars at Geneva, 1559–1650,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 6 (1938), 216–231. ╇ 6 ╇ Olivier Fatio and Olivier Labarthe (eds.), Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève tome III 1565–1574 (Genève, 1969), 90; Charles Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève: L’Académie de Calvin 1559–1798 (Genève, 1900), 52, 639. Cf. also Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 30; Maag, Seminary or University? 31. ╇ 7 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 42. ╇ 8 ╇ On Calvin’s humanism see Quirinus Breen, John Calvin: A Study in French Humanism (Hamden, CT, 1968); “John Calvin and the Rhetorical Tradition,” Church History, 26 (Mar., 1957), 3–21; François Wendel, Calvin et l’humanisme (Paris, 1976); Calvin, Sources et Evolution de sa Pensée Religieuse (Genève, 1985); William James Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (New York, 1988); Basil Hall, John Calvin Humanist and Theologian (London, 1956); Charles Partee, Calvin and Classical Philosophy (Leiden, 1977); Robert D. Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” Church History, 44 (Jun., 1975), 167–181. ╇ 9 ╇ On Viret see Robert Dean Linder, The Political Ideas of Pierre Viret (Genève, 1964); Jean Barnaud, Pierre Viret: sa vie et son œuvre (1511–1571) (Saint-Amans, 1911). 10 ╇ Robert D. Linder, “Pierre Viret’s Ideas and Attitudes Concerning Humanism and Education,” CH, 34 (Mar.,1965), 25, 27–28. On the Academy of Lausanne see Louis



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

103

The first rector of the Academy, the distinguished poet and Greek scholar Theodore Beza, ensured the humanistic character of the institution through his leadership, recruiting, and modifications. Despite his absence from Geneva from June 1559 to May 1563 when he led the Genevan delegation at the Colloquy of Poissy and served Condé in Orléans, his role as leader of the Genevan company of pastors following Calvin’s death in 1564 significantly enhanced his influence over the Academy.11 In light of Beza’s presence in the Academy, Buchanan, during their time in Paris, may have directed the young Melville to Geneva. In his tribute to Beza, entitled Ad Theodorum Bezam, composed during the 1560s, Buchanan sent him a collection of his poems for his own evaluation, declaring “mihi unus/ Beza est curia, censor et Quirites” (“To my way of thinking, Beza’s opinion is the only one that counts— He is judge, critic, and public for me.”).12 Beza consistently labored to find suitable faculty for both the schola privata and the schola publica, and he may be credited with introducing the chair of medicine and two chairs in law.13 Simon Simoni was appointed in 1565 as a professor of arts and a lecturer in medicine. His tenure in the Academy was short, lasting only until 1567 when he left Geneva due to an altercation he had with Niccolo Balbani, the minister of the Italian Church in Geneva.14 In the same year of Simoni’s appointment, Domaine Fabri and Henry Scrimgeour began delivering public lectures on jurisprudence.15 By 1566 Pierre Charpentier was appointed

Junod and Henri Meylan, L’Académie de Lausanne au XVIe siècle (Lausanne, 1947); Henri Meylan, La Haute Ecole de Lausanne 1537–1937 (Lausanne, 1937). 11 ╇ Gillian Lewis, “The Geneva Academy” in Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke and Gillian Lewis (eds.), Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1620 (Cambridge, 1994), 52. On the Colloquy of Poissy see Donald Nugent, Ecumenism in the Age of the Reformation: The Colloquy of Poissy (Cambridge, MA, 1974); Philippe de Félice: ‘Le Colloque de Poissy (1561),” Bulletin Societé de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 107 (Jul.-Sep., 1961), 133–145; Paul-F. Geisendorf, Théodore de Bèze (Genève, 1949), 125–166. 12 ╇ Paul J. McGinnis and Arthur H. Williamson (eds.), George Buchanan: The Political Poetry (Edinburgh, 1995), 116–117. Buchanan wrote: “Quae si judicio tuo probentur, / Ut classis modo in ultimæ referri / Possint centurias, nihil timebo / Censuram invidiæ, nihil morabor / Senatus critici severitatem, / Nihil grammaticas tribus: mihi unus / Beza est curia, censor et Quirites.” 13 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 23. 14 ╇ Ibid., 28; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 94–99, 638. 15 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 90; Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 39–41. On Henry Scrimgeour see John Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 5:1 (1971–1987), 1–31; W.A. McNeill, “Scottish Entries in the Acta Rectoria Universitatis Parisiensis 1519€ to c. 1633,” Scottish Historical Review, 43 (Apr., 1964), 66–86; François de

104

chapter four

professor of law and served in that capacity until 1570. Although neither Simoni nor Scrimgeour nor even Charpentier enjoyed great success as lecturers at the Academy, Beza had desired from its inception to have both chairs in medicine and law.16 While Beza’s positive relationship with the Genevan magistrates made it easier for him than it had been for Calvin to encourage the study of civil law in the schola publica, his own profound humanistic conviction of the intrinsic value of the study of the new jurisprudence for the benefit of the commonwealth led him to play an influential role in establishing not one but two chairs of law in the Academy.17 During the Academy’s opening ceremony on 5 June 1559 Beza identified the institution as a “respublica scholastica” where students and doctors labor together so that “men of reason and intelligence will be metamorphosed out of wild and savage beasts.” Far from derogating profane studies, Beza in his address recognized great value in studying the “profanas gentes,” especially the Greeks. Such classical study was conceived of by him as not merely providing the necessary philological knowledge for the study of Scripture but as actually possessing wisdom in itself. Appealing to Solomon and Daniel as exemplars who possessed “profane” learning, Beza maintained that the Egyptians were recipients of wisdom even as Moses and the Israelites had been.18 By unequivocally declaring the intrinsic value of the authors of classical antiquity, Beza established the humanistic trajectory of the Genevan Academy, creating an intellectual environment that appealed to the advocates of the New Learning. The humanistic character of the Academy was greatly enhanced during the first months of 1559 when Beza was joined by several former members of the teaching staff of the Academy of Lausanne. In 1558 a disagreement arose between the Lausanne town council and the ministers of the city, resulting in the mass exodus of the entire teaching staff, many students, and most of the ministers of Lausanne.19 The Genevan Borch-Bonger, “Un ami de Jacques Amyot: Henry Scringer” in Mélanges offerts à M. Abel Lefranc (Paris, 1936), 362–373; James Maitland Anderson (ed.), Early Records of the University of St Andrews (Edinburgh, 1926), 128, 132, 231. 16 ╇ Ibid., 52, 92, 638; Beza wrote, “Si, comme nous l’espérons de sa bonté, Dieu qui a inspiré ces desseins en assure l’heureuse exécution, on songera à achiever ce qui a été commencé, soit aussi à ajouter le reste, à savoir l’enseignement du droit et de la médecine.” Cf. also Maag, Seminary or University? 25–27; Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 49. 17 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 23. 18 ╇ Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 39–40. 19 ╇ Ibid., 38.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

105

Academy became the direct beneficiary of this rupture, receiving from Lausanne its first professor of Hebrew Antoine-Raoul Chevalier, professor of Greek François Bérauld, and professor of arts Jean Tagaut.20 All of these scholars had been Beza’s academic colleagues at Lausanne while he had occupied the chair of Greek. From its inception, the Genevan Academy, in keeping with the trilingual institutions at Louvain and Paris, promoted the New Learning, stressing both the value and necessity of the mastery of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.21 What distinguished the Academy of Geneva from its trilingual counterparts in Louvain and Paris was its distinctively Reformed confessional character. Students of both the schola privata and the schola publica of the Academy were required to subscribe to a lengthy confessional statement in order to matriculate, underscoring its distinctively religious character.22 In this academic environment and intellectual milieu Melville labored and further pursued his humanistic and theological interests. Melville traveled from Poitiers to Geneva on foot with a Frenchman, leaving everything behind but a little Hebrew Bible, which he carried in his belt.23 In addition to being conducive for travel, his choice of this book above all others underscores his deeply held humanistic value of the study of ancient languages and indicates the religious direction of his future studies. His study of the Hebrew language, which he began at the Collège Royal under Mercier and Cinqarbres, he intended to continue at Geneva under Corneille Bertram or Cornelius Bertramus.24 Indeed, it is probably this same Hebrew text which he continued to carry on his person and which he famously thrust on the table fifteen years later in 1584 before James VI and his privy council in Edinburgh.25 Presumably, Melville’s Reformed colleagues at Poitiers had provided him with the necessary introductory letters when he arrived at the gates

20 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 14; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 638; Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 28–29. On Tagaut see Marcel Raymond, “Jean Tagaut, poète français et bourgeois de Genève,” Revue du XVIe siècle, 12 (1925), 98–140. 21 ╇ Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 20–21; Lewis, “The Geneva€AcadÂ� emy,” 43. 22 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 16–17; Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 47–48. 23 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 41. 24 ╇ Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 41; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 638. 25 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 142.

106

chapter four

of Geneva.26 After persuading the guards that they were not “pure scollars” and that he had “letters from his acquentance to Monsieur di Beza,” they were permitted to enter the city and were taken to him.27 Melville’s letters of introduction are likely to have briefly described his previous academic study in Scotland and France, his work as a classical instructor at Paris and Poitiers, and his adherence to Reformed Protestantism. Sadly, however, these documents have not survived. We are told by James Melville that upon meeting the young Scot, “Beza, perceaving him a schollar … put him within a twa or thrie dayes to tryell in Virgill and Homer.”28 If procedures were followed in Melville’s case, he was interviewed and examined by the company of pastors and subsequently approved by the small council of the city of Geneva.29 Upon sustaining these exams, James Melville maintained that his uncle was made “a Professour of Humanitie in the Collage.”30 Thomas McCrie, following James Melville, wrote of Melville filling “the chair of Humanity … in their Academy.”31 As Charles Borgeaud observed at the beginning of the last century, neither assertion can be supported from the records of the council. Although the Academy of Geneva was comprised of both the schola privata and the schola publica, each schola remained distinct. Instead of serving as a professor in the schola publica of the Academy, Melville served as a regent in the second class of the schola privata.32 Both James Melville and McCrie confused two distinct yet interconnected aspects of the Genevan Academy and, as such, exaggerated Melville’s position. Whereas the schola privata was the “lower-level Latin school,” the schola publica was “commonly regarded as the Academy ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 269. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 41. Cf. H. M. B. Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654 (Glasgow, 1917), 17. Reid conjectures that Melville was annoyed by this remark since St Leonard’s College was the college of poor scholars and Melville was “a St Mary’s College man.” While such a supposition is possible, it is more likely given his own awareness of the situation that Geneva did not need two more poor scholars. 28 ╇ Ibid. 29 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 17–18. 30 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 41–42; Cf. also Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh During its First Three Hundred Years (London, 1884), 127; Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 17. Grant wrote that “Melville had been Professor there from 1569 to 1574” while Reid maintained that Melville was “appointed as professor of Humanity (Latin) in the Collège de Genève.” 31 ╇ Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. I (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824), 32. 32 ╇ Fatio and Labarthe, Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, III, 23; Charles Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” American Historical Review, 5:2 (1899), 287; Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 109. 26 27



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

107

proper.”33 Thus, Melville was nominated, along with Hugues Roy, on 10 November 1569 a regent in the schola privata of the Genevan Academy.34 While it is true that Melville’s position in the Academy has been exaggerated and that his timing was crucial, his immediate appointment in the schola privata to teach Latin and Greek may be viewed as a recognition of his classical attainments. Certainly, this appointment contributed further to his growing European reputation. Having lectured in Greek at the Collège Royal and served as a regent at the University of Poitiers for three years, Melville only enhanced his reputation as a classical scholar through this appointment.35 As Hume Brown once maintained, Melville “might hold his own against any foreign scholar in the matter of classical attainments.”36 Indeed, when one surveys the scholarly contingent in Geneva during this period and considers the intellectual stature of Theodore Beza, François Portus, Pierre Charpentier, Corneille Bertram, Job Veyrat, Joseph Scaliger, Lambert Daneau, François Hotman, Ennemond de Bonnefoy, Henry Scrimgeour, Henri Estienne, Paul Melissus, and Jacques Lect, Melville’s appointment in the schola privata may be viewed as a testimony to his abilities as a classical scholar and a recognition of his literary attainments.37 To be sure, the timing of Melville’s arrival and appointment was indeed fortuitous. Had he arrived in Geneva at a time when there were no vacancies in either schola, his experience would have undoubtedly been different. However, there is no reason to treat as mutually exclusive Melville’s abilities and attainments on the one hand and his timely arrival in Geneva on the other.38 While it is important not to exaggerate either Melville’s position in the schola privata or how he was selected to serve in it, it is equally critical not to diminish his abilities and growing reputation in accounting for his appointment. What is clear from James Melville’s account and from other historical sources is that his uncle

╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 9; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 43. ╇ Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 287. 35 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 39. At the conclusion of his time at St Andrews Melville had earned the reputation of “the best philosopher, poet, and Grecian, of anie young maister in the land.” 36 ╇ P. Hume Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer, (Edinburgh, 1890),€236. 37 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 638–639; Louis Clément, Henri Estienne et Son Oeuvre Français (Paris, 1899), 2. 38 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 33. 33 34

108

chapter four

exhibited such proficiency in Latin and Greek during his examination that his appointment was natural and obvious especially in light of the vacancies created in the Academy due to the plague.39 During the years 1567–1572 the Academy suffered from recurring outbreaks of the plague, which served as an obvious deterrent and took its toll on both the staff and students. In 1568 Frederick III, Elector Palatine, removed his son Christopher, Count Palatine, from the schola publica due to the plague, while in 1571 Job Veyrat, lecturer in arts, died and François Portus, lecturer in Greek, as well as the visiting scholar Thomas Cartwright were both incapacitated because if it.40 In 1569, the very year of Melville’s arrival, the schola privata had lost two of its regents to the plague and by 1571 the situation had deteriorated to the point that Beza himself had to assume responsibility for some of the public lecturing.41 Beza wrote to Heinrich Bullinger on 19 September 1571: “Le collège inférieur est dispersé. Je soutiens seul ce qui reste de l’école publique, pour autant que mes forces le permettent” (“The lower college is disorganized. I alone am sustaining this with the rest of the public school, for as far as my strength permits.”)42 While the Academy in both its parts suffered significantly from the plague, losing students and faculty by withdrawal, physical incapacity, or even death, it is possible that Beza exaggerated the situation.43 Although Melville, like Cartwright, may have succumbed to the plague, contributing to the disarray of the schola privata, James Melville gave no indication of this in his cursory account of his uncle’s time in 39 ╇ The cumulative list of Melville’s classical attainments made him an obvious choice. Due to his early and uncommon acquisition of Greek in the late 1550s prior to his entry at university, his reputation at St Mary’s, his study under Turnèbe and lecturing in Paris, and his study and teaching in Poitiers, Melville had accumulated an impressive set of credentials. Indeed, he may even have been overqualified for the rather modest post. 40 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 31; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 119, 638; Beza wrote to Heinrich Bullinger on 19 September 1571: “La peste nous infeste très fort et d’autres maladies s’y joignent qui en emportent beaucoup. Job Veyrat professeur de philosophie est mort. Portus, qui est plus que sexagénaire, souffre de la fièvre. Un Anglais, homme pieux et savant, qui nous était d’un grand secours, commence à languir.” Cf. A.F. Scott Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603 (Cambridge, 1925), 49. 41 ╇ Ibid., 31–32. 42 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 119. 43 ╇ Ibid., 120. Beza wrote to Bullinger on 16 October 1571: “La contagion semble perdre pied dans la ville, presque réduite en solitude. Mais comme le mal a gagné d’un côté Lausanne et de l’autre Lyon et qu’il fait rage sur les deux rives de notre lac, je ne sais où placer quelque espérance, si ce n’est en la clémence infinie de notre Dieu qui certe ne nous abandonnera pas.”



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

109

Geneva. If he had suffered from the plague, one would expect, given the other accounts provided by him of Melville’s health, to find some mention of it in his narrative history. We do know from Melville’s 1574 testimonial that, in addition to being commended for his diligent service to the Academy, his service to the victims of the plague is mentioned.44 Moreover, we also know that Melville was absent from Geneva from July to September 1570 when he traveled with his fellow Scotsman Gilbert Moncrieff to Lausanne to attend Ramus’ lectures on dialectic.45 Yet this brief absence could hardly have contributed to any sort of crisis faced by the faculty of either school. We also know that a severe outbreak of the plague forced the temporary closing of the Academy during 1570.46 And yet even if Beza in 1571 was not exaggerating the situation and the schola privata was in disarray, his remarks to Bullinger need not be interpreted to mean that the entire faculty of the schola privata was incapacitated and incapable of fulfilling their academic responsibilities. Indeed, given what we know of Melville’s robust health during his adult life, it would not be surprising if he had remained unaffected by the plague during his time in Geneva.47 Nevertheless, his continued presence and classical instruction must have functioned as a stabilizing force in the midst of debilitating losses. The schola privata of the Genevan Academy consisted of seven distinct classes. The regents were responsible to conduct the students through the successive grades preparing them for the more advanced studies offered in the schola publica. The curriculum spread over the 44 ╇ Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 288–289. 45 ╇ Ibid., 288; The Council of Lausanne records the following: “Le 5 septembre 1570 André Melvin et Gilbert Mengrifz, escolliers escossois, prennent congé.” Cf also Frank Pierrepont Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1912), 99–100. 46 ╇ Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 60; Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603, 48. 47 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 197–198; Melvini epistolae, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh, 329. During the winter months of 1608 at the age of 62, Melville was subjected to extreme cold weather as a prisoner in the Tower of London as evidenced by the fact that the Thames remained continuously frozen for several months. Despite being exposed to the harsh living conditions of the Tower, Melville’s health remained unaffected. In fact, as evidence of his good health and mental attitude, the humanist wrote his nephew James a letter in Greek communicating that his health remained strong. Although toward the end of his life during his exile in Sedan he suffered from rheumatism, gout, and gravel, these maladies were not uncommon to a person of his advanced age during this period and consequently do not indicate a weak constitution.

110

chapter four

seven classes focused primarily upon the mastery of Latin and Greek, as embodied in the classical authors of the Greco-Roman world, as well as on religious instruction and practice.48 In the seventh and lowest class the young boys were taught to read and write French and Latin using the bilingual Catechism. In the sixth class the students studied Latin grammar in relation to French grammar, and in the fifth class they examined Latin syntax and began to practice Latin composition, taking the Bucolics of Vergil as their model of eloquence. After several years of careful study of the rudiments of the Latin language, the students in the fourth class were introduced to more advanced Latin, analyzing the Letters of Cicero, the Elegies of Ovid, Tristia, and Ex Ponto.49 The students in the fourth class also received an introduction to the study of Greek. When they progressed to the third class, in addition to an intensive study of Greek grammar, they were taught to interpret Cicero’s Letters, De Amicitia, De Senectute in Greek and Latin, Vergil’s Aeneid, Caesar’s Commentaries, and the Hortatory Speeches of Isocrates. The second class of the schola privata, while utilizing the Latin history of Livy and the Greek histories of Xenophon, Polybius, or Herodian, also progressed to the difficult task of reading the Greek poet Homer. Both The Paradoxes and shorter Speeches of Cicero were to be included as part of the curriculum of the second class. The first and most advanced class was introduced to the rudiments of dialectic or logic and rhetoric and was guided through the speeches of Demosthenes in the Olynthiacs and Philippics as well as in the Orations of Cicero.50 This class was taught how to cultivate the elegant use of Latin and Greek and was instructed in poetic word choice by carefully analyzing the works of Homer and Vergil.51 Within this sevenfold division of classes, Melville’s primary academic responsibilities were to the more mature students of the schola privata and involved advanced instruction in both Greek and Latin literature, focusing primarily upon the genres of history and poetry. As a regent in the schola privata, he was also required to sit with and oversee his pupils during the two Sunday services, the catechism class, and the Wednesday ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 16. ╇ Also known by the title Epistulae ex Ponto. Cf. Jan Felix Gaertner (ed. and trans.), Epistulae Ex Ponto, Book I: Epistulae Ex Ponto, Book 1 (Oxford, 2005). 50 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 628–629; W. Stanford Reid, “Calvin and the Founding of the Academy of Geneva,” Westminster Theological Journal, 18 (Nov., 1955), 27–28. 51 ╇ Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 41–42; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 43–44; Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 24. 48 49



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

111

and Saturday morning sermons. This involvement by the regents in the spiritual exercises and discipline of their pupils contributed to the distinctive character of the education offered at the Genevan Academy and underscores its peculiarly religious nature.52 While Melville served as a classical scholar in the schola privata, he availed himself of the remarkable opportunities for study in the schola publica not only in the area of theological and biblical study but even more broadly in humane studies. From its inception a primary objective of the schola publica had been to provide the French Reformed Church with ministers and thus aid France in the continuing work of religious reform.53 The Protestant Reformed character of the school was firmly established by the central role given to the Genevan company of pastors in overseeing the operation of the Academy, the provision of theological€and exegetical instruction, the model of a linguistically based textual€ scholarship, and the requirement of doctrinal adherence by its students.54 Although there was a firm adherence to the Reformed faith in both schools of the Academy, there was as well an unyielding commitment to the intrinsic value of the studia humanitatis in preparing scholars for service in the ecclesiastical, academic, and civil spheres of society. The schola publica, no less than the schola privata, reflected a certain type of classicism by promoting the study of bonae litterae.55 Two of the three original public professors were to devote a significant portion of their instruction to the examination of what the pagan authors of antiquity had to offer in such areas as moral philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, history, and ethics. The professor of Greek, for example, was to lecture not on the New Testament but upon the moral philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch or a Christian philosopher. In the afternoons, he was supposed to read from some Greek historian, poet, or orator who possessed the purest literary style. Likewise, after dinner the professor of arts was to expound Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the best known of Cicero’s orations as

52 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 16; Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 40. For a broader consideration of the role of the Genevan consistory in the exercise of discipline see E. William Monter, “The Consistory of Geneva, 1559–1569” Bibliothèque d’ Humanisme et Renaissance Travaux et Documents, 38 (1976), 467–484. 53 ╇ Cf. David Nichols, “France” in Andrew Pettegree (ed.), The Early Reformation in Europe (Cambridge, 1992), 120–141. 54 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 19; Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 46, 48; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 44. 55 ╇ Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 44.

112

chapter four

well his treatise on rhetoric De oratore. Even in the very formation of definitions and distinctions, students in the schola publica were taught to employ in the process “the approved Aristotelian-Ciceronian manner.” Despite the perilous tendencies that were thought to accompany the study of poetry, instruction in it found a place as a catalyst in the interpretation of Scripture.56 In all of these respects the Academy of Geneva showed itself to be a thoroughly humanistic institution devoted to the careful study of the authors of classical antiquity and to the cultivation of elegant Latin and Greek. The distinguishing feature of this humanist approach was its recognition of the normative function of Scripture in determining from the profane authors of antiquity what was compatible with it. Melville’s Genevan Circle Equally if not more formative to Melville’s work as a classical scholar in the schola privata were the scholars he sat under and the relationships he formed with his fellow humanists during his five years in Switzerland. Prior to his arrival in 1569, the Academy during the first five years of its existence enjoyed considerable success, drawing students from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, France, and the other Swiss cantons.57 During these years the Academy attracted a number of students who subsequently distinguished themselves, such as Jean de Serres, the future rector of the Academy of Nîmes, Florent Chrestien, later tutor to henri of Navarre, Philippe Marnix who became counselor to William of Orange, Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library, Peter Young, subsequent tutor to James VI, Philippe Birgan, later teacher of Hebrew at Cambridge and Saumur, Simon Girard and Michel Hortin, who served as professors of Greek and Hebrew at Lausanne, and Jacob Ulrich who became professor of Latin and Logic in Zurich.58 Despite the diminished numbers during the years 1567–1572 on account of the plague, Geneva continued to attract distinguished scholars, such as Corneille Bertram, Joseph Scaliger, Lambert Daneau, and François Hotman, who greatly enhanced the Academy’s intellectual life and

╇ Ibid., 43. ╇ Ibid., 49–50. 58 ╇ Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 31; Lewis, “The Geneva AcadÂ� emy,”€50. 56 57



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

113

Â� reputation throughout Europe.59 The years 1557–1587 have been called “the heyday of Calvinist Geneva” due in large part to the extraordinary collection of scholars who resided in the city during those years.60 Driven to Geneva by severe social instability brought about by the French wars of religion and the massacres of St Bartholomew’s Day, they ensured that Geneva became not only a city of refuge for French Protestants but a city teeming with more scholars than it was able to support financially.61 Melville’s position in the schola privata gave him natural access and opportunity to forge relationships with other members of the faculty, as well as visiting scholars who held no official position in the Academy. When Melville arrived in Geneva in late 1569, Henry Scrimgeour had been residing there since 1561.62 A fellow Scot from Dundee who was connected with the Melvilles of Baldovy through the marriage of his sister Isobel to Richard Melville, Scrimgeour’s presence in Geneva may in fact have been another significant factor in attracting the young€humanist to the Swiss city.63 Educated at St Andrews, Scrimgeour distinguished himself as a young scholar and, upon the completion of his studies, traveled to Paris where he sat under the humanists Guillaume Budé and Petrus Ramus.64 After studying briefly under the Scottish logician William Cranston, he proceeded to the University of Bourges to study civil law for four years under Éguinaire Baron and François Le Douaren.65 During his time in Bourges, Scrimgeour forged a Â�relationship with the Greek scholar Jacques Amyot and, on his recommendation,€became the private tutor to the sons of the secretary of state

╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 32, 46. ╇ Gillian Lewis, “Calvinism in Geneva in the time of Calvin and of Beza (1541–1605)” in Menna Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541–1715, 40–41. 61 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 42. 62 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 73–75, 638. 63 ╇ John Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Fugger Librarian: A Biographical Note,” Bibliotheck, 3 (1960–1962), 68. Durkan refers to Scrimgeour as “an uncle of Andrew Melville.” Cf. also Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 20. Melville is identified as “another nephew.” 64 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 128, 132; Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 2; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 73; Marie-Claude Tucker, “Scrimgeour, Henry (1505?–1572),” Oxford Dictionary National Biography, Vol. 49 (Oxford, 2004), 536–537. Durkan includes Adrian Turnèbe as one of Scrimgeour’s instructors in Paris. 65 ╇ Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 2. On William Cranston see Alexander Broadie, The Tradition of Scottish Philosophy: A New Perspective on the Enlightenment (Edinburgh, 1990); “Cranston, William (c.1513–1562),” ODNB, Vol. 14 (Oxford, 2004), 38–39. 59 60

114

chapter four

Guillaume€Bochetel.66 After several years of service, Scrimgeour returned to Scotland having been commended by Bochetel to Mary of Guise as a ‘homme de honneste vie, de vertu et de grand sçavoir tant en lettres grecques que latines’.67 Between the years 1558 and 1564 Scrimgeour served Ulrich Fugger by traveling between Augsburg and Italy collecting rare books and manuscripts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.68 As an accomplished Hellenist, Scrimgeour had been offered in 1562 the chair of Greek in the Genevan Academy which had recently been vacated by François Bérauld in 1561. Although he declined the offer, he was subsequently persuaded by Calvin in 1563 to serve as a lecturer in arts succeeding Claude Baduel.69 After a short period of service, he was appointed a professor of law in 1565 and served in that capacity until 1568.70 Contrary to McCrie’s assertion that the Scot occupied the chair of civil law in the Academy until his death in 1572,71 Scrimgeour’s lectures on jurisprudence were so poorly attended and attracted such bitter complaints from the students that the Genevan magistrates forced him to resign his post in 1568.72 Despite his forced resignation and the unexpected death of his wife that same year, Scrimgeour continued to reside in the fourteenthcentury castle known as Villette located just outside of Geneva€on€the€river Arve.73 James Melville remarked that during his uncle’s time€in€Geneva he became “weill acquented with my eam, Mr. Hendrie ScrymÂ�geour” and was said to have been “a frequent visitor at his lodgings in town, and also at the Violet.”74 Melville’s esteem and affection for Scrimgeour may 66 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 73. Cf. Borch-Bonger, “Un ami de Jacques Amyot: Henry Scringer” in Mélanges offerts à M. Abel Lefranc (Paris, 1936), 362–373. 67 ╇Tucker, “Scrimgeour, Henry (1505?–1572),” 536–537. 68 ╇ Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 12–18; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 39–40; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 73; Tucker, “Scrimgeour, Henry (1505?–1572),” 536–537; Paget Toynbee, “The Vatican Text (Cod. Vat. –Palat. Lat. 1729) of the Letters of Dante,” Modern Language Review, 7 (Jan., 1912), 2; E. H. Kaden, “Ulrich Fugger et son Projet de Créer à Genève une ‘Librairie’ publique,” Geneva, 7 (1959), 127–136. 69 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 74; Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 17; Tucker, “Scrimgeour, Henry (1505?–1572),” 536–537. 70 ╇ Ibid., 73–75, 92, 638. 71 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 40. 72 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 27; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 638; Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 18. 73 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 78; Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 19. 74 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 41; Melville, JMAD, 42.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

115

be seen in a poem he wrote in honor of the humanist, entitled De vita et obitu clarissimi viri domini Henrici Scrimgeri, jurisconsulti ac philosophi peritissimi.75 Scrimgeour’s estimation of Melville is recorded by the young Scot, who after declining repeated requests to return to Scotland to tutor the young James VI, was urged by Scrimgeour “Te, Meluine … te patria alma vocat” (You, Melville …our nourishing home calls you”).76 Melville’s own love for Scrimgeour was seen most demonstrably in the impact of his death on him in September 1572. Overcome by grief at the enormous personal loss of a dear friend, relative, and esteemed father, Melville asked Andrew Polwarth to inform Scrimgeour’s nephew Peter Young of his death.77 For Melville Scrimgeour’s death represented not merely the loss of one of the sixteenth-century’s finest Scottish humanists but more poignantly the loss of a close friend and fatherfigure. In Scrimgeour, Melville had found not only a kindred humanist whose love of Greek literature, devotion to the new jurisprudence, extensive travels, and unique collection of rare books and manuscripts were a source of intellectual refreshment and stimulation but also a fellow countryman with whom he had a natural affinity and regarded as a father.78 Although belonging to different generations, their travels throughout Europe gave each a common, cosmopolitan outlook on life. Indeed, Melville declared of his fellow Scot “Cosmopolita fuit Scrimgerus” (“Scrimgeour was refined”).79 Their study at the universities of St€Andrews

75 ╇ Andrew Melville, “De vita et obitu Clarissimi Viri Domini Henrici Scrimgeri, Jurisconsulti ac Philosophi peritissimi,” Bodleian, Cherry MS. 5. Melville wrote: “Fando ornare tuas laudes non Daedala fandi / Copia, non Pitho, non Dea Suada queat, / Sol secli, Scrimgere, tui, decus addite Diuis! / Par laudi immensae fama nec ipsa tuae. / Qui docto antiquas Latio instaurauit Athenas / Et Romano orbi ius vetus atque nouum / Scrimgerus laudum libans fastigia carpit / Omnia, laude maior et inuidia.” 76 ╇ Ibid. Melville wrote: “â•›‘Te, Meluine,’ inquit, ‘te patria alma vocat; / Cui melior iuueni sanguis, cui robur ab annis: / Redde animi, ingenii, consiliique tui / Ostende et lumen patriae: et vestigia dele / Et luxu et fastu turgida Pontificum.” 77 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, June 1573, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 29; Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 31; “Henry Scrimgeour, Fugger Librarian: A Biographical Note,” 69. Melville wrote: “Quum ex Scrimgeri morte hausissem tantum virus acerbitatis, quantum ex optimi Parentis obitu filius amantissimus haurire potuit maximum, ea tempora consequuta sunt, quae maerorem animi mirum quantum augerent, si meus hic dolor accessionem capere posset.” 78 ╇ Melville, “De vita et obitu Clarissimi Viri Domini Henrici Scrimgeri,” Bodleian, Cherry MS. 5. Melville wrote of Scrimgeour the bibliophile: “Fuggerana Palatinae stat bibliothecae / Aemula; Scrimgero cura utriusque fuit /. Huc spolia, huc praedas, huc rapti orientis honores / Transtulit; his orbi floruit occiduo. / Macte animo, diuine heros: haec clara tropaea / Sunt tua, luxum et opes barbarus hostis habet.” 79 ╇ Ibid.

116

chapter four

and Paris, as well as their exposure to some of the greatest minds of the French Renaissance, naturally attracted them to each other and provided the basis for an immediate rapport, a mutual understanding, and an intimate friendship. This common intellectual culture of European humanism further augmented their familial and national bonds and served only to accentuate their strong personal ties. As he had done in Paris, while in Geneva Melville devoted himself to the mastery of the ancient languages Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac.80 Just two years before his arrival in Geneva, Corneille Bertram had been appointed professor of Hebrew at the Academy in 1567 and continued in that capacity for the next nineteen years until 1586. Bertram had fled to Geneva during the first war of religion, becoming a pastor in the city and, in consequence of his marriage, a nephew of Beza.81 Trained in bonae litterae in Paris, especially studying the Hebrew language under Jean Mercier during the years 1553–1556, Bertram proceeded, in typical humanist fashion, from there to Toulouse where he commenced his study of jurisprudence for six years. While in Toulouse he embraced the€ Reformed religion, began preaching, and later accepted a call to a€rural parish where, in his leisure, he was able to revisit his first studies€of the Hebrew language. When in 1566 for health reasons AntoineRaoul Chevalier stepped down from the chair of Hebrew at the Academy,€Bertram replaced him and was appointed professor of Hebrew in 1567.82 In addition to providing much needed continuity to the study of Hebrew and its cognate languages for almost two decades in the young Academy, Bertram published two significant works in 1574. The first work, entitled De politia judaïca explored the ancient Jewish polity and religious organization and was dedicated to Beza, who had commissioned the work.83 Bertram recognized his debts to his fellow humanist and produced a scholarly volume which was valued by those in the Reformed church.84

╇ Melville, JMAD, 42. ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 102, 638. 82 ╇ Ibid., 102–103. 83 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 40; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 103. The full title is De politia judaica, tam civili quam ecclesiastica, jam inde a suis primordiis, hoc est, ab Orbe condito, repetita. 84 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 103–104. 80 81



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

117

The second of Bertram’s works compared Hebrew and Aramaic grammar and was entitled Comparatio grammaticæ Hebraicæ & Aramaicæ.85 The work not only exhibited a remarkable knowledge of these ancient near-eastern languages, but it was well received by the scholarly community in Geneva and was accompanied by the Latin epigrams of Antoine de la Faye and Andrew Melville.86 Melville’s enthusiasm for the work led him to compose four Latin poems, recommending it to the world of ancient near-eastern scholarship.87 Both volumes by Bertram were of particular interest to him and were undoubtedly influential in the development of his views of ecclesiastical polity and in his Â�understanding of the languages of Hebrew and Aramaic. Just as he had shared a love of Greek and an appreciation of the new jurisprudence with Scrimgeour, so Melville found in Bertram a mutual passion for Hebrew and its cognate languages and a shared interest in civil and ecclesiastical polity. Not only were they drawn together in Geneva by their common humanistic interests and values, but they both were products of the Collège Royal and both had studied under the same instructor, Jean Mercier. Far from being superficial similarities, these common experiences, influences, and interests constituted the basis upon which Melville’s relationship with Bertram was founded and developed. His epigrams indicate not merely his high estimate of Bertram’s erudition and eloquence, but they exhibit his own command of the Latin language. Their inclusion intimates Bertram’s own high regard for Melville’s abilities as a neo-Latin poet and a judge of ancient near-eastern languages. Thus, despite Melville’s youth and lack of scholarly publications, he enjoyed a collegiality and scholarly rapport with Bertram due in large part to his own impressive attainments in the field of Semitic languages. In addition to attending the lectures of Bertram,88 Melville endeavored to perfect his knowledge of classical Greek by sitting under the

85 ╇ Ibid., 104. The full title is: Comparatio grammaticæ Hebraicæ & Aramicæ atque adeo dialectorum Aramicarum inter se: concinnata ex Hebraicis Antonij Ceuallerij præceptionibus, Aramicisque doctorum aliorum virorum obseruationibus: quibus & quamplurimæ aliæ in utraque lingua adiectæ sunt. 86 ╇ Cornelius Bertram, Comparatio grammaticæ Hebraicæ & Aramicæ (Geneva, 1574). 87 ╇ Ibid.; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 33; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 104. 88 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 42.

118

chapter four

“Greik born” François Portus, who served as professor of Greek in the Academy from 1561 until 1581.89 When François Bérauld stepped down from his position as lecturer in Greek in 1561, Pierre Viret wrote to Calvin commending Portus to him saying, “C’est un homme fort instruit dans les bonnes lettres, d’une piété solide et plein de zèle pour la religion réformée” (“This is a strong man educated in good literature, of a robust piety and full of zeal for the reformed religion.”).90 The classical scholar Isaac Casaubon, who succeeded Portus when appointed professor of Greek at the Academy in 1582, described his predecessor as a man whose “Sincera pietas, virtus excellens, et singularis doctrina, bonis omnibus venerabilem reddebant.” (“sincere piety, eminent virtue, and remarkable learning, restored all good men to that which is venerable”).91 During his lifetime Portus edited and published texts from Homer, Aphthonius, Hermogenes, and Dionysius Longinus, as well as a translation of the hymns of Synesius of Cyrenia.92 However, his most significant literary works were published posthumously by his son Emile Portus who succeeded Melville upon his departure as regent of the second class in the schola privata and who subsequently served as a professor at Lausanne and Heidelberg.93 After Portus’ death, his son published his commentaries on Pindar in 1583, his introductions to all of the plays of Sophocles in 1584, his commentaries on Xenophon in 1586, and a collaborative Greek-Latin lexicon in 1592. Although it is impossible to say with certainty that these posthumous publications were derived from Portus’ public lectures in the Academy, this remains a distinct possibility.94 In attending his lectures, Melville appears to have become “an intimate friend of Portus” such that “he wald reassone about the right pronuntiation” of the Greek language with his colleague and instructor.95 Whereas Portus “pronuncit it efter the comoun form, keeping the accents,” Melville had adopted an alternative method of pronunciation that was “controllit be precepts and reasone.” Exasperated at the audacity ╇ Ibid; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 638. ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 77, 638. 91 ╇ Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603, 49; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 34. 92 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 41. 93 ╇ Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 288; Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 76. 94 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 41; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 76–77. 95 ╇ Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603, 49; Melville, JMAD, 42. 89 90



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

119

of the young humanist correcting the pronunciation of his own native tongue, the Greek would exclaim, “vos Scoti, vos barbari! Docebitis nos Græcos pronunciationem linguæ nostræ, scilicet?” (“You Scots, you barbarians! Will you teach Greeks like me the pronounciation of our own language?”)96 In these confrontations Melville appears to have adopted the new method of pronunciation first introduced in Paris by Ramus but which actually had been promoted earlier by Erasmus himself. In 1528 Erasmus had advanced a new and improved method of pronunciation in his dialogue between Leo and Ursus, entitled de recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione. Although some scholars in Germany, such as Melanchthon, continued to follow the method passed down by Reuchlin, who had learned his method from scholars of the Italian Renaissance, in England at Cambridge Erasmus’ innovation was warmly received by the young scholars John Cheke, Thomas Smith, John Ponet, Roger Ascham, and John Redman. In Geneva the learned printer and humanist Henri Estienne also promoted this new method.97 Just as the Erasmian method of pronunciation had made inroads into Cambridge and Geneva, so it had apparently made its way into Paris via Ramus at the Collège Royal where Melville had immersed himself so thoroughly in the study of the Greek language. Thus Melville’s apparent impertinence was actually grounded in a different method of pronunciation and is reflective of a later and more critical effort by northern European humanists to correct a perceived incongruity in the development of the Greek language. His willingness to engage Portus in this manner also suggests not merely the young Scot’s excessive selfconfidence and audacity but a close relationship in which such arguments could be expressed in a lively and forcible manner and legitimate disagreements could be tolerated. Several years after he left Geneva, Melville continued to remember with great fondness his Greek instructor and friend.98 While in Geneva, Melville continued his study of the new jurisprudence by auditing the lectures of one of the most distinguished legal scholars of the sixteenth century François Hotman.99 Like Lambert

╇ Melville, JMAD, 42. ╇ Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, 54–57, 63. A treatise by Terentianus, entitled de Litteris et Syllabis, was also received well by a number of scholars at Cambridge. 98 ╇ Andrew Melville, “Epitaphium Jacobi Lindesii” in Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (Amsterdami, 1637), Vol. II, 123. 99 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 42. 96 97

120

chapter four

Daneau, Joseph Scaliger, Hughes Doneau, and Ennemond de Bonnefoy, Hotman had fled to Geneva for safety in 1572 following the events of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres.100 Perceiving the signs of serious social instability as indicated by the attempt on Coligny’s life in the summer of 1572, with the help of his students he barely escaped from Bourges and a most certain death.101 Having been asked by la Compagnie to deliver law lectures without financial compensation, both Hotman and Doneau agreed and began lecturing in October 1572. This temporary arrangement was brought to an end for Doneau when in January 1573 he accepted a position as a professor of law at the University of Heidelberg.102 Fearful of losing Hotman and needing to secure a replacement for Doneau, la Compagnie elicited the services of Cujas’ colleague and would-be successor Bonnefoy.103 On 14 May 1573 the magistrates of Geneva persuaded Hotman and Bonnefoy to agree to a three year contract at 800 and 700 florins respectively. On 24 May, less than two weeks later, Bonnefoy began lecturing on Justinian’s Pandects while Hotman commenced his lectures on Justinian’s Code. Prior to coming to Geneva, Bonnefoy had been an extremely popular lecturer at Valence due in large part to his extensive knowledge of Byzantine law. Under the direction of Henri Estienne, he published in 1573 in Geneva the first work to explicate the civil and ecclesiastical legislation of Byzantium entitled Juris Orientalis. This work immediately established Bonnefoy’s European reputation as an accomplished legal scholar. Sadly, his services to the Academy were cut short by his untimely death on 10 February 1574.104 Although James Melville does not mention either Doneau or Bonnefoy as lecturers that his uncle audited while in Geneva, given Melville’s general humanistic interests, his particular devotion to the study of the new jurisprudence, and his ardent love of

100 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 123–127, 132; Maag, Seminary or University? 42, 47. 101 ╇ Donald R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship Language, Law and History in the French Renaissance, (New York, 1970), 206. 102 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 47; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève,€128. 103 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 44; Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 126, 128. McCrie, citing Cujacii Observationes, writes that Cujas “esteemed him so highly as to declare, that if he were dying, and desired, like Aristotle, to choose his successor, he would name Bonnefoy.” 104 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 128–129. The extended title is Juris Orientalis libri III, ab Enimundo Bonefidio J.C. digesti, ac notis illustrati et nunc primum in lucem editi cum Latina interpretatione.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

121

Greek, there is a very strong likelihood that he did, in fact, attend their lectures.105 The list of names James Melville includes in his Diary should not be understood as an exhaustive or comprehensive account of all of the scholars with whom Melville formed relationships or studied under but rather as a representative sample of the most distinguished scholars with whom he was associated. Identified by James Melville as “the renounedest lawer in his tyme,” Hotman had built an “immense scholarly reputation” prior to coming to Geneva.106 Lecturing first on Roman law at the University of Paris in 1546, rhetoric and dialectic at Lausanne from 1550–1555, and civil law at Strasbourg, Valence, and Bourges, Hotman had earned the reputation as a first-rate scholar of jurisprudence.107 Despite his commentary on the Twelve Tables, his study of Roman coinage, and his survey of the history of Roman law, Hotman became increasingly wary of the study of Roman law due in large part to its associations with the corruptions found in Italian society. He even progressively developed doubts regarding the worth of legal humanism due to its relationship with Italian culture.108 In 1567 he published his Anti-Tribonianus in which he underscored the value of humanistic and literary studies during the students’ early years, and yet he ultimately maintained that the study of Roman law held no significant place in French schools. Indeed, the Anti-Tribonianus has been called “the most radical of all works issuing from the historical school of law” and “an obituary for legal humanism.”109 Notwithstanding his objection to the Code of Justinian as an incomplete compilation of Roman law, Hotman accepted a chair of Roman law at the Genevan Academy and lectured on the very code which he had criticized so sharply.110 105 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville, I, 45; Maag, Seminary or University? 27. In this respect it is also possible, though less likely in light of the circumstances, that Melville attended the lectures of Pierre Charpentier. Suspected of ethical impropriety, displeased with his failure to fulfill his teaching responsibilities, and dissatisfied with his success as a lecturer, the Genevan magistrates eventually dismissed Charpentier on 23 January 1570. 106 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 42; Maag, Seminary or University? 48. 107 ╇ Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship Language, Law and History in the French Renaissance, 106–107; Linton C. Stevens, “The Contribution of French Jurists to the Humanism of the Renaissance,” Studies in the Renaissance, I (1954), 101. 108 ╇ Ibid., 107–109. 109 ╇ Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship Language, Law and History in the French Renaissance, 109. 110 ╇ Stevens, “The Contribution of French Jurists to the Humanism of the Renaissance,” 101–102; Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship Language, Law and

122

chapter four

The work for which Hotman is most well known, the Francogallia, was published in Geneva in 1573 in the wake of the events of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres. Like Buchanan, who began to compose the first draft of his 1579 De iure regni in 1567, Hotman probably began writing the Francogallia in that same year and subsequently expanded it in 1576 and 1586.111 Compelled to formulate the precise nature and limits of legitimate government and the conditions under which political resistance is warranted, the Francogallia has been frequently grouped together with such resistance literature as Theodore Beza’s 1574 Du droit des magistrats and the 1579 Vindiciae contra tyrannos usually attributed to Philippe Duplessis-Mornay.112 The work has been so strongly identified with French Protestantism that it has been called “le manifeste politique des huguenots.”113 Although the Francogallia exhibits a decidedly different emphasis to the political doctrines of obligation found in many of the works of Calvinist resistance theory, because of the radical nature of their political theories, Hotman, Beza, and Duplessis-Mornay have been disparagingly labeled the “monarchomach triumvirs” or “the three king-killers.”114 History in the French Renaissance, 109. Cf. also Pierre Mesnard, “François Hotman (1524–1590) et le complexe de Tribonien,” Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire du protestantisme français, 101 (1955), 117–137; David Baird Smith, “François Hotman,” Scottish Historical Review, 13 (Jul., 1916), 328–365. 111 ╇ Ralph E. Giesey and J.H.M. Salmon, “Editor’s Introduction” in Ralph E. Giesey and J.H.M. Salmon (ed. and trans.), Francogallia (Cambridge, 1972), 4, 7, 38–52, 81–90, 99–107. Cf. Ralph E. Giesey, “When and Why Hotman Wrote the Francogallia,” Bibliothèque d’humanisme et renaissance, 29 (1967), 581–611. 112 ╇ Scott M. Manetsch, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598 (Leiden, 2000), 63–65; Giesey and Salmon, “Editor’s Introduction,” 4; Borgeaud, Histoire L’Université de Genève, 131; Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith “Introduction” in Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith (eds. and trans.), A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots (Aldershot, 2004), xlvi. Other Calvinist treatises often associated with these works are Buchanan’s 1579 De iure regni apud Scotos dialogus, the 1581 Apology of the Prince of Orange, John Knox’s 1558 First Blast and Lambert Daneau’s 1575 Ad Petri Carpenterii … Petri Fabri responsio. Hubert Languet may have contributed to DuplessisMornay’s Vindiciae, as well as to the Apology of the Prince of Orange. In addition to Duplessis-Mornay and Languet, Johan Junius de Jonge has been suggested as the author of the Vindiciae. On the authorship of the Vindiciae see Ernest Barker, “The Authorship of the Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos,” Cambridge Historical Journal, 3:2 (1930), 164–181; Derek Visser, “Junius: the Author of the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos?” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 84 (1971), 510–525. 113 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 131. 114 ╇ Giesey and Salmon, “Editor’s Introduction,” 5; Manetsch, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598, 63–64; Ralph E. Giesey, “The MonarÂ� chomach€Triumvirs: Hotman, Beza and Mornay,” BHR, 32 (1970), 41–56; Donald R. Kelley, François Hotman: A Revolutionary’s Ordeal (Princeton, 1973), 227–263. On Calvinist resistance theories see Robert M. Kingdon, “Calvinism and resistance theory,



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

123

Hotman’s Francogallia was an influential treatise with which Melville would have been familiar and which constituted an important part of Geneva’s political and intellectual milieu. Melville’s avid interest in political affairs as evidenced by his numerous political epigrams and participation in ecclesiastical politics throughout his career in Scotland from his return in 1574 until his exile in 1611 was first nurtured in Geneva where Hotman’s treatise was an important, provocative, and thoughtful example of the developing political theories of the Huguenots of the 1570s.115 Not only is it highly probable that Melville read this treatise, but, given the political climate of Geneva as indicated by Beza’s own 1574 Du droit des magistrats and Daneau’s 1575 Ad Petri Carpenterii … Petri Fabri responsio, it is equally likely that Melville had many discussions with his fellow humanists and perhaps even Hotman himself over the principles embodied in the Francogallia. Given his relationship with other scholars, such as Buchanan, Portus, Bertram, and Scaliger, with whom he had freely offered either critical suggestions to improve their work or complimentary poetic epigrams, the possibility of Melville’s direct interaction with Hotman on the Francogallia remains distinct. Whereas other humanists such as Hercules Rollock had felt uncomfortable, for instance, engaging George Buchanan, Melville never seems to have been daunted by the intellectual stature or reputation of the humanists with whom he interacted. On the contrary, his supreme confidence in his own intellectual abilities led him to engage these fellow scholars as an equal who was capable of improving their work or offering his own scholarly approbation and praise. While at best we may argue for the high probability that Melville read and perhaps even discussed the Francogallia with Hotman himself, there is evidence of a direct link between Melville’s own 1574 Carmen Mosis

1550–1580” in J.H. Burns (ed.), The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450–1700 (Cambridge, 1996), 193–218; “The Political Resistance of the Calvinists in France and the Low Countries,” Church History, 27 (1958), 3–16; Quentin Skinner, “The Origins of the Calvinist Theory of Revolution” in Barbara C. Malament (ed.), After the Reformation (Manchester, 1980), 309–330; Paul Moussiegt, Hotman et Du Plessis-Mornay, Théories Politiques des Réformés au XVI Siècle (Geneva, 1970). 115 ╇ Johnston, Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum, Vol. II, 108–109, 111–112, 117. The following epigrams by Melville are illustrative of not merely his avid political interests but his participation in the Huguenot propaganda movement: Ad novissimos Galliæ Martyres, 1572, Gasper Colinius, Galliarum Thælassiarcha, Pax Gallica, Ad Carolum Galliarum tyrannum, Sanguinis inusitato fluxu pereuntem, Mariæ reginæ Scotorum Epitaphium, Classicum, Tyrannus, and Ad Regem & Reginam. On the Huguenot propaganda movement see Robert Kingdon, Myths about the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres, 1572–1576 (Cambridge, MA, 1988).

124

chapter four

and Hotman’s 1573 De furoribus Gallicis, which was later revised and republished in 1575 under the title Gasparis Colinii Castellonii magni quondam Franciae amiralii vita. In this work Hotman, like Melville after him, portrayed Gaspard de Coligny as a devout Protestant martyr. The thematic similarities suggest that Melville was familiar with Hotman’s De furoribus Gallicis and may even have circulated his own elegiac verse on Coligny among his fellow humanists in Geneva. In the same year that Hotman published De furoribus Gallicis, Melville, along with Theodore Beza and others in Geneva, contributed a poem on Coligny from the Carmen Mosis to the small pamphlet Epicedia illustri heroi Caspari Colinio […] poetis decantata and thereby became involved in the Huguenot propaganda movement.116 The decided humanistic emphasis of Melville’s labors and studies in Geneva during the years 1569–1574 was further enhanced by the theological course of study he simultaneously pursued. From 1570–1572 the city of Geneva became the beneficiary of three theologians, who not only elevated the reputation of the city and Academy but became colleagues of Melville and undoubtedly shaped the contours of his theology. After serving as a junior and senior fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, Walter Travers was forced out of his position by John Whitgift, Master of the college, and traveled to Geneva where he became good friends with Beza.117 At the same time, Thomas Cartwright had been deprived of the Lady Margaret Chair of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and in June 1571 came to Geneva where he was asked by the Genevan ministers to deliver lectures in theology twice a week.118 116 ╇ “Steven John Reid, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville: The Carmen Mosis (1574) and the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres,” Renaissance and Reformation, 30.4 (Fall, 2006/2007), 73; Epicedia illustri heroi Caspari Colignio, Colignii comiti, Castilionis domino, magno Galliarum thallasiatchae variis linguis a doctis piisque poetis decantata (Geneva, 1573), GLN2464. 117 ╇ S. J. Knox, Walter Travers: Paragon of Elizabethan Puritanism (London, 1962), 27; Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Britain Vol. III (London, 1868), 29. In October 1582, Beza in writing Travers referred to him as “mi carissime frater” and their relationship as “amicitia … vetus nostra.” 118 ╇ On Cartwright see Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (London, 1967); Leonard J. Trinterud (ed.), Elizabethan Puritanism (Oxford, 1971); Peter Lake, Anglicans and Puritans? Presbyterianism and English Conformist Thought from Whitgift to Hooker (London, 1988); C. G. Bolam, The English Presbyterians: From Elizabethan Puritanism to Modern Unitarianism (London, 1968); John K. Luoma, “Who Owns the Fathers? Hooker and Cartwright on the Authority of the Primitive Church,” SCJ, 8 (Oct., 1977): 45–59; “The Primitive Church as a Normative Principle in the Theology of the Sixteenth Century: The Anglican-Puritan Debate over Church Polity as Represented by Richard Hooker and Thomas Cartwright,” (PhD Dissertation, Hartford Seminary Foundation, 1974).



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

125

Beza, who once remarked of Cartwright that “the sun does not see a more learned man,” had undoubtedly been influential in Cartwright’s appointment.119 Approved by the Council, Cartwright began to lecture at a vital period in the early years of the Academy when it had been beset by devastating losses due to the plague.120 Cartwright himself had been weakened by it but was, nevertheless, able to render valuable service to the schola publica where, presumably, Melville attended his public lectures.121 Although Beza was unable to find a suitable post for Travers, the English divine was able to devote himself to the composition of his magnum opus published in 1574, entitled Ecclesiasticae disciplinae et anglicanae ecclesiae ab illa aberrationis, plena e verbo dei, & dilucida explicatio.122 Cartwright had apparently written the preface to Travers’ Ecclesiasticae disciplinae … explicatio where he gave his wholehearted approbation to the work, commending it as a jewel and a treasure to the people of England.123 James Melville, in his cursory account of his uncle’s associates and teachers, did not include either Cartwright or Travers. However, their outspoken advocacy of Presbyterianism, their ecclesiastical writings, and their subsequent invitation at the recommendation of Melville in 1580 to accept the chairs in biblical interpretation at St Andrews suggest that Melville had audited Cartwright’s lectures and was acquainted with their published theological writings. The letter of invitation written to both men also indicates Melville’s personal and academic esteem for

119 ╇Hastings Robinson (ed.), The Zurich Letters, Comprising the Correspondence of Several English Bishops and Others, with some of the Helvetian Reformers during the Early Part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Cambridge, 1842), 313. 120 ╇ Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 285; Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 107–108, 118–123; Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603, 47. The Register of the Council for 28 June 1571 reads: “Anglois ministre. Les ministres ayant fait advertir qu’il y a icy un Anglois, excellent théologien, lequel ils ont prié de faire quelques leçons en thélogie, le jeudi et le vendredi, ce qu’il leur a promis faire gratuitement, s’il est trouvé bon par Messieurs, arresté qu’on l’aprouve.” 121 ╇ Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603, 49. 122 ╇ Walter Travers, Ecclesiasticae disciplinae et Anglicanae ecclesiae ab illa aberrationis, plena E Verbo Dei, & dilucida explicatio (Rupelae, 1574). Although Rupelae or La Rochelle is given as the place of publication, it is very likely that it was not published there but rather in Heidelberg. Cf. Knox, Walter Travers: Paragon of Elizabethan Puritanism, 29–30; A. F. Johnson, “Books Printed at Heidelberg for Thomas Cartwright,” The Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, series 5, 2 (Mar., 1948), 284–286. 123 ╇ Thomas Cartwright, “Præfatio ad lectorem” in Ecclesiasticae disciplinae … explicatio; Knox, Walter Travers: Paragon of Elizabethan Puritanism, 29.

126

chapter four

their “singular erudition and piety.”124 While such praise and flattery was customary among sixteenth-century humanists, especially when it was part of an academic recruiting effort, such encomiums were, nevertheless, derived from Melville’s personal experience in Geneva as a colleague, auditor, and friend. We do know that Melville read and approved of Travers’ treatise and Cartwright’s preface as indicated by his presentation of it to his close friend and colleague Alexander Arbuthnot, principal of King’s College, Aberdeen.125 Just as its Presbyterian principles resonated with the young Scot, so its Latin elegance and classical Â�references possessed a powerful appeal to the humanist’s literary sensibilities.126 The third member of this theological triumvirate to arrive in Geneva during these years was Lambert Daneau.127 A former student at the Academy and a French Reformed minister in Gien from 1560–1572, Daneau’s arrival following the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres brought an experienced cleric to the canton and a theologian who could assist Beza in his lecturing.128 Prior to his arrival in Geneva, Daneau had studied in Paris at the Collège Royal under Adrian Turnèbe where he acquired the philological and critical methods developed by the humanists. Following his time in Paris he traveled first to Orléans where from 1553–1557 he studied civil law and subsequently to Bourges where from 1558–1559 he continued his legal studies.129 Leaving Bourges, he traveled to Geneva to hear Calvin, and in 1560 he received a call to serve as minister in Gien.130 124 ╇ Fuller, The Church History of Britain Vol. III, 140–141; Gordon Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 14 (1963), 67; Knox, Walter Travers: Paragon of Elizabethan Puritanism, 52; Mullinger, The University of Cambridge, 366. 125 ╇ Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603, 53, 142. 126 ╇ John Pentland Mahaffy, An Epoch in Irish History: Trinity College, Dublin: Its Foundation and Early Fortunes 1591–1660 (London, 1903), 84; Knox, Walter Travers: Paragon of Elizabethan Puritanism, 31–32. 127 ╇ On Daneau see Olivier Fatio, Méthode et Théologie: Lambert Daneau et les Débuts de la Scolastique Réformée (Genève, 1976); Christoph Strohm, Ethik im frühen Calvinismus: humanistische Einflüsse, Philosophische, Juristische und Theologische Argumentationen sowie Mentalitätsgeschichtliche Aspekte am Beispiel des Calvin-Schülers Lambertus Danaeus (Berlin, 1996). 128 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 222; Fatio and Labarthe (eds.), Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, III, 90; Maag, Seminary or University? 42–43; Fatio, Méthode et Théologie, 5–14. Fatio identifies 1562 as the year Daneau began his ministry at Gien. 129 ╇ Fatio, Méthode et Théologie, 1; Fatio and Labarthe (eds.), Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, III, 90. 130 ╇ Fatio and Labarthe (eds.), Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, III, 90.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

127

Received as a habitant of Geneva on 29 September and examined by la Compagnie on 11 October 1572, Daneau was placed not far from the town in the bucolic parish of Vandoeuvres where he served as minister for two years. In June 1574 he was relocated from Vandoeuvres to the city parish of Saint Pierre where he could more easily assist Beza in teaching theology at the Academy.131 Due to health problems, he was unable to continue in both capacities as a lecturer and a preacher and in 1576 la Compagnie released him from his ministerial responsibilities. At that time Daneau became the first professor of theology in the Genevan Academy who was not also laboring as a minister of a local congregation. A prolific author, Daneau wrote on a whole host of subjects from games of chance, witchcraft, and physics to Christian friendship, dancing, geography, fashion, and clothing. He wrote commentaries on Augustine’s Enchiridion and On heresies as well as biblical commentaries on Philemon, I Timothy, and the Minor Prophets. He wrote treatises on the Lord’s Supper, the Antichrist, the situations in which a Christian may lawfully bear arms, and a summary of Peter Lombard’s Sentences.132 As Beza’s colleague, there is a strong likelihood that Melville knew Daneau and attended his lectures. Although James Melville makes no mention of his uncle having enjoyed his personal acquaintance or audited his lectures, McCrie maintains that Melville did, in fact, cultivate a relationship with Daneau.133 While the extant evidence to support this contention is admittedly limited, the cumulative consideration of the success and influence of Daneau’s lecturing, Melville’s association with Beza whom Daneau assisted and the Scot’s own enthusiastic devotion to the study of theology, as well as his subsequent praise of “Danæi immortalia dicta” in his poem Epitaphium Jacobi Lindesii, written in 1580 suggest that he, in fact, personally knew Daneau and had audited his theological lectures.134 During Melville’s time in Geneva, he established relationships with a number of humanists who subsequently distinguished themselves in the ╇ Ibid., 138; Maag, Seminary or University? 43. ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 43, 45. For an exhaustive account of Daneau’s publications see “Bibliographie des Oeuvres de Daneau” in Fatio, Méthode et Théologie, 1–105. 133 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 41. 134 ╇Henry Martyn Baird, Theodore Beza The Counsellor of the French Reformation 1519–1605 (New York, 1899), 326–327; Knox, Walter Travers: Paragon of Elizabethan Puritanism, 28; Melville, “Epitaphium Jacobi Lindesii, qui obit Geneva, 17 Cal. Iul. 1580” in Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum, 123. 131 132

128

chapter four

literary world of the sixteenth century and who even honored the Scot with their generous judgments and neo-Latin poetry.135 The celebrated German humanist, poet, and musician, Paulus Melissus, met Melville in Geneva during his stay from 1568 to the beginning of 1571 and was so impressed by the young classical scholar that he composed a poem concerning Julius Caesar Scaliger addressed “Ad Andr. Melvinum Celurcanum.”136 The “German Pléiadist”137 composed similar poems addressed to and in honor of such humanists and Genevan worthies as François Portus,138 Henri Estienne,139 Joseph Scaliger,140 and François Hotman,141 as well as George Buchanan142 and Pierre Ronsard.143 During his time in Geneva he lived near Beza and Estienne and became quite

╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 41. ╇ Pierre de Nolhac, Un Poète Rhénan Ami de la Pléiade: Paul Melissus (Paris, 1923),€27; Melissi schediasmatum poeticorum, pars tertia. Secundo recognita, atque edita (Paris, 1586), liber vii, 226; James E. Phillips, “Elizabeth I as a Latin Poet: An Epigram on Paul Melissus,” Renaissance News, 16 (Win., 1963), 289, 291. Celurcanum means an inhabitant of Montrose. Cf. McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 44. Melissus was also known by his given name Paul Schede or Schedius. cf also Harold G. Carlson, “Classical Pseudonyms of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in Germany,” German Quarterly, 13 (Jan., 1940), 17. The earliest biographical account may be found in Jean-Jacques Boissard, Icones quinquaginta virorum illustrium (Frankfort, 1597–1599). 137 ╇ J. A. van Dorsten, Poets, Patrons, and Professors: Sir Philip Sidney, Daniel Rogers, and the Leiden Humanists (Leiden and London, 1962), 50. 138 ╇ Melissus wrote numerous poems to François Portus who, in turn, composed his own replies. They were published in Melissi Schediasmata Poetica, (Frankfort, 1574), 85–86, 95–97, 137–139, 145, 155–156, 162. The following titles are illustrative of their poetry: Pro Francisco Porto Febricitante; Ad Fr. Portvm Cretensem; Ad Franciscvm Portvm Cretensem; Fr. Porti Responsvm; Porti Responsvm; Fr. Porto Cretensi; Portus Respondet; Ad Franciscvm Portvm; and Portvs ad P. Melissvm. 139 ╇ Melissus also wrote numerous poems to Henri Estienne who, in turn, responded with his own poetry. These poems were collected and published in Paulus MelisÂ� sus,€ Melissi€ Schediasmata Poetica, 100–102, 145–147, 157, 159–162. The following titles include: Ad Henricvm Stephanvm; Parisiensem; In Francofordiensis Emporii Encomium, ab H. Stephano Scriptum; H. Stephanvs Ad P. Melissvm, E Pago Qvodam proximo ei in quo ille degebat; Melissi Responsvm Ex temporal; H. Stephanvs Ad eündem P. Melissum, ex eodem pago, postriedie; Respons. Melissi; P. Melissi Hendecasyll; Ad Henricum Stephanum; Henr. Stephani Hendecasyll; quibus Paulo Melisso respondet, and Melissi Anacreontevm, Qvo Per replicationem H. Stephano respondetur. 140 ╇ Melissus and Scaliger exchanged poems. Cf. Paulus Melissus, Ad Iosephvm Scaligerum Iulij Cæsaris F and Iosephvs Scaliger Ivlii Cæs. F. ad Paulum Melissum, poëtam laureatum in Melissi Schediasmata Poetica, 164–167. 141 ╇ Paulus Melissus, In Fran. Hotomani ivrisconsulti Francogalliam in Melissi Schediasmata Poetica, 102–103. 142 ╇ Paulus Melissus, Ad Georgivm Bvchananum Scotum in Melissi Schediasmata Poetica, 8–10. 143 ╇ Paulus Melissus, Ad Petrvm Ronsardvm Eq. Vindocinum in Melissi Schediasmata Poetica, 31–33. 135 136



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

129

close with the latter as Estienne’s letters indicate. He also attended the Greek lectures of Portus and continued the revision of his Latin translation of Greek epigrams.144 Born in 1539 in Melrichstadt, Franconia, Melissus early in his life established himself as a Greek and Latin poet and musician, publishing several volumes of Latin poetry and producing a German metrical translation of the Psalms modeled after the edition produced by Beza and Marot. In 1564 Emperor Maximilian II named Melissus poet laureate and in 1579 during a stint in Italy he received the honorific titles “Comes Palatinus, Eques auratus, & Civis Romanus” (“Count Palatinus, Golden Knight, and Citizen of Rome”). He spent time in Paris with numerous members of the Pléiade such as Ronsard and Dorat during 1567 and, like the former, was particularly influenced by the Catullan style of poetry of Giovanni Pontano.145 By 1586 he was serving the Elector Palatine at Heidelberg where he continued in this capacity until his death in 1602. More well-known than his poem addressed to Melville is Melissus’ 1580 Latin poem entitled Ad Elisabetham Angliae, Franciae, Hiberniae Reginam, in which he ingratiated himself to Elizabeth I.146 Although the historical records at this point are limited, it is not difficult, in light of their mutual classical tastes, their love of Greek and Latin literature, and their cultivation of the art of neo-Latin poetry, to understand how Melville and Melissus would have had an instant rapport and common bond as humanists and advocates of bonae litterae. They moved in the same humanistic literary circles in Geneva, enjoying common friendships and auditing the same course of lectures.147 A cursory examination of the Latin poetry exchanged between Melissus and Portus, Estienne, and Scaliger on the one hand and the poetry written by the German humanist to Hotman, Buchanan, and Melville, indicates

144 ╇ Pierre de Nolhac, Un Poète Rhénan Ami de la Pléiade: Paul Melissus (Paris, 1923), 27–28. 145 ╇ Walther Ludwig, “The Origin and Development of the Catullan Style in Neo-Latin Poetry” in Peter Godman and Oswyn Murray (eds.), Latin Poetry and the Classical Tradition: Essays in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Oxford, 1990), 189, 196; Mary Morrison, “Ronsard and Catullus: The Influence of the Teaching of Marc-Antoine de Muret,” BHR, 18 (1956), 271; Phillips, “Elizabeth I as a Latin Poet: An Epigram on Paul Melissus,” 291. 146 ╇ Phillips, “Elizabeth I as a Latin Poet: An Epigram on Paul Melissus,” 291; Nolhac, Un Poète Rhénan Ami de la Pléiade: Paul Melissus, 8–24. Cf. Ad Auroram in Melissi Schediasmata Poetica (Paris, 1586) reprinted in van Dorsten, Poets, Patrons, and Professors: Sir Philip Sidney, Daniel Rogers, and the Leiden Humanists, 212. 147 ╇ Nolhac, Un Poète Rhénan Ami de la Pléiade: Paul Melissus, 28.

130

chapter four

that the Scot was a member of a literary circle of humanists in Geneva and suggests that he was well acquainted with the poeta laureatus Melissus himself. Another humanist with whom Melville was associated during his time in Geneva was the learned printer and classical scholar Henri Estienne.148 Having established himself at an early age as a “helléniste de la valeur” (“a Hellenist of worth”) who had studied under the renowned Greek scholars Pierre Danès, Jacques Toussain, and Adrien Turnèbe, Estienne in 1551 joined his father Robert, the illustrious Renaissance printer, in Geneva where the latter had set up his printing press after leaving Paris due to persecution from the Sorbonne.149 From 1546 Estienne had assisted his father in the work of his printing-house, even collating for him a manuscript of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. After a trip to Italy in 1552, in 1554 he traveled to Paris where in the printinghouse which his father had abandoned he published a first edition of Anacréon translated in Latin verse.150 In 1555 he returned to Geneva where he established his own printing-house. When his father Robert died in 1559, he inherited his printing-house and was officially recognized as his successor. In 1565 he published his first treatise in French, entitled Traité de la conformité du langage françois avec le grec, and in 1566 he published his well-known l’Apologie pour Hérodote.151 With the publication in 1572 of the Thesaurus linguæ Græcæ, Estienne confirmed his place among the leading humanists and printers of the sixteenth Â�century.152 As a connoisseur of classical literature, Estienne was undoubtedly impressed with Melville’s linguistic and poetic abilities seen particularly in the humanist’s 1574 Carmen Mosis and other poetic effusions. Perhaps these literary productions were the occasion which led him to heap lavish praise upon the young Scot as a cultivator of elegant Latin verse.153 148 ╇ On Estienne see Clément, Henri Estienne et Son Oeuvre Français; Bénédicte Boudou, “La Poétique d’Henri Estienne” BHR, 52:3 (1990), 571–592; “Henri Estienne éditeur d’ Historiens ou Comment écrie l’ Histoire?” Nouvelle Revue du Seizième siècle, 19:1 (2001), 37–50; Mars et Les Muses dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne (Genève, 2000). 149 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 69; Boudou, Mars et Les Muses dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, 21–22; Clément, Henri Estienne et Son Oeuvre Français, 2. 150 ╇ Boudou, Mars et Les Muses dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, 22. 151 ╇ Clément, Henri Estienne et Son Oeuvre Français, 2–3. 152 ╇ Boudou, Mars et Les Muses dans l’Apologie pour Hérodote d’Henri Estienne, 7. 153 ╇ Isaac Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni Epistolæ (Rotterdam, 1709), 129; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 41.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

131

Joseph Justus Scaliger Without question the most celebrated scholar of the sixteenth century under whom Melville studied in Geneva and cultivated an acquaintance was Joseph Justus Scaliger or Joseph della Scala. Scaliger has been called “by general consent the greatest scholar of the sixteenth century,”154 “le prince des lettrés de son temps” (“the prince of letters of his time”)155 or “princeps litteratorum,” (“the prince of literature”)156 “the most learned of mortals,”157 and “the greatest scholar of modern times—if not indeed of all time.”158 In his own day, Scaliger was judged to be the greatest scholar of his age by friend and foe alike as indicated by the concurrence of such opposing scholars as Isaac Casaubon and Cesare Baronio.159 Indeed, Isaac Casaubon referred to Scaliger along with Beza and JacquesAuguste de Thou as “the three suns of the learned world.”160 Born in 1540 and educated for three years at the Collège de Guyenne at Bordeaux where Michel de Montaigne had been a student and the humanists George Buchanan and Marc-Antoine Muret had taught, Scaliger was educated primarily by his father Julius Caesar Scaliger, “one of the most prolific and wide-ranging scholars of the sixteenth century.”161 Julius Caesar Scaliger had first established his literary reputation in 1531 when he published his critique of Erasmus’ 1528 Ciceronianus.162 In 1540 he significantly enhanced his reputation as a Latinist by publishing an innovative and influential work on Latin grammatical theory entitled De causis latinae linguae.163 As an accomplished and elegant ╇ Anthony T. Grafton, “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 38 (1975), 156. 155 ╇ Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959, 48. 156 ╇ Warren E. Blake, “Joseph Justus Scaliger,” Classical Journal, 36 (Nov., 1940), 91. 157 ╇Hugh Nibley, “New Light on Scaliger,” CJ, (Feb., 1942), 292. 158 ╇ George W. Robinson, “Joseph Scaliger’s Estimates of Greek and Latin Authors,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 29 (1918), 133. 159 ╇ Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983), 1. 160 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 35. 161 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 101. On Julius Caesar Scaliger see Vernon Hall, Jr. “The Preface to Scaliger’s Poetices Libri Septem,” Modern Language Notes, 60 (Nov., 1945), 447–453; David Marsh, “Review: Julius Caesar Scaliger’s Poetics,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 65 (Oct., 2004), 667–676; Myriam Billanovich, “Benedetto Bordon e Giulio Cesare Scaligero,” Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 11 (1963), 187–256. 162 ╇ Vernon Hall, Jr. “Life of Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558),” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Ser., 40:2 (1950), 99. The title of this work was Pro M. Tullio Cicerone, contra Desiderium Erasmum Roterodamum. 163 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 101. 154

132

chapter four

Latinist, he taught Joseph at an early age to write both Latin prose and verse and cultivated in him a taste for the art of neo-Latin poetry. He gave his son the daily assignment of composing a brief piece of Latin rhetoric and dictated to him his own Latin verses. Indeed, when Joseph was less than seventeen years old, he composed his first Latin tragedy on the mythical figure Oedipus.164 In contrast to his father who believed in the superiority of classical Latin to Greek, Joseph was captivated by the Greek language and maintained that “they who know not Greek, know nothing.”165 Following his father’s death in 1558, Scaliger went to Paris to study Greek at the Collège Royal under Adrian Turnèbe. Finding his own knowledge of Greek inadequate, he discontinued attending Turnèbe’s lectures and taught himself the language, claiming to have learned Homer in twenty-one days and the other Greek poets within four months.166 While he undoubtedly learned to read and write Greek poetry, the alleged speed at which he accomplished this task is doubtful and his claim never to have consulted a Greek lexicon or grammar is equally unlikely.167 Indeed, when one considers Scaliger’s own “singular vanity and egotism,” as well as the fact that his father bred in him an air of aristocratic superiority which had no basis in reality, these claims amount to, at best, implausible hyperbole.168 In addition to Greek, Scaliger claimed to have taught himself Hebrew, apparently learning the language by comparing the Hebrew text with the text of the Vulgate. Encouraged in the study of the Oriental languages in 1562 by Guillaume Postel, he learned the language so well that when he encountered Jews in Italy and southern France he is said to have freely 164 ╇ George W. Robinson (trans.), Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger with AutobioÂ� graphical€ Selections from his Letters his Testament and the Funeral Orations by Daniel Heinsius and Dominicus Baudius (Cambridge, 1927), 30. 165 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 102; Robinson, Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger, 31. 166 ╇ Robinson, Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger, 30–31. Scaliger wrote: “I learned grammar exclusively from observation of the relation of Homer’s words to each other; indeed, I made my own grammar of the poetic dialect as I went along. I devoured all the other Greek poets within four months.” 167 ╇ Grafton, “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” 155. As one writer has remarked of his not having consulted a lexicon or grammar, “It is not easy to say why this should be matter for boasting, or what other credit could accrue to him from it, than that of having given himself much unnecessary trouble.” 168 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 102; “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” 155; Blake, “Joseph Justus Scaliger,” 83. Julius Caesar Scaliger lied to his son, telling him that he was a great aristocrat of the della Scala’s of Verona. Cf. also Julia Haig Gaisser, Catullus and his Renaissance Readers (Oxford, 1993), 179.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

133

conversed with them in Ancient Hebrew.169 Although the extent of Scaliger’s knowledge of Arabic has been debated, he is reported to have learned Persian, Syriac, Aramaic, English and Russian in addition to Greek and Hebrew. In typical Renaissance polymath fashion, he applied himself to the fields of astronomy and mathematics, mastering them and providing at least some basis for the high estimate of his abilities offered by contemporary and subsequent scholars.170 Scaliger’s two major fields of study were classical philology and historical chronology. His passion for classical philology led him to devote the first half of his career to the field of textual criticism.171 In 1565 he published his first work on textual criticism, entitled Coniectanea, on Varro’s De lingua latina. In this work Scaliger provided not only an exegetical and text-critical commentary on Varro but he indulged in extensive digressions, correcting and explicating a diverse body of Greek and Latin writings. This work firmly established him as a master of Latin textual criticism and an accomplished critic of Greek poetry. He endeavored to improve the classical culture of sixteenth-century Europe by correcting, emending, and replacing portions of original Greek texts which had been lost. By immersing himself in Varro, he endeavored to improve his own ability to write Latin verse and imitate the poetic style of the Roman authors of the second century BC. In his efforts to combine classical and ancient near-eastern philology, he exhibited his own encyclopedic knowledge and ingenuity in the work of textual restoration.172 In 1583 he published his De emendatione temporum or Treatise on the Correction of Chronology in which he endeavored to gather, revise, and coordinate the chronological systems of the Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Persians, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans and to relate them to the recent discoveries in the field of astronomy by Nicolaus Copernicus and Tycho Brahe. Whereas the de ╇ Robinson, Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger, 31; Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 104;“Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” 155–156; Nibley, “New Light on Scaliger,” 293. Nibley maintains that Scaliger did not learn Hebrew on his own as he claimed but rather shortly after he began his study of the language sought out instruction from experts in the field. 170 ╇ Karl H. Dannenfeldt, “The Renaissance Humanists and the Knowledge of Arabic,” Studies in the Renaissance, 2 (1955), 112; Grafton, “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” 156. 171 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 2; “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” 156. Cf. Gaisser, Catullus and his Renaissance Readers, 178–192. 172 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 107–108, 113, 118. 169

134

chapter four

emendatione temporum has been called “his greatest historical work,” in 1606 he published his Thesaurus temporum or Treasure House of Dates in which he assembled and restored all of the various aspects of ancient Oriental, Greek, and Roman chronology.173 Driven to Geneva by the French wars of religion and the horrors of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres, Scaliger arrived in the Swiss city in September 1572.174 Although Melville appears to have first met Scaliger in 1570 when the latter visited the city, the two humanists cultivated their relationship during the years 1572–1574.175 Job Veyrat, lecturer in arts, died in 1571, leaving a significant vacancy in the schola publica which Scaliger himself filled for two years.176 While in Geneva, Scaliger delivered public lectures and privately tutored pupils. As a lecturer his audiences were small, as he himself disliked lecturing and apparently did a rather poor job of it. His private tutoring was much more successful, receiving such accolades as were given by a certain Claude Groulart who had studied for fifteen months with him and who remarked that he€had “made more progress with Scaliger in a month than with others in a year.”177 During his time in Geneva, Scaliger formed relationships with his fellow humanists Beza, Estienne, and Melville among others, and their mutual love and cultivation of neo-Latin poetry provided a basis from which Scaliger and Melville built their friendship. Melville endeared himself to his fellow humanist by composing a number of liminary poems in honor of Julius Caesar Scaliger’s Poemata published in 1574.178 173 ╇ Grafton, “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” 173; Blake, “Joseph Justus Scaliger,” 88, 90. 174 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 132. 175 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 43. 176 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 132–133. 177 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 126. 178 ╇ Julius Caesar Scaliger, Poemata in duas partes divisa (Heidelberg, 1574); McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 43–44. Melville wrote: “Nobilis urbs rosei jam gaudet nomine montis, / Quæ prius a cœlo dicta Celurca fuit.” cf. Andrew Melville, Ad Iulium Scaligerum in Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum hujus aevi illustrium (Amsterdam, 1637), 116–117. Melville wrote: “Ad Iulium Scaligerum. / Caesar, Aristoteles, Maro, Mavors, Pallas, Apollo,/Tres sub Sole viri, tres super astra Dei, / Te genuere, vel hos genuisti Scaliger unus / Tres sub Sole viros, tres super astra Deos. / Immo omnes Superas unus, quos fama sacravit / Vel sub Soleviros, vel super astra Deos.” Melville also wrote an epigram in honor of both Julius Caesar and Joseph Scaliger entitled De Iulio, & Iosepho Scaligeris: “De Iulio, & Iosepho Scaligeris. / Scaliger aut pater, aut proles si carmina dictat; / Scaligero solus Scaliger apta canit. / Scaligero patri par nemo, simillima proles / Tam patri similes, quam pater ipse sibi. / Scaliger aut pater, aut proles, ambo unus, in uno aut / Est pater in nato, aut in patre natus erit.”



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

135

While we cannot say for certain that Melville received private instruction from Scaliger, the combination of Scaliger’s reputation as a classical scholar, their mutual literary interests, and Melville’s own insatiable appetite for the studia humanitatis strongly suggests that he received private instruction from him. It is a telling fact that, when Melville was preparing to depart from Geneva in the spring of 1574, of all the people who could have inherited his private garden at the college, Joseph Scaliger obtained it.179 We do know that he attended Scaliger’s public lectures and discussed various text-critical issues with him as indicated by a conjectural emendation he offered him on the Latin poetry of Marcus Manilius.180 Following their time in Geneva, Scaliger published in Paris in 1579 an edition of five of the more difficult books on astronomy by Manilius, entitled Manilii quinque libros astronomicon commentarius Castigationes.181 In acknowledging his debt to the Scottish humanist, Scaliger referred to him as a “learned youth” when he wrote, “Andreas Melvinus Scotus, iuvenis eruditus.”182 When Scaliger died many years later in 1609, Melville referred to him as “my friend the great Scaliger” and confessed that he had been deeply moved by the news of his death.183 If indeed Scaliger were “Europe’s premier interpreter of classical texts,” then Melville’s association with him afforded him the opportunity to learn the critical methods he had applied in transforming philology into a precise science.184 The critical methods of the humanists, which Melville evidently practiced and which Scaliger developed, were first learned in Paris under the tutelage of Adrian Turnèbe. Both Melville and Scaliger had studied under Turnèbe at the Collège Royal and had learned from him how to recognize textual corruptions and correct them. They consequently owed their Greek master a significant intellectual debt. Despite his 179 ╇ Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 290. On 16 March 1574 the records recorded by the Secretary of the Council read: “Joseph Scaliger. Estant proposé qu’il désireroit avoir ung jardin, arresté qu’on luy baille celuy de Mr Melvin, qui s’en va en France, comment on dit.” 180 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 126–127; Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 290. 181 ╇ Blake, “Joseph Justus Scaliger,” 88. 182 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 126–127, 289. The full statement reads: “Andreas Melvinus Scotus, iuvenis eruditus admonuit me hic legendum esse, lapsumque diem.” 183 ╇ Andrew Melville, Melvini epistolae, Special Collections, University of EdinÂ� burgh,€76. 184 ╇ Charles G. Nauert, Jr., “Review: Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical€ Scholarship, col. I: Textual Criticism and Exegesis,” Renaissance Quarterly, 38 (Spr., 1985), 107.

136

chapter four

efforts to portray himself as receiving little benefit from Turnèbe, Scaliger, in fact, drew upon his teacher’s methodological and substantive insights in doing his own textual criticism. Far from the image of Scaliger’s complete independence, their collaboration, seen particularly in their discussions of various conjectures and the manuscript readings Scaliger received from Turnèbe, is confirmed by Turnebe’s own acknowledgement of one of Scaliger’s emendations.185 The critical methods which Scaliger learned from Turnèbe and which he in turn developed in his own distinctive way were undoubtedly exhibited in his public lectures and private instruction. Melville appears to have incorporated certain insights and methods developed by Scaliger in his own critical approach to classical texts. For example, in Melville’s personal copy of Julius Caesar Scaliger’s Poemata he included his own critical emendations of the text, which consisted, in part, of references to those authors of antiquity which Scaliger himself had endeavored to imitate.186 Theodore Beza Whereas Scaliger was the most celebrated of the humanists Melville knew and had studied under, without question the most influential humanist in Melville’s formation during his time in Geneva was Theodore Beza. Educated in the tradition of the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance, Beza’s careful study of the authors of antiquity enabled him to quote extensively from them and imitate their literary style and elegance.187 He himself had been profoundly shaped by humanist values during his youth when he developed a reputation for two typically humanist pursuits, philological study and poetic composition.188 In this respect, Melville’s own humanistic development mirrored that of Beza. Studying under the renowned Greek scholar Melchior Wolmar, who himself had studied under Guillaume Budé and Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples for seven years at Orléans and Bourges, Beza received an elite classical education.189 He commenced his classical studies at Orléans in 1528 in 185 ╇ Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 108–109. Scaliger’s effort to conceal this fact is consistent with his attempts to prove his father’s charade regarding the inherent superiority in ability and creativity of a della Scala. 186 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 43–44. 187 ╇ Kirk Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 82 (1991), 194. 188 ╇ Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” 170. 189 ╇ Geisendorf, Théodore de Bèze, 10; Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 194.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

137

the home of Wolmar and subsequently followed him in 1530 to the University of Bourges where he continued under his tutelage. Wolmar’s influence was so profound upon the young Beza that he later celebrated the day that he came to study at Wolmar’s home, 9 December 1528, as his second birthday and regarded Wolmar as “son second père.”190 He praised Wolmar as “integerrimus omnium virorum” (“the most virtuous of all men”) and declared him to be more eloquent than Mercury, Apollo, and the Graces.191 When Wolmar felt compelled for safety reasons to leave Bourges for Tübingen in 1535, Beza was ordered by his father to return to Orléans to continue his study of law.192 In contrast to Erasmus’ approach to pietas litterata, which was the selective study of classical texts based upon their moral value, Beza seems to have received a much broader exposure to the literature of antiquity than most students, as indicated by his use of such forbidden authors as Catullus, Martial, and Juvenal. Despite Erasmus’ rejection of Livy as an author whose writings were morally dubious, Beza thoroughly enjoyed the Roman historian as one of his favorites. Indeed, in a single letter written in 1549 from Beza to Conrad Gesner, the young humanist alluded to, cited, or incorporated passages from Vergil, Catullus, Cicero, Pliny the Elder, Plautus, Plutarch, and Homer, demonstrating his impressive command of the authors of antiquity and his literary range as a classical scholar. Wolmar so infused Beza with a passion for classical literature that while he was studying civil law at Orléans he devoted the majority of his time to reading Greek and Latin literature.193 His strongest desire as a young man was to study the

╇ Jill Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605” in Jill Rait (ed.), Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland, and Poland, 1560–1600 (New Haven, CT, 1981), 89–90; Henri Meylan, “Bèze et les Sodales d’Orléans (1535–1545)” in Charles Samaran (ed.), Actes du Congres sur l’ancienne Université d’Orléans (Orléans, 1962), 95. Beza wrote: “Ita igitur factum ut ad te pervenirem anno Domini 1528, Nonis Decembries: quem diem ego non aliter quam alterum natalem merito soleo celebrare.” 191 ╇ Théodore de Bèze, Ad Sodales, de Melchioris Volmarii, praeceptoris charissimi, adventu in Galliam in Kirk M. Summers (ed.), A View from the Palatine: The Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze (Arizona, 2002), 222–223. Beza wrote: “At tu, Melchior, in loco supremo / Sedens, Mercuriique Apollinisque, / Et vices Charitum supplebis unus. / Quod si forte tua eruditione / Audita (quis enim tuam negarit / In caelum quoque transiisse famam?) / Facundus veniat nepos Atlantis, / Aut Phoebus, Charitesve: tunc manebis / Suprema nihilominus cathedra, / Et tacentibus omnibus loqueris. / Nam quis (ni penitus caret cerebro) / Phoebo, Mercurioque, Gratiisque, / Neget Volmarium eruditiorem?” 192 ╇ Jill Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605,” 90. 193 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 195; Kirk Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Reading of Catullus” Classical and Modern Literature, 15 190

138

chapter four

poetry of classical authors and to cultivate his relationships with his fellow humanists. Upon returning to Orléans, he joined the sodales who had gathered around the poet Jean de Dampierre and in this literary circle Beza first began composing the Latin poetry which would later be published under the title Poemata.194 When he completed his legal studies in Orléans in 1539, he moved to Paris where he intended to devote himself more fully to humane studies and the cultivation of bonae litterae.195 While in Paris Beza published in 1548 his Poemata or Iuvenilia, a collection of epigrams, elegies, epitaphs, icones, and sylvae modeled on the literary style of Catullus and Ovid.196 Beza hoped through publishing this volume of poetry to win literary fame and establish himself as a distinguished poet. Dedicated to his humanist preceptor and literary father-figure Wolmar, the style of the Iuvenilia has been described as that of an “aristocratic Latin humanist.”197 After Michel de Montaigne read Beza’s Poemata, he praised the young humanist as the greatest French poet of the sixteenth century, maintaining that he had given to (1995), 233–245. cf. Mary Morrison, “Catullus in the Neo-Latin Poetry of France before 1550,” BHR, 17 (1955), 365–394. Beza’s devotion to the careful study of the Greek and Latin authors of antiquity may be seen in his poem entitled “Ad Bibliothecam” in which he refers to his books as “Meae deliciae, meae salutes” and after greeting Cicero, Catullus, Maro, both Plinys, Cato, Columella, Varro, Livy, Plautus, Terrence, Ovid, Fabius, Propertius, Sophocles, Isocrates, Homer, Plato, and Aristotle, he promised his precious volumes the following: “Non me unam hebdomadam procul, quid? immo / Non diem procul unicum abfuturum. / Quid diem? Immo nec horulam, immo nullum / Punctum temporis, ut libet pusillum.” 194 ╇ Meylan, “Bèze et les Sodales d’Orléans (1535–1545),” 95–96; Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605,” 90. Cf. Fernand Aubert, Jacques Boussard, Henri Meylan, “Un premier recueil de poesies latines de Théodore de Bèze,” BHR, 15 (1953), 164–191, 256–294. The “Sodales” were comprised of two groups. The older group consisted of Jean Truchon, Pierre Bourdineau, Bazoches, Jacques Viart, Claude Framberge, Jacques, and Groslot while the younger group was comprised of Germain, Vaillant de Guelis, Alexis Gaudin, de Blois, Maclou Popon, Germain Audebert, and Beza. 195 ╇ Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605,” 90. On Beza’s poetry see Alain Dufour, Théodore de Bèze: Poète et Théolgien (Genève, 2006). 196 ╇ Anne Lake Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams: The Uses and Abuses of Poetry,” SR, 21 (1974), 84; Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 193, 201. cf. also A View from the Palatine: The Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze. On the use of Catullus during this period see Gaisser, Catullus and His Renaissance Readers; Ludwig, “The Origin and Development of the Catullan Style in Neo-Latin Poetry,” 183–197; Morrison, “Ronsard and Catullus: The Influence of the Teaching of Marc-Antoine de Muret,” 240–274. For a broader consideration of the neoLatin literature during the first half of the sixteenth century see D. Murarasu, La poésie néo-latine et la renaissance des lettres antiques en France (1500–1549), (Paris, 1928). 197 ╇ Natalie Zemon Davis, “Peletier and Beza Part Company,” SR, 11 (1964), 193–194,€199.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

139

poetry “hir vogue and credit in our age.”198 Beza’s fellow humanist and colleague Jacques Peletier regarded his Poemata to be a just exhibition of the young scholar’s literary endowments and abilities.199 The appearance of the Iuvenilia immediately solidified Beza’s place within the literary world of French humanism, as it was widely regarded as among the best original compositions of the age.200 Despite his treatment of modern subjects and his epigrams to modern scholars such as Erasmus, Marot, and Rabelais, he followed the classical lyric and epigram forms of the ancients and looked to Catullus, Propertius, Ovid, Homer, and Vergil as literary models. In writing bucolics and pastorals, he followed Vergil whom he called “poetarum omnium principem” (“foremost of all the poets”). In composing elegies, he imitated Ovid while in constructing jesting epigrams he patterned his own after Catullus and Martial.201 Thus, Beza drew upon a number of classical models for each genre in the creative composition of his own neo-Latin poetry. Beza’s early poetry, which was written in imitation of Catullus and Ovid, plagued his reputation for the rest of his life. Despite Erasmus’ and Lefèvre’s disapproval of the imitation of Catullus’ frivolous and vulgar poetry, Beza used the ancient Roman poet as a model for his own compositions.202 He subsequently became entangled in controversy and was forced in later editions of the Iuvenilia to omit the more controversial poems altogether.203 The earliest collection of his poetry exhibited the same tendency toward bawdy speech and obscene behavior which Catullus’ own poetry embodied.204 In addition to portraying himself and 198 ╇ Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” 170; Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 84. 199 ╇ Davis, “Peletier and Beza Part Company,” 193, 213. 200 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 201; Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” 170. 201 ╇ Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 84–85; Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 201–202. Beza wrote: “Proposueram autem mihi in bucolicis et sylvulis quibusdam scribendis imitandum poetarum omnium principem Virgilium, gravius nihil dum meditans; in elegiis autem Ovidium, cuius ingenii ubertate magis quam Tibulli munditie capiebar. In epigrammaton vero lusibus, quod scribendi genus praecipue quadam ingenii proclivitate amplectebar, Catullum et Martialem usque …” 202 ╇ Erasmus and Lefèvre, of course, did not regard all of Catullus’ poetry as frivolous and vulgar. 203 ╇ Morrison, “Catullus in the Neo-Latin Poetry of France before 1550,” 369; “Ronsard and Catullus,” 241; Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Reading of Catullus,” 242. 204 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Reading of Catullus,” 233, 242; Ludwig, “The Origin and Development of the Catullan Style in Neo-Latin Poetry,” 190. Catullus stated that his “versus molles et iocosi” were designed to produce in the reader a “prurire.”

140

chapter four

his friends chasing prostitutes through the streets, he employed lewd language and grotesque figures. His poem to Candida, for example, was not merely ribald but was regarded as salacious when he described the meeting with Candida using the words “‘Salve … corculumque meum.… ‘Salve … mea mentula” (“Hello … my little heart … Hello, my little soul”) employing a pun on the word “culum” (Candida’s “bottom”) and a play on the diminutive of “mens” (“mentula”, which is also the word for “penis”).205 Likewise, the moral quality of Beza’s poetry was further called into question with his poem ridiculing the effeminate groomsman.206 He later regretted these youthful poetic indulgences and, with embarrassment, denounced them. Denying that they were, in any sense, autobiographical, he claimed that the lines to Publia and Candida were nothing more than fiction or what he called “my poetical jests.” Indeed, in his work entitled Confessio Christianae fidei he confessed that he had always delighted in “poeticos lusus.”207 In his later editions of the Iuvenilia he explained his earlier poems as simply an exercise in imitation of the great Roman authors of antiquity and claimed, as Martial and Catullus had done, that his life was “proba” (“honest”).208 His religious opponents used his poetry to besmirch his reputation, portraying him variously as “a dirty sinner with homosexual tastes,” “an effeminate, wanton, luxurious poet” worthy of shame, “the shame of Gaul,” and “a simoniac and sodomite” who deserved a place among the “oversexed monks and religious.” The Lutheran Tilemann Hesshus declared that Beza had “exceeded the filthiness of Martial and Catullus and the filthiness of all poets” while another critic declared him the most “uncleane, lascivious, and shamelesse” poet that ever lived.209

205 ╇ Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 85–86. Beza wrote: “Nuper Candidulam meam salutans, / ‘Salve,’ inquam, ‘mea mens, mei et lepores, / Corculumque meum.’ Illa tunc, disertam / Cum sese cuperet mihi probare, / -‘Salve,’inquit, ‘mea mentula.’ O disertam / Et docto bene foeminam cerebro! / Nam si dicere corculum solemus, / Cur non dicere mentulam licebit?” 206 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Reading of Catullus,” 242; Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 85. Beza’s offending words were: “Cum nequissimus omnium sacerdos, / Urbanus tamen et facetus Hercle, / Utra sponsus erat, rogare coepit.” 207 ╇ Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 85, 87, 96, 102. 208 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 203; Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 87. 209 ╇ Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 101, 108–109, 112. Beza was described by his opponents in the following epigram: “Here comes another of this vertuous tribe / That profane bawdy Scurr, that Divel’s Scribe / Lascivious Beza, in undecent sort / Betwixt his Candida, and Andebert.”



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

141

In addition to the Iuvenilia, Beza composed paraphrases of the Song of Songs, epitaphs, epigrams, and emblemata as well as eclogues based on the model of Vergil, a translation of Vergil’s death of Dido as found in the Aeneid, and a collection of poems under the title Cato Censorius Christianus.210 His most popular epigram celebrated the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and was entitled Ad serenissimam Elizabetham angliae reginam. Beza is said to have cultivated a taste for “splenetic mockery” and his anti-Catholic epigrams, such as the poem entitled Ebrius ad mensam, which crassly depicts the functioning of Pope Julius III’s stomach, bladder, and lower colon, illustrate this penchant. Likewise, in his epigram on the doctrine of transubstantiation, entitled Si qua fides, Beza employs “a bitter and ugly pun” when he suggests that instead of calling the Pope pontificem we call him carnificem (carnifex, meaning not only “maker of flesh” but “murderer”).211 In 1550 Beza marshaled his knowledge of classical drama and published Abraham sacrifant, “the first neo-classical French play ever written.”212 Some scholars have called it “the first French tragedy” and have hailed Beza as “the originator of a new genre of drama, the biblical tragedy.”213 Beza’s contribution to French poetry may be seen in his completion of the French Psalter begun originally by Clément Marot.214 In 1550 Calvin had urged Beza to complete the translations of the remaining Psalms into metrical French.215 Although Marot was “the leading French poet of his time,” he had only translated 51 Psalms, leaving a substantial amount of work for Beza to complete.216 Despite the fact that Beza’s translation of the Psalms has been generally ranked below Marot’s, his translation was, nevertheless, published along with a portion of George Buchanan’s Latin translation in 1566 and Jacobus Latomus’ metrical

╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 203. ╇ Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 92–93, 100. 212 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 204. 213 ╇ Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605,” 101; Mario Richter, “Bèze, Théodore de (1519–1605)” in Franco Simone (ed.), Dizionario critico della letteratura francese, Vol. I (Torino, 1972), 135. 214 ╇ Waldo Selden Pratt, “The Importance of the Early French Psalter,” Music Quarterly, 21 (Jan., 1935), 26–27. On Marot see Anne Lake Prescott, “The Reputation of Clément Marot in Renaissance England,” Studies in the Renaissance, 18 (1971), 173–202; Emmanuel Orentin Douen, Clément Marot et le Psautier huguenot (Paris, 1878). 215 ╇ Gillian Lewis, “Calvinism in Geneva in the time of Calvin and of Beza (1541–1605)” in Menna Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism, 1541–1715 (Oxford, 1985), 61; Davis, “Peletier and Beza Part Company,” 207. 216 ╇ Pratt, “The Importance of the Early French Psalter,” 26–27. 210 211

142

chapter four

Â� versions of Ecclesiastes and Jonah in 1588 and 1597.217 Beza’s ardent love of poetry was never fully extinguished, nor did he abandon poetic composition in his more mature years. Late in his life he openly confessed his life-long love affair with poetry and his inability to walk away from it.218 In his later years he diverted himself with that which had been the pastime of his youth, the composition of Latin epigrams and poetic verse.219 Similarly, his love of philology never abated throughout his long career in Geneva. He unabashedly referred to “his wife Philology” and frequently cited for philological and translation purposes such classical authors as Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Plautus, Terence, and Seneca in his New Testament commentary.220 With the publication in 1574 of Du droit des magistrats, Beza extended his literary contributions beyond the field of poetic composition and bonae litterae to the area of political philosophy in general and to the Protestant resistance literature of the second half of the sixteenth century in particular.221 Along with Hotman’s Francogallia, DuplessisMornay’s Vindiciae contra tyrannos, and Daneau’s Ad Petri Carpenterii … Petri Fabri responsio, Beza’s Du droit des magistrats represents a significant contribution to Huguenot theories of resistance, providing a comprehensive defense of the function of lesser magistrates in resisting tyranny.222 In 1573 the Genevan town Council rejected Beza’s proposal to publish the Latin version of his work, entitled De iure magistratuum in subditos, fearing that it might incite rebellion in France and bring unwanted blame upon the city.223 Indeed, Beza’s radical theory of political resistance was perceived by the French ambassador Jean de Bellièvre, 217 ╇ Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605,” 101; Johannes A. Gaertner, “Latin Verse Translations of the Psalms 1500–1620,” Harvard Theological Review, 49 (Oct., 1956), 275. Beza’s translation appeared with Buchanan’s entire translation in 1581 and 1593. 218 ╇ Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” 179. 219 ╇ Baird, Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation 1519–1605, 341. 220 ╇ Davis, “Peletier and Beza Part Company,” 204; Summers, “Theodore Beza’s ClassiÂ� cal Library and Christian Humanism,” 200, 204; Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605,” 91. 221 ╇ On Beza’s political theory see A. A. van Schelven, “Beza’s De Iure Magistratuum in Subditos,” ARG, 45 (1954), 62–83; Robert M. Kingdon, “The First Expression of Theodore Beza’s Political Ideas,” ARG, 46 (1955), 88–99; “Introduction” in Du droit des magistrats (Geneva, 1970). The full French title of Beza’s work is: Du droit des magistrats sur leurs subiets traitté tres necessaire en ce temps, pour advertir de leur devoir, tant les magistrats que les subiets: publié par ceux de Magdebourg l’an MDL: et maintenant revue et augmenté de plus ieurs raisons et exemples. Psal. 2 / erudimini qui iudicatis terram. 222 ╇ Manetsch, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598, 68. 223 ╇ van Schelven, “Beza’s De Iure Magistratuum in Subditos,” 62; Manetsch, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598, 67.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

143

who remarked that among the Huguenot political treatises it was “by far the most destructive book written.”224 Of course, Beza had twenty years earlier first articulated his political ideas in his 1554 De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis in which he drew upon sources from classical antiquity in support of his views and articulated in embryonic form his theory of resistance by the lesser magistrates.225 His 1574 Du droit des magistrats built off Hotman’s Francogallia and made overt application to France’s contemporary political situation, implicitly urging the Huguenots to resist the Valois king. With Hotman he stressed the right and responsibility of the Estates General in resisting tyranny but went beyond, arguing that the lesser magistrates also shared this right and responsibility, especially in defense of true religion.226 While we cannot say for certain that Melville read De haereticis and Du droit des magistrats, his five years of study under Beza and the political milieu of the Academy make it highly probable that he had in fact read Beza’s works and was well acquainted with his political philosophy.227 As professor of theology at the Academy from 1558 until 1599, Beza exercised an extraordinary influence upon his auditors and Melville was no exception.228 For five years Melville observed how the humanist employed his philological and literary skills in the interpretation of Scripture and in his approach to theology. Although Beza himself regarded Aristotle as the “sharpest of all the philosophers” and made his writings an essential part of the curriculum of the Academy, he should not be viewed as the originator of neo-Scholasticism within the Reformed tradition.229 Rather, in Beza’s writings and approach to education we find the confluence of both humanist and scholastic techniques without ╇ Manetsch, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598, 69. ╇ Kingdon, “The First Expression of Theodore Beza’s Political Ideas,” 88, 90, 92–93, 98–99. 226 ╇ Manetsch, Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598, 66–69. 227 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 49. 228 ╇ Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève, 638; Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605,” 92. 229 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 198, 200. On Beza and scholasticism see Robert Letham, “Theodore Beza: A Reassessment,” Scottish Journal of Theology, 40 (1987), 25–40; Marvin W. Anderson, “Theodore Beza: Savant or Scholastic? Theologische Zeitschrift, 43:4 (1987), 320–332; Jeffrey Mallinson, Faith, Reason, and Revelation in Theodore Beza 1519–1605 (Oxford, 2003), 48–80;€Richard Muller, “Calvin and the ‘Calvinists’: Assessing Continuities and Discontinuities between the Reformation and Orthodoxy,” Calvin Theological Journal, 30 (1995), 347–375; Christ and the Decree. Christology and Predestination in Reformed Theology from Calvin to Perkins (Grand Rapids, MI, 1986). 224 225

144

chapter four

any€ necessary incompatibility or tension.230 Beza made liberal use of Aristotelian categories in his political theory and in his doctrines of the Eucharist, the decrees of God, and the hypostatic union. In his teaching courses on Demosthenes and Aristotle, he underscored his Renaissance conviction of the importance of cultivating rhetorical elegance as well as logical clarity. In his emphasis upon rhetorical and syllogistic logic, he combined the rhetorical skills of both the Renaissance and Middle Ages and approximated in his delivery the rhetorical ideals of Quintillian and Cicero.231 It is quite possible that Beza’s Aristotelianism served as a moderating influence in Melville’s own approach to the philosopher’s writings. We know from Melville’s early years that although Palingenius’ poetry was a model of Aristotelian dissent, he nevertheless found enough merit in Aristotle’s writings while at St Andrews to peruse them in the original. While in Paris this model of dissent was undoubtedly accentuated under one of Aristotle’s sharpest and most outspoken critics, Ramus himself. However, sitting under Beza for five years and enjoying countless conversations with him over the authors of antiquity, he had set before him a sophisticated model and selective appropriation of the philosopher’s writings. Sadly, it is as difficult to discern the extent of Melville’s advocacy of Beza’s Aristotelianism as it is to assess with any degree of precision his endorsement of Ramus’ critique of Aristotle. We know from Melville’s subsequent academic career that he himself became an outspoken critic of Aristotle at both Glasgow and St Andrews and probably assumed a prominent role during the 1580s when the General Assembly openly condemned Aristotle’s errors. Nevertheless, like Beza, the conservative quality of Melville’s humanism and classicism prevented him from dismissing the philosopher altogether and, in turn, enabled him to promote a critical reading of his writings in Greek, paying particular attention to philological, grammatical, and historical issues. While we are not able to attribute definitively Beza’s influence on Melville at this point, it remains a strong possibility that the Frenchman influenced him in this direction. Melville found in Beza not merely an erudite and worthy theological successor to Calvin, but an elegant Latinist and Renaissance poet whose

230 ╇ Euan Cameron, “The Impact of Humanist Values,” Historical Journal, 36:4 (1993),€957. 231 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 198,€201.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

145

common love of philology and poetry resonated with the young Â�humanist and could only have served to elevate his already high estimation of the Frenchman. Whereas there is nothing in Melville’s neo-Latin poetry comparable to Beza’s controversial poem to Candida and the poem about an effeminate groomsman, Melville did share his penchant for splenetic mockery, as his offending poem which resulted in his fouryear imprisonment in the Tower of London vividly illustrates.232 Both viewed poetic composition as play and indulged in it recreationally throughout their lives. Indeed, the composition of Latin verse and epigrams appears to have functioned therapeutically, providing a creative outlet through which they could express themselves in a manner consistent with their aristocratic, humanist culture. Beza’s Latin Psalm translations, which Melville had certainly perused as they were published together with Buchanan’s in 1566, were models from which the young Scot could derive inspiration for his own paraphrases and neoLatin poetry.233 In light of Beza’s own humanist influence during this period in Melville’s life, it is not surprising that the young Scot published in 1574 a number of Latin poems, most notably his Carmen Mosis and paraphrase of Job chapter 3.234 Even in his old age, Melville, like Beza, continued to employ the use of epigrams in his ecclesiastical polemics as his 1620 Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Musae illustrates.235 In Beza, Melville also found an eloquent and carefully nuanced theory of the origin and limits of political power, as well as the rights of subjects to resist tyranny. In conjunction with Hotman’s Francogallia with which Melville was most certainly familiar, Beza’s Du droit des magistrats provided him with those political principles which became such a constitutive part of his own political theory. Although Beza and Melville differed in their assessment and appreciation of Ramus’ critical approach to Aristotle, both remained staunch advocates of the intrinsic value of Aristotle’s writings and their place in the university curriculum. Indeed, ╇ Andrew Melville, Viri clarissimi A. Melvini musae et P. Adamsoni vita et palindoia [sic] et celsae commissionis ceu delegatae potestatis regiae in causis ecclesiasticis brevis & aperta descriptio (1620), 24. 233 ╇ James Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England (Cambridge, 2000), 58. 234 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 86. The full title is: Carmen Mosis, Ex Deuteron. Cap. XXXII. quod ipse moriens Israëli tradidit ediscendum & cantandum perpetuò, latina paraphrasi illustratum. Cui addita sunt nonnulla Epigrammata, & Iobi Cap. III. latino carmine redditum. Andrea Melvino Scoto Avctore. Basileæ M.D. LXXIIII. 235 ╇ Andrew Melville, Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Musae et P. Adamsoni Vita et Palindoia (1620). 232

146

chapter four

when considered from the standpoint of the humanism of the European Renaissance, the parallels between Beza and Melville are not superficial but substantial and multifaceted. Melville’s Departure During Melville’s time in Geneva, beginning in 1569 and continuing until 1572, repeated efforts were made by Buchanan and the Regent Mar to persuade Henry Scrimgeour to return to Scotland to employ his scholarly abilities in service of his homeland. Despite these repeated pleas, Scrimgeour declined the offers and recommended in his place the services of Melville. Alexander Young came to Geneva in 1572 bearing letters for Scrimgeour and discovered to his delight that Melville was residing there and teaching in the schola privata of the Academy.236 Upon Young’s return to Scotland he brought with him not only the good news of Melville’s prosperity in Geneva but letters from him to his brothers Richard and James. Apparently, five years had passed since they had last heard from him, and they feared he had died in the bloody civil wars in France. When Young returned to Geneva a second time he brought with him a letter written in Latin from Melville’s nephew James and letters from his brothers urging him to return to Scotland. At this time Andrew Polwarth, who had enrolled at St Mary’s College, St Andrews in 1556 and who later became minister at Paisley and dean of faculty at the University of Glasgow, had been acquainted with Melville in Scotland and visited Geneva with his pupil the bishop of Brechin, Alexander Campbell. Polwarth urged Melville to return to his homeland where his scholarly gifts could be employed in service of his country. After careful consideration and with no desire to leave his home of five years or his circle of humanists, Melville finally consented to the requests and determined to return to Scotland.237 As Melville was preparing to depart from Geneva in April 1574, he€ received from the Academy a testimonium vitae et doctrinae.238

╇ Durkan, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” 20. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 30, 42; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 52–53; James Maitland Anderson (ed.), Early Records of the University of St Andrews (Edinburgh, 1926), 262; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 271. 238 ╇ Letter of Théodore de Bèze and Jean Pinault to Andrew Melville 12 April 1574, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. Fr. 408, f. 30–31; Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 288–289; Fatio and Labarthe (eds.), Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, III, 133–134, 295. 236 237



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

147

The€ Academy of Geneva did not issue licenses or degrees upon the Â�successful completion of a course of study. Rather the Ordre of the Genevan Academy stated that students who had successfully sustained a demanding oral examination were awarded a testimonium vitae et doctrinae in either the grade of “mediocre” or “honourable.” In May 1572 a certain Thomas van Til received a testimonium from the Academy while in 1574 Antoine de La Faye was issued one as he departed to pursue his study of medicine in Italy.239 Melville’s testimonium was issued€with€the grade of “honourable” as Beza wrote to the Church of Scotland extolling his erudition, piety, and assiduity in serving the schola privata and commending him to her as the strongest proof of their affection.240 Melville’s decision to leave Geneva and his humanistic coterie was not€ an easy one nor was it made without some degree of regret.241 During€ his five years in Geneva, he had grown accustomed to life there€and had formed a number of relationships with his fellow humanists, which he was not eager to see come to an end. Several years after his€ departure in 1580 on the occasion of the death of his Genevan friend€and fellow Scot John Lyndsay, Melville composed a poem entitled€Epitaphium Jacobi Lindesii in which he expressed his affection for many of those scholars with whom he had labored for so many years and under whom he had studied. Praising Beza, Daneau, Bertram, Portus, Jean de Serres or Serranus, Antoine de la Faye, Charles Perrot, Simon Goulart, Pinauld, Henri Estienne, and William Keith, Melville reflected nostalgically with deep affection upon those who had become such a part of his life while he was in Geneva and expressed his admiration for those who had made Geneva what it was to the Protestant world of the sixteenth century.242 239 ╇ Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 47. On Thomas van Til see Fatio and Labarthe (eds.), Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève, III, 36–37, 41–42, 49–50, 52, 54, 73–74, 279. 240 ╇ Borgeaud, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” 288–289; Lewis, “The Geneva Academy,” 47. 241 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 53–54. 242 ╇ Melville, “Epitaphium Jacobi Lindesii, qui obit Geneva, 17 Cal. Iul. 1580” in Johnston, Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum, 123. Melville wrote: “Iam Genevam, Genevam veræ pietatis alumnam, / Florentem studiis cælestibus omine magno / Victor ovans subis: ac voti jam parte potitus / Iam Bezæ dulci alloquio Suadæque medulla, / Et succo ambrosiæ cœlesti,€& nectaris imbre / Perfusus; jam Danæi immortalia dicta, / Cornelique Palæstinas, Portique sorores / Grajugenas: jam Serrana cum lampade Faii / Phœbæas artes geminas, clarumque Perotti / Sidus, Gulardique jubar, lumenque Pinaldi, / Et Stephani Musas varias operumque labores, / Necnon ingentis Calvini ingentia fata, / Et magnum atq;€memor Keithi magni, atq; sagacis / Glaspæi desiderium, sanctique Colessi / Edoctus …”

148

chapter four Conclusion

While James Melville remarked that his uncle’s “chief studie was Divinitie” during his five years in Geneva, a careful study of the historical situation, Melville’s relationships, and documents of the period reveal that he not only continued his humanistic course of study but extended his vast network of relationships with a number of the leading figures of the northern European Renaissance. Far from setting aside his devotion to the studia humanitatis, he labored for five years as an instructor in the schola privata of the Genevan Academy, teaching the language and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Taking advantage of his strategic position, he continued his study of the new jurisprudence by attending the lectures of one of the leading legal scholars of the sixteenth century, François Hotman and probably the legal lectures of Hughes Doneau and Ennemond de Bonnefoy. Always interested in expanding his network of humanist associates, he cultivated friendships with his extended relative Henry Scrimgeour, Paul Melissus, and Henri Estienne. Under Joseph Scaliger, he honed the critical methods which he presumably learned under Adrian Turnèbe in Paris, applying them in the task of recognizing textual corruptions and correcting them. We have also observed the strong likelihood that Melville attended the theological lectures of Lambert Daneau and Thomas Cartwright and had read the writings of the English divine Walter Travers. The intellectual kinship he experienced with these Reformed divines, while grounded in a common theology, was, nevertheless, strengthened by their advocacy of humanist values. Without question the single most influential figure in Melville’s life during this period was Theodore Beza whose lectures he attended daily and whose preaching he regularly sat under. Finding in Beza a model of the integration of both humanist and scholastic techniques, Melville had exemplified before him a different approach to the use of Aristotle than what he had seen under Ramus. Beza’s love of philology and Latin poetry resonated deeply with Melville, and it is quite likely that his satirical poems functioned as further poetic models for the young humanist. Indeed, it is no coincidence that during his stay in Geneva he composed a number of Latin poems which, while exhibiting the influence in both style and content of George Buchanan,243 may also resemble in its crass depiction certain of Beza’s anti-Catholic 243

╇ Reid, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville,” 71.



switzerland: geneva (1569–1574)

149

epigrams.244 Continuing his philological studies, Melville attended Corneille Bertram’s lectures on Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac and François Portus’ lectures on the Greek language. By virtue of the poetry which he wrote in honor of Bertram’s scholarship and his interaction with Portus over the correct pronunciation of ancient Greek, he appears to have been on familiar terms with both scholars and to have formed with them important friendships. To be sure, James Melville’s unintentional error regarding his uncle’s service within the Academy has contributed to the mythical image of the reformer by ascribing to him a more distinguished position than what he actually held. His position, as has been observed, was much more modest and humble than what either his nephew or McCrie have portrayed.245 While Melville appears from the official records of la Compagnie to be a rather obscure and inconsequential figure in the history of the Academy and one who was by no means irreplaceable, his service was valued by Beza and his associates and his scholarly reputation continued in the city for several decades following his departure. Indeed, over 25 years later Isaac Casaubon would write to Melville in 1601, maintaining that he had first heard of his widely recognized piety and erudition through Beza, Henri Estienne, and Jacques Lect.246 While it has been pointed out that Melville’s request to assist in the teaching of theology at the Academy was denied by la Compagnie, this eager request by one so young and with such little experience does not appear to have reflected poorly upon his subsequent reputation.247

╇ Melville, JMAD, 44. ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 43. 246 ╇ Isaac Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni Epistolæ (Rotterdam, 1709), 129. 247 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 34. 244 245

Chapter five

SCOTLAND: GLASGOW (1574–1580) Melville as Private Tutor By March 1574 Melville decided to return to Scotland and requested permission from la Compagnie to leave the Academy.1 While it is unclear what role he envisioned he would play back in his native land, he evidently desired an academic post in which he might serve as a purveyor of the New Learning. His replacement in the schola privata was Emile Portus, son of the professor of Greek, François Portus. The ease with which la Compagnie filled Melville’s post underscores as much Geneva’s abundance of scholarly resources as it does the Scot’s modest role within the Academy. To be sure Melville was replaceable, yet it can hardly be sustained that the schola privata was not diminished by his absence.2 Indeed, while there appears to have been no resistance or protest to his request, this may be explained as easily by the educational and ecclesiastical needs in Scotland as by anything else. Granted his request and carrying with him the Academy’s testimonium vitae et doctrinae, he traveled with Andrew Polwarth and Alexander Campbell from Geneva southwest toward Lyon.3 From Lyon they traveled through the Franche-Comté north to the River Loire, and from there they advanced to Orléans. Three Frenchmen accompanied them on part of their journey, a priest, a physician, and a military officer with whom Melville discussed religious matters. After cleverly avoiding detection as Protestants traveling from Geneva when they arrived and were questioned by the soldiers at the gates of Orléans, Melville and his countrymen did not remain long in the city but traveled north to Paris where they resided for several days 1 ╇ Olivier Fatio and Olivier Labarthe (eds.), Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève tome III 1565–1574 (Genève, 1969), 133–134, 295. 2 ╇ Steven John Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland: Andrew Melville and the University of St Andrews, 1560–1606” (PhD Thesis, St Andrews, 2008), 35. 3 ╇ Letter of Théodore de Bèze and Jean Pinault to Andrew Melville 12 April 1574, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. Fr. 408, f. 30–31; James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melvill ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 42–43; P. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan centre d’influence française a propos d’un manuscrit du xvii siècle (Paris, 1913), 258–259.

152

chapter five

and enjoyed the company of their fellow Scots, especially Lord Ogilvy.4 Leaving Paris on 30 May, they traveled northwest to Dieppe, sailed on to Rye in East Sussex, and progressed to London where they remained a short while. Once they purchased horses, the Scots traveled north to Berwick and then on to Edinburgh where they arrived at the beginning of July.5 Shortly after Melville was situated in Edinburgh, he was approached in an official capacity by George Buchanan, Alexander Hay, and James Halyburton on behalf of the Regent Morton, James Douglas, with an offer as a domestic instructor. Declining this prestigious, albeit politically motivated, offer of employment in favor of a future academic post, Melville requested time to spend with his friends and retired to the family estate at Baldovy where he resided for three months with his brother Richard and his family. During these months he had the opportunity to reestablish and cultivate what became the single most important humanist relationship of his life, his friendship with his nephew James Melville.6 Born the third son of Richard Melville and Isobel Scrimgeour on 25 July 1556 at Baldovy, James was educated first at the Logie Grammar School near Montrose where he studied for five years under one William Gray, master of the school and minister in that town. Following his time of study at Logie, he was sent to the Montrose Grammar School where he studied for two years under one Andrew Miln.7 Receiving at both schools a classically oriented and religiously based education, James proceeded in 1570 to St Leonard’s College, St Andrews where he Â�commenced his university studies under the regent William Collace.8 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 43–44. ╇ Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. I (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824), 56; Melville, JMAD, 44. On the day that Melville left Paris, Charles IX died of tuberculosis. When Melville arrived in London, he composed an epigram in light of the event, indicating that he had not forgotten the horrific events surrounding the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres. Melville seemed to delight himself in the irony of Charles’s death when he crassly depicted the French monarch’s blood bursting from several orifices. He wrote: “Naribus, ore, oculis atque auribus undique et ano, / Et pene erumpit qui tibi, Carle, eruor, / Non tuus iste eruor: Sanctorum at cede cruorem, / Quem ferus hausisti, concoquere haud poteras!” 6 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 45–47; J. D. Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951 (Glasgow, 1954), 64. Mackie suggests that this offer of employment may have arisen from Buchanan’s own personal influence. 7 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 59; Melville, JMAD, 16–17, 20–22. 8 ╇ James Maitland Anderson, (ed.), Early Records of the University of St. Andrews (Edinburgh, 1926), 158, 168, 267, 279; Melville, JMAD, 24; McCrie, Life of Andrew 4 5



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

153

Despite€ the initial difficulty he had in understanding Collace’s Latin lectures on George Cassander’s rhetoric, James, with the help of€his€regent, overcame this obstacle and applied himself to the study of Aristotle’s Organon, Physica, and Ethica, Cicero’s De legibus, and Justinian’s Institu­ tiones as well as to the study of mathematics, astronomy, and music.9 The medieval character of St Leonard’s curriculum is suggested in James Melville’s reference to a “compend” of Collace’s philosophy.10 Rather€than going ad fontes in typical humanist fashion and studying a broad array of classical texts in their original language paying careful attention to historical and philological issues, a compendium was used, which distilled the salient features of dialectic, definition, division, enunciation, syllogism, enthymeme, and induction. While his brief enumeration of subjects should not be taken as exhaustive, there is a noticeable lack of literary breadth in the College’s use of ancient texts. Rather than employing a broad array of classical literature which contained ideas hostile to the prevailing religious, political, and social ideas of sixteenth-century Scotland, a much more limited body of “safe” Greek and Roman authors was used.11 The absence of a more pronounced humanistic curriculum is all the more surprising given the fact that immediately prior to James Melville’s matriculation at St Leonard’s the humanist and university reformer George Buchanan had served as principal from 1566–1570.12 Buchanan himself had been appointed in 1563 to participate in a commission to investigate the state of the University of St Andrews and to propose measures for its reform. Out of this investigation Buchanan developed his own proposal for reform which assigned an important place to Â�classical studies.13 Despite Buchanan’s presence and leadership, the Melville I, 59; Henry S. N. McFarland, “The Education of James Melvill (1556–1614),” Aberdeen University Review, 36 (Aut., 1956), 365; William Arbuckle, A St Andrews Diarist: James Melville 1556–1614 (Edinburgh and London, 1964), 7. In contrast to James Melville’s assertion that he began his studies at St Leonard’s College in 1571, the official records of the University list him as having matriculated in 1570 and as having been graduated BA in 1572. McFarland maintains that the University records assign the year 1569 as the year of matriculation, but this is inconsistent with the official records. ╇ 9 ╇ It is unclear which ethical works of Aristotle are in view in James Melville’s account. It is possible that both the Ethica Nicomachea and Ethica Eudemia were studied. 10 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 25. 11 ╇ Charles G. Nauert, Jr., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, 1995), 194–195. 12 ╇ I.D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 169. 13 ╇ P. Hume Brown (ed.), Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan (Edinburgh, 1892), 2–3.

154

chapter five

Â� curriculum at St Leonard’s still retained several aspects of its medieval heritage while it incorporated, to a limited extent, the New Learning of the Renaissance.14 According to the official records of the University, James successfully completed his course of study and determined as a bachelor in 1572. Although he himself writes of having continued his studies at St Leonard’s until 1574, when he presumably took his MA, the graduation roll for that year appears to be incomplete as his name is not found in the records.15 Despite his previous studies at St Andrews, James discovered to his own chagrin his educational deficiencies when he attempted to converse with his uncle in Latin. He later confessed: “He fand me bauche in the Latin toung, a pratler upon precepts in Logik without anie profit for the right use, and haiffing sum termes of Art in Philosophie without light of solid knawlage.”16 Aware of a number of glaring deficiencies, Melville endeavored to address them by taking his young nephew under his private tutelage and, over the course of three months both in private instruction and personal conversation, immersing him in a robust and rigorous course of classical study. Beginning with the ancient poets and drawing attention to their literary elegance and verbal dexterity, he taught his nephew how to read and properly interpret the Latin verse of Vergil (Melville’s “cheiff refreschment efter his grave studies”) and Horace, as well as a comedy of Terence, the Commentarii of Caesar, and Sallust’s De coniuratione Catilinae. Among modern authors he took James through a selection of Buchanan’s Psalm paraphrases as well as Jean Bodin’s Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem both first published in 1566.17 As expected Melville’s instruction was characterized by a decidely philological, linguistic, and grammatical emphasis, studying Clenard’s Greek grammar, Martinius’ Hebrew grammar, and

14 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 25–29, 31. On William Collace see Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 267. On the study of Cassander’s rhetoric see Joseph S. Freedman, “Cicero in Sixteenth-and Seventeenth-Century Rhetoric Instruction,” Rhetorica, 4 (Sum., 1986), 227–254. 15 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 168; John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 275; Melville, JMAD, 28. James Kirk maintains that he was graduated in 1574 but the official records of the University, which are incomplete, are unable to confirm this. 16 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 36–37, 46. James added: “bot I perceavit at annes that I was bot an ignorant bable, and wist nocht what I said, nather could schaw anie use thairof, bot in clattering and crying.” 17 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 275. Kirk refers to Melville’s use of Bodin “as something of a novelty.”



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

155

Reuchlin’s Hebrew lexicon.18 In addition to reading the epistle of Basilius, Melville provided a selective introduction to the literature of the New Testament, reading in the original language, among other things, chapters from the Gospel of Matthew and Paul’s epistle to the Romans. Reflecting upon this intensive course of study, James later remarked, “I lernit mikle mair by heiring of him in daylie conversation, bathe that quarter and thairefter, nor ever I lernit of anie buik.”19 James’ remark€that he learned much more from his uncle’s “daylie conversation” than from any book may be the earliest reference to Melville’s practice of ‘table talk’ which he utilized so effectively in his reforming efforts at Glasgow. The University of Glasgow With Melville’s return to Scotland, news of his literary attainments, academic experience, and humanist relations at Paris, Poitiers, and Geneva spread through the report of his associates Andrew Polwarth, Alexander Campbell, Peter Young, Gilbert Moncrieff, and George Buchanan. News of his return quickly spread throughout Scotland between the time of his arrival in Edinburgh at the beginning of July and the meeting of the General Assembly in August 1574.20 Of course, the testimonium vitae et doctrinae composed by Beza and issued by the Genevan Academy only enhanced the young Scot’s reputation and led advocates of two of Scotland’s three universities to contemplate how they might recruit him to lead their respective institutions. In addition to the personal reports and official correspondence, Melville’s reputation as a humanist and Latin poet was significantly enhanced by his 1574 Carmen Mosis.21 18 ╇ On the use of Clenard’s Greek grammar in the sixteenth century see Foster Watson, The English Grammar Schools to 1660: Their Curriculum and Practice (Cambridge, 1908), 487, 513–514. 19 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 46–47. James Melville does not specify whether they read together Commentariorum libri VII de bello gallico or Commentariorum libri III de bello civili. Perhaps they read or consulted both works in their study of Caesar’s writings. 20 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 63. A vivid illustration of how Melville’s scholarly reputation preceded him may be seen in the decision of the 1574 General Assembly to include him, prior to having been formally introduced to him, in the committee commissioned to evaluate Patrick Adamson’s history of Job in Latin verse. Along with Melville, George Buchanan, Peter Young, and James Lawson were to execute this assignment. 21 ╇ Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiæ Pœtarum Scotorum (Amsterdam, 1637), 84–90; P. Mellon, L’Académie de SedancCentre d’Influence française a propos d’un manuscrit du xvii siècle (Paris, 1913), 155–163; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 86. Thomas McCrie provided the following bibliographical information from a copy of this work belonging

156

chapter five

Although James Melville wrote as though this work had been first published in 1578, the first edition was actually printed at Basel in 1574.22 McCrie hailed the Latin paraphrase as “unquestionably the finest poem in the collection, or perhaps of any that Melville wrote,” and maintained that it was “worthy of the scholar of Buchanan, and deserves a place among the productions of those modern writers who have attained great excellence in Latin poetry.”23 Thomson, somewhat more critical in his assessment of Melville’s poetry, praised the opening of the Carmen Mosis as “magnificent” and observed that “Melville combined in himself the high purpose of the older Humanists and the verbal virtuosity of the expanding Renaissance.”24 Written in response to the 1572 St Bartholomew’s Day massacres and in honor of its victims, the Carmen Mosis, Job 3, and several shorter poems were, according to James Melville, well received among ProtesÂ� tants, leaving Melville’s literary audience “in hope of graitter warks.”25 Recent study of the Carmen Mosis and other poems published with it in 1574 has noted the decidedly Protestant political agenda of Melville’s poetry and has identified it as belonging to a larger body of Calvinist literature written in response to the events surrounding August 1572.26 to David Laing: Carmen Mosis, ex Deuteron, cap.xxxii. quod ipse moriens Israëli tradidit ediscendum & cantandum perpetuò, latina paraphrasi illustratum. cui addita sunt non­ nulla epigrammata, & Iobi cap. iii. latino carmine redditum. Andrea Melvino Scoto avc­ tore. Basileæ M.D. LXXIIII. 22 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 63. James Melville writes: “That yeir my uncle dedicat to the King his Carmen Mosis, with certean Epigrames, and a chapter of Job in vers …” For a discussion of the date of this work see Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan Centre d’Influence Française, 155. I have been unable to locate the 1574 edition that McCrie cites. James Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England (Cambridge, 2000), 59. Doelman identifies the year of publication as 1573 but cites no bibliographical proof in support of it. 23 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 86–88; II, 331. McCrie quotes Zouch in Walton’s Lives lauding the Carmen Mosis as “truly excellent—exquisitely beautiful.” McCrie provides little by way of rational argument or literary analysis to justify his assessment of the Carmen Mosis, nor does he distinguish it from other poems written by Melville, such as the Στεφανισκιον, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia, Gathelus and Anti-Tami-CamiCategoria. 24 ╇ D. F. S. Thomson, “The Latin Epigram in Scotland: The Sixteenth Century,” Phoenix, 11 (Sum., 1957), 70. While observing that Melville’s poetry was “vigorous,” Thomson, nevertheless, remarks that it was “full of faults,” maintaining that it was “uneven, often devoid of literary taste, and much interlarded, in the fashion of the time, with Greek.” Cf. also Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan, 155. 25 ╇ Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan Centre d’Influence Française, 155, 163, 166; Melville, JMAD, 63; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 51, 89. 26 ╇ Steven John Reid, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville: The Carmen Mosis (1574) and the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres,” Renaissance and Reformation, 30.4 (Fall



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

157

The epigrams and short poems, while displaying Melville’s Â�literary adroitness and dexterity, indicate the extent to which he had embraced the prevailing Calvinist construction of the religious and political events associated with St Bartholomew’s Day.27 It is also very likely, in light of the 1573 anonymous publication entitled Epicedia illustri heroi Caspari Colinio […] poetis decantata published in Geneva, that Melville, whose Latin verses were included in this collection, circulated his poetry among his Genevan colleagues with a view to obtaining their approbation.28 At the time of the August Assembly commissioners representing the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow offered their respective petitions for Melville’s services as provost of St Mary’s College, St Andrews and principal of the University of Glasgow. At the “maist ernest instance” of the protestant archbishop of Glasgow James Boyd and the rector of the University of Glasgow Andrew Hay to visit the University, Melville consented and traveled to Glasgow where he was able personally to evaluate its condition.29 In addition to the most compelling factor in his decision to go to Glasgow, namely its decrepit and moribund Â�condition€— what McCrie called a state of “suspended animation” — Melville was probably further attracted to Glasgow by the presence of Boyd whom he had ostensibly met on the continent while the latter was studying civil law at the University of Bourges under Jacques Cujas.30 In late October 1574 Melville set out from Baldovy with his nephew€ James and his brother John, traveling to Dundee, Perth, and Stirling where he stopped for two days to confer with George and 2006/2007), 63–81. Cf. Robert M. Kingdon, Myths about the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres 1572–1576 (Cambridge, MA and London, 1988). 27 ╇ Johnston, Delitiæ Pœtarum Scotorum, 108–109, 112. These poems include: Ad Novissimos Galliae Martyres, Pax Gallica, Ad Carolum, Tyrannum Galliarum, Vipera Thusca, Cum Catulis, Classicum, and Tyrannus. 28 ╇ Reid, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville,” 73. Cf. Epicedia Illustri Heroi Caspari Colignio, Colignii Comiti, Castilionis Domino, Magno Galliarum Thallasiatchae Variis Linguis A Doctis Piisque Poetis Decantata (Geneva, 1573), GLN2464; Paul Chaix et al., Les Livres Imprimés à Geneve de 1550 à 1600 (Geneva, 1966), 78. 29 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 47–48; William Keith Leask (ed.), Musa Latina Aberdonensis Vol. III (Aberdeen, 1910), 129. John Johnston wrote of the earnest desire of Glasgow to obtain the services of Andrew Melville and Thomas Smeaton in his poem, entitled “Andreas Haivs.” 30 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 66; Robert Wodrow, Collections upon the Lives of the Reformers and Most Eminent Ministers of the Church of Scotland Vol. I (Glasgow, 1834), 208; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 272. Indeed the 1573 re-foundation stated that the teaching at the University had “almost gone to ruin” because of a lack of finances to support it. Cf. Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451– 1951, 60–64.

158

chapter five

Thomas Buchanan, Peter and Alexander Young, and Gilbert MonÂ� crieff.€ James Melville remarked that Melville “conferrit at lynthe with Mr George Bowchanan,” who at that time was writing his Rerum Scoti­ carum Â�historia (1582) and who had earlier developed his own proposal for the reform of St Andrews.31 In addition to the privilege of meeting the young James VI, Melville’s visit to Stirling underscores the bond he had forged with Buchanan at Paris, as well as the relationships he had built with Moncrieff and Young on the continent. His conference with Buchanan was undoubtedly focused upon how best to resuscitate Glasgow, which had been without a principal since John Davidson either moved away or died. Davidson had served the University both in the capacity of regent and principal until 1572 at the latest though he may have left the University as early as 1570.32 While there is some reason to doubt McCrie’s assertion that with the death of Davidson the students dispersed and the University was closed, there can be no question that the institution “was in dire straits by the summer of 1573.”33 Indeed, according to the 1573 foundation, which Andrew Hay had played a significant role in crafting, the college was in such disarray that it declared that “through excessive poverty the pursuit of learning has become utterly extinct.”34 Not until 1574 did the University acquire Peter BlackÂ� burn, later bishop of Aberdeen, from St Andrews. With the University facing severe financial problems, dramatic enrollment deficits, and serious staffing vacancies, Melville discussed with Buchanan his strategy for resurrecting the institution and placing it on an equal footing with the leading universities of Europe.35 31 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 48; Brown, Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan, 2–3. On Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum historia see I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 416–440; P. Hume Brown, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer (Edinburgh, 1890), 293–328; Roger A. Mason, “Scotching the Brut: Politics, History and National Myth in Sixteenth-Century Britain” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scotland and England 1286–1815 (Edinburgh, 1987), 60–84; “Rex Stoicus: George Buchanan, James VI and the Scottish Polity” in John Dwyer, Roger A. Mason, and Alexander Murdoch (eds.), New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 1982), 9–33; J.H. Burns, The True Law of Kinship: Concepts of Monarch in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), 185–221. On Buchanan’s proposed university reforms see Brown, Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan, 6–17; Ronald Gordon Cant, The University of St Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 54–57. 32 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 59, 63. 33 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 65; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 250. 34 ╇ Cosmo Innes (ed.), Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis, Vol. I, (Glasgow, 1854), 83–84; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 249. 35 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 59, 63; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 250. In addition to offering counsel to Melville



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

159

When Melville arrived in Glasgow in November 1574, he was greeted, not by a full faculty of regents who were prepared to teach the entire spectrum of the traditional medieval arts course, nor even by a band of lecturers equipped with the most current knowledge and methods from the continent, but rather by a single regent Peter Blackburn.36 Having matriculated at St Mary’s College in 1568, Blackburn proceeded through the traditional arts course and was graduated MA in 1572.37 Despite the brief period of time he spent in France following his studies at St Andrews, he did not embrace the New Learning as indicated by his conformity “to the ordour of the course of St Androis” and also by his resolute adherence to the St Andrews’ axiom: “absurdum est dicere errasse Aristotelem.” Unlike the humanists of the sixteenth century who delighted in criticizing and lampooning Aristotle and his disciples, Blackburn appears to have been a vigorous advocate of the philosopher.38 Indeed, James Melville initially characterized Blackburn as “a bitter propugnar of Aristotle,” who, after rather heated arguments with Melville, was disabused of “baith wrang opinions and evill fasones.”39 With Blackburn to assist him in the daily operation of the University, Melville gathered€around himself a small band of capable pupils, who, with the right training, could become regents and thus agents in the revitalization of Glasgow.40 Assuming the lion’s share of the teaching responsibility and assigning Blackburn only the administrative tasks of the University, Melville taught a staggering array of courses in the tradition of the Renaissance polymaths of the sixteenth century.41 Constrained by inadequate funding and a shortage of adequately trained scholars, he approached the task of essentially teaching the entire curriculum by integrating the classical texts popular among Renaissance scholars with the most current and innovative continental scholarship.42 His nephew maintained that Â� regarding the best way to restore the University, Buchanan also, following the 1577 nova erectio, gifted a number of volumes from his own personal library to support the reform. 36 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 48. On Peter Blackburn see Robert Lippe (ed.), Selections from Wodrow’s Biographical Collections: Divines of the North-East of Scotland (Aberdeen, 1890), 66–79. 37 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 167, 276. 38 ╇ Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 203–209. 39 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 253; Melville, JMAD, 48, 67. 40 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. 41 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 65; Melville, JMAD, 49. 42 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 280–281.

160

chapter five

he “teatche things nocht hard in this countrey of befor” perhaps referring to the logic, arithmetic and geometry of Petrus Ramus, the rhetoric of Omer Talon, or even the works on natural philosophy by Jean François Fernel and on history by Johann Sleidan.43 In light of the absence of any sources which might corroborate James Melville’s account, we may only suggest that Melville may have used Ramus’ 1543 Dialecticæ, 1555 Dia­ lecÂ�tique, 1556 Dialecticæ Libri Duo, 1555 Arithmeticæ Libri Tres, 1567 Proœmium Mathematicum, and his 1569 Geometriæ. He may also have utilized Talon’s 1567 Rhetorica, Fernelius’ 1571 Therapeutices Vniuersalis, and Sleidan’s De Quatuor Summis Imperiis Libri Tres. Although we have seen that there were notable exceptions in the sixteenth century to the dictum Graecum est, non legitur in Scotland, Melville’s extensive linguistic study of Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac which he undertook on the continent under Turnèbe, Portus, Mercier, Cinqarbres, and Bertram was uncommon even among the most erudite of Scottish scholars. Even Buchanan, one of Scotland’s most distinguished Latinists of the age, never obtained the degree of learning Melville acquired in the study of Semitic languages, nor did such study ever carry within his own curricular scheme the place and significance that it occupied in Melville’s.44 Indeed, Melville’s reputation as a distinguished Hebraist in Scotland, which began during his time in Glasgow, may even be seen over fourty years later in George Herbert’s satire Musae responsoriae written shortly after the publication of Melville’s Anti-Â�TamiCami-Categoria in 1620.45 By immersing his pupils in a sea of classical authors, including Homer,€Hesiod, Phocylides, Theognis, Pythagoras, Pindar, Isocrates, Theocritus, Vergil, and Horace, he endeavored to illustrate and reinforce their Â�grammar, syntax, and literary elegance. Popular among Renaissance

43 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49; Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh During its First Three Hundred Years Vol. I (London, 1884), 82. James Melville also mentions Philip Melanchthon as an author his uncle used in the instruction of history. He may have had in view the revised version of the Chronica of Johannes Carion which Melanchthon and Caspar Peuser jointly published in Wittenberg in 1573. 44 ╇ Brown, Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan, 5. Hume Brown failed to appreciate sufficiently the profound influence French humanism had on the thought, writings, and university reforms of Melville. Writing of “Melville’s preposterous plan,” he disparagingly remarked that “this theological course sketched by Melville would have been but the continuation of those arid methods and inane discussions of the schoolmen.” 45 ╇ F. E. Hutchinson (ed.), The Works of George Herbert (Oxford, 1978), 391, 588; Mark McCloskey and Paul R. Murphy (trans.), The Latin Poetry of George Herbert: A Bilingual Edition (Athens, OH, 1965), 24–27.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

161

Â� humanists for its combination of ancient texts and geography and translated into Latin verse, the Orbis terrae descriptio, also known by the title De situ habitabilis orbis, of Dionysius Periegetes as well as the Phaenomena of Aratus and the De cosmographiae rudimentis of Johann Honter was used by Melville.46 Lecturing on Aristotle’s Physica, De virtutibus, De cælo, De ortu et interitu, and Ethics, as well as Plato’s Dialogues, Euclid’s Elementa geometrica, and Cicero’s De officiis, Tusculanae disputationes, and paradoxes, he modeled for his students a sympathetic, yet critical, use of ancient sources based upon a careful reading of the text in its original language.47 Along with Latin and Greek, Melville taught his students Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac and lectured on the loci communes of theology, as well as “throw all the Auld and New Testament.”48 By lecturing twice everyday, including his public instruction on Sundays, he dramatically altered the intellectual trajectory of the University of Glasgow and may be credited with its academic resurgence and intellectual distinction during this period.49 Within the span of two years James Melville maintained that the University of Glasgow “was noble throwout all the land, and in uther contreys also.” Students came in such large numbers to study with Melville that his nephew reports, “the Collage was sa frequent as the roumes war nocht able to receave tham.” While James’ remark that “ther was na place in Europe comparable to Glasgw for guid letters, during these years” should not be accepted at face value, the dramatic reversal of fortune experienced by the University may be attributed to the indefatigable zeal and discipline Melville exhibited over the span of six years and his strategic decision to train a small core of scholars who themselves could assume responsibility for different areas of the curriculum.50 Melville’s growing fame, which reportedly spread throughout Europe attracting students from various quarters of the continent, may be 46 ╇ The edition in view here may have been: Dionysius Periegetes, Dionysius Lybicus de situ habitabilis orbis, trans. Simon Leminus (Venice, 1543). Melville may also have used the following editions of Aratus and Honter: Αρατου Σολεως Φαινομενα. Ciceronis in Arati Phænomena interpretatio … (Paris, 1540); Johannes Honterus, De Cosmographiae Rudimentis, & Omnium Properum Nomenclatura, Libri IIII (Basel, 1561). 47 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. 48 ╇ Ibid. 49 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 65; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 276. James Kirk maintained that Melville effected “something akin to a major educational revolution at Glasgow.” 50 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49–50.

162

chapter five

accounted for by a number of different factors. His arrival in Glasgow in 1574 at the age of 29 to take command of a university on the verge of extinction made any improvements appear dramatic. Had he entered a situation at a more advanced age where the institution was a thriving center of the New Learning, his impact would probably not have appeared so profound. The combination of Glasgow’s decrepit condition with Melville’s youth and extensive learning only fostered the mythical image of the humanist and reformer. Despite James Melville’s fanfare regarding his uncle when the latter came to Glasgow, his European reputation was based more upon hearsay than upon publications. Moreover, his return in July 1574 followed the civil war in Scotland. With such peaceful conditions those in both kirk and state who wished to advance the agenda of university reform were now in a position to effect change.51 Thus, the political and social stability of the nation combined with the University’s condition created a theatre in which Melville’s abilities could be displayed, resulting in “something akin to a major educational revolution.”52 Central to Melville’s reforming efforts was his daily practice of table talk with his regents, students, or “with sic as war present efter denner and supper.”53 While his public lectures may account in part for the rapid growth of his academic fame throughout Europe, his personal interaction in these table talks proved to be a compelling attraction. Just as John Mair had earlier in the century by his teaching attracted students to Glasgow, so Melville drew students, in part, by his personal qualities displayed in both his lectures and informal conversations around the table.54 Not restricting his conception of university instruction to the lecture hall or limiting it to the narrow confines of mere public exercises, Melville instituted the practice of informal, daily discussions both “at mealles and efter.” By posing a question and encouraging discussion and debate, Melville added to his formal instruction a dynamically

51 ╇ David Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641: From Protestant Reformation to Covenanting Revolution (Aberdeen, 1990), 29. 52 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 276. 53 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. 54 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 276, 155–165. On John Mair see John Durkan, “John Major: After 400 Years,” Innes Review, 1 (Dec., 1950), 131– 139; “Introduction” in Acta Facultatis Artium Universitatis Sanctiandree 1413–1588 (Edinburgh, 1964), l–lvi; J. H. Burns, The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarch in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), 54–92.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

163

Â� personal dimension which appears to have been extremely beneficial to his auditors in understanding the ancient authors. In addition to theological topics, Melville often posed questions Â�pertaining to philosophy or the arts. Discussion of the classical authors of antiquity with whom he was intimately acquainted was often the Â�subject of these table talks. Informal discussions and debates were frequently the venue through which his erudition and literary skill were displayed. Patrick Sharpe, master of the grammar school in Glasgow, often remarked to James Melville that he had during these years “lerned mair of Mr Andro Melvill craking and pleying, for understanding of the [classical] authors quhilk he teatched in the scholl, nor be all his comentares.” Despite Melville’s penchant to be overbearing in argument, stridently employing “reasone, words, and gesture” to persuade his hearers, James Melville testified, “I haiff knawin him to haiff done as mikle guid in sic conferences and meittings as be his publict doctrine.” When questions were raised to which Melville had no particular opinion, he is reported to have listened patiently and quietly, exercised caution, restraint, and open-mindedness, and reasoned “thairupon caldlie and camlie aneuche till he war fullie resolvit, and fand his grounds sure.” His table talk was characterized by the free exchange of ideas, vigorous debate, and respectful dialogue all within the broader context of a commitment to Reformed Protestantism and the New Learning of the Renaissance.55 During these years in Glasgow, a number of young scholars who were trained under Melville subsequently went on to serve in the academy, the church, or at the court of James VI. Among those who taught in Scotland’s universities were Patrick Melville and Duncan Nairn.56 The son of Roger Melville, Andrew’s older brother, Patrick, after completing his course of study and graduating in 1578, succeeded his cousin James in 1580, becoming a regent responsible for teaching logic, mathematics, and moral philosophy at Glasgow. Later he was made a professor of Hebrew at St Mary’s College, St Andrews.57 Duncan Nairn was graduated from Glasgow in 1580 and was subsequently appointed second ╇ Melville, JMAD, 50, 66–67. Although James Melville admits that occasionally his uncle “being sure of a truethe in reasoning, he wald be extream hat, and suffer na man to bear away the contrar,” he also observed that when he was personally attacked by Peter Blackburn in their debates over Aristotle’s writings “the argument seassed, for the Principall never spak a word mair.” 56 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 71. 55

164

chapter five

master of the University of Edinburgh alongside the school’s first principal Robert Rollock.58 Nairn was appointed as a regent to provide instruction in Latin for those students who were insufficiently prepared to understand Rollock’s Latin lectures.59 Although his Latin pupils were regarded as occupying “an infra-Academical position” in the college as unmatriculated students, Nairn was described by Henry Charteris as “viri morum elegantia et doctrina singulari” (“a man of remarkable learning and elegance of manners”).60 Throughout the period of Melville’s service at Glasgow of which we have records, eleven out of twenty-one graduates entered the ministry. In addition to archbishop John Spottiswoode, who had been a student at Glasgow while Melville was principal, among those who entered the ministry were John Blackburn, Hugh Fullerton, Ninian Young, John Ross, Andrew Knox, Robert Darroch, Patrick Walkinshaw, Dougal Campbell, James Cunningham, William Douglas, and Richard Ogill.61 Among those who studied at Glasgow during Melville’s principalship and who entered into political service were Sir Edward Drummond and Sir James Fullarton, both of whom acted as diplomats on behalf of James€VI.62 Sir Gideon Murray, who graduated in 1581, after being imprisoned for murder in Edinburgh Castle in 1585–1586, was knighted and appointed to the privy council in 1605. In 1611 he became one of the “Octavians” as well as the lord high treasurer in 1613.63 Similarly, Adam Newton, who was graduated from Glasgow in 1582, in addition to serving as “a professor of the Laws” at the University of Edinburgh 57 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 84; Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 70; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 292, 303, 311, 375; James K. Cameron,€“Andrew Melville in St Andrews” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners A St Mary’s Miscellany (St Andrews, 1990), 65. With Melville as principal of the University and James serving as the second regent, Patrick Melville’s appointment as a regent has led James Kirk to refer to the creation of “something of a Melvillian dynasty” at Glasgow. 58 ╇ Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh, 137. 59 ╇ D.B. Horn, A Short History of the University of Edinburgh 1556–1889 (Edinburgh, 1967), 6. 60 ╇ Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh I, 137, 145; Henrico Charterisio, Vitae et Obitus D. Roberti Rolloci, Scoti in Robert Rollock, Select Works of Robert Rollock Vol. I, ed. William M. Gunn (Edinburgh, 1849), xliii. Charteris wrote: “Habito examine, plerique qui comperti sunt ad capessendum cursum philosophicum minus idonei, curae Duncani Narnii, viri morum elegantia et doctrina singulari, ut eos exactius in literis humanioribus in sequentem annum institueret, commissi sunt.” 61 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 375–376. 62 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 70. 63 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 71; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 381–382.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

165

from 1590–1594, labored in the capacity of tutor and later Secretary to Prince Henry of Wales.64 Most, if not all, of these graduates in some capacity studied under Melville himself or his personally trained regents. Whereas those who commenced their studies toward the end of Melville’s time in Glasgow may not have attended his lectures, all of them had the opportunity to benefit from his informal instruction in his daily table talk. When Melville arrived in 1574, the University lacked not only an adequately trained academic staff but the financial means of supporting it. Both the 1563 royal donation and the 1573 intended new foundation produced by the town of Glasgow were unable to alter the University’s grim financial state.65 It was so impoverished that it could only afford to support two full-time faculty. Melville’s goal of abolishing the medieval regenting system and replacing it with specialists, therefore, had to wait until his regents were properly trained and the means to support them were secured.66 The acquisition of the parsonage and vicarage teinds of the wealthy parish of Govan significantly improved the University’s financial picture though the full fruits would not be harvested until some years later due to a previous legal arrangement made by the incumbent of Govan. Similarly, in June 1575 the lords of Council offered their own assistance to the struggling University by ordering rent payments to be made upon threat of imprisonment.67 With this additional revenue, Glasgow’s financial picture improved and it was able to add an additional regent.68 After a year of extensive lecturing on a vast array of subjects and having spent countless hours with his students in table talk, Melville in late September 1575 delegated to his nephew as regent the responsibility of teaching Greek grammar and literature. James lectured from IsocÂ� rates’€Parænesis ad demonicum, the first book of Homer’s Illiad, Hesiod’s Ἔργα€καὶ Ἡμέραι, and the poetry of Phocylides, as well as the dialectic and rhetoric of Ramus and Talon respectively and Cicero’s Catilinarian

╇ Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh, I, 184–186. ╇ James Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities” in A.A. MacDonald, Michael Lynch, and Ian B. Cowan (eds.), The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion and Culture (Leiden, 1994), 280; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 281. 66 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 281. 67 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 66; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 281. 68 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 281. 64 65

166

chapter five

orations and paradoxes. The following year James continued his work as a regent and lectured on arithmetic, geometry, logic, and moral philosophy as well as Cicero’s De Officiis, Aristotle’s Organon and Ethica, and Plato’s Phaedo and Axiochus.69 By 1577 Melville had trained enough€scholars that he was able to delegate his academic responsibilities even further, giving the task of teaching Latin and Greek language and literature to Blaise Lawrie while James Melville lectured on logic, mathematics, and moral philosophy. Peter Blackburn taught astronomy and physics while Melville himself lectured on the biblical languages and theology.70 Of course, the addition of regents required additional revenue to support them, and for this the University resorted to the old expedient of the appropriation of benefices. Notwithstanding the revolutionary reforms embodied in the1577 nova erectio, it did nothing to reform this method of financing the University but instead endorsed it.71 A Humanist in Service to the Kirk Second only during these years to Melville’s service as Principal of the University of Glasgow was his extensive involvement in the Kirk at both the provincial and national levels. On the provincial level, Melville served as a regular preacher in the church of Govan during his principalship at Glasgow.72 His service on the national scene was more varied. As a humanist with a European reputation for classical studies, Melville was, upon his return to Scotland, quickly recruited to employ his abilities as a scholar in service to the Kirk. In 1574 he was appointed, along with George Buchanan, Peter Young, and James Lawson, to evaluate Patrick Adamson’s history of the book of Job in Latin verse.73 Selected as much for his attainments as a classical scholar and Latin poet as for his knowledge of theology and the ancient languages of Scripture and their cognates, Melville was called upon to provide an expert assessment of Adamson’s Latin verse translation. Along with James Lawson, Melville ╇ Melville, JMAD, 53–54. ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 69. 71 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 286–287. 72 ╇ Shaw, The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland 1560–1600, 140–141; John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 286–287; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 71, 92. 73 ╇ Acts and proceedings of the general assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland from the M.D.LX. Part First M.D.L–M.D.LXXVII ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1839), 310. 69 70



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

167

brought to this commission an impressive command of Hebrew and an extensive knowledge of its ancient near eastern cognates. His study in Paris under Jean Mercier and Jean de Cinqarbres was well-known to Buchanan, his former Parisian tutor, even as his study in Geneva under€Corneille Bertram was known to Peter Young, his literary correspondent.74 Buchanan’s skill as a Latin poet and his ability to handle ancient Hebrew texts had been firmly established in 1566 with the publication of his celebrated Psalm paraphrases while James Lawson’s study of Hebrew on the continent and his service at St Mary’s and King’s College solidified his place among the prominent purveyors of Hebrew in Scotland.75 Similarly, in 1579 Melville was appointed to a commission to evaluate the foundations of the colleges and the condition of the University of St Andrews and to address any corruptions which pertained to the Kirk.76 There can be little question that Melville’s successful efforts in leading the reform of the University of Glasgow and his academic experience on the continent provided the obvious grounds for his selection to this commission. During the 1570s Melville served on the national level as moderator of the general assembly, a frequent assessor to the moderator, and a member of various ecclesiastical commissions. In 1578 he was elected moderator.77 As moderator, he worked in conjunction with those appointed by the assembly as assessors to determine what matters would be presented to it. In conjunction with this responsibility, he also had the opportunity at the subsequent assembly to conduct its public worhip and preach.78 While the moderator did not exercise a dominating or ╇ Peter Young had been a student at the Genevan Academy from 1562 to 1568 and may have studied under Corneille Bertram, who had been appointed professor of€Hebrew at the Academy in 1567. Alexander Young visited Geneva in 1572 and to his surprise discovered Melville residing in the city pursuing his studies and teaching in the schola privata of the Academy. It may have been through Alexander’s report that Peter Young learned of Melville’s study of Hebrew and its ancient near eastern cognates. Cf. Charles Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève: L’Académie de Calvin 1559–1798 (Genève, 1900), 102–103. Paul F. Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959 (Genève, 1959), 31. An example of Melville’s correspondence with Young during these years may be seen in the following letter. Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, 14 April 1572, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 27. 75 ╇ Robert Lippe (ed.), Selections from Woodrow’s Biographical Collections Divines of the North-East of Scotland (Aberdeen, 1890), 194. 76 ╇ BUK, II, 434–35. 77 ╇ Ibid., xviii. 78 ╇ Duncan Shaw, The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland 1560–1600 (Edinburgh, 1964), 139. 74

168

chapter five

controling influence in the assembly, the exercise of preaching could be a potentially potent instrument for inspiring reform and influencing the Kirk’s highest judicatory. From his return to Scotland in 1574 until his relocation to St Andrews in late 1580, Melville served seven times as an assessor to the moderator.79 Although his voice as an assessor was not the only one nor was it even the most influential, Melville was in a position from 1577 through 1580 to exert some influence on the general assembly. Complementing his service as moderator and assessor to the moderator, he also served on various commissions pertaining to ecclesiastical procedure and authority. In addition to serving on the committee which drafted the 1578 Second Book of Discipline,80 in 1577 he was appointed to a commission instructed to meet with the Regent to answer questions and discuss the Kirk’s policy and jurisdiction.81 In 1578 he was selected to serve on a commission to confer and reason with the commissioners from the Lords of Secret Counsel regarding the book of policy.82 In that same year he was appointed along with ten other commissioners to discuss with the King and his council the Kirk’s heads of policy.83 When Melville was not serving as moderator, an assessor to the moderator, or a commissioner, he labored at assemblies, court, and behind the scenes as an ecclesiastical statesman to advance the cause of university reform and development. In an effort to place the University of Glasgow on a more secure financial footing, Melville, as an ecclesiastical statesman, utilized a number of tactics to secure the living of the parish of Govan for the University. After declining the benefice of Govan, Melville reportedly “delt ernestlie with the Regent him selff ” suggesting that he personally appealed to him on behalf of the University. When this approach proved unsuccessful, he then proceeded to lobby the Regent behind the scences via his friend Patrick Adamson.84 James Melville writes that his uncle “be all moyen, namlie, of the said Mr€Patrik, to haiff it annexit to the Collage” indicating that Melville asked his friend

╇ BUK, I, 381 392; II, 413, 418, 427, 449, 463. ╇ The Second Book of Discipline, ed. James Kirk (Edinburgh, 1980), 45–46. 81 ╇ David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland Vol. III ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1843), 388. 82 ╇ Ibid., 399, 401. 83 ╇ Ibid., 402–03. 84 ╇ Alan R. MacDonald, “Best of Enemies: Andrew Melville and Patrick Adamson, c., 1574–1592” in Julian Goodare and Alasdair A. MacDonald (eds.), Sixteenth-Century Scotland Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden and Boston, 2008), 263–64; Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 66. 79 80



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

169

to exercise whatever influence he had at court with the Regent to secure the parsonage and vicarage tiends of Govan for the University.85 Similarly, in 1578 Melville labored with Thomas Smeaton both at the Kirk’s assemblies and at court to establish “an Anti-Seminarie” at St Andrews. According to James Melville, the two men “cessit never, at Assemblies and Court, till that wark was begoun and sett fordwart.”86 Just as he had worked with Adamson to secure a more stable financial arrangement for the University of Glasgow, so he worked in conjunction with Smeaton to establish a school of theology at St Andrews which would be able to combat the ever-present threat of the reassertion of Catholicism in Scotland. Both Melville and Smeaton had connections at court and used them to advance their agenda. In laying the groundwork for the proposed “Anti-Seminarie” at St Andrews, Smeaton developed relationships with various members of the nobility in order to warn them of the dangers of sending their sons to certain parts of Europe.87 It was Smeaton’s and Melville’s hope that some of the nobility, instead of sending their sons abroad to complete their education, would send them to this new institution. Melville’s labors as an ecclesiastical statesman were ordinarily conducted as a member of an ecclesiastical commission which had been directed to meet, confer, and reason with the the Regent, the Lords of Secret Council, or with the King himself. During these years Melville did not act independently as an ecclesiastical statesman nor were his labors in this capacity unusual or exceptional. A number of individuals during the 1570s were commissioned by the general assembly to perform similar functions on behalf of the Kirk and commonwealth. In this respect, Melville’s service was ordinary. Rather than acting alone or in isolation from his fellow commissioners, Melville acted in concert with them and was merely one voice among many. While it does appear that his selection to serve on the commissions in 1577 and 1578, which addressed matters of ecclesiastical policy and jurisdiction, were made in light of his knowledge and experience derived from his time on the continent in Geneva, he did not exert a dominant or controling influence on any of these commissions. If his qualifications and experience warranted regarding him as a primus inter pares among his fellow commissioners, ╇ Melville, JMAD, 53–54; Calderwood, History III, 369. ╇ Ibid., 76; Calderwood, History III, 407. 87 ╇ Ibid., On the re-assertion of Catholicism and the Jesuit presence in Scotland see Thomas M. McCoog S.J., The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England 1541– 1588 (Leiden, 1996). 85 86

170

chapter five

his service did not distinguish him in this capacity. Nevertheless, the mid to late 1570s were a period of intense ecclesiastical activity for Melville and his service as an ecclesiastical statesman, moderator, assessor to the moderator, and commissioner of the general assembly was only to increase in the following decades. Fellow Humanists and Advocates of Reform As early as 1575 Melville had begun to indicate that his reforming ambitions went far beyond the confines of Glasgow to include the reform of Scotland’s other medieval universities at St Andrews and Old Aberdeen.88 Following the 1575 general assembly he traveled to Angus with his nephew and Alexander Arbuthnot, principal of King’s College, Old Aberdeen.89 Arbuthnot had matriculated at St Mary’s College in 1552 where he studied and was graduated in 1554 and 1555.90 Following his graduation he taught at St Andrews, being licensed to teach in 1556, and served as an examiner in the faculty of arts in 1556 and 1558.91 In 1561 he traveled to the continent to further his education where he studied civil law at the University of Bourges for five years under Jacques Cujas.92 Widely recognized as one of the most learned men of his age in Scotland and highly regarded by his peers, upon his return to Scotland he was appointed principal of King’s College in 1569 and upon James Lawson’s departure from the University in 1572 served as minister at St Machar’s Cathedral in Old Aberdeen.93 Archbishop John Spottiswoode described him as a polymath who was “in all sciences expert; a good poet, mathematician, philosopher, theologue, lawyer, and in medicine skilful, so as

╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 29. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 53. On Arbuthnot see Lippe, Selections from Woodrow’s Biographical Collections Divines of the North-East of Scotland, 179–192. 90 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 152–153, 256. 91 ╇ Annie I. Dunlop, “Introduction” in Acta Facultatis Artium Universitatis Sanctiandree 1413–1588 Vol. I, (Edinburgh, 1964), Lxxiv; James Kirk, “Arbuthnot, Alexander (1538– 1583),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 2 (Oxford, 2004), 318–319. 92 ╇ Lippe, Selections from Woodrow’s Biographical Collections, 180. 93 ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 26; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 375. McCrie mistakenly identifies 1568 rather than 1569 as the year Arbuthnot was made Principal. Cf. P.J. Anderson, Officers and Graduates of University & King’s College€Aberdeen 1495–1860 (Aberdeen, 1893), 25; John Malcolm Bulloch, The University of Aberdeen 1495–1895 (London, 1895), 79; Robert Sangster Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen A History (Aberdeen, 1895), 101. 88 89



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

171

in every subject he could promptly discourse, and to good purpose.”94 Spending five years on the continent immersed in the study of the new jurisprudence, Arbuthnot possessed a profound appreciation for the New Learning and the humanist values cherished so deeply by Melville. James Melville described him as “a man of singular gifts of lerning, wisdome, godlines, and sweitnes of nature,”95 and his untimely death in 1583 was a devastating personal loss to Melville.96 Melville’s sense of loss at the death of Arbuthnot on 10 October 1583 was compounded by the death of Thomas Smeaton just two months later on 13 December. These deaths came shortly on the heels of another poignant loss for Melville, the death of George Buchanan just one year earlier on 28 September 1582. Within the span of little over a year Melville had lost three of his most trusted and intimate companions, fellow humanists, and advocates of the New Learning.97 At their meeting in 1575 following the assembly Melville is said to have discussed with Arbuthnot “the haill ordour of his Collage in doctrine and discipline” and to have “aggreit, as thaireefter was set down, in the new reformation of the said Collages of Glasgw and Aberdein.”98 At this meeting Melville also apparently gave Arbuthnot a copy of Walter Travers’ Ecclesiasticae disciplinae … explicatio.99 Although he had not ╇ John Spottiswoode, The History of the Church of Scotland Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1850), 319. Spottiswoode wrote of Arbuthnot: “by his diligent teaching and dextrous government, he not only revived the study of good letters, but gained many from the superstitions whereunto they were given. He was greatly loved of all men, hated of none, and in such account for his moderation with the chief men of these parts, that without his advice they could almost do nothing.” 95 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 53. 96 ╇ Andrew Melville, “Epitaphium Alexandri Arbuthneti” in Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (Amsterdam, 1637), 120–121. Melville wrote: “Flere mihi si fas privata incommoda, si fas / Publica, nec tua mi commoda flere nefas: / Flerem ego te, mihi te ereptum, pater Arbuthnete, / Et pater, & patriæ lux oculusque tuæ. / Flerem ego te superis carum caput Arbuthnete, / Et caput, & sacri corque animusque chori (eheu! / Flerem ego sienti floret aut pudor, aut modus, / Flerem egote, te ehu! Flerem ego perpetuo? / Deliciæ humani generis: dulcissime rerum: / Quem Musæ & Charites blando aluere sinu. / Cujus in ore lepos; sapiens in pectore virtus: / Et Suadæ & Sophiæ vis bene juncta simul. / Cui pietas, cui prisca fides, constantia, candor, / Et pudor, & probitas non habuere parem. / Sacras & Themidis, medicas & pæonis artes, / Et potis immensi pandere jura poli. / Vis animi, vis ingenii, vis vivida mentis / Et terram, & pontum, & sidera perdomuit. / Talis erat hic ævum agitans: nunc æthere summo / Celsior, & summo non procul inde Deo. / Perfrueris vera in patria cœloque Deoque / Fælix: hæc tua me commoda flere nefas.” 97 ╇ I.D. McFarlane, Buchanan, (London, 1981), 475. 98 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 53. 99 ╇ A. F. Scott Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism (Cambridge, 1925), 142. 94

172

chapter five

acquired all of the linguistic tools Melville had obtained nor the formal theological training, Arbuthnot has been described as Melville’s “earnest disciple,” “apt pupil,” and “intimate friend” whose views were “closely united” to Melville’s own.100 Seven years his junior, Melville admired Arbuthnot’s extensive knowledge of jurisprudence, his skill as a poet, his wit and ingenuity, and his vigorous strength of mind, as well as his piety, faith, constancy, kindness, modesty, and integrity. From the epitaph Melville wrote in honor of his beloved friend and colleague where he referred to him as pater Arbuthnete, it appears that he may have had as much an impact upon Melville as Melville had on him.101 Certainly the close similarities between Glasgow’s 1577 nova erectio and Aberdeen’s 1583 intended nova fundatio confirm James Melville’s remark that Melville and Arbuthnot were agreed in their basic views on university reform.102 Both men had studied at St Mary’s College and had traveled to France where they studied civil law at the leading centers of jurisprudence. Both were the direct beneficiaries of the French Renaissance, studying in France during the 1560s, the apex of the movement’s intellectual and cultural achievement.103 Both shared a common vision for reform of Scotland’s medieval universities. However, despite their common influences, shared humanist values, and basic educational agreement, it is, nevertheless, difficult to determine exactly who influenced whom, even as it is difficult to assess the extent to which Arbuthnot embraced Ramism. While there is some Â�evidence to support the view that Ramism was present in Old Aberdeen at King’s College, the absence of confirmation from official university records to support this claim makes it impossible to affirm with

100 ╇ Bulloch, The University of Aberdeen 1495–1895, 77, 79; Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen A History, 101; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 138. Cf. National Library of Scotland, Wodrow MSS, folio vol., xlii, f.11r. J. Marshall Lang describes Arbuthnot as “a stauch friend and ally of Andrew Melville.” Cf. J. Marshall Lang, “Hector Boece and the Principals” in P.J. Anderson (ed.), Studies in the History and Development of the University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1906), 35. 101 ╇ Melville, “Epitaphium Alexandri Arbuthneti,” 121. 102 ╇ For the text and translation of the nova fundatio of King’s College, Aberdeen see Anderson, Officers and Graduates of University & King’s College Aberdeen 1495–1860, 335–347; Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 149–166. For the text and translation of the University of Glasgow’s nova erectio see Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 430–448. 103 ╇ Peter Sharratt, “Peter Ramus and the Reform of the University: the Divorce of Philosophy and Eloquence?” in Peter Sharratt (ed.), French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 4; McFarlane, Buchanan, 10.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

173

104 Â� certainty. At best, Ramus’ influence in the academic reforms proposed under Arbuthnot may be inferred rather than proved.105 Indeed, the earliest evidence that Ramus’ and Talon’s works were part of the curriculum at King’s traces back only to 1641.106 Nevertheless, there are a number of pieces of evidence to support the contention that Ramus and his writings were known and even studied at King’s College during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Principals Walter Stuart and David Rait respectively possessed copies of Ramus’ Commentaries on the Christian Religion and Omer Talon’s Rhetoric while principal William Leslie owned a copy of Ramus’ Lectures on Mathematics.107 The very fact that these works survived may indicate that Ramus’ writings were selectively used by the teaching staff at King’s College. While we are not warranted in affirming this with certainty, it remains a distinct possibility. In conjunction with these works, two alumni, John Johnston and Robert Howie, after completing their studies at King’s College in 1584 traveled to the continent where they further pursued their education under Ramist scholars.108 While again this evidence is not conclusive, it is Â�suggestive that Ramus’ thought and writings were to some extent part of the curriculum at King’s, even as they had been at Glasgow and St Mary’s.109 Arbuthnot agreed with Melville in abolishing the regenting system and supplanting it with specialist instruction, even as he agreed more basically on the place that the ancient languages should occupy in the new scheme. Despite Arbuthnot’s own lack of knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, his colleague at King’s College, James Lawson, had been appointed along with him in 1569 as sub-principal due largely to his knowledge of Hebrew.110 Indeed, upon his return from the continent

╇ Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities,” 288–289; Robert Letham, “The Foedus Operum: Some Factors Accounting for its Development,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 14: 4 (1983), 465. 105 ╇ James Kerr Cameron, “Introduction” in James Kerr Cameron (ed.), Letters of John Johnston and Robert Howie (Edinburgh and London, 1963), xvi–xvii. 106 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 289. 107 ╇ Anderson, Officers and Graduates of University & King’s College Aberdeen 1495– 1860, 25–25; Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 44. 108 ╇ Cameron, “Introduction,” xxiv, xxix. Cameron maintains that Johnston was “a follower of the Ramists and an ardent opponent of the Aristotelians” who had heard Ramus and the Aristotelians discussed during his time at the Universities of Rostock and Helmstädt. 109 ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 45. 110 ╇ Ibid., 26, 28; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 285, 289; Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 267; Anderson, Officers and 104

174

chapter five

where he “made himself master of the Hebrew tongue,” Lawson taught Hebrew at St Mary’s before transferring to King’s College.111 Lawson’s teaching at St Mary’s in the late 1560s and at King’s in 1569 and beyond suggests that prior to Melville’s return, there was already a recognition of the importance of the ancient languages in the curriculum at St Andrews and Old Aberdeen. Melville’s promotion of the ancient languages should be understood as an accentuation and development of an emphasis that had existed since the proposed Reformation of Scotland’s medieval universities in 1560.112 In addition to his relationship with Arbuthnot during these years, Melville also formed relationships with two other humanist literary figures, Patrick Adamson and Thomas Smeaton. A graduate of the Perth Grammar School, Adamson, also known by the name Constantine, was educated at St Mary’s College matriculating in 1554, determining as a bachelor in 1556 and designated a “pauper,” and graduating MA in 1558.113 After teaching for a brief period at St Mary’s and serving as minister of Ceres in Fife, Adamson in 1566 traveled to France where he studied law, like Arbuthnot, at the University of Bourges.114 Upon the completion of his legal studies, Adamson returned to Scotland in 1570 at which time he was offered the office of principal at St Leonard’s College as George Buchanan had demitted the office and had recommended him as his replacement.115 Adamson and Buchanan had apparently met while the latter was in France during the winter 1565–1566, at which€time Adamson composed a liminary verse for the humanist’s Franciscanus. During his time in Paris he also began work on his Latin verse Â�paraphrase Graduates of University & King’s College Aberdeen 1495–1860, 39, 52; W.T. Orem, A Description of the Chanonry, Cathedral and King’s College of Old Aberdeen, 1724–25 (London, 1782), 136–140. Stevenson maintains that a certain Thomas Ogston, who also had been appointed in 1569, reportedly possessed a knowledge of Hebrew and presumably could have taught it when Lawson left Aberdeen in 1572 to become minister of Edinburgh. The official records of the University, however, do not list any individual by that name as regent. Neither does Orem identify Thomas Ogston in his list of regents. 111 ╇ Lippe, Selections from Wodrow’s Biographical Collections Divines of the North-East of Scotland, 194. 112 ╇ For an extensive look at Scotland’s universities during the medieval period see John Durkan, “The Scottish Universities in the Middle Ages 1413–1560” (Edinburgh PhD, Thesis, 1959). 113 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 154, 156, 259; James Kirk, “Adamson, Patrick (1537–1592),” ODNB, Vol. 1 (Oxford, 2004), 288–292. 114 ╇ James K. Cameron, “Andrew Melville in St Andrews” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners A St Mary’s Miscellany (St Andrews, 1990), 60; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 384. 115 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 384; McFarlane, Buchanan, 224.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

175

of the Book of Job, the very work Melville was assigned to evaluate upon his return in 1574, along with Buchanan, Young, and Lawson.116 After declining the offer to become principal of St Leonard’s, Adamson became minister at Paisley in 1572 and chose to reside in Glasgow close to the University where he emerged as “a man of notable ingyne, letters, and eloquence” and became a “grait frind and companion” of Melville.117 It is possible that Melville and Adamson first crossed paths while the latter was teaching at St Mary’s after his graduation in 1558 or even while he was ministering at Ceres in Fife. They may also have become further acquainted in France, as they possessed a mutual humanist mentor in George Buchanan and both spent time with him while he was in Paris during the winter 1565–1566.118 However they first met, these humanists found in each other a mutual adherence to Protestantism and possibly Reformed theology — as Adamson’s visit to Geneva to meet Beza during his time on the continent may suggest — as well as a devotion to the art of neo-Latin poetry. Despite Adamson’s unequivocal alignment in 1576 with the Episcopal party in the Kirk when he became archbishop of St Andrews, his writÂ�Â� ten€attacks against his fellow humanist, and the reputation as Melville’s “bitterest opponent” earned as a result of his intrigue, Melville visited him in his poverty and sickness in 1592, supported his family from his own private resources, and obtained further financial support for him from his friends in St Andrews.119 While Melville tended to overshadow him in both the University and Kirk, Adamson was, prior to his ecclesiastical appointment as archbishop, an elegant Latin poet who published in 1564 De papistarum superstitiosis ineptiis and in 1566 Genethliacum.120 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 218, 240; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 63. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 53; Kirk, “Adamson, Patrick (1537–1592),” 288. 118 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 240. 119 ╇ Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940), 151; James W. L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry A Critical Survey (London, 1955), 83; Melville, JMAD, 289; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 218–221, 312, 314–316. Despite Adamson’s machinations and efforts to subvert the Presbyterian cause, he later fell into disfavor with James VI and was helpless to prevent either the annexation of his temporalities or the sequestering of his annuity, which was given to the Duke of Lennox. Even his elegant Latin verse addressed to the King in an effort to obtain his favor and financial assistance fell on deaf ears. Abandoned and betrayed by those who had previously supported him, Adamson requested the provincial synod of Fife to remove his sentence of excommunication, renounced his Episcopal views and his defense of Arran’s parliament, and expressed his profound regret for his opposition to the church’s judicatories. 120 ╇ Cameron, “Andrew Melville in St Andrews,” 63; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 152; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 385. 116 117

176

chapter five

Not until 1618, well after Adamson’s death, was his Poemata sacra published in London during the same year as the famous Perth Assembly.121 Although Adamson’s ecclesiastical alignment prevented a deepening of his relationship with Melville, their friendship, which presumably existed prior to their time in Glasgow, developed during the years 1574–1576 largely along humanist lines.122 They were undoubtedly drawn together by their common educational experiences in Scotland and France studying civil law, their mutual friendship with Scotland’s own poet laureate Buchanan, and their shared humanistic sensibilities, values, and devotion to the composition of Latin verse. During these years in Glasgow, Melville also developed a close relationship with the humanist and Latinist Thomas Smeaton.123 Born in Gask near Perth, Smeaton probably received his earliest formal education at the Perth Grammar School where he was thoroughly trained in the Latin language and its literature before proceeding to university. In 1554 he matriculated at St Salvator’s College and was graduated in 1556.124 Following graduation, he taught as a regent in St Salvator’s in 1558 until the Reformation of 1560 at which time he traveled with Provost William Cranston to the University of Paris.125 According to Dempster, Smeaton taught Latin first at the University of Paris and subsequently with great success, or “magno ingenii applausu,” at the Jesuit Collège de Clermont.126 While in Paris he spent time with a number of Protestant humanists among whom were Thomas Maitland, who had been a classmate of Melville’s, having matriculated at St Mary’s in 1559– 1560,127 Gilbert Moncrieff, and Andrew Melville.128 While he may have served as a tutor to Maitland during their travels, Smeaton is reported to ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 151; Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 83. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 56–57. James Melville writes of Adamson accepting the archbishopric of St Andrews contrary to his previous statement to the General Assembly: “And, nevertheless, or the nixt Assemblie, he was seasit hard and fast on the bischoprik; wherby all gossoprie ged upe betwin him and my uncle Mr Andro.” 123 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 80. 124 ╇ Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1850), 320; H. M. B. Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654 (Glasgow, 1917), 83; Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 154, 259. 125 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 254; John Durkan, “Smeaton, Thomas (1536–1583),” ODNB, Vol. 50 (Oxford, 2004), 985–986. 126 ╇ Thomas Dempster, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum: Sive, De Scriptoribus Scotis (Edinburgh, 1829), 586; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 379–380; Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 97. Dempster writes: “in Claromontano ibidem collegio, magno ingenii applausu, easdem artes docuit ....” 127 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 267. 128 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 73. 121 122



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

177

have written Epitaphium Metellani in honor of his fellow humanist and friend.129 In 1572 after his visit to Italy Smeaton again came into contact with Melville and Moncrieff when he stopped in Geneva. According to Spottiswoode, while Smeaton was in Geneva he “was there confirmed in the religion to which a little before he was inclining.”130 After a protracted struggle with his Catholic faith and his further discussions with Melville and Moncrieff, he traveled to Paris where he narrowly escaped with his life, receiving the protection of the English ambassador Sir Francis Walsingham from the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres in August 1572. Following his escape, Smeaton traveled to England where he served as schoolmaster at Colchester in Essex.131 After five years in England, Smeaton returned to Scotland in 1577 where he accepted the position as minister of Paisley Abbey. While there seems to be little evidence to support McCrie’s assertion that Smeaton chose Paisley “chiefly for the sake of enjoying Melville’s society,” Melville’s presence at the nearby University made the position more attractive.132 Their relationship, which had been founded on a mutual appreciation of Latin literature and a commitment to the New Learning of the RenaisÂ� sance, was only enhanced by their now common profession of Reformed Protestantism. In 1578 Smeaton was appointed dean of faculty, making him Melville’s colleague, and after he succeeded the humanist as principal of the University in 1580, he demonstrated his commitment to the New Learning of the Renaissance by drafting a constitution which affirmed Melville’s reforms.133 According to James Melville, Smeaton and his uncle “mervelouslie conspiring in purposes and judgments, war the first motioners of an Anti-Seminarie to be erected in St Androis.”134 Melville’s influence over Smeaton may be seen in their 1578 conference where he successfully “movit him to mak answer to the sam,” 129 ╇ Dempster, Historia Ecclesiastica, 586; Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland II, 320; William S. McKechnie, “Thomas Maitland,” SHR, 4 (Apr., 1907), 293. While Maitland was traveling through France on his way to Italy in 1571, he invited Smeaton to join him. 130 ╇ Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland II, 320. 131 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 73; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 381–382; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 334–335. 132 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 382; Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland II, 320. Spottiswoode is mistaken when he identifies the year of Smeaton’s return as 1578. 133 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 79; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 277; Durkan, “Smeaton, Thomas (1536–1583),” 985–986. Durkan identifies 1577 as the year Smeaton was appointed dean of the faculty of arts. 134 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 76.

178

chapter five

Â� referring to a polemical work written against Calvinism by Archibald Hamilton, entitled De confusione Calvinianæ.135 In 1579 Smeaton published his own reply to Hamilton under the title orthodoxa responsio.136 Although Smeaton’s work elicited a response from Hamilton in 1581, entitled Calvinianae confusionis demonstratio, his work established that he was skilled in the ancient languages and possessed an impressive knowledge of patristic literature.137 When Smeaton died in Glasgow in December 1583, Melville lamented the loss of “Glasgua stella,” who along with ‘the light of the north,’ Alexander Arbuthnot, had for years repelled the darkness of ignorance in Scotland but who were now both gone. Melville had lost not merely a fellow humanist and scholar of the New Learning but a beloved and cherished friend in Smeaton.138 Smeaton, Arbuthnot, and Melville during these years constituted a humanist triumvirate in Scotland and were described by James Melville as “thrie of the lernedest in Europe.” While such encomiums may be questioned, their promotion of the humanist values of the Renaissance cannot. During these years, when the General Assembly met in EdinÂ� burgh, they often resided together in the home of John Dury, an “intimate acquaintance” of John Knox and minister of Leith, Edinburgh, and Montrose, who frequently extended such hospitality.139 When Melville

135 ╇ Ibid., 75–76; Archibald Hamilton S.J., De confusione Calvinianæ sectæ apud Scotos ecclesiæ nomen ridicule usurpantis dialogus (Paris, 1577). 136 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 79–80; Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 104; Thomas Smeaton, Ad virulentem Archibaldi Hamiltonii apostatae dialogum, de confusione Calvinianae sectae apud Scotos, impie con­ scriptum, orthodoxa responsio (Edinburgh, 1579). 137 ╇ Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland II, 320; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 335; Archibald Hamilton S.J., Calvinianae confusionis demonstratio, contra maledicam ministrorum Scotiae responsionem (Paris, 1581). 138 ╇ Andrew Melville, In Alexandrum Arbuthnetum & Thomam Smetonium, duo nos­ træ gentis lumina, ad Septemtriones & Meridiem nuper extincta in Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiæ Pœtarum Scotorum (Amsterdam, 1637), 121; Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 102; Dempster, Historia Ecclesiastica, 586. Dempster mistakenly identifies the year of Smeaton’s death as 1578. Melville wrote: “Vix heu, vix raptum deflevimus Arbuthnetum, / Vix heu justa datis solvimus inferiis; /Et premit altera mors, et funere funus acerbat:/ Et magno extincto lumine majus obit. /Ille quidem Arctoa tenebras de nocte fugabat:/ Fulgebas medio Glasgua stella die. / Quod si luce sua spoliata est noxque diesque / Nostra, eheu quantis obruimur tenebris! / Aut ergo è tenebris revoca lucem; aut hominū lux / Christe redi; ut nobis stet sine nocte dies.” 139 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 78; Thomas McCrie, Life of John Knox (Edinburgh, 1850), 339; John Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland III (Edinburgh, 1850), 83. On John Dury see Lippe, Selections from Wodrow’s Biographical Collections, 124–164. When Dury died in February 1600 Melville wrote Epitaphium D. Joan. Duraei, pastoris integerrimi et fidissimi Celurcani, qui diem extremum clausit, Kal. Mart. 1600 in honor of his beloved colleague and host.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

179

was transferred to St Mary’s College in 1580, there were present in all three of Scotland’s universities humanists whose deep devotion to the New Learning of the Renaissance was second only to their commitment to Reformed Protestantism. 1577 Nova Erectio The culmination of Melville’s reforming efforts came on 13 July 1577 when James VI issued a nova erectio for the College, securing its financial stability by providing the means for a principal, three regents, a steward, four poor students, a servant for the principal, a cook, and a janitor. Certainly the most practical facet of the nova erectio was the new financial arrangement it established. Acknowledging the University’s dire financial situation,140 the charter, in an effort to “obviate the sting of poverty,” granted it the parsonage and vicarage of Govan, as well as the sheriffdom of Renfrew “with all teinds, emoluments and fruits, glebe and manses, and all other advantages which by right or custom of our kingdom may in any way belong thereto.”141 By placing the University on a secure financial footing, the reforms that Melville had envisioned and discussed at length with Buchanan and Arbuthnot and his other fellow humanists were now a reality. The nova erectio has been rightly called “a landmark in Scottish university organization,” and its influence on its sister universities, St Andrews in 1579 and in Old Aberdeen in its intended new foundation in 1583, has been well established. For three hundred years the nova erectio remained a constitutive feature of the University’s constitution.142 140 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 432, 441. The nova erectio reads: “Hinc est quod nos dum rem literariam passim per regnum in Dei gloriam promovere studeremus animum etiam nostrum adiecerimus ad colligendas relliquias academie Glasguensis quam pre inopia languescentem ac iam pene confectam reperimus.” 141 ╇ Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis I, 105–106. The nova erectio reads: “Collegio nostro Glasguensi Totam et integram rectoriam de Govane cum vicaria eiusdem jacentem in diocese Glasguensi et vicecomitatu nostro de Ranfrew vacantem per decessum Magistri Stephani Betoun rectoris eiusdem non ita pridem vita functi cum omnibus decimis emolumentis et fructibus gleba et mansionibus omnibusque aliis commodis que de iure aut consuetudine regni quomodolibet pertinere queant.” 142 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 287–288; Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities,” 287, 430. On the new foundation at St Andrews see Ronald Gordon Cant, “The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective” St John’s House Papers, No. 2 (St Andrews, 1979); J. K. Cameron, “The Refoundation of the University in 1579,” Alumnus Chronicle of the University of St Andrews, 71 (1980), 3–10. On the new foundation at King’s College, Aberdeen see Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 1–60.

180

chapter five

Indeed, the philosopher Thomas Reid at the very end of the eighteenth century once called the 1577 nova erectio “the modern constitution” of the University of Glasgow.143 Neither the proposed reform of Scotland’s universities in 1560 by the First Book of Discipline, George Buchanan’s specific proposal for the reform of the University of St Andrews in the 1560s, nor even Glasgow’s 1573 town charter came even close to achieving what the nova erectio of 1577 accomplished.144 Composed in what some have called “the good Latin of the Renaissance”145 and what others have praised as “excellent, if rather florid, Latin,”146 there can be little question that the author was none other than Melville himself. While there are many reasons drawn purely from the content of the document itself in support of Melvillian authorship, the humanistic language of the nova erectio tends to support this view. In discussing one of the University’s stated goals for its students, the nova erectio declares its desire that students would become “an ornament to the commonwealth.”147 In addition to honoring their parents and training young men to be of service to the church, the distinctively humanistic terminology “an ornament to the commonwealth” intimates a distinctive set of values thoroughly consistent with the studia humani­ tatis of the European Renaissance and a humanist scholar like Melville.148 Similarly, the classical reference to “Cimmerian darkness” also underscores the self-consciously humanistic character of the document and indicates an author, such as Melville, thoroughly familiar with ancient Greek literature.149 The nova erectio differs in a number of respects from previous proposals for reform, reflecting Melville’s own distinctive humanistic character, values, and contribution to the reform of Scotland’s medieval ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 73. ╇ On the proposed reforms of the First Book of Discipline see “Of the Erection of Universities” in The First Book of Discipline ed. James K. Cameron (Edinburgh, 1972), 137–155. Brown, Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan, 6–17. 145 ╇ Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951, 73. 146 ╇ Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh, 84. 147 ╇ Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis I, 111; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 446–447. The text reads: “Studentes autem quos magno numero speramus passim ex toto hoc regno ad Gymnasium nostrum confluxuros / volumes quiete et pacifice degere neminem ciuium verbo vel facto ledere Rectori Gymnasiarche et regentibus morem gerere sedulos esse in bonarum literarum studiis vt parentibus honori ecclesie vsui et reipublice ornamento esse queant.” 148 ╇ For an excellent discussion of the humanist as ornament see David O. McNeil, Guillaume Budé and Humanism in the Reign of Francis I (Genève, 1975), 49–60. 149 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 447. 143 144



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

181

universities. As one example, whereas both the First Book of Discipline and Buchanan’s Opinion provided a place for instruction in Hebrew, neither proposal required the principal to possess a competency in Syriac as did the nova erectio.150 Of course, by the summer of 1577 Melville had for the last three years at Glasgow been engaged in a rigorous program of instruction in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, demonstrating from such different literary genres as poetry, sapiential literature, historical narrative, and epistles how to translate and properly interpret the ancient canonical texts.151 The nova erectio rather than introducing new instruction merely codified what Melville had been progressively implementing since 1574. Melville’s reforms of Glasgow’s curriculum reflected his own humanistic values and may be seen most vividly in the introduction of the study of Greek during the freshman year, the undergraduate study of Hebrew, and the study of history.152 He blended the use of classical sources with the most current and innovative scholarship of the European Renaissance. Similarly, in contrast to Glasgow’s 1573 town charter, which concentrated on the importance of studying the philosophies to the exclusion of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, geography, history, Greek, and Hebrew, the 1577 nova erectio, in keeping with the academic trends on the continent, provided a place for such studies.153 Given Melville’s thoroughly humanistic training, it is not difficult to appreciate the profoundly humanistic character of the reforms which he implemented at Glasgow. His time on the continent in France and Switzerland profoundly shaped the contours of his humanism, and his subsequent university reforms in Scotland cannot be accurately understood or appreciated apart from the milieu of the sixteenth-century French Renaissance.

150 ╇ Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis, Vol. I, 106; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 433, 442; The First Book of Discipline, 141, 143; Brown, Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan, 14. The nova erectio reads: “Is in sacris literis probe institutus ad aperienda fidei misteria et reconditos diuini verbi thesauros explicandos idoneus linguarum etiam gnarus et peritus sit oportet inprimis vero Hebraice et Syriace cuius professorem esse instituimus, linguam enim sanctam vt par est promoueri inter subditos nostros cupimus vt scripturarum fontes et misteria rectius aperiantur.” 151 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. 152 ╇ Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, 1935),€134. 153 ╇ Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities,” 281; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 285. On Glasgow’s 1573 town charter see Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis I, 82–90.

182

chapter five

The thoroughly humanistic character of the nova erectio may be seen particularly in the primary functions of the principal. As one who was to be learned and skilled in the ancient languages of Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, the principal was to provide, as Melville had, instruction in these languages and to lecture upon the text of Scripture on alternate days throughout the week. In stressing the importance of original language study and by modeling for his pupils a method of exegesis which paid careful attention to historical and philological issues, the principal embodied a number of humanist values central to the northern European Renaissance.154 Perhaps the most revolutionary measure Melville employed in the reform of the University of Glasgow was the replacement of the Â�outdated system of regenting with specialist instruction. By replacing the medieval system of regenting, Melville was, in one sense, breaking radically from how university education had been conducted in Scotland during the Middle Ages.155 In another sense, he was merely bringing Scottish university instruction up-to-date with the latest developments on the continent.156 Of course, in 1560 the First Book of Discipline had theoretically proposed to dispense with the system of regenting in favor of readers for each separate subject, but these plans were never implemented.157 The task of supplanting the regenting system, which was left to Melville when he arrived in Glasgow in late 1574, could not be accomplished immediately because of Glasgow’s deplorable financial state and€ an inadeÂ�quately trained regent. In abolishing the practice of regenting,€GlasÂ� gow became the first of Scotland’s medieval universities to Â�implement specialist instruction and through it to introduce the New Learning.158 154 ╇ Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis I, 106; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 433, 442. The text reads: “Itaque dicto nostro Gymnasiarche committimus quo sedulitatis exemplum toti Collegio diligentia sua subministret vt indies singulos horam saltem vnam prelegendo impendat quo tempore maxime erit oportunum Alternis autem diebus prelectionem Theologicam selegat ad explicandos scripturarum recessus alternis linguam ipsam sanctam auditoribus explicaturus.” 155 ╇ Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh, 147. 156 ╇ Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis I, 109; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 435, 444. The nova erectio reads: “Tres autem hos regentes nolumus prout in reliquis regni nostri Academiis consuetudo est nouas professiones quotannis immutare quo fit ut dum multa profiteantur in paucis periti inueniantur verum in eadem professione se exerceant vt adolescentes qui gradatim ascendunt dignum suis studiis et ingeniis preceptorem reperire queant.” 157 ╇ Cameron, The First Book of Discipline, 138–150. 158 ╇ Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities,” 281.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

183

This profound change in university instruction was evidently borne out of Melville’s own experience on the continent, especially at the Collège Royal with its Lecteurs Royaux. As James Melville later wrote of his uncle’s declining the Regent Morton’s offer of service, “Mr Andro … yit liked nocht to be in Court, bot rather to be in sum Universitie, and profess thair as the King’s Lectors in Parise.”159 Although the old system of regenting was restored at Glasgow during the era of the Covenanters in the seventeenth century, Melville’s leadership reveals that he was a forward-thinking humanist who was in touch with the most current academic trends of the European Renaissance.160 The abolition of the regenting system was effectively accomplished in the nova erectio in the section that delineated the academic responsibilities of regents. The first regent was designated a “professor of the principles of rhetoric” and was assigned the duty of Greek language instruction, teaching his students to write and deliver speeches in both Greek and Latin.161 While the first regent was to teach Â�rhetoric€from€“the€most€appÂ� roved authors,” the second regent was to provide instruction in dialectics and logic “out of the best authors,” conveniently identified as Cicero, Plato, and Aristotle among others. In addition, the second regent was to teach arithmetic and geometry. The third regent was given the responsibility to lecture on physiology, geography, astronomy, general chronology, and “the observation of nature,” as well as to superintend the college in the principal’s absence. Then, so as to remove all doubt that the nova erectio was, in fact, abolishing the old regenting system, it declared, “it is not our will that these three regents change every year into new courses€… but they shall exercise themselves in the same course.”162 Surprisingly, in light of the high-profile position that Ramist literature occupied in Melville’s curriculum at Glasgow, the works of Ramus and Talon are not explicitly mentioned in the nova erectio. There are references to “the most approved authors” and “the best authors,” which are identified as Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero.163 However, despite such ╇ Melville, JMAD, 45. ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 280; Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh, 147. 161 ╇ Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis I, 108. 162 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 435, 444. 163 ╇ Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis I, 108–109; Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 435, 444. The text reads: “Proximus Dialectice et Logice explicande operam dabit earumque precepta in vsum et exercitationem proferet idque ex probatissimis auctoribus vt Cicerone Platone Aristotile de vita et moribus et policia administratione / que studia huic secundo regenti degustanda prebemus.” 159 160

184

chapter five

references and the liberal use of Ramus’ and Talon’s writings in the University’s curriculum, their writings failed to obtain official sanction by inclusion in the nova erectio. This absence suggests that Melville employed Ramus’ writings not as a complete replacement for “the most approved authors” but as a pedagogical enhancement and refinement of those ancient sources. The explicit reference to Aristotle in the nova erectio again underscores Melville’s own Aristotelianism and the conservative nature of his reforms. Like his fellow humanists, he had no intention of jettisoning all of the ancient sources and texts that had been used during the Middle Ages.164 Rather, he endeavored to retain as many texts as possible, integrating with them the most current scholarship from the continent and teaching his students how to read them properly using the philological tools and critical methods of the humanists of the Renaissance. It is impossible to determine the precise extent to which Melville himself endorsed Ramism because of the paucity of primary source materials which have survived from this period. However, we can say that he must be recognized as the first to give Ramist literature a place within the university curriculum in Scotland. Despite the claims that George Buchanan was the first to introduce Ramism into the University of St Andrews165 and the corresponding contention that St Andrews, along with Oxford, was “the first centre of Ramism in the British Isles,”166 there is good reason to remain suspicious of both claims. Although Ramus and Buchanan probably first met in Paris after Buchanan’s time in Coimbra, corresponded in the year 1567 regarding the place of mathematics at St Andrews, and maintained “cordial relations,” the evidence that he spread Ramism at St Andrews during his time as principal of St Leonard’s is at best tenuous.167 His advocacy of Ramism is certainly undermined by the place that he allocated to the rhetoric of Cicero and the logic of Aristotle in his Opinion on the reform of the University.168 ╇ Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 195. ╇ James Bass Mullinger, The University of Cambridge: From the Royal Injunctions of 1535 to the Accession of Charles the First (Cambridge, 1884), 410; Frank PierreÂ� pont€ Graves, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1912), 213; Waddington, Ramus (Pierre de la Ramee): sa vie, ses ecrits et ses opinions (Dubuque, 1964), 396. 166 ╇ I. D. McFarlane, “George Buchanan and French Humanism” in A.H.T. Levi (ed.), Humanism in France at the end of the Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance (Manchester, 1970), 298. 167 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 169; “George Buchanan and French Humanism,” 298. 168 ╇ Wilbur Samuel Howell, Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500–1700 (Princeton, 1956), 188; Brown, Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan, 9, 12. 164 165



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

185

Indeed, Buchanan’s educational reforms, while embodying the ideals and values of the northern European Renaissance, were reflective of an earlier and different generation of humanists. His educational perspective, while representing a departure from the old medieval and scholastic model of education, was not “as philosophically or methodologically oriented” as was Ramus. Consequently, there is reason to conclude that Buchanan did very little to advance the cause of Ramism in Scotland.169 Likewise, although Roland MacIlmaine, who had matriculated at St Mary’s College in 1565 and took his bachelor’s degree in 1569 and his master’s in 1570,170 later published in London in 1574 Ramus’ Dialecticae libri duo and a translation of his work, entitled The Logike of the moste Excellent Philosopher P. Ramus, there is no evidence that he advocated Ramism while resident at St Andrews.171 Indeed, James Kirk has argued that “no Ramist connection with St Andrews can be established” prior to Melville’s arrival in 1580. He observes that the first appearance of prescribed Ramus texts at St Andrews appeared during the 1580s after Melville had arrived and implemented further reforms.172 Consequently, it appears that the first introduction of Ramism or Ramist literature in the curriculum of the Scottish universities occurred at Glasgow following Melville’s arrival in 1574.173 Relocation to St Andrews After six years of service as principal of the University of Glasgow, it was determined in light of St Andrews’ 1579 nova fundatio, which in effect made St Mary’s College a school of theology, that Melville should be relocated to St Andrews to head up the newly reorganized college.174 James VI had written a letter to the General Assembly, requesting its concurrence in this decision, which also included naming Thomas Smeaton as Melville’s successor as principal at Glasgow.175 St Andrews’ ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 169. ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 164–165, 273. 171 ╇Howell, Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500–1700, 179–180. The full title is The Logike of the moste Excellent Philosopher P. Ramus Martyr, Newly translated, and in diu­ ers places corrected, after the mynde of the Author. 172 ╇ Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities,” 284. 173 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. 174 ╇ Ronald Gordon Cant, The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective (St Andrews, 1979); James K. Cameron, “The Refoundation of the University in 1579,” Alumnus Chronicle, 71 (Jun., 1980), 3–10. 175 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 83; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 159. 169 170

186

chapter five

nova fundatio was brought about in large measure as a result of its “most wretched inefficiency”176 and “backsliding,”177 which had brought the university into a deplorable state. Although the First Book of Discipline had envisioned its lofty prominence, the University had repeatedly underachieved, sinking lower and lower into disrepute until finally Parliament was forced to intervene in 1563, appointing a commission to investigate its condition and to offer proposals for its reform.178 Neither the plans contained in the First Book of Discipline or in Buchanan’s Opinion were ever implemented, leaving St Andrews in a disorganized and declining state.179 The Regent Morton, along with several commissioners in 1574, visited the University and immediately implemented reforms related to instruction in theology, Greek, Hebrew, and rhetoric, but these changes did little to bring about significant change or to elevate the institution.180 Still more drastic measures were needed. With the hope that Melville might do for St Andrews what he had done so effectively and efficiently at Glasgow, his services were requested, and, despite his initial opposition, he eventually consented.181 The 1579 nova fundatio of St Andrews, in effect, followed the pattern of reform laid out at Glasgow in the 1577 nova erectio and, as such, bears the distinctive imprint of Melville himself.182 Although for a long time the 1579 nova fundatio was thought to have been Buchanan’s production, given his eminence among the members of the committee, it is now recognized as having been significantly influenced by Melville though the work itself should be viewed as a joint production of the whole body of commissioners.183 At Glasgow Melville had borne the 176 ╇ P. Hume Brown, George Buchanan Humanist and Reformer: A Biography (Edinburgh, 1890), 237. 177 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 445. 178 ╇ Ronald Gordon Cant, The University of St Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 54. 179 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. James Melville writes of the “ignorance and negligence of tham that sould haiff teatched Theologie, maid, that Regents and schollars carit na thing for Divinitie; yea, it was evin a pitie to sie that ignorance and profannes that was amangs tham. And as for Langages, Arts, and Philosophie, they haid na thing for all, bot a few buikes of Aristotle, quhilk they lernit pertinatiuslie to bable and flyt upon, without right understanding or use thairof.” 180 ╇ Cant, The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective, 5–6; Cant, The University of St Andrews, 59. 181 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 83. 182 ╇ Cant, The University of St Andrews, 58–59; The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective, 7. 183 ╇ Brown, George Buchanan Humanist and Reformer, 239–240; McFarlane, Buchanan,€445.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

187

responsibility of providing all of the theological instruction. Under the new plan for St Mary’s, theological instruction was to be divided among five specialist professors. While the first professor was responsible to provide instruction in Hebrew and Syriac, the second and third were to expound the Old Testament. The fourth and fifth professors were to lecture on the New Testament and Systematic Theology respectively with the principal occupying the latter position.184 All in all, St Andrews’ nova fundatio amounted to an application, extension, and elaboration of the reforms implemented two years earlier at Glasgow under Melville’s leadership. Although Melville was not resident in St Andrews at the time of the 1579 nova fundatio, no one else’s presence and influence was more discernable. Despite opposition from those greatly concerned with the welfare of Glasgow, such as its rector Andrew Hay who had also grown quite attached to the young principal, Melville and his nephew left Glasgow “with infinit teares” in November 1580 and by December were situated in St Andrews at St Mary’s College.185 Conclusion A study of Melville’s years in Glasgow reveals a number of ways in which he incorporated the latest humanistic trends of the Renaissance into his reform of the University. In the tradition of the Renaissance polymaths€ of€ the sixteenth century, upon his arrival in Glasgow, Melville assumed responsibility for teaching essentially the entire arts curriculum. Although constrained by the necessities of his circumstances, he, nevertheless, approached the reform of Glasgow from the perspective of a European humanist thoroughly committed to the promotion of the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance and the incorporation of the latest academic trends from the continent. His reforms as embodied in the 1577 nova erectio, while innovative and novel in one sense, were at the same time profoundly conservative in another. In abolishing the medieval system of regenting and replacing it with specialist instruction and introducing the study of Greek during the freshman year and the undergraduate study of Hebrew, Melville attempted to apply within the Scottish context what had been modeled for him in France and Switzerland. 184 185

╇ Cant, The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective, 7. ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 160; Melville, JMAD, 84.

188

chapter five

In€this respect, he may be viewed as a progressive and forward-looking humanist. Certainly his insistence in the nova erectio that the principal possess a competency in Syriac and his own use of Ramus’ and Talon’s respective works represents a bold innovation within the Scottish university system. Nevertheless, despite the high profile that Ramus’ writings occupied in Melville’s reforms, it is impossible to determine the extent to which he himself endorsed Ramism. While the extent of Melville’s Ramism remains an open question and while the works of Ramus and Talon are conspicuously absent from the nova erectio, Melville should be recognized as the first to give Ramist literature a place within the university curriculum in Scotland. Despite these bold innovations, Melville’s curriculum also reveals his profound conservatism. Prescribing “the most approved authors” and identifying “the best authors” as Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, Melville attempted to retain as much continuity with the past as possible. Far from rejecting ‘the philosopher,’ Melville underscored his own Aristotelianism and the conservative nature of his reforms by specifically mentioning Aristotle. In his liberal and generous use of classical texts, he sought to retain as many as possible while teaching and modeling for his pupils how the most recent humanist methods could be employed in interpreting them. Whereas James Melville’s gross exaggeration regarding Glasgow’s incomparable place in Europe for the study of humane letters during these years has undoubtedly fueled the Melville legend, his role in reversing Glasgow’s fortunes and introducing the learning of the ancient world to the University is well documented. Melville’s success at Glasgow owed as much to timing and circumstances as to any other single factor. Had Scotland continued in a state of civil war or had the Kirk and state lacked the resolve to implement the needed academic reforms, it is difficult to conceive how Melville’s reforming efforts could ever have achieved the level of success they reportedly did. Glasgow’s transformation should not be conceived as the work of a solitary individual. The financial and practical support offered by James Boyd, archbishop of Glasgow, Patrick Adamson, and the Privy council made Melville’s academic reforms possible.186 Similarly, during these years Melville worked in concert with his fellow humanists Alexander Arbuthnot, Thomas Smeaton, and James Melville in planning and implementing various university reforms. 186

╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 68.



scotland: glasgow (1574–1580)

189

Moreover, Melville’s success at Glasgow and his ability to attract students from all over Europe may be attributed in part to his daily practice of table talk. These personal and informal discussions of the classical authors of antiquity enabled him to exhibit his profound learning and literary skill, as well as his knowledge of philosophy and the arts. Together with his formal lectures, they constituted a compelling and rigorous course of university instruction consistent with the latest intellectual trends on the continent. In addition to providing strategic leadership at the University and coordinating the reform of the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, Melville played an active part in the ecclesiastical affairs of the Kirk during the mid and late 1570s. Complementing his provincial service as a regular preacher in the parish of Govan, as principal of the University, Melville labored on the national level as moderator of the 36th general assembly in 1578, an assessor to the moderator, a member of various ecclesiastical commissions, and an ecclesiastical statesman. His academic training and experience on the continent were drawn upon as he participated in commissions which required expertise in classical and humane studies as much as in divinity and theology. While Melville the humanist became a remarkable resource for the Kirk combining a thorough knowledge of classical studies with an impressive command of the languages, literature, and theology of the Christian tradition, he continued to figure prominently in those commissions which pertained to the Kirk’s policy and jurisdiction.

Chapter six

SCOTLAND: ST ANDREWS (1580–1607) The University of St Andrews Melville’s relocation to St Andrews in December 1580 represents a significant transition in the humanist’s life and work as well as the beginning of a new era in University instruction. Even as 1574 was a watershed year in Scottish university history,1 so 1580 marks the beginning of the most significant period of university service and literary production in the life of Andrew Melville. For approximately a quarter of a century, Melville served as principal of St Mary’s College and emerged as one of the leading humanists of the Scottish Renaissance, exerting considerable influence over the rising generation of scholars and clerics and elevating the academic reputation of the University.2 Although his labors at Glasgow appear to have been more successful than those at St Andrews, his limited success in impacting the arts curriculum may be explained, in part, by his more narrowly circumscribed field of service in the school of divinity. Despite his seven year service as rector of the University from 1590–1597, his impact on the other two colleges was much more modest than has previously been thought. The extent of Melville’s reforms at St Andrews was not nearly as successful as his nephew portrays in his Diary. Recent study of this period has revealed that the teaching at St Salvator’s and St Leonard’s, in a number of important respects, remained unchanged and Melville’s extensive involvement in ecclesiastical politics and the various controversies in which he was embroiled detracted from his ability to implement thorough reform.3 Nevertheless, the St Andrews period constitutes a significant chapter in the development of Melville’s humanism in Scotland and his arrival at St Mary’s signals the first time ╇ John Durkan, “Education: The Laying of Fresh Foundations” in John MacQueen (ed.), Humanism in Renaissance Scotland (Edinburgh, 1990), 156. 2 ╇ The notable exceptions were, of course, his brief period of exile in England from 1584–1585 and the months during 1586 when he was warded north of the Tay. 3 ╇ Steven John Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland: Andrew Melville and the University of St Andrews, 1560–1606” (PhD Thesis, St Andrews, 2008), 192, 100–102, 122. 1

192

chapter six

the college had at its helm someone capable of executing the plan for reform embodied in the 1579 nova fundatio. While the University during the sixteenth century witnessed the addition of two new colleges, St Leonard’s in 1512 and St Mary’s in 1538, neither year represents a radical break with the medieval past. Despite the intention to found a collegium trilingue at St Mary’s after the pattern of Louvain and Paris, St Leonard’s, St Salvator’s, and St Mary’s maintained an essentially medieval approach to university instruction.4 Not until the adoption in 1579 of the nova fundatio is there any discernable departure by the University from its medieval moorings.5 Referring to these changes at St Andrews as a “Humanist revolution” appears to go beyond what the evidence will actually support. However, the nova fundatio was intended to be a radical break in certain areas with the university’s medieval past.6 Of course, with the Reformation of 1560 and the First Book of Discipline came extensive plans to reform Scotland’s medieval universities, but, unfortunately, they were never fully implemented.7 Likewise, the Regent Morton in 1574 and 1576 had also proposed reforms, which did little to alter the current state of St Andrews.8 Prior to the 1579 nova fundatio, most of the proposals for reform had remained theoretical and were not implemented while those which were did not fundamentally alter the character of the instruction.9 In December 1580 a commission of “some brethrein and barons,” Sir Andrew Ker of Fadounside, the lairds of Lundie and Braid, James Lawson, and John Dury, accompanied Melville and his nephew to St Andrews where he was installed as principal of St Mary’s College, delivered his inaugural address, and commenced his academic labors.10 ╛╛╛╛4 ╇ James K. Cameron, “A Trilingual College for Scotland: The Founding of St Mary’s College” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners: A St Mary’s Miscellany (St Andrews, 1990), 29–42. ╛╛╛╛5 ╇ For the text of the 1579 nova fundatio see Evidence, Oral and Documentary, taken and received by the Commissioners … for visiting the Universities of Scotland Vol. III, University of St Andrews (London, 1837), 183–186. ╛╛╛╛6 ╇ G. D. Henderson, The Founding of Marischal College Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1947),€14. ╛╛╛╛7 ╇ The First Book of Discipline ed. James K. Cameron (Edinburgh, 1972). ╛╛╛╛8 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 191. ╛╛╛╛9 ╇Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages eds. F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden (Oxford, 1936), 312–313; Ronald Gordon Cant, The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective (St Andrews, 1979), 6. 10 ╇ David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland Vol. III, ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1843), 476; James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 84; Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. I (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824), 163–164.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

193

Although for some time James Melville had intended to travel to France, where he might further study the French language, he was persuaded by his uncle to accompany him to St Andrews to assist in the work of theological instruction. Giving himself to the task of lecturing on the loci communes of theology, his nephew taught Hebrew while their colleague John Robertson lectured on the Greek language and the literature of the New Testament.11 Despite the robust provisions set forth in the 1579 nova fundatio for five masters, the initial faculty consisted of a truncated staff of only three.12 Joining the two Melvilles was Robertson whom James Melville described as “a guid weill-conditionet man, but of small literature and giftes.”13 In spite of an incomplete and partially deficient staff, Melville compensated for these limitations himself by teaching the loci communes of theology, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, as well as the primary books of the Old and New Testaments.14 As he had done at Glasgow, though in a much more limited fashion, he assumed the primary burden of providing comprehensive instruction in the field of divinity, including discussions of “the most difficult and abstruse mysteries of revealed religion.”15 His arrival at St Andrews and the remarkable breadth of his personal instruction attracted not only students, such as Stephen Powle, but even regents, such as John Malcolm and Andrew Duncan, to attend his lectures.16 Most notably among the regents of St Salvator’s College who probably attended his lectures was the future principal of the University of Edinburgh, Robert Rollock.17 Rollock had matriculated at St Salvator’s 11 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 83–84, 86. Always the humanist, Melville provided for his nephew intensive tutoring in French literature as well as “of Plutarche’s Lyves and Heliodor’s Ethiopic Historie, conferring the Greik with the Frenche.” 12 ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, 183–184; Cant, The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective, 7. 13 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 84. 14 ╇ Vita Patrici Adamsoni Opera Tho. Voluseni J. C. in Patrick Adamson, De Sacro Pastoris Munere ed. Thomas Wilson (London, 1619), 4. Thomas Wilson, one of Melville’s auditors during these early years at St Andrews, wrote: “qui primo quadriennii seu quinquennii curriculo (quo statio integro, testimoniu fero oculatu, strenuus etia ipse & assiduus auditor eram,) docte quide & perfecte, Idomatis Hebræi, Chaldæi, Syri, & Rabbuinorū notitiā ac praxin edocuit: quin etiam summā Theologiæ, I. Calvini Institutionibus, aliorumq[ue] optimorum TheologoÂ�rum operibus descriptam, una cu præcipuis utriusq[ue] fœderis libris, abditisq[ue] & abstrusis sacræ Scripturæ mysteriis, erudite quidem & accurate ….” 15 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 165. 16 ╇ Letter of Stephen Powle to Andrew Melville, 30 April 1583, Bodleian,Tanner MS. 168 f. 203v; Melville, JMAD, 123–124. 17 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 84; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 166. On Rollock see George Robertson and Henry Charteris, De Vita€et Morte Roberti Rollok, Academiæ Edinburgenæ

194

chapter six

in 1574 and received his BA in 1576 and his MA in 1578, studying under the regent John Carr.18 During the early 1580s Rollock probably formed a relationship with Melville, which continued after he was appointed principal at Edinburgh in 1583. Given Melville’s vision for reforming the Scottish universities and his relationships with Arbuthnot in Aberdeen and Smeaton in Glasgow, we can be almost certain that Melville was in communication with the principal of the new university. We know that he, like his fellow humanist and reformer Theodore Beza,19 carefully perused and highly valued Rollock’s writings, as his epitaph De Rolloci scriptis indicates.20 Moreover, the similarities of the two men and the texts they used in their teaching at their respective universities suggest an intellectual kinship consistent with many of Melville’s other humanist relationships. The evidence in support of Rollock’s alleged Ramism is limited and may not have been a factor which attracted him to Melville. It is, however, highly probable that he attended Melville’s lectures for other reasons during these years.21 We know from James Melville’s account that he specifically identified Rollock as one of his own Hebrew pupils.22 In€ light of Rollock’s interest in acquiring a knowledge of Hebrew and Melville’s impressive mastery of it, as well as its ancient near eastern cognates Aramaic and Syriac, the likelihood that Rollock attended his lectures remains strong. Despite the benefit which Rollock would have derived from such instruction, there is surprisingly little evidence at the€ University of Edinburgh during the early years of Melville’s own Primarii, Narrationes; Auctoribus Georgio Robertson, et Henrico Charteris (Edinburgh, 1826); Henry Charteris, Narrative of the Life and Death of Mr Robert Rollock of Scotland in Robert Rollock, Select Works of Robert Rollock Vol. I, ed. William M. Gunn (Edinburgh, 1849), lvii–lxxxvii. 18 ╇ James Maitland Anderson, (ed.), Early Records of the University of St. Andrews (Edinburgh, 1926), 175, 179, 285; Charteris, Narrative, lxi. 19 ╇ James Kerr Cameron (ed.), Letters of John Johnston c.1565–1611 and Robert Howie c.1565-c.1645 (Edinburgh and London, 1963), 332; Rollock, Select Works of Robert Rollock I, 10. 20 ╇ Andrew Melville, De Rollici Scriptis in Robertson and Charteris, De Vita et Morte Roberti Rollok, Academiæ Edinburgenæ Primarii, Narrationes; Auctoribus Georgio Robertson, et Henrico Charteris (Edinburgh, 1826), 79. 21 ╇ Michael Lynch, “The Origins of Edinburgh’s ‘Toun College’: A Revision Article,” Innes Review, 33 (1982), 9. Cf. James Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities” in A.A. MacDonald, Michael Lynch, and Ian B. Cowan (eds.), The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion and Culture Offered to John Durkan (Leiden, 1994), 292–294. Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh During its First Three Hundred Years (London, 1884), 238; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 166; Robert Letham, “The Foedus Operum: Some Factors Accounting For Its Development,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 14:4 (1983), 465–466. 22 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 86.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

195

Â� distinctive humanist influence in reforming the college’s teaching methods. Glasgow’s 1577 nova erectio and St Andrews’ 1579 nova fundatio had theoretically abolished the old medieval system of regenting, replacing it with specialist instruction,23 yet Edinburgh under Rollock’s early leadership continued to employ the old system.24 While regenting was not abolished under Rollock’s leadership during the University’s early years, selective efforts were made to integrate other aspects of the European Renaissance. John Adamson, a former pupil of Rollock’s and later principal of the University of Edinburgh, maintained on the basis of his own direct knowledge of the curriculum during these early years at Edinburgh that Ramus’ Dialecticae and Talon’s Rhetorica were used by the principal in his instruction. In contradiction to McCrie, who claimed that Rollock “was not led astray by admiration of the Ramean logic,”25 there is evidence that he did, in fact, employ both Ramus’ and Talon’s texts.26 Writing of Ramus’ Dialecticae, W. L. Alexander maintained that Rollock “attached the greatest value, as an instrument so admirably adapted to the study of logic, that no one, in his opinion, who was ignorant of it, could either excel in synthetical, or know anything of analytical, reasoning.”27 Rollock’s use of Ramus’ and Talon’s writings, combined with his own reportedly high estimation of Ramus’ Dialecticae, may very well indicate Melville’s influence. While the evidence falls short of providing a direct link between Melville and Rollock, it is, nevertheless, suggestive. We may at least say that, if Melville was not the primary Ramist influence on

23 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 86–87, 116. Reid observes that while at St Leonard’s College the practice of regenting continued despite the nova fundatio, instruction in Greek and Latin was available. The situation with St Salvator’s was much more bleak with “no evidence of changes of title or profession, or anything that suggests reform was embraced by the college.” 24 ╇ D. B. Horn, “The Origins of the University of Edinburgh Part 2,” University of Edinburgh Journal, 22 (1966), 307; Lynch, “The Origins of Edinburgh’s ‘Toun College’,” 10. On the early years of the University of Edinburgh see D. B. Horn, A Short History of the University of Edinburgh 1556–1889 (Edinburgh, 1967), 1–9; “The Origins of the University of Edinburgh,” UEJ, 22 (1966), 213–225; Robert Kerr Hannay, “The FounÂ� dation of the College of Edinburgh” in A. Logan Turner (ed.), History of the University of Edinburgh 1883–1933 (Edinburgh and London, 1933), 1–16; John Lee, The University of Edinburgh from its Foundation in 1583 to the year 1839: A Historical Sketch (Edinburgh, 1884); Alexander Bower, The History of the University of Edinburgh: Chiefly Compiled from Original Papers and Records, Never Before Published (Edinburgh, 1817). 25 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 422. 26 ╇ Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities,” 295. 27 ╇ W. L. Alexander, “Introduction” in Charles Ferme, A Logical Analysis of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans ed. W. L. Alexander (Edinburgh, 1850), xii.

196

chapter six

Rollock, he certainly confirmed a sympathetic yet critical appropriation of his writings. Much like Melville, the evidence at this point is so limited that it is impossible to determine precisely the extent of Rollock’s endorsement of Ramism. Nonetheless we can say that Adamson’s account of the early curriculum used by the principal firmly establishes that Rollock was not hostile to Ramism but found some value in his writings. His own stress upon the importance of the study of Greek and Hebrew for interpreting ancient texts and the critical use of Aristotle’s Logica, Physica, and Ethica are consistent with Melville’s own reform policies and may indicate his influence.28 When Melville arrived in St Andrews, he encountered significant opposition from various members of the University and town. From the former provost of St Mary’s Robert Hamilton, the former regent John Caldcleugh, the regents at St Leonard’s John Malcolm and Andrew Duncan to the provost, ballies, and town council of St Andrews, James and William Lermont, and David Russell, Melville was embroiled in “mikle fighting and fascherie” from the very beginning.29 To be sure, some of these controversies were not personally motivated per se but rather indicate opposition to him as the symbolic representative of the new order of things at the University. Certainly, Robert Hamilton’s financial complaint against the College or John Caldcleugh’s audacious interruption in the principal’s chamber regarding his displacement should not be construed as the result of Melville’s deliberate agitation or provocation. Both controversies were initiated by those who sincerely felt that they had received injustice at the hands of the College, and Melville, as the symbolic head of the institution, bore the brunt of their anger and disdain. The 1579 nova fundatio had clearly made provision for both the apÂ�pointÂ�ment of “the maist qualifiit personis knawin to us” and the removal of those “personis now occupeing the place of maisteris in the

28 ╇ Kirk, “â•›‘Melvillian’ Reform in the Scottish Universities,” 295; Ferme, A Logical Analysis of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, xii, 25–26; Gunn, Select Works of Robert Rollock, 388. Rollock’s criticism of the Aristotelian tradition may be seen in his sermon on I Corinthians 2 in which he wrote of the followers of Aristotle: “Out wil he cum, ane Thomist, ane Scotist, that hes the spreit of ane man onlie, and ane very subtile, or rather ane Sophistical Spreit, ane humane Philosopher, and he will judge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and turne it over in humane Philosophie. They have turned the gospell of Jesus to Aristotle, all thair writings ar bot spreitles. Thair is not sa mekle as ane smel of the Spreit of Jesus in them all.” 29 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 122–127.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

197

said College.”30 Moreover, broad discretionary powers had been given to Melville in constructing his own academic staff at St Mary’s. Not wanting to harm Glasgow by depleting it of its well-trained regents and aware that the commissioners desired to leave two positions initially vacant, Melville took with him only his fellow humanist and nephew James to assist him in his reform of St Mary’s.31 Neither the Hamilton nor the Caldcleugh affairs came about as a result of Melville’s intentional instigation. On the contrary, unlike several of his other encounters, he appears to have been merely the recipient of complaints and legal action.32 Other controversies which occurred during these years came about in large measure because of the manner and occasion in which Melville attempted to address a number of perceived problems in both the University and town. Rather than allowing the local ecclesiastical judicatory to address morally scandalous issues, on more than one occasion Melville took it upon himself to use the public forum of the pulpit to address such problems. While some have characterized these encounters as displaying remarkable conviction and “unshakable courage,”33 others have observed his severity, questionable judgment, and lack of diplomacy in attempting to achieve his objectives.34 His confrontational approach, especially as it related to James VI, not only proved to be counterproductive but self-destructive ultimately leading to his exile, imprisonment in the Tower of London, and banishment to the continent to live out the remainder of his life. However one assesses Melville’s personal shortcomings, we can at least apply to him the description John Johnston once applied to James Lawson: “Corpore non magno, mens ingens, spiritus ardens” (“physically small, but immensely intelligent and of a fiery spirit”).35 The Controversy over Aristotle One of the controversies for which Melville was largely responsible was the debate surrounding Aristotle at St Andrews. Melville, it will be ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, 184. ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 164. 32 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 122–123. 33 ╇ Ronald Gordon Cant, The University of St Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 61. 34 ╇ James K. Cameron, “Andrew Melville in St Andrews” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners: A St Mary’s Miscellany (St Andrews, 1990), 64. 35 ╇ Charles P. Finlayson, Clement Litill and His Library: The Origins of Edinburgh University Library (Edinburgh, 1980), 25. 30 31

198

chapter six

remembered, had vigorously opposed that “bitter propugnar of Aristotle” Peter Blackburn at Glasgow, challenging the St Andrew’s axiom “AbsurÂ� dum est dicere errasse Aristotelem” and encouraging his regents and students to go beyond the medieval interpretations of Aristotle to the Greek text itself.36 At St Andrews he appears to have followed a similar procedure of direct confrontation of his academic opponents by launching what some have labeled “scathing attacks on the medieval Aristotelianism of his colleagues,” which in turn resulted in “bitter disputations and threats of violence” for over a year.37 Prior to Melville’s arrival in December 1580, significant opposition to Ramism and advocacy of Aristotelian philosophy had been embodied in the principal of St Salvator’s John Rutherford, “the most celebrated master of scholastic philosophy in Scotland.”38 Recognized as a distinguished Greek scholar and staunch advocate of Aristotelianism, Rutherford as the head of “this stronghold of anti-Ramist thought” symbolically represented at St Andrews during the 1570s the opposition which Melville subsequently encountered. Although Rutherford himself passed off the scene in 1577, his influence at St Salvator’s continued with some of those who had studied under him becoming regents and perpetuating his opposition to the innovations introduced by the French humanist.39 Despite such opposition, there were those at St Salvator’s, such as David Martine, Homer Blair, and Robert Wemyss, who promoted the New Learning by teaching Greek and by using Ramus’ Arithmetique and Talon’s Rhetorica.40 Thus, while there was some opposition to Ramus at St Salvator’s, there was also support as evidenced by the selective use by certain regents of Ramus’ and Talon’s writings. While it is difficult to determine with certainty whether Melville intended to provoke the regents of St Leonard’s, that certainly was the result. His approach to the text and philosophy of Aristotle, while sympathetic as a humanist and classical scholar, was openly critical of those aspects of the philosopher’s thought which he believed were incompatible with orthodox Christian thought. Although we cannot be certain of ╇ Melville, JMAD, 67. ╇ Cant, The University of St Andrews: A Short History, 62; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. I, 170. 38 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 367. On Rutherford see John Durkan, “John RutherÂ�ford and Montaigne: An Early Influence?” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et RenaisÂ� sance, 41 (1979), 115–122. 39 ╇ Lynch, “The Origins of Edinburgh’s ‘Toun College’: A Revision Article,” 9. 40 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 97. 36 37



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

199

all of his criticisms of Aristotle, it is likely, in light of his service on the 1583 commission of the General Assembly to identify the errors contained in the profane authors taught in the schools, that Melville took issue with such Aristotelian doctrines as the conception of God as ‘thought thinking itself ’ and the eternality of matter, two philosophical doctrines not easily reconcilable with the Christian doctrines of God, providence, and creation.41 These criticisms, which were presented during the ordinary course of his lectures, instigated an oratorical war between him and some of the regents and scholars of St Leonard’s. James Melville records that the regents of philosophy at St Leonard’s “sa dressit publict orations against Mr Androe’s doctrine” in an effort to protect their “â•›‘Grait Diana of the Ephesians,’ thair bread-winner, thair honour, thair estimation” from public humiliation and disgrace.42 Some students studying for their master’s degree at St Leonard’s used the occasion of their graduation to respond to Melville’s criticisms and defend various versions of medieval Aristotelianism in their Theses philosophicae. Melville, in turn, was prepared with his own extemporaneous replies and is said to have “dashit tham, and in end convicted tham sa in conscience, that the cheiff Coryphoes amangs tham becam grait students of Theologie.”43 While James Melville’s hyperbole regarding his uncle’s success should not be taken too seriously, Melville was successful to a certain extent in inculcating many of the humanistic values of the Renaissance, such as original language study, philology, and an historically sensitive and critical approach to textual interpretation.44 The very humanist methods and tools he had acquired and cultivated in France and Switzerland under Turnèbe and Scaliger respectively, he undoubtedly applied and modeled for his students teaching them how to interpret ancient texts properly.45 ╇ Calderwood, History III, 743–745. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 123–124. 43 ╇ On the St Andrews’ academic theses see Ronald Gordon Cant, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 2.2 (1941), 105–150; “Supplement to the St Andrews University Theses,” EBST, 2.2 (1941), 263–273; J. F. Kellas Johnstone, “Notes on the Academic Theses of Scotland,” Records of the Glasgow Bibliographical Society, 8 (1930), 81–98; Melville, JMAD, 124. 44 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. James Melville portrayed his uncle as having “within a yeir or twa” persuaded “everie an of tham … sa that, certatim et serio, they becam bathe philosophers and theologes, and acknawlagit a wonderfull transportation out of darknes unto light.” 45 ╇ On Turnèbe see John Lewis, Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565): A Humanist Observed, (Geneva, 1998). On Scaliger see Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the 41 42

200

chapter six

Sitting under Scaliger, “Europe’s premier interpreter of classical texts,” in Geneva, Melville could not help but incorporate such philological training in his own exposition of the classical texts of Aristotle in his instruction at St Andrews.46 In doing this he attempted to refute the various versions of late medieval Aristotelianism which had distorted the true meaning of Aristotle’s writings, and endeavoring to salvage and appropriate what could be of service to his own Christian philosophy and theology. By modeling for his students a careful reading of the Greek text of Aristotle, paying particular attention to the text’s historical context and peculiar philological issues, Melville also provided a vivid illustration of the most current humanist methods of the French Renaissance and a direct challenge to those embodied in the old medieval and scholastic approaches to Aristotle’s writings. Moreover, in the passage under discussion in the Diary, James Melville makes no mention of Ramus or his writings but refers specifically to the heads of theology proper, namely God, providence, and creation among other topics.47 Far from intimating that Ramism was completely endorsed to the neglect of Aristotle at St Andrews,48 James Melville stressed the philosophical differences between Aristotle and Christianity. Indeed, Ramus and his writings do not appear to be involved in this account in History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983); “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 38 (1975), 155–181; “Joseph Scaliger and Historical Chronology: The Rise and Fall of a Discipline,” History and Theory, 14 (May, 1975), 156–185; H. J. De Jonge, “Joseph Scaliger’s Historical Criticism of the New Testament,” Novum Testamentum, 38 (Apr., 1996), 176–193. 46 ╇ Charles G. Nauert Jr., “Review: Anthony Grafton. Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship, Vol. I: Textual Criticism and Exegesis,” (Spr., 1985), 107. 47 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 123–124. Melville wrote: “This was of the Regents of Philosophie, namlie in St Leonard’s Collage, wha heiring, in Mr Androe’s ordinar publict lessones of Theologie, thair Aristotle, amangs the rest of the philosophers, the patriarches of heresie, as ane of the ancients termes tham, mightelie confuted, handling the heids anent God, Providence, Creation, &c., maid a strange steir in the Universitie, and cryed, ‘Grait Diana of the Ephesians,’ thair bread-winner, thair honour, thair estimation, all was gean, giff Aristotle sould be sa owirharled in the heiring of their schollars; and sa dressit publict orations against Mr Androe’s doctrine. But Mr Andro insisted mightelie against tham in his ordinar lessones; and when their counned haranges cam at their Vickes and promotiones of Maisters, he lut tham nocht slipe, but af-hand answerit to tham presentlie with sic force of truthe, evidence of reasone, and spirituall eloquence, that he dashit tham, and in end convicted tham so in conscience, that the cheiff Coryphoes amangs tham becam grait students of Theologie, and speciall professed frinds of Mr Andro, and ar now verie honest upright pastors in the Kirk.” 48 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 118. Reid, of course, does not advocate this position but it is unclear who he has in view in this characterization. This certainly was not the opinion of James Melville.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

201

any way. Nowhere does he claim that John Malcolm or Andrew Duncan became great students of Ramus, but rather that they became “grait students of Theologie” and good friends of Melville.49 The specific claim made by James Melville was not that his uncle won them over to Ramism but that, through both private and public interactions, he persuaded them to go ad fontes and read Aristotle in the original. The Melvillian reform did not blindly bind individuals “to a conservative or reductive mode of teaching.”50 Instead, James Melville presents it as a humanistic approach to the study of classical texts, which dispenses with Latin translations and scholastic commentaries and invites the scholar to engage the text in its original language, paying careful attention to its historical context and philological peculiarities. James Melville also indicates that his uncle spoke with these regents and scholars over a one to two year period “in publict and privat,” perhaps suggesting that Melville continued the practice of ‘table talk’ he had instituted at Glasgow.51 Melville had witnessed the effectiveness of this method of instruction in persuading such recalcitrant Aristotelians as Peter Blackburn and in providing a more thorough discussion and analysis of classical literature.52 Enjoying such success with this informal pedagogical approach, it is difficult to imagine why Melville would have discontinued the practice. Indeed, given the strategic significance of Melville’s ‘table talk’ in his approach to university instruction and its effectiveness in conveying to his pupils and fellow academics the New Learning, it is highly unlikely that he would have abandoned it. Not only was it Melville’s practice to be present at the St Mary’s graduations, which like the other two colleges occurred annually toward the end of July, but it appears that he attended the graduations of the other colleges as well.53 He may have done this, in part, due to the fact that

╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 120. 51 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. 52 ╇Ibid., 49–50. 53 ╇ Johnstone, “Notes on the Academic Theses of Scotland,” 83, 89; Cant, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” 143–147. In the Theses theologicae the Holy Spirit is said to have presided at these disputations while Melville served merely as the moderator. Indeed, Johnstone calls Melville and his colleague at Edinburgh Robert Rollock “the founders of the printed Theses in Scotland.” There are seven Theses theologicae which were printed in Edinburgh by Robert Waldgrave during the years 1595–1602. The only complete set of this earliest collection of St€Andrews Theses is housed in the Special Collections at King’s College, the University of€Aberdeen with five of the seven being unique. These Theses Theologicae are: Christopher Jansen, 49 50

202

chapter six

prior to the completion of the University’s Parliament Hall in 1643 graduations were customarily held at St Mary’s.54 He also most certainly€ attended these events because he was engaged in an oratorical war that challenged both his Christian faith and his deeply cherished humanist values. The challenge which confronted Melville was both theological and methodological. Theologically, certain Aristotelian philosophical doctrines were perceived as threats to the purity of Christian teaching. Methodologically, the late medieval scholasticism at St€Andrews with its dependence upon Latin versions and commentaries posed an obstacle to Melville’s introduction of humanist methods of interpreting€classical texts. While we cannot affirm with certainty that a disputation was part of the graduation ceremony, we do know that Melville exercised his prerogative as principal of St Mary’s and professor of sacred€literature to dispute those who attacked his views in their Theses philosophicae.55 Among those at St Leonard’s who were won over to Melville’s humanistic cause were the regents Andrew Duncan and John Malcolm.56 Prior to their appointment as regents both men had matriculated at St Leonard’s and taken their MA in 1575 and 1578 respectively.57 Both men presumably were among those regents who delivered public orations against Melville and yet, despite their initial opposition, were eventually persuaded by his criticisms and embraced his humanistic values and methods. Although the 1579 nova fundatio had made specific provision for instruction in Greek during the first year, continuing the course of arts study at St Leonard’s and St Salvator’s, in James Melville’s judgment the ignorance that characterized the regents of St Leonard’s was tied 1595 De prædestinatione. Sive de cavsis salvtis et damnationis æternæ dispvtatio; Jean Masson, 1597 De libero arbitrio theses theologicæ; Class Theses, 1599 Scholastica diatriba de rebvs divinis ad anquirendam & inveniendam veritatem; Patrick Geddie, 1600 De ivstificatione hominis coram deo theses theologicæ; John Scharp, 1600 Theses theologicæ de peccato; Thomas Lundie, 1602 Vtrum episcopus Romanus sit antichristvs necne?; Andrew Morton, 1602 Theses theologicæ de sacramentis, & missa idololatrica. 54 ╇ Cant, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” 113, 143–147; “Supplement to the St Andrews University Theses,” 266, 271. 55 ╇ Cant, “Supplement to the St Andrews University Theses,” 266; Melville, JMAD, 124. For a broader consideration of Scottish academic graduation theses see P. J. Anderson, Notes on Academic Theses, with Bibliography of Duncan Liddel (Aberdeen, 1912); J. F. Kellas Johnstone, The Lost Aberdeen Theses (Aberdeen, 1916); Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, 1935), 126–139. 56 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. 57 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St. Andrews, 171, 173, 175, 179, 281.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

203

directly to their inability to read Aristotle in the original Greek with historical and philological sensitivity.58 As James Melville maintained, “They fell to the Langages, studeit thair Artes for the right use, and perusit Aristotle in his awin langage.”59 Thus, this purported ‘victory’ of€Melville’s was portrayed by his nephew as not merely the triumph of Christianity over the pagan Aristotle but the triumph of the methods of humanism over the methods of late medieval scholasticism. While the extent of Melville’s ‘victory’ at St Andrews remains an open question, there can be no doubt that James interpreted his uncle’s success as both a victory for Reformed Protestantism and the humanism of the European Renaissance.60 By 1583 the controversy over Aristotle at St Andrews had developed into such a crisis that the general assembly felt compelled to intervene and form a commission to identify the errors contained in the writings of the profane authors of antiquity used in the schools with particular attention given to Aristotle. Both the timing of the commission and its composition strongly suggest that it was constituted to settle authoritatively the Aristotle controversy at St Andrews. In addition to Melville, the commissioners appointed were Thomas Smeaton, James Lawson, Peter Blackburn, James Martine, Robert Wilkie, and Nicol Dagleish.61 In their report to the assembly the commissioners expressed their concern that “the youth being curious, and of insolent spirits, drinke in erroneous and damnable opinions; and … mainteane their godless and profane opinions obstinatlie in disputations, and otherwise, to the great slander of the Word of God.” The commission then proceeded to enumerate twenty propositions “as erroneous, false, and against the religioun.”62 If the report of the commission accurately depicted and ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, 184; Melville, JMAD, 124. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 124. 60 ╇ For a sample of the type of theses produced by the scholars of St Salvator’s during Melville’s service at St Andrews see Theses aliqvot philosophicæ in publicam disputationem a generosis nonnullis Saluatoriani gymnasij adolescentibus … (Edinburgh, 1603). 61 ╇ Acts and proceedings of the general assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland from the M.D.LX. Part Second M.D.LXXVIII–M.D.XCII ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1840), 638–39; Calderwood, History, III, 743. 62 ╇ Calderwood, History III, 743–745. The Commission wrote: “1. Omnis finis est opus aut operatio. 2. Civilis scientia est præstantissima, ejusque finis præstantissimus, et summum hominis bonum. 3. Honesta et justa varia sunt et inconstantia, adeo, ut sola opinione constent. 4. Juvenes, et rerum imperiti, et in libidinem proclives, ab audienda morum philosophia arcendi. 5. Quod aliud ab aliis bonis, et per se bonum est, et causa cur cætera bonum sunt, non est summum bonum. 6. Dei agnitio nihil prodest artifici, ad hoc ut arte sua bene utatur. 7. Summum bonum vel minimi boni accessione augeri, et 58 59

204

chapter six

identified the situation at St Andrews, then these words provide an important qualification to James Melville’s remarks regarding his uncle’s glorious triumph over the defiant and recalcitrant Aristotelians at St Leonard’s. These twenty propositions indicate that the concern over the erroneous and false views of Aristotle was not confined to the locus of theology proper but was extended to the loci of anthropology, eschatology, and ethics as well. With a distinctive teleological and ethical focus, the commissioners avoided in these propositions the abstruse speculations of the medieval schoolmen and evidenced their own practical orientation and use of the authors of antiquity. Although singled out primarily because of the supremacy of Aristotelian philosophy in the schools of the universities, Aristotle was not the only profane author in view.63 Rather the commissioners referred to a specific, yet undefined, group of “profane authors” used in the schools who also promoted opinions and views contrary to Scripture.64 From the curricular descriptions contained in the 1579 nova fundatio we know that this undefined group€ of profane authors included Plato and Cicero and probably included such classical literary figures as Homer, Vergil, and Horace among others.65 By participating in this commission it is likely, given Melville’s Â�position at St Andrews and his role in the current controversy over Aristotle, that he exerted a strong influence on this body and may even have€drafted these philosophical propositions himself. Certainly, there were few on the commission who possessed a superior grasp of the Greek and Latin authors of antiquity or who understood more profoundly the areas where their views were incompatible with historic Christian thought. While limited evidence prevents any definitive judgment at this point, the cumulative weight of the historical circumstances surrounding the reddi potest optabilius. 8. Pauper, deformis, orbus, aut infans, beatus esse non potest. 9. Bonum æternum bono unius diei non est magis bonum. 10. Felicitas est actio animi secundum virtutem. 11. Potest aliquis, sibi studio suo, felicitatem comparare. 12. Homo in hac vita cumulate, et esse, et dici potest beatus. 13. Post hanc vitam, nemo potest vel esse, vel dici beatus, nisi propinquorum vel amicorum ratione. 14. Natura apti ad virtutem eam agendo comparamus. 15. Virtus est habitus electivus, in ea mediocritate positus, quam ratio prudentis præscribit. 16. Libera est nobis: voluntas ad bene agendum. 17. Mundus est physice æternus. 18. Casus et fortuna locum habent in rebus naturalibus et humanis. 19. Res viles et inferiores non curat Dei providentia. 20. Animi pars una, vel etiam plures sunt mortales, et quæ hinc pendent, et necessario consequuntur.” 63 ╇ Charles G. Nauert, Jr. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, 1995), 9. 64 ╇ Calderwood, History, III, 743. 65 ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, 184.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

205

commission, as well as the commission’s own declaratory propositions, suggest that Melville played a leading role in the formulation of this document even as he had played a leading role in opposing the errors of late medieval Aristotelianism at Glasgow and St Andrews. The Ecclesiastical Statesman Melville’s relocation to St Andrews in 1580 brought with it not only new academic challenges at the University but also increased opportunities for service in the Kirk. His new position at St Mary’s may have opened opportunities for him which might not have otherwise presented themselves. His growing reputation as a distinguished humanist, classical scholar, Latin poet, and university reformer coupled with his growing fame as an exegete and theologian made him an obvious choice for those commissions which required expertise in both profane and sacred literature. His involvement in the Kirk on both the provincial and national levels was remarkable given his academic responsibilities at St Mary’s and the University during his service as rector in the 1590s. Of course, Melville’s ecclesiastical service during these years should be viewed as an extension and accentuation of his labors which he had performed while principal of the University of Glasgow. Not content merely with a life of quiet scholarship, Melville served locally as a ruling elder, a member of the provincial assembly of Fife, and a regular Sabbath day preacher, as well as nationally as a moderator of the general assembly, an assessor to the moderator, a member of numerous ecclesiastical commissions, and an ecclesiastical statesman. Within the town and parish of St Andrews Melville served for a time as a ruling elder. In 1591 he became a ruling elder in the parish where he attended the weekly meetings of session, assisted the pastors in the visitation and inspection which preceded the administration of communion, and participated as a member of presbytery in the “weekly€exercise” of delivering a discourse to the judicatory.66 As a member of the provincial assembly which convened at St Andrews in April 1591, he was appointed, along with Robert Wilkie, David Ferguson, and Nicol Dagleish, to obtain from Patrick Adamson a fuller and clearer Â�recantation in the vernacular of his errors.67 In conjunction with his local service on 66 67

╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 337, 339. ╇ Calderwood, History V, 119.

206

chapter six

Â� session and the provincial assembly, he preached regularly on the Sabbath day in the parish of St Andrews. Just as he had been a regular preacher in the parish of Govan during his principalship at Glasgow, so in St Andrews he continued this practice.68 Indeed, his preaching was apparently so successful and influential that the King in 1587 ordered Melville and the masters of St Mary’s to desist from preaching in English on the Sabbath to the inhabitants of the burgh and those outside it. The fact that the King took specific measures to curtail Melville’s preaching may indicate that his sermons were well attended and were having some influence upon the town and its parish, which the King found undesirable.69 While the available evidence prevents us from affirming this with certainty, the King’s actions indicate, at a minimum, that he feared Melville’s influence. From 1581 until 1597, when the King successfully banned all masters, professors of the university, and doctors of divinity from service in the courts of the Kirk, Melville served four times as moderator of the general assembly and six times as an assessor to the moderator.70 Twice in 1582 as well as in 1587 and 1594 Melville served as moderator. When he was not serving as moderator during these years, he labored as an assessor to the moderator in the years 1581, 1582, 1583, twice in 1588, and 1590.71 Although it is important not to exaggerate the power and influence of either the moderator or the assessors to the moderator, together they did determine what matters would be brought before the assembly for its consideration as the Kirk’s highest judicatory. In this respect, Melville, along with his colleagues, was in a position to direct the attention of the assembly to those ecclesiastical matters which they deemed to be of greatest importance and necessity. In conjunction with his service as moderator and assessor to the moderator, Melville continued his labors on the national scene by serving on a number of ecclesiastical commissions which addressed matters of university reform, philosophical errors, and matters of discipline among

68 ╇ Duncan Shaw, The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland 1560–1600, (Edinburgh, 1964), 140–141; John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 286–287; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 71, 92. 69 ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 607. 70 ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by the Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV … for Visiting the Universities of Scotland. Volume€III. University of St. Andrews (London, 1837), 197; BUK, II, xviii, 548, 685; III, 819; Melville, JMAD, 61–62, 128–129; Calderwood, History III, 398, 598, 622; IV, 615; V, 307. 71 ╇ BUK, II, 522, 585, 626, 703, 767.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

207

others. In 1583 at the April meeting of the general assembly Melville was appointed to serve on a commission to evaluate the academic staff of the University of Aberdeen to determine whether they “be sufficient and qualified” and “conforme to the new erectione.”72 He was directed by the assembly to convene on 5 September 1583 with Thomas Smeaton and Nicol Dagleish “to trie and examine the said members of the College of Aberdeen, if they be correspondent to the order and provisione of the said erectione.”73 Similarly, in 1593 at the meeting of the general assembly held at Dundee Melville was appointed to a commission to “visit the Colledge of Auld Aberdeine” and “to try and examine the doctreine, lyfe, and deligence of the Maisteris therof ” assessing the discipline, order, and financial situation of the University.74 Melville’s service on the 1583 and 1593 commissions pertaining to the University of Aberdeen originated in part because of his own success in leading the reform at Glasgow and should be viewed as an extension of his service on the 1579 St Andrews commission.75 In 1583 at the October meeting of the general assembly Melville was appointed, along with six other commissioners, to enumerate the erroneous propositions found in the writings of Aristotle and other profane authors of antiquity.76 As previously suggested, there can be little doubt that the controversy over Aristotle at St Andrews was primarily in view in the erection of this commission. Given Melville’s outspoken criticism of Aristotle at both Glasgow and St Andrews and his reputation as a classical scholar and theologian, there can be little doubt that he emerged as a leading figure on this commission and may even have been the dominant voice on this occasion. His selection on this commission was based as much upon his humanist reputation and mastery of classical literature as it was upon his growing fame as a theologian and professor of sacred literature. Having acquired firsthand experience and reflected deeply upon matters of ecclesiastical discipline and policy while in Geneva, Melville was an obvious choice for those commissions which addressed such matters. In 1581 at the October meeting of the general assembly, Melville was appointed along with Robert Pont, James Lawson, Thomas Smeaton, ╇ BUK, II, 624; Calderwood, History III, 707. ╇Ibid., 625. 74 ╇ BUK, III, 811. 75 ╇ BUK, II, 434–35. 76 ╇Ibid., 638–40. 72 73

208

chapter six

and Alexander Arbuthnot to confer regarding the accusations brought against Robert Montgomery, minister at Stirling. Sixteen accusations against Montgomery were enumerated. They ranged from derrogating the original languages of Scripture and distorting the words of the apostle to teaching that ecclesiastical discipline is an indifferent matter, maintaining that the ministry is guilty of sedition and ought not to meddle in matters of state, and asserting that there is no evidence in the New Testament of presbyteries or the eldership.77 Similarly, in 1583 at the April meeting of the general assembly Melville was appointed along with seven other commissioners to examine and try the witnesses against the bishop of Aberdeen.78 In both of these instances, Melville was called upon to consult with his fellow commissioners and adjudicate matters of doctrine and discipline. Melville’s labors as an ecclesiastical commissioner frequently involved him in the work of an ecclesiastical statesman. His service in this capacity was ordinarily conducted as a member of a commission in which he was merely one commissioner among many. In this respect, his work as an ecclesiastical statesman was neither unusual or exceptional. Many individuals, such as Robert Rollock, Robert Bruce, Walter Balcanquhal, James Balfour, Robert Pont, David Lindsay, John Davidson, and James Melville among others, were engaged in ecclesiastical diplomacy with the King, members of court, and parliament.79 What frequently distinguished Melville’s labors as an ecclesiastical diplomat was a combination of his outspoken candor and fiery disposition. Despite his penchant for controversy and his inclination toward direct confrontation, he exercised on numerous occasions considerable self-restraint and a willingness to work within the accepted diplomatic channels in order to accomplish both university and ecclesiastical reform. The pattern of ecclesiastical diplomacy he practiced while principal of the University of Glasgow in the 1570s only increased and intensified during his service at St Andrews as the Kirk faced a delicate relationship with the crown and the ever-present threat of the reassertion of Catholicism in the Kingdom of Scotland. Shortly after Melville arrived in St Andrews he was appointed along with Thomas Smeaton at the October meeting of the general assembly in 1581 to compose a supplication to the King and the Lords of Articles. ╇ Calderwood, History III, 577–583. ╇Ibid., 709. 79 ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 490; V, 115, 130–31. 77 78



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

209

In€this document they requested that parliament not pass any legislation which would be inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture.80 In 1582 at the June meeting of the general assembly Melville was appointed to a commission to present to the King and nobility at Perth the greivances of the assembly and “to crave … remedie.”81 Instructed to exhibit to the King and nobility “all reverence, dew obedience, and submission,” Melville emerged as the outspoken leader of this commission first signing the document and then calling upon his fellow commissioners to do likewise.82 Upon his return from exile in England in 1586, Melville is reported to have traveled throughout the country urging further reform and “waiting on court and parliament.”83 In addition to his persuasive efforts among the people, Melville used his connections at court among the nobility and in parliament to advance the cause of reform. He keenly understood the importance of securing the necessary political support to advance his agenda and so lobbied behind the scenes for further reform. In 1588 Melville performed a number of functions as an ecclesiastical statesman. At the February meeting of the general assembly he was appointed to a commission to confer with the King’s council regarding such matters as Catholicism, discipline, the planting of kirks, and the poor.84 At this same assembly he was selected along with four others to present to the King the articles composed by Robert Pont and James Melville.85 Chosen at the August meeting of the assembly along with Robert Bruce and Andrew Hay, Melvile was directed to present to the Chancellor the request of the assembly to take possession of the ship and its crew from Dunkirk, suspected of espionage. Likewise, at this same assembly, he was appointed along with Robert Bruce, Patrick€GalloÂ�way, and David Ferguson to exhort the King to continue to defend true religion.86 In these instances, Melville served both the Kirk and commonwealth as an ecclesiastical statesman by pressing the King and his council regarding matters of reform which had broad implications for Scottish society. ╇ Calderwood, History III, 587. ╇Ibid., 627. 82 ╇ BUK, II, 581; Calderwood, History III, 631. There were at least twenty commissioners, in addition to Melville, who were appointed by the assembly. 83 ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 491. 84 ╇Ibid., 652. 85 ╇Ibid., 653. 86 ╇Ibid., 684. 80 81

210

chapter six Exile in England: London, Oxford, and Cambridge

In 1584 Melville’s reforming efforts at St Mary’s came to an abrupt halt when he was forced to flee the country or face imprisonment on account of his “unreverent behaviour before his Majestie.”87 The events leading up to Melville’s flight from Scotland may be traced back to 23 August 1582 when William Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie, with the help of the Earls of Angus and Glencairn, effected a coup d’etat by seizing the young James VI and displacing the Duke of Lennox, Esmé Stewart, from power.88 Despite archbishop Patrick Adamson’s subsequent calumny that Melville had been “priuie to dyuers conspiracies,” there is no evidence to support the view that Melville had anything to do with this political coup.89 His role as a prominent spokesman and representative of those ministers who expressed “undisguised delight” in the King’s captivity only served to strengthen the tie between him and those who sought to effect radical political change.90 The fact that Melville had, along with James Lawson, Walter Balcanquhal, and John Dury, at the General Assembly approved of the Ruthven Raid only contributed to Melville’s subsequent awkward situation.91 When in June 1583, King James escaped from his disaffected aristocratic captors and the Ruthven regime crumbled, Melville was left in the politically awkward position of having loose ties with those who had confined the King. With the help of James Stewart, Earl of Arran, the€King introduced a number of measures which amounted to “a conservative backlash” and which culminated in the so-called Black Acts of 1584.92 James, at the time of his escape, retreated to the castle of ╇Ibid., 11. ╇ Caroline Bingham, James VI of Scotland (London, 1979), 61–62; Julian Goodare, “Scottish Politics in the Reign of James VI” in Julian Goodare and Michael Lynch (eds.), The Reign of James VI (East Lothian, 2000), 35–36. 89 ╇ Patrick Adamson, A Declaratioun of the Kings Maisties Intentioun and Meaning Toward the Lait Actis of Parliament (Edinburgh, 1585), A iiij. 90 ╇ Lynch, “The Origins of Edinburgh’s ‘Toun College’: A Revision Article,” 3. 91 ╇ David Hume, The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1743), 307. 92 ╇ Roger A. Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994), 125–126, 129; Gordon Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 14 (1963), 69. The Black Acts, as the presbyterians called them, reestablished episcopal authority and banned unauthorized public meetings. Although these anti-presbyterian measures were effective in immediately stemming the tide of the movement, James failed to enforce his own legislation and in just two short years the country witnessed a reversal of policy in favor of the presbyterians. 87 88



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

211

St€ Andrews, providing Melville with ample opportunity to clarify his position relative to the Ruthven Raiders and express his support of the crown. Against the counsel of Sir Robert Melville, Andrew declined to do so. By February 1584, those at court who had endeavored to predispose the King against Melville succeeded when the humanist was summoned on the 15th of the month to appear before the privy council at Edinburgh.93 Melville had been accused of seditious and treasonous speech uttered in a sermon and in prayers during the previous month. His accuser, William Stewart, maintained that Melville had said in a sermon “That the King was unlawfully called to the kingdom.”94 Bearing a letter from the rector, deans of faculties, professors, regents, and masters of the University declaring his innocence, Melville appeared before this body to deny these allegations, explain his words, and affirm his submission and loyalty to the crown. In addition to the support of the University, he possessed testimonies of his innocence and loyalty to the King from the Kirk session of St Andrews and the presbytery, as well as from the provost, bailiffs, and town counsel.95 The sermon in question was from the book of Daniel in which Melville was alleged to have made what Adamson styled “odious comparisons of his Maiesties progenitours and counsale.”96 Melville acknowledged that he had in his sermon made an innocuous reference to King James III, but he denied that he ever had the King’s mother, Mary Stewart, in view in his application of the text of Daniel. After stating the responsibility of ministers to “apply the exemples of God’s mercie and judgements in all ages, to kings, princes, and people of their time,” Melville reminded James that “whether it be by electioun, successioun, or other ordinar middes that kings are advanced, it is God that makes kings; which all is easlie forget by them.”97 After extensive interviews and questioning, the privy council determined to proceed forward with a trial. Registering his objections to being tried by a civil, rather than an ecclesiastical court, he produced a ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 196–197. ╇Hume, History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus II, 308. 95 ╇ Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland IV, 3–5, 7–10. 96 ╇ Adamson, Declaratioun, A iij. 97 ╇ Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland IV, 8–9; Reid, “Education in PostReformation Scotland,” 105. While it is unnecessary to justify either Melville’s line of reasoning or his manner of presentation, Reid’s characterization of the tone of Melville’s sermon and defense as “haughty unrepentance” is mistaken and does not recognize either Melville’s concern to uphold the supreme authority of Scripture or his allegiance to his monarch and country. 93 94

212

chapter six

Hebrew Bible and challenged the King and privy council to show him from the text where he had erred in his interpretation.98 Melville was found guilty of irreverent behavior before the privy council and of denying its judgments and was sentenced to be warded in Edinburgh Castle. When the place of confinement was changed from Edinburgh to Blackness Castle, Melville had already planned his escape and fled the country with the help of his brother Roger.99 Before fleeing he composed in advance a defense of himself and his actions in his Apology in an effort to clarify the reasons for his voluntary exile.100 While the choice of England was obvious as the nearest country where Melville might find refuge, the political and ecclesiastical climate of the country gave him pause as to its suitability.101 Archbishop Adamson did not believe that Melville and his colleagues would be received by Elizabeth nor would the Anglican clergy, he thought, “tolerat suche beastlie men as yee are, to infect the youth of that countrie.”102 So uninviting was England that Melville appears to have seriously contemplated returning to the continent where he might resume his academic life. As a product of the French Renaissance and as one who spent the most formative years of his life on the continent, he found the prospect of returning attractive. However, while England gave Melville and his associates reason to wonder whether it were a suitable place of exile, the Scottish refugees did see in England some hope for themselves. Some ╇ Melville, JMAD, 141–142. ╇ Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland IV, 10–12. Even after Melville left Scotland in February 1584 he continued to maintain his symbolic role as a prominent and outspoken advocate of the presbyterian cause. Archbishop Adamson certainly viewed him in this light as he singled him out in his defense of the Black Acts in his 1585 Declaratiuon. Cf. Adamson, A declaratioun of the Kings Maiesties intentioun and meaning toward the lait Actis of Parliament. (Edinburgh, 1585), A iij– A iiij. In response to Adamson’s Declaratioun, two works were written in February 1585. The first, An Answere to the Declaratioun, was probably written by Melville himself while the Dialogue between Zelator, Temporizar and Palomon was probably written by James Melville. Cf. Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland Vol. IV, 274–294, 295–339. Adamson also wrote Assertiones Quaedam, ex aliis eiusmodi innumeris erroneae, per Andream Melvinam, novam et inauditam Theologiam profitentem, in suis praelectionbus de Episcopatu, pro certis et indubitatis in medium allatae, ac palam affirmatae, in Scholis Theologicis fani Andreae, Regni Scotiae metropoleos in Patrick Adamson, Opera, ed. Thomas Wilson (1620); Melville wrote Floretum Archiepiscopale, National Library of Scotland, Wodrow Folio XLII, ff. 126r–127v. For a brief discussion of these last two works see Reid, “Education in PostReformation Scotland,” 110–111. 100 ╇Hume, History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus II, 308. For the Apology cf. 309–313. 101 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 69. 102 ╇ Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland IV, 90. 98 99



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

213

viewed Elizabeth as “a notable instrument of God for the advancement of religion” and the Puritans as those who were in a similar situation to their own. In light of such sentiments, Melville wrote letters to Jean Castoll and Stephen Powle, informing them of his intention to go to London and inquiring about accommodation.103 Although Melville had fled to Berwick on 17 February, he was followed in May and June of that year by a whole host of ministers and scholars among whom were James Lawson, Walter Balcanquhal, Robert Pont, James Carmichael, Patrick Galloway, James Melville, James Gibson, David Hume, Andrew Hunter, Andrew Polwarth, Thomas Story, Andrew Hay, John Davidson, one James Hamilton, and a certain “Mr. Strachan.” In addition to these were the six younger men William Aird, John Caldcleuch, John Cowper, Alexander Forsyth, Archibald Moncreiff, and James Robertson.104 Melville was joined by his relative Patrick Forbes, who became one of his constant companions during his exile in England.105 During the several months that he spent in Berwick, Melville served as a Greek tutor to the son of the English ambassador to Edinburgh and puritan politician William Davison.106 Just as he had found employment as a tutor to the son of a member of parliament in Poitiers when the University was closed due to the French wars of religion, so Melville€again when forced from the University was employed as a tutor, Â�teaching his pupil Francis Davison to read ancient Greek from the Â�gospel of€Mark.107 After a brief residence, Melville left Berwick around 10 June with Patrick Forbes and traveled south to London, probably accompanied by James Carmichael and Patrick Galloway. When they arrived on 20 June, they met with Elizabeth I’s principal secretary and puritan sympathizer 103 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Jean Castoll, 23 February 1584, British Library, MS Cotton Caligula C. IX, f. 167; Letter of Andrew Melville to Stephen Powle, March 1584, Bodleian, Tanner MS 168, fol. 204v; Letter of Stephen Powle to Andrew Melville, 1 March 1584, Bodleian, Tanner MS 168, fol. 204v. 104 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 6–709; Melville, JMAD, 157, 167. Andrew Melville wrote in a letter to the pastors in the Church in Geneva and Tigurie the following: “at this tyme, the maist lernit and fathfull Pastores in bathe the kingdomes ar forced ather haillilie to keipe sylence and leave the ministerie, or then by flight and exyll to saiff thair lyves, or els to essay the filthie weirines of stinking pressones.” 105 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 170; W. G. Sinclair Snow, The Times, Life, and Thought of Patrick Forbes Bishop of Aberdeen 1618–1635 (London, 1952), 29. 106 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 70–71. 107 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40; Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,”€72.

214

chapter six

Sir Francis Walsingham and delivered to him ambassador Davison’s official dispatch issued from Edinburgh.108 In addition to meeting with Walsingham, Melville and Carmichael also met with the diplomat Robert Bowes and the author and courtier Sir Philip Sydney where they apprised them of recent events in Scottish politics.109 After establishing political relationships and support, Melville and his companions sought to solidify their ecclesiastical ties.110 Archbishop Adamson had been covertly attempting to undermine the presbyterian cause in Scotland by serving as an agent of Arran in London to alienate Elizabeth from the Scottish nobles who had gone into exile and by consulting with the bishop of London and the archbishop of Canterbury how best to overthrow Presbyterianism. In a letter dated 16 June 1584 archbishop Adamson wrote to the archbishop of Canterbury, endeavoring to prejudice him against the exiles.111 In the face of such opposition, Melville went with James Lawson and “certean uther of the breithring” in July 1584 to Oxford and Cambridge where he “conferrit with the most godlie and lernit ther.”112 While at Oxford, Melville and Lawson met with “the leading puritan in Oxford” Edward Gellibrand, as well as with Thomas Wilcox and John Field.113 There, among other matters, they debated and discussed the issue of “the proceeding of the minister in his dutie, without the assistance or tarrying for the Magistrate.”114 At Oxford Melville also formed a relationship with the young scholar George Carleton, and maintained over the years a correspondence with him.115 A graduate of St Edmund Hall, Carleton took his BA in 1580 and became a fellow at Merton College where he received his MA in 1585. Although Carleton later in his life in an effort to obtain a higher

108 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 72; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 228–229. 109 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 229. 110 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 72. 111 ╇ Letter of Patrick Adamson to the archbishop of Canterbury 16 June 1584, British Library, Harley MS. 7004 folios 3 to 3verso; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 218–220, 229; Melville, JMAD, 154–164; Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland IV, 158–167. 112 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 219. 113 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 72. 114 ╇ Richard Bancroft, Dangerous Positions and Proceedings, Published and Practised within this Island of Britaine, Under Pretence of Reformation, and for the Presbyteriall Discipline (London, 1640), 74; Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 72. 115 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 231.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

215

preferment wrote against Presbyterianism and in support of EpiscopaÂ� lianism,116 he was a vigorous critic of Catholicism and advocate of Reformed theology as his subsequent writings and support of the canons of the Synod of Dort abundantly confirm.117 While in Oxford and Cambridge Melville had the opportunity to establish relationships with a number of highly learned humanists. His writings suggest that during this visit he met several advocates of the New Learning and enjoyed their companionship. We know from his 1604 Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria that he highly regarded a number of academics at these seats of learning among whom were the Oxonian John Rainolds,118 the distinguished Greek reader and president of CorÂ� pus Christi College, as well as the Cantabrigian William Whittaker,119 regius professor and master of St John’s College.120 Rainolds has been called “the most prominent theologian in Oxford,”121 “an architect of 116 ╇ George Carleton, Bp Carletons Testimonie Concerning the Presbyterian Discipline in the Low-Countries, and Episcopall Government here in England (London, 1642). 117 ╇ Peter Lake, Anglicans and Puritans? Presbyterianism and English Conformist Thought from Whitgift to Hooker (London, 1988), 247. On his opposition to Catholicism see George Carleton, Consensus ecclesiæ Catholicæ contra Tridentinos (Frankfurt, 1613); Iurisdiction regall, episcopall, Papall (London, 1610). On Carleton’s support of the Reformed soteriology embodied in the canons of the Synod of Dort see George Carleton, The Collegiat Suffrage of the Divines of Great Britaine, Concerning the Five Articles Controverted in the Low Countries (London, 1629); Suffragium collegiale theologorum magnæ Britanniæ de quinque controversis remonstrantium articulis, Synodo Dordrechtanæ exhibitum anno M.DC.XIX. Judicio synodico prævium (London, 1626). 118 ╇ On Rainolds see C. M. Dent, Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford (Oxford, 1983). 119 ╇ On Whittaker see Charles K. Cannon, “William Whitaker’s Disputatio de Sacra Scriptura: A Sixteenth- Century Theory of Allegory,” The Huntington Library Quarterly, 25 (Feb., 1962), 129–138; Peter Lake, Moderate puritans and the Elizabethan church (Cambridge, 1982), 93–115, 169–200. Whitaker’s opposition to Catholicism may be seen in the following works: William Whitaker, Ad Nicolai Sanderi demonstrationes quadraginta, in octavo libro visibilis monarchiæ positas, quibus romanum pontificem non esse antichristum docere instituit (London, 1583); Disputatio de sacra scriptura, contra huius temporis papistas, inprimis Robertum Bellarminum Iesuitam (Cambridge, 1588). 120 ╇ Andrew Melville, Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria in Parasynagma Perthense et iuramentum ecclesiæ Scoticanæ et A.M. Antitamicamicategoria (1620), 43; James K. McConica, “Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford,” English Historical Review, 94 (Apr., 1979), 303; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 232; A. F. Scott Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603 (Cambridge, 1925), 354. Melville wrote: “Non ita æterni Whittakerus acer / Luminis vindex, patriæque lumen, / Dixit aut sensit: neque celsa summi / Penna Renoldi, / Certa sublimes aperire calles, / Sueta cœlestes iterare cursus, / Læta misceri niveis beatæ / Civibus aulæ. / Nec Tami aut Cami accola saniore / Mente, qui cœlum sapit in frequenti / Hermathenæo, & celebri Lycæo / Culta juventus; / Cuius affulget Genio Jovæ lux: / Cui nitens Sol justitiæ renidet: / Quem jubar Christi radiantis alto / Spectat Olympo.” 121 ╇ W. W. Fortenbaugh, “Review: John Rainolds’s Oxford Lectures on Aristotle’s Rhetoric ed. and trans. L. D. Green,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, 109 (1989), 235.

216

chapter six

the Anglican polity,”122 and, along with John Case, was “Oxford’s major Â�contemporary” Aristotelian.123 Receiving his BA in 1569 and his MA in 1572 from Corpus Christi, he became a reader in Greek at that College until 1578.124 His lectures on Aristotle’s Rhetoric became famous in his own day and represent “the earliest critical study of Aristotle’s Rhetoric in England.”125 As a classical scholar who possessed both an impressive command of the Greek language and its literature, as well as a considerable knowledge of Hebrew, Melville found in Rainolds many of the humanist values he so deeply cherished and a common intellectual culture as scholars of the Renaissance.126 Although the extent of Rainolds’ endorsement of Ramus remains an open question, his enthusiasm for the French humanist and his critical, yet sympathetic, approach to the text of Aristotle provided yet another basis upon which the two humanists could build their relationship.127 In addition to their shared humanist culture, values, and methods, Melville found in Rainolds one sympathetic and supportive of his efforts at religious reform in Scotland. As a staunch opponent of Catholicism and sympathizer of the Elizabethan Puritans, Rainolds’ subsequent opposition to archbishop Bancroft’s 1588 sermon at Paul’s

122 ╇ McConica, “Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford,” 303. For a sample of Rainolds’s views on ecclesiastical polity see John Rainolds, The Iudgement of Doctor Reignolds Concerning Episcopacy, Whether it be Gods Ordinance. Expressed in a Letter to Sir Francis Knowls, Concerning Doctor Bancrofts Sermon at Pauls-Crosse, the ninth of February, 1588. In the Parliament Time. (London, 1641); Sex Theses de Sacra Scriptura, et Ecclesia (London, 1580); The Summe of the Conference between Iohn Rainoldes and Iohn Hart: Touching the Head and the Faith of the Church (London, 1584). 123 ╇ Robert B. Todd, “Henry and Thomas Savile in Italy,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 58 (1996), 443. 124 ╇ Fortenbaugh, “Review: John Rainolds’s Oxford Lectures on Aristotle’s Rhetoric,” 235; McConica, “Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford,” 303. 125 ╇ McConica, “Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford,” 303; Fortenbaugh, “Review: John Rainolds’s Oxford Lectures on Aristotle’s Rhetoric,” 235. 126 ╇ J. W. Binns, “Women or Transvestites on the Elizabethan Stage?: An Oxford Controversy,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 5 (Oct., 1974), 97. Rainolds acquired such an impressive command of Hebrew that he became a celebrated translator of the Old Testament prophets for the Authorized Version. 127 ╇ McConica, “Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford,” 302–307; Kathy Eden, “Review: John Rainolds’s Oxford Lectures on Aristotle’s Rhetoric. ed. and tr. Lawrence D. Green,” Renaissance Quarterly, 41 (Spr., 1988), 170. For a sample of Rainolds’ approach to the text and thought of Aristotle see John Rainolds, An Excellent Oration of the Late famously Learned John Rainolds, D. D. and Lecturer of the Greek Tongue in Oxford. Very Usefull for all such as Affect the Studies of Logic and Philosophie, and Admire Profane Learning (London, 1638).



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

217

Cross indicates his own moderate Puritanism, as well as additional areas of agreement between him and Melville.128 Another Oxford humanist with whom Melville became associated and afterwards corresponded was the translator Thomas Savile.129 Savile probably became acquainted with Melville through his association with Rainolds. The younger brother of the distinguished scholar Sir Henry Savile, Thomas received his BA from Merton College in 1580, became a fellow there in 1581, and took his MA in 1584.130 Like Rainolds, he too developed a special interest in the Greek language and the writings of Aristotle. His interest in Aristotelian thought may be seen in his acquisition of numerous Greek Aristotelian commentaries, such as Alexander of Aphrosidias, John Philoponus, and Eustratius. In addition to his preoccupation with the Greek language and its literature, Savile cultivated an avid interest in mathematics and astronomy and produced translations of the ancient astronomer Geminus and detailed notes on the mathematical treatises De rationum additione et subtractione and De rationibus.131 During the years 1588 through 1591, Savile traveled extensively throughout Europe, visiting such important centers of learning as Breslau and Padua and broadening his humanist associations.132 Indeed, his relationship with Melville appears to have been founded primarily upon their mutual love of classical Greek literature. Not surprisingly Melville, as a humanist visiting Oxford and€Cambridge, found strong intellectual and religious kinship among the members of these academic communities. Not only were there those who shared many of his religious views, but there were many who had embraced the New Learning and were wholly devoted to the methods and values of humanism. Melville found that, despite their differences, as members of

╇ Lake, Moderate puritans and the Elizabethan church, 76. Rainolds’s opposition to Catholicism may be seen in his Johannis Rainoldi, De Romanæ Ecclesiæ Idololatria, in Cultu Sanctorum, Reliquiarum, Imaginum, Aquæ, Salis, Olei, Aliarumq; rerum Consecratarum, & Sacramenti Eucharistiæ, Operis Inchoati Libri Duo (Oxford, 1596). His Puritanism may be seen in his opposition to stage plays. Cf. John Rainolds, The Overthrow of Stage-Playes, By the Way of Controversie betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes (Oxford, 1629). Cf. also Richard Bancroft, A Sermon Preached at Paule’s Crosse the 9. of Februarie, being the first Sunday in the Parleament, Anno. 1588. (London, 1588). 129 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 231. 130 ╇ M. Feingold, The Mathematician’s Apprentice: Science, universities and society in England 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1984), 130. 131 ╇ Todd, “Henry and Thomas Savile in Italy,” 439, 442–443. 132 ╇ Feingold, The Mathematician’s Apprentice, 131–132. 128

218

chapter six

an elite, intellectual culture they, nevertheless, shared a set of common values as purveyors of the New Learning. Although it is impossible, in light of the limited evidence available, to determine the precise extent to which Melville unofficially participated in the intellectual life of these universities, we do know that his companion Patrick Forbes is said to have studied, probably during this visit, at the University of Oxford in an unofficial capacity.133 Nevertheless, Melville’s visit, while motivated, in part, to establish ecclesiastical support, also came about as a result of his own humanistic desire to visit these seats of learning and to expand his network of scholars committed to the promotion of the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance. Upon Melville’s return to London, members of the Scottish community presented a motion to the Council of England to permit the establishment of a Scottish Church even as there were already in the city French, Dutch, and Italian congregations. Although this formal request was denied,134 by the autumn of 1584 Scottish ministers such as Walter Balcanquhal and John Davidson were preaching regularly in London.135 A number of English puritans had apparently opened their pulpits to their Scottish counterparts, and not until Davidson “so rayled against the King of Scots in the pulpit, at the parish Church of the old Iury in London ” did the bishop of London order the Scottish ministers in the city to desist from preaching.136 In the face of such opposition, the Scottish Presbyterians found an advocate in the lieutenant of the Tower, who knew several of the Scottish ministers and desired them to come preach in his church. In addition to the Scottish ministers preaching in the Tower church, the lieutenant permitted them to form a Scottish congregation within his own church. Since the Tower church was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, he possessed the authority to permit the formation of a Scottish congregation. In this connection Melville delivered a number of Latin lectures on the Old Testament, beginning with the book of Genesis. His lectures were

133 ╇ Snow, The Times, Life, and Thought of Patrick Forbes Bishop of Aberdeen 1618–1635, 29. 134 ╇Hume, History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus II, 361. 135 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 72–75. Donaldson suggests that some of the Scots may have resided in Honey Lane, Cheapside with a certain Anthony Martin. If Melville and his associates had met Thomas Wilcox on their visit to Oxford, the latter may have provided them with contacts at the church of Allhallows in Honey Lane where he had previously served as a lecturer. 136 ╇ Bancroft, Dangerous Positions and Proceedings, 26.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

219

well attended and warmly received by the well-educated Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, who has been described as a particularly “diligent Auditor and a painful Repeater” of Melville’s lectures “for his own Use and Contentment.”137 Melville also served, along with his nephew James, as a chaplain to the Scottish nobles there in London.138 When on 2 November 1585 the exiled Scottish nobles returned to Scotland and effectively overthrew Arran’s regime at Stirling, it was safe for the Scottish exiles to return.139 Melville, along with Galloway and Balcanquhal, had accompanied the earls of Angus and Mar and the master of Glamis north to the Scottish border.140 By 6 November Melville and his ministerial associates wrote to the Scottish exiles, informing them of the change in political circumstances and requesting their return.141 Despite an act of Parliament restoring those professors who had been ejected from their positions, St Mary’s during Melville’s absence had been decimated by the plague, driving students away and leaving the College in a state of disorder. In early 1586 while James Melville was busy attempting to restore the College to its former state, Melville resided at Glasgow with his friend and rector of the University Patrick Sharp in an effort to assist him in the reorganization of the University. After a brief stay in Glasgow, by March 1586 Melville returned to his post at St€Mary’s and resumed his lecturing after a two year absence.142 Although shortly after his return Melville would once again be removed from€St€Andrews, being warded north of the Tay for a number of months, he would soon be allowed to return and resume his duties as principal of St€Mary’s.143

╇Hume, History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus II, 288, 361–362; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 236; Melville, JMAD, 185. James Melville wrote of the earl of Angus: “This noble man was fellon weill myndit, godlie, devot, wyse, and grave; and by and desyde thir comoun exerceises, was giffen to reiding, and privat prayer and meditation, and ordinarlie efter dinner and super, haid an houres, and sum tyme mair nor twa houres, conference with me about all maters; namlie, concerning our Kirk and Comoun-weill, what war the abbusses thairof, and whow they might be amendit.” Archibald Douglas had studied at St Mary’s under John Douglas until his fifteenth year. He was tutored by John Provain who taught him Latin, logic, and rhetoric, and, despite the custom of the nobility to pursue a limited course of formal education, the earl exhibited an unusual intellectual interest in Melville’s academic lectures. 138 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 221–222. 139 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 76–77. 140 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 222–223. 141 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 77. 142 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 266–267. 143 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 249, 251; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 280. 137

220

chapter six The Visit of Du Bartas

When Melville returned from England, he enjoyed a period of relative peace at the University, cultivating his poetic skills and expanding his network of scholars devoted to the New Learning. In June 1587 the celebrated French poet Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas visited Scotland as part of an unofficial envoy on behalf of Henri of Navarre to explore the possibility of a marriage between James and Henri’s sister Catherine.144 Although James ultimately decided against the union and in favor of Anne of Denmark, he continued to esteem highly the French poet and to translate his work.145 James had translated Du Bartas’ Uranie in his own 1584 Essayes of a Prentise, in the Divine Art of Poesie146 and referred to him as “O divin du Bartas, disciple d’Uranie / L’honneur de nostre temps, poëte du grand Dieu.”147 In his 1591 His Maiesties Poeticall Exercises at Vacant Houres James translated a portion of Du Bartas’ Seconde Septmaine, and in his 1599 Basilikon Doron he both quoted from the Huguenot poet and urged Prince Henry “to be well versed” in his works.148 In an age which viewed Du Bartas as a model of the “divine poet,” a “Christian Homer,” and, as the learned humanist Gabriel Harvey once put it, “the Treasurer of Humanity and the Jeweller of Divinity,” James was intent upon impressing the French Huguenot with his own country’s intellectual and cultural refinement by taking him to hear two of Scotland’s leading intellectuals, Latin poets, and advocates of the New 144 ╇ Caroline Bingham, James VI of Scotland (London, 1979), 105; Melville, JMAD, 255; Lily B. Campbell, Divine Poetry and Drama in Sixteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1959), 81–82. 145 ╇ Gordon Donaldson (ed.), The Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill (London, 1969), 144; Campbell, Divine Poetry and Drama in Sixteenth-Century England, 82. James is reported to have retired with portraits of each princess for fifteen days to seek divine guidance in his choice. He emerged after much prayer convinced he should “marry in Denmark.” 146 ╇ James VI, King of Scotland, The Essayes of a Prentise, in the Divine Art of Poesie (Edinburgh, 1584); Roderick J. Lyall, “James VI and the Sixteenth-Century Cultural Crisis” in Julian Goodare and Michael Lynch (eds.), The Reign of James VI (East Linton, 2000), 64; James Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England (Cambridge, 2000), 18. 147 ╇ Anne Lake Prescott, “The Reception of Du Bartas in England,” Studies in the Renaissance, 15 (1968), 149. 148 ╇ Lyall, “James VI and the Sixteenth-Century Cultural Crisis,” 64–65; Prescott, “The Reception of Du Bartas in England,” 168; Campbell, Divine Poetry and Drama in Sixteenth-Century England, 82. Cf. James VI of Scotland, His Maiesties Poeticall Exercises at Vacant Houres (Edinburgh, 1591).



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

221

Learning. With the exception of Erasmus and the principal leaders of the Reformation, “Du Bartas was probably the most admired of contemporary European writers” and James wanted to make a good first impression by showcasing two of his own learned humanists at their posts at St Andrews.149 Following the death of Buchanan in 1582, Melville had emerged in Scotland as “a kind of unofficial Latin laureate to James VI” and had built a considerable European reputation as a humanist and scholar, both during his time on the continent and afterwards in Scotland at Glasgow and St Andrews.150 Likewise, archbishop Patrick Adamson had also distinguished himself as a humanist and Latin poet, who had spent time in France composing his Latin paraphrase of the book of Job and cultivating a relationship with George Buchanan.151 Thus James’ decision to bring Du Bartas to St Andrews to hear both men lecture revealed the King’s own estimate of Melville as an eminent scholar, poet, and theologian of Scotland. As a distinguished young scholar and poet with strong ties to the Reformed church in both France and Switzerland, Melville was an obvious choice if the King wished to impress the Huguenot bard.

149 ╇ Prescott, “The Reception of Du Bartas in England,” 144, 162; Alfred Hioratio Upham, The French Influence in English Literature: From the Accession of Elizabeth to the Restoration (New York, 1908), 171; Melville, JMAD, 255. Harvey wrote of Du Bartas: “[F]or the highnesse of his subject and the majesty of his verse, nothing inferiour unto Dante (whome some Italians preferre before Virgil, or Homer), a right inspired and enravished Poet, full of chosen, grave, profound, venerable, and stately matter, even in the next Degree to the sacred, and reverend stile of heavenly Divinity it selfe; in a manner the onely Poet, whome Urany hath voutsafed to Laureate with her owne heavenly hand: and worthy to bee alleadged of Divines, and Counsellours, as Homer is quoted of Philosophers, and Oratours. Many of his solemne verses, are oracles: and one Bartas, that is, one French Salomon, more weighty in stern and mighty counsell then the Seaven Sages of Greece.” Cf. I. D. McFarlane, A Literary History of France: Renaissance France 1470–1589 (London, 1974), 387–388. Contemporary assessments of Du Bartas’ poetry has not been as favorable as those judges of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Writing of the Premiere Sepmaine, McFarlane remarks, “[S]ometimes the poem gives the impression of a vast Parnassian and humanist junk-shop, and the clumsiness that betrays itself in language and in presentation has put off readers of later generations.” 150 ╇ James W. L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry a Critical Survey (London, 1955), 82; James Macqueen, “Scottish Latin Poetry” in R.D.S. Jack (ed.), The History of Scottish Literature Vol. I (Aberdeen, 1987–1988), 219. On the poets at the court of James VI see Helena Mennie Shire, Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland under King James VI (Cambridge, 1969), 79–116. Macqueen notes that Melville’s contemporaries reserved the title of poet laureate for Alexander Montgomerie. 151 ╇I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 240.

222

chapter six

Du Bartas, as a French humanist with a keen interest in divine poetry, may have been familiar with Melville’s own 1574 Carmen Mosis and Adamson’s paraphrase of the book of Job. Although writing in the vernacular, he looked to ancient Greek and Roman authors, endeavoring in his divine epic La Judit “to imitate Homer in his Illiades, and Virgill in his Æneidos.”152 In 1574 Du Bartas published a collection of religious poetry under the title La Muse Chrestiene, which included the divine epic “La Judit,”153 the allegory “Le Triomfe de la Foi,”154 and the exhortation to avoid secular poetry’s frivolity and to cultivate the art of divine poetry in “L’Uranie.”155 In 1578 the French poet published an account of creation, entitled La Creation du Monde ou Premiere Sepmaine, and in 1584 he published a sequel, entitled Seconde Sepmaine, which endeavored to continue his historical account until the day of judgment. Although he only completed eight sections of this proposed work due to his premature death in 1590, by the time he visited Scotland in 1587 Du Bartas was viewed as a leading “divine poet” and continued to be thus regarded in Europe until the 1660s.156 The 1587 visitation of St Andrews by the King and Du Bartas was unannounced and “without anie warning,” and their arrival occurred after Melville had delivered his daily lecture. When the King insisted that Melville deliver a lecture in his presence and for the benefit of their distinguished visitor, “the haill Universitie convenit” and Melville, to the great displeasure of James, “ex tempore intreated maist cleirlie and mightelie of the right government of Chryst, and in effect refuted the haill Actes of Parliament maid against the discipline thairof.” The following morning archbishop Adamson delivered “a prepared lessone” to which Melville responded later that day. After hearing Melville lecture, ╇ Campbell, Divine Poetry and Drama in Sixteenth-Century England, 76. ╇In 1584 Thomas Hudson provided an English translation of Du Bartas. Cf. Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, The Historie of Iudith in Forme of a Poem. Penned in French, by the Noble Poet, G. Salust. Lord of Bartas. Englished by Tho. Hudson. (Edinburgh, 1584). 154 ╇In 1592 Joshua Silvester translated this work into English. Cf. Guillaume de Salluste€Du Bartas, The Triumph of Faith. The Sacrifice of Isaac. The Ship-wracke of Ionas. With a Song of the Victorie Obtained by the French King, at Yvry. Written in French, by W. Salustius lord of Bartas, and translated by Iosuah Siluester, merchant Aduenturer (1592). 155 ╇ McFarlane, A Literary History of France: Renaissance France 1470–1589, 387;€CampÂ� bell, Divine Poetry and Drama in Sixteenth-Century England, 75–76. Guillaume€de€Salluste Du Bartas, L’Uranie ou Muse Celeste de G. de Saluste Seigneur du Bartas. Urania sive Musa Cœlestis Roberti Ashelei de Gallica G. Salustij Bartasij Delibata (London, 1589). 156 ╇ Prescott, “The Reception of Du Bartas in England,” 144–145. 152 153



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

223

James Melville writes, “Monsieur du Bartas tarried behind and conferrit with my uncle and me a wholl houre.” Later in the evening the King enquired what he thought of the two lectures. Du Bartas characterized Adamson’s lecture as “cunned, and prepared maters” while Melville’s exhibited “a grait reddie store of all kind of lerning” and displayed much more courage than his humanist counterpart. The King was forced to agree.157 The 1587 visitation reveals both James VI’s high estimation of Melville as a scholar and academic as well as insight into Melville’s ever expanding circle of humanist associates and advocates of the New Learning. Melville’s Literary Circle During Melville’s service as principal of St Mary’s he enjoyed the friendship of a number of humanists and poets some of whom resided in St Andrews while others were situated in nearby Edinburgh. In Edinburgh in the late sixteenth century there existed an important nucleus of scholars devoted to the New Learning among whom were Adam King, Sir Thomas Craig, and Robert Rollock.158 Among these proponents of the studia humanitatis Melville became acquainted with Hercules Rollock. Rollock had matriculated at St Mary’s in 1564 and received his MA in 1568.159 Following his graduation, he became a regent at King’s College, Old Aberdeen in 1569 when Alexander Arbuthnot and James Lawson became principal and subprincipal respectively.160 After a brief period of service in Aberdeen, Rollock traveled to the continent where he may have studied and/or taught at the University of Poitiers. Like Melville before and William Hegate after him, he spent some time in Poitiers prosecuting his studies as a number of his poems indicate. Indeed, his 1576 poem entitled Panegyris de pace in Gallia was actually published in Poitiers. He met Melville some time after his return to Scotland in 1580.161 As graduates of St Mary’s and fellow students at Poitiers who ╇ Melville, JMAD, 255–256. ╇ Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940), 127, 153; Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 81, 85. Adams has maintained that Melville was “connected” with Adam King and Sir Thomas Craig. 159 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 162, 271. 160 ╇ Peter John Anderson (ed.), Officers and Graduates of University and King’s College Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1893), 52. 161 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 125. 157 158

224

chapter six

cultivated the art of Latin poetry, Melville and Rollock shared a number of common experiences, literary interests, and humanistic values. In 1584 Rollock was appointed master of the grammar school in Edinburgh and served in this capacity until he lost his post in 1595 due to the violent behavior of his pupils.162 Although Rollock’s poetry has been criticized for its lack of inspiration and has been dismissed by some as possessing little literary value, Melville’s poem written to him indicates that he was highly regarded by the litterati of Edinburgh in the late sixteenth century.163 Despite Rollock’s own feelings of inferiority, which in part prevented him from forming a deep friendship with Buchanan, the elder humanist regarded him highly enough to recommend him to James VI.164 As early as 1584 Rollock had offered liminary verses in honor of the King’s The Essayes of a Prentise, in the Divine Art of Poesie,165 and in 1589 he published a long Epithalamium in honor of the James VI’s marriage to Anne of Denmark.166 Rollock wrote seven Sylvae in hexameters as well as elegiac couplets, epigrams, and miscellaneous poems.167 His occasional poems, which addressed subjects, such as the 1585 Edinburgh plague and the negative influence of Catholicism in Scotland, have been praised for their vivacity of description and their “vigorous movement.”168 While Rollock was not Melville’s closest colleague and was even thought to have lampooned some of his ministerial associates, he was, nevertheless, a classical scholar and Latin poet with whom Melville was associated for a number of years during his service as master of the Edinburgh grammar school.169 162 ╇ Lynch, “The Origins of Edinburgh’s ‘Toun College’,” 10; Thomas Dempster, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum: sive, De Scriptoribus Scotis Tom. II (Edinburgh, 1829), 565; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 410–411. Dempster refers to Rollock’s profession of Catholicism as the grounds for his dismissal, but the lack of corroborating evidence makes this claim questionable. McCrie notes that Rollock maintained that he was dismissed on account of the citizen’s ignorance. Cf. also Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum. 163 ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 85; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 126. 164 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 471. 165 ╇Hercules Rollock De huius libri auctore, Herculis Rolloci coniectura in James VI, Essayes of a Prentise. 166 ╇ Macqueen, “Scottish Latin Poetry,” 220. Cf. Hercules Rollock, De Augustissimo Iacobi 6. Scotorum Regis, & Annæ Frederici 2, Danorum Regia filiae Conjugio: 1, Calend. Septemb. 1589 in Dania Celebrato (Edinburgh, 1589). 167 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 126. 168 ╇ Macqueen, “Scottish Latin Poetry,” 220. 169 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 410–411. Melville is reported to have responded with “several stinging epigrams,” referring to Rollock as “a mercenary poet, and a starved schoolmaster turned lawyer.” Rollock replied, offering a vindication of himself.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

225

Another humanist with whom Melville became acquainted and maintained a correspondence during these years was the eminent classical scholar Isaac Casaubon.170 A native of Geneva, Casaubon’s early selfeducation has been described as simply “awesome.”171 Like Budé and Scaliger before him, he claimed to have been “a self-taught man €οψιμαθὴς and αυτοδίδακτος.”172 Although his name is not to be found in the Livre du recteur, he commenced his studies at the Genevan Academy in 1578 and remained connected with it for eighteen years, first as a student and subsequently as a professor.173 While at the Academy, he so impressed his professor of Greek, François Portus, that the latter recommended him as his replacement before he died.174 At the young age of 23 on 5 June 1582, Casaubon was appointed professor of Greek at the Genevan Academy and served in this capacity until 1596 when he departed for Montpellier. Indeed, from 1587 until 1596 Casaubon “was the Genevan schola publica’s leading figure.” As an internationally renowned humanist and Greek scholar, he frequently received tempting offers from other European universities in an effort to retain his services.175 He possessed “an unrivalled knowledge of unpublished Greek texts,”176 and Joseph Scaliger once remarked that he knew more Greek than he himself did. As a Greek scholar whose real intellectual passion was said to have been “Christian Greek,” he so immersed Â�himself in Greek idioms that they repeatedly surfaced in his own Latin compositions.177 170 ╇ Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni Epistolæ, 129, 253–254. Although Melville’s correspondence has apparently not survived, Casaubon in a letter he wrote in 1605 expressed his own joy in receiving it. He wrote: “Cum percupide tuas expectassem satis diu, doctissime Melvine, incredibili tandem affectus gaudio sum, quando illam Epistolam tuam accepi, quam adolescenti cuidam tuo populari tradideras.” On Casaubon see Hélène Parenty, Isaac Casaubon helléniste: des studia humanitatis à la philologie (Geneva, 2009). 171 ╇ Anthony Grafton, “Protestant Versus Prophet: Isaac Casaubon on Hermes Trismegistus,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 46 (1983), 78. 172 ╇ Mark Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614 (Oxford, 1892), 6. 173 ╇ Karin Maag, Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 (Aldershot, 1995), 42; Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614, 6. 174 ╇ Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614, 8–9. 175 ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 42, 71–72; Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614, 20. 176 ╇ Grafton, “Protestant Versus Prophet: Isaac Casaubon on Hermes Trismegistus,” 78. 177 ╇ Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614, 441, 455. Scaliger wrote of Casaubon: “C’est le plus grande homme que nous avons en grec; je lui céde.” He also wrote: “Et memoria avorum et nostri sæculi græce doctissimum.” Pattison observed of Casaubon:“What stirs his soul is Christian Greek, e.g. S. Chrysostom, whose ‘Epistola ad Stagirium’ excites him to rapture.”

226

chapter six

Although he served as a professor of Greek at the Genevan Academy, in 1595 he was reported to have delivered lectures on the Hebrew language from the Rabbinical writings.178 Very much like Melville’s own Hebrew Bible, which he kept attached to his belt, Casaubon’s “constant companion” was his copy of the Hebrew Psalter. Like Melville on his journey from Poitiers to Geneva, when Casaubon traveled to England, the only book he brought with him was his copy of the Hebrew Psalter.179 In addition to his Latin poetry, his reputation as a classical scholar, and his service as a professor of divinity, Casaubon must have appreciated Melville’s devotion to the study and promotion of Hebrew and its ancient near-eastern cognates. His lively exchanges with Portus and his study under Bertram must have been known to Casaubon as the latter learned of Melville from his Genevan colleagues. In September 1601 Casaubon wrote to Melville from Paris with the hopes of establishing a friendship with his fellow humanist and entreating him to publish the fruits of his literary labors.180 He Addressed him as “doctissime Melvine” and remarked that his piety and erudition were widely recognized by those who cherish bonae litterae. Casaubon remarked that he first learned of Melville through the conversations he had with Beza, Henri Estienne, and Jacques Lect.181 Casaubon viewed himself as linked with Melville by “a sacred friendship” united in their mutual humanistic values and religious commitments. He expressed his own admiration and affection for Melville in an effort to induce him to publish “a number of writings, especially on subjects connected with sacred literature.”182 Quite possibly Casaubon had in view the religious poetry Melville had composed early in his career, such as his 1574 Carmen Mosis, which established him in the eyes of the literati of Europe ╇ Maag, Seminary or University? 69. ╇ Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614, 441. 180 ╇ Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni Epistolæ, 129. On Casaubon’s love of Hebrew see Anthony Grafton and Joanna Weinberg, “I have Always Loved the Holy Tongue”: Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship (Cambridge, MA, 2011). He wrote: “Simul accipe & meam, & omnium φιλομαθῶν, quibus de singulari tua eruditione compertum est, æquissimam querelam. Non enim dubitamus, multa in Sacris præsertim Literis tibi elaborate esse, quæ magno Ecclesiæ Dei bono in studiosorum minibus versarentur. Quid igitur est, cur illa tu premas, & vigiliarum tuarum fructus nobis invideas? At sunt nimis multi, inquies hodie manus prurient. Sic est profecto, Vir eruditissime; qui scriptis suis innotescant, habemus hodie multos; at Melvinum tamen habemus, opinor, nullum; aut certe oppido paucos. Tu prodi, sodes:& quam personam Deus tibi imposuit, eam sic gere, ut ad nos quoque tuorum studiorum fructus perveniat.” 181 ╇Ibid. 182 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 99–100. 178 179



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

227

as a young humanist and Latin poet of great promise. Equally likely, he had occasion to peruse Melville’s 1590 Στεφανισκιον and 1594 Natalia, which significantly enhanced his European reputation and standing as a Latin poet. Although Casaubon himself has been characterized as “destitute of imagination” and completely bereft of “the inventive imagination of the poet,” very likely he was familiar with Melville’s poetry and admired his literary dexterity and eloquence, as well as his genuine devotion to the values of the Renaissance.183 While Melville’s brief correspondence with Casaubon hardly constitutes a formative relationship or one that dramatically contributed to his literary development during these years, it does signify the beginning of their association and the foundation of their subsequent private conversations. When Melville was later imprisoned in the Tower of London, Casaubon frequently visited him and enjoyed critical discussions on both the sacred and profane authors of antiquity. Just as he had freely engaged Buchanan and Scaliger, offering his own criticisms and suggestions, so Melville proposed to Casaubon in one of their conversations a critical emendation to the text of I Timothy 3.16.184 Given their mutual devotion to the study of ancient Greek, Casaubon must have found his critical discussions with Melville intellectually invigorating and a welcomed change to the tedium he experienced in his daily service to the King.185 Although Casaubon’s attachment to Reformed Protestantism later changed in favor of a growing sympathy for Catholicism, Melville’s willingness to cultivate a relationship with him suggests that it was based upon a shared intellectual culture and set of values which enabled them to transcend their religious differences. Melville’s correspondence with Casaubon during his residence at St Andrews and his subsequent personal acquaintance while in the Tower underscores his continued desire to cultivate an ever-expanding circle of literary scholars devoted to the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance. In addition to Rollock and Casaubon, Melville formed a close relationship with the distinguished historian, poet, political theorist, and religious controversialist David Hume of Godscroft.186 Educated at the

╇ Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614, 443. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 120; Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983), 126–127; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 258–260. 185 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 259. 186 ╇ Arthur H. Williamson, “David Hume of Godscroft’s the History of the House of Angus (review),” Scottish Historical Review, 86.1 (2007), 143–145. 183 184

228

chapter six

Dunbar grammar school, he first attracted attention by his skillful Â�composition of Latin verse.187 He matriculated at St Mary’s in 1569, receiving his BA in 1571 and MA in 1572, and in 1578 he proceeded first to France and then to Geneva where he continued his university studies.188 As a “protégé of Buchanan in his youth,”189 Godscroft, also known as “Theagrius,” came to be viewed in Scotland “as Buchanan’s intellectual heir,” and his poetry even received the praise of Buchanan himself. Promoting the civic values of the classical citizen, he followed Buchanan in his Latinity as well as in his political theory.190 Patterned on the poetry of Ovid, he wrote epigrams, allegorical eclogues, and love elegies, as well as a thanksgiving for the discovery of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and a religious poem entitled Aselcanus written in hexameters.191 Melville was so pleased with Godscroft’s poetry and held it in such high esteem that a number of letters he wrote in honor of it were prefaced to his book of poetry entitled Lusus poetici, in tres partes distincti first published in 1605 and later reprinted in the Poemata omnia of 1639.192 In addition to his Latin poetry, Godscroft shared with Melville a vigorous commitment to the Reformed faith broadly conceived. Described as an “uncompromising” Calvinist and regarded by some as€the presbyterian party’s “most formidable intellect,” Godscroft Â�perceived the threat to presbyterian polity as a threat to Scotland itself.193 Although Melville himself was not directly involved in the 1582 Ruthven Raid, Godscroft had been a participant in that coup d’état which ousted the government of Esmé Stewart and the Catholic lords who had been advising the young James VI. Ten months later when the Ruthven leadership was itself displaced from its position of political influence in 1583 with the escape of 187 ╇ Paul J. McGinnis and Arthur H. Williamson, “Introduction” in Paul J. McGinnis and Arthur H. Williamson (eds. and trans.), The British Union A Critical Edition and Translation of David Hume of Godscroft’s De Unione Insulae Britannicae (Ashgate, 2002), 20. 188 ╇ Anderson, Early Records of the University of St Andrews, 166, 169, 277; McGinnis and Williamson, “Introduction” in The British Union, 20. 189 ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 87. 190 ╇ Paul J. McGinnis and Arthur H. Williamson, “Introduction” in Paul J. McGinnis and Arthur H. Williamson (eds.), George Buchanan: The Political Poetry (Edinburgh, 1995), 36. 191 ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 87. 192 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, “Introduction” in George Buchanan: The Political Poetry, 37; David Hume of Godscroft, Lusus poetici, in tres partes distincti (London, 1605). 193 ╇ Arthur H. Williamson, Scottish National Consciousness in the Age of James VI: The Apocalypse, the Union and the Shaping of Scotland’s Public Culture (Edinburgh, 1979), 89–90.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

229

the King, Godscroft was forced to flee with his Â�comrades to England where Melville later joined his fellow Presbyterian exiles.194 Several years later Godscroft further endeared himself to Melville by composing a cogent defense of Presbyterianism in letters he had written to bishops Law and Cowper. Melville wrote of him, “I love the sincere zeal and undaunted spirit of that excellent man and most upright friend. Would to God that the equestrian, not to say the ecclesiastical, order€could boast of many Godscrofts.”195 His defense of Presbyterianism was timely, offered when Melville was no longer resident at St Andrews€where he might offer his own defense. In Melville’s absence and with great erudition and eloquence, he offered such a compelling case that James Melville remarked: “I wish they [referring to his letters] were printed … one would scarcely desire to see any thing better on the subject.”196 Influenced by Buchanan, Godscroft looked to the authors of classical antiquity to find his models for poetry and history. In Buchanan both Melville and Godscroft found a contemporary model of Latinity, as well as many of the political sentiments that would inform their own respective theories. Their intellectual kinship, as seen in their cultivation of the art of Latin poetry, was significantly augmented by the religious kinship which they shared in their struggle against episcopacy in both Scotland and England. Shaped by many of the same intellectual environments at St Andrews, Geneva, and France and united by their similar Reformed heritage, Melville and Godscroft shared many of the same cultural values, humanistic sentiments, and religious principles. While we may reasonably assume that Godscroft was as familiar with Melville’s poetry as his fellow humanist was with his own, it is unclear how frequently and to what extent they interacted. Melville’s correspondence with Godscroft suggests that they were on intimate terms during their period of exile in England during the mid-1580s. We know from Melville’s letter to Godscroft dated 23 April 1604 that he strongly commended his The Bonds of the British Union (an alternate title to De unione insulae Britannicae) and praised its author, stating that he had surpassed the high hopes he had for him as a young man when the two had temporarily resided together in England.197 United in their political

╇ McGinnis and Williamson, “Introduction” in The British Union, 21–22. ╇ Andrew Melville, Melvini Epistolae, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh, 325. McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 297. 196 ╇ James Melville, Melvini Epistolae, 194; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 297. 197 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, The British Union, 136–137. 194 195

230

chapter six

and religious views as well as in their commitment to the cultural values of the Renaissance, Melville found in Godscroft an elegant Latinist, incisive political theorist, persuasive advocate of Presbyterianism, and fellow promoter of the New Learning. A much closer humanist associate of Melville’s than either Rollock, Casaubon, or even Godscroft was the Latin poet and professor of theology at St Andrews John Johnston. Johnston had been educated first at the Aberdeen grammar school and subsequently at King’s College where€ he was probably graduated in 1584. After studying at Rostock, Helmstedt, and Heidelberg, Johnston returned to Scotland in 1592 after several years living abroad and was shortly thereafter appointed professor of theology at St Mary’s in 1593.198 His appointment was due largely to the strong impression he made upon Melville when the two met and conversed at length.199 Deeply impressed by Johnston’s scholarly reputation, intellectual abilities, and academic training, Melville was relentless in his efforts to secure his services for St Mary’s.200 In addition to serving as Melville’s colleague at the College, Johnston labored closely with him for several years as a representative of the University in the courts of the Kirk. Indeed, his presence along with Melville’s as ‘Doctors’ in the Kirk was viewed by James VI to be so threatening that measures were taken at the 1597 General Assembly to prevent them from interfering with the King’s ecclesiastical intentions.201 For thirteen years Johnston and Melville labored together at St Mary’s sharing many views and values and undoubtedly influencing one another.202 In addition to being vigorous advocates of presbyterian Â�polity, 198 ╇ James Kerr Cameron (ed.), Letters of John Johnston and Robert Howie (Edinburgh and London, 1963), xvi–xxiii, xxvii–xxxviii, xl–xliii, xlix. 199 ╇ John Johnston, Richardo, Thomae, et Andreæ Melvinis FFF. (Fratribus) in William Keith Leask (ed.), Musa Latina Aberdonensis Vol. III Poetae Minores (Aberdeen, 1910), 124. 200 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 331; Cameron, Letters of John Johnston and Robert Howie, 235–237. 201 ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by the Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV … for Visiting the Universities of Scotland. Volume€III. University of St. Andrews (London, 1837), 197; Cameron, Letters of John Johnston and Robert Howie, li–lii. The following was decreed: “For the bettir ordour to be observit in tyme cuming, in the haill Collegis; That all Doctouris and Regentis, not being pastouris in the Kirk, professing ather Theologie or Philosophie, and astricted to daylie teiching and examinatioun of youth, sal be in all tyme cuming exemit fra all imployment upoun Sessionis, Presbetereis, Generall or Synodall Assemblies, and fra teiching in kirkis or congregationis, exept in exercises, and censuring of doctrine in exercises.” 202 ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 87. In addition to influencing one another, Adams, following Bradner, suggests that together Melville and Johnston may



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

231

both Melville and Johnston were even agreed in their views regarding Piscator’s controversial doctrine of justification as their joint letter to€ Philippe du Plessis-Mornay dated 14 October 1604 indicates.203 As€humanists trained on the continent, they held in common many of the values cherished by the advocates of the New Learning, particularly the art of Latin poetry. Indeed, the two men were such good friends and colleagues that Melville’s epic on the founding of the Scottish people, entitled Gathelus, may have been inspired by Johnston, who himself had published his own historical epigrams in 1602, entitled Inscriptiones historicae regum Scotorum.204 Johnston’s Inscriptiones was a series of epigrams on all of the Kings of Scotland from the time of Fergus in 330 BC to the days of James VI and was published along with Melville’s uncompleted Gathelus and Historiæ vera laus. Their mutual interests and influence, as well as their shared humanistic values, may be seen in the fact that, in addition to publishing their separate works together, two of the epigrams on Mary Queen of Scots in Johnston’s Inscriptiones were composed by Melville himself.205 The 1602 Inscriptiones along with his 1603 Heroes ex omni historia Scotia lectissimi 206 were poetic collections written in the tradition of the fourthcentury poet Ausonius who had composed a number of epigrams on famous heroes and another on the twelve Caesars. These epigrams had been imitated by the distinguished Renaissance scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger and had become a model for subsequent Renaissance poets eager to emulate the great Latin muse. In 1611 and 1612 Johnston shifted from Scottish history to sacred history by publishing his Sidera veteris aevi, sive heroes fide et factis illustres in veteri testamento and Icones regum Iudae et Israelis respectively. Although the subject matter had shifted dramatically, the literary approach embodied in these poetical treatments of history continued to follow the model of Ausonius. Similarly, have been responsible for David Hume of Godscroft abandoning his earlier Ovidian style of verse for a more overtly religious form of poetry. As a “protégé of Buchanan,” Hume of Godscroft modeled his early poetry after the pattern of Ovid and composed “epigrams, love elegies, allegorical eclogues, a thanksgiving for the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, and a long religious poem in hexameters, Aselcanus.” 203 ╇ Cameron, Letters of John Johnston and Robert Howie, 195–197. 204 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 153; John Johnston, Inscriptiones historicae regum Scotorum, continuata annorum serie a Fergusio primo regni conditore ad nostra tempora (Edinburgh, 1602). 205 ╇ Johnston, Inscriptiones, 58–59; Cameron, Letters of John Johnston and Robert Howie, lxi. 206 ╇ John Johnston, Heroes ex omni historia Scotia lectissimi (Edinburgh, 1603).

232

chapter six

Johnston’s Encomia urbium, which praised the cities and towns of€ScotÂ� land, may have been inspired by Julius Caesar Scaliger’s own Urbes.207 Due to Johnston’s own choice of subject matter, namely Scottish and Hebrew Kings, his poetry has been criticized for its lack of imagination and inspiration and his literary style has been tagged “pedestrian.”208 Despite his best efforts to develop “a new classicism of language,” his “patriotic Scots versification” seen in his tributes to Scotland’s heroes and cities tended to stifle the expression of his own native originality.209 Yet in spite of his “moderate” poetical talents, his connections with a number of other Latin poets and literati in Scotland underscore his literary significance. In addition to being a close friend and colleague of Melville’s, Johnston enjoyed the continued friendship of his three fellow Aberdonians, Robert Howie, David Wedderburn, and Andrew Aidie.210 While there can be no question that Johnston and Melville admired one another’s poetic productions and even collaborated in publishing Johnston’s Inscriptiones, their humanist bond was augmented by their common religious orientation. Despite Melville’s imprisonment and subsequent banishment, their friendship remained strong and was only ended with the death of Johnston in 1611. As a token of their friendship, when Johnston died he left Melville a gilt black velvet cap, a gold coin, and one of his most prized books from his personal library.211 Melville’s Poetry In addition to his literary associations, Melville’s development as a humanist during his time at St Andrews may be seen most vividly in his neo-Latin poetry. Deriving immense pleasure from its recreational and therapeutic functions, his most significant poems were composed during the years 1587 and 1607.212 Although he delighted himself in the ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 155. ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 86; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 155. 209 ╇ D. F. S. Thomson, “The Latin Epigram in Scotland: The Sixteenth Century,” Phoenix, 11 (Sum., 1957), 70; Macqueen, “Scottish Latin Poetry,” 220. 210 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 156; Anderson, Officers and Graduates, 46, 329; Thomson, “The Latin Epigram in Scotland: The Sixteenth Century,” 71. 211 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 284, 288. Melville, Melvini Epistolae, 196, 281, 293–294. Upon receiving the news of Johnston’s death from his nephew, Melville wrote on 28 May 1612: “Ob Jhonstoni nostri occasum tam illustrem in maerore gaudio. Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus, Diis geniti potuere . . . . Fuit . . . vere pius et purioris ut doctrinae sic disciplinae tenax nec inhumano animo. Academia praeceptorem, Ecclesia civem, nos amicum amisimus.” 212 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 152. 207 208



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

233

composition of Latin poetry throughout his life and even continued to compose it until his death in 1622 at the age of seventy-seven, his most productive years cover approximately the last decade of the sixteenth and the first decade of the seventeenth centuries. Writing on a wide Â�variety of subjects from the coronation of Queen Anne of Denmark in 1590, the birth of Prince Henry in 1594, and the accession to the English throne of James VI in 1603 to the Gunpowder plot in 1605, as well as numerous satirical poems and his own national Scottish epic, Melville’s reputation as a poet became widespread as his poetry received broad circulation throughout the cultured circles of Protestant Europe.213 In addition to his satirical epigrams on bishops and episcopacy, in which he delighted in lampooning his ecclesiastical adversaries, Melville wrote odes, elegies, occasional poems, and began his epic on the origins of the Scottish people.214 Along with its recreational and therapeutic uses, Melville’s epigrams have been categorized as belonging to that body of “humanist neo-Latin epigrams of the sixteenth century” which possessed a “serious admonitory” quality.215 Composing over 160 distinct pieces of Latin poetry, upon the death of Buchanan in 1582 he is said to have emerged as “a kind of unofficial Latin laureate to James VI.”216 Yet despite his prolific production, his poetry has yet to be comprehensively collected in a single volume and has been only selectively studied.217 213 ╇ James Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England (Cambridge, 2000), 57. 214 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 152. 215 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 58; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 87–89, 302. 216 ╇ Steven John Reid, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville: The Carmen Mosis (1574) and the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres,” Renaissance and Reformation, 30.4 (Fall 2006/2007), 63; Adams, “The Renaissance Poets: (2) Latin,” 82. 217 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 59; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 44, 51, 286, 315, 377, 462–465; Vol. II, 96–97, 122, 157, 172, 197, 203, 215, 217, 219, 222, 228, 232, 257, 262, 328–329. While Doelman is correct in observing that Melville’s poetic writings have been a neglected area of study, his assertion that McCrie’s relative neglect of his poetry in his Life indicates “disdain for Melville’s poetic activities” is unwarranted and untenable given a careful reading of McCrie’s text. Far from expressing disdain for Melville’s poetry, McCrie heaped lavish praise upon the Latin poet in his brief discussion of the Carmen Mosis and to a lesser extent in his treatment of the Στεφανισκιον. Indeed, his profound admiration of Melville’s poetic abilities may be observed in his frequent and liberal inclusion throughout his lengthy biography of epigrams and portions of his longer poems. He included such poems as Classicum, Tyrannis, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia as well as a number of untitled epigrams. Although his Life certainly could have included more discussion and analysis of Melville’s poetry, the limited examination that is included was probably determined more by publishing restraints than intellectual disdain for the art. Similarly, Reid’s unwarranted characterization of McCrie as a “dour minister” who may have regarded Melville’s poetry

234

chapter six

Like other sixteenth-century European humanists, Melville looked to the authors of Roman antiquity as a model for his own Latin composition. In contrast to Beza’s early poetry as embodied in the Iuvenilia, which drew upon a number of classical models ranging from Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid to Homer and Vergil, Melville’s poetry avoided Catullus altogether and drew upon such classical poets as Vergil and Horace. In his 1594 Principis Scoti-Britannorum natalia there is evidence of the distinct influence of Vergil in its tone and Horace in its literary structure.218 Traces of Cicero have been identified in his poem Historiæ vera laus while his Scottish national epic, entitled Gathelus (1602), which has been described as representing “the Scottish counterpart to the Aeneid,” also looked to the Roman poet Vergil for inspiration.219 While his good friend Hume of Godscroft had endeavored to imitate Ovid in his poetry and had been inspired by Livy in the composition of his own history, Melville quite naturally looked to that poet in whom he took the greatest delight and of whom James Melville observed was “his cheiff refreschment efter his grave studies,” Vergil.220 In May 1590 on the occasion of the coronation of Queen Anne of Denmark Melville was called upon to perform the service of a court poet to James VI. Both Hercules Rollock and Adrian Damman were among those who also celebrated the King’s marriage in 1589 and 1590 respectively, but it was Melville, with less than two days’ notice, who was called upon to deliver a poem in honor of the occasion.221 Despite the original plans, which called for bishops to perform the ceremony, an unexpected change was made, substituting the ministers Robert Bruce and Patrick Galloway for the bishops, as well as the Latin poet Melville. Notwithstanding his initial objection to the Ceremony of Unction, Melville yielded when as “too frivolous” does not account for the extent of his poetical analysis, publication limitations, and his explicit praise of his poetic abilities. Writing of Melville’s Latin poetry, McCrie praised “the vigour of his imagination and the elegance of his taste” and maintained that some of his poetic productions were comparable with the poetry of “the greatest masters of that species of writing.” 218 ╇ Anne Lake Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams: The Uses and Abuses of Poetry,” SR, 21 (1974), 84–85; Kirk Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical LiÂ�brary and Christian Humanism,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 82 (1991), 201– 202; McGinnis and Williamson, “Introduction,” 32, 276. Cf. Kirk M. Summers (ed. and trans.), A View from the Palatine: The Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze (Temple, AZ, 2001); Andrew Melville, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia (Edinburgh, 1594). 219 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, “Introduction,” 32–33. 220 ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets: (2) Latin,” 87; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan, 36; Melville, JMAD, 46. 221 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 279; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 302, 464–465. Melville composed encomiastic verses in honor of Adrian Damman’s Latin compositions. For a



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

235

the King insisted on having the ceremony with or without the service of the Presbyterian ministers.222 Whereas Galloway and Bruce had been given the assignments of delivering the sermon and offering the prayer respectively, Melville had been appointed to read a Latin poem he himself had composed suited specifically for this august occasion.223 Following the anointing of the queen by Robert Bruce and the subsequent crowning by Bruce, John Maitland of Thirlestane, and David Lindsay, Melville delivered what was later entitled Στεφανισκιον.224 His courtly service on this occasion was depicted by Adrian Damman in his 1590 Schediasmata as entertaining, yet instructive, while Justus Lipsius admired its author, declaring “revera Andreas, Melvinus est serio doctus” (“Andrew Melville is, in fact, deeply learned”). Similarly, Joseph Scaliger offered his own praise of the piece when he confessed: “nos talia non possumus” (“not even we are able to do such”). Given Scaliger’s intellectual reputation and his own reluctance to flatter, such remarks illustrate Melville’s growing European reputation as an erudite humanist and skilled poet of the sixteenth-century Renaissance.225 As the Στεφανισκιον was circulated throughout Europe, humanists such as Lipsius and Scaliger welcomed it as embodying not merely elegant Latin poetry but equally noble content on the proper and just government of a kingdom. While exploring the reasons why men covet the government of a kingdom, he enumerated both the morally dubious and the more honorable motivations.226 After praising the King for his bravery in traveling across the dangerous North Sea to retrieve his bride from Denmark, Melville eloquently expressed the union between the King valuable assessment of the coronation see Maureen M. Meikle, “Anna of Denmark’s Coronation and Entry into Edinburgh, 1590: Cultural, Religious and Diplomatic Perspectives” in Julian Goodare and Alasdair A. MacDonald (eds.) Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden and Boston, 2008). 222 ╇ John Spottiswoode, History of the Church Scotland Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1851), 407–408. 223 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 465. 224 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 60; Andrew Melville, Στεφανισκιον Ad Scotiae Regem, Habitum in Coronatione Reginae 17 Maij 1590 (EdinÂ� burgh, 1590). Στεφανισκιον may be rendered “Little Garland.” 225 ╇ Adrian Damman, Schediasmata Hadrianus Dammanis A Bisterveld Gandavensis (Edinburgh, 1590); Melville, JMAD, 279; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 302–303, 465; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 60. Damman wrote: “Meluinus, grandique ad Regem carmine fatur / Ausonio, monitisque docet prudentibus artem / Imperij.” 226 ╇ Melville, Στεφανισκιον, 4–5. “Vis arcane tamen naturæ, et conscia fati / … Leuat alta laborem / Gloria, celsi animi pennis sublimibus apta. / Quid stadium humani generis? quid viuida virtus / Ignauæ impatiens umbræ atque ignobilis oti? / Quid proaui? quid Sanguis? amor quid coniugis aureæ? / Et dulces nimium dilecta e coniuge nati: /

236

chapter six

and his subjects and the weighty responsibility the monarch possesses. He argued that the King, as a virtuous leader, is to lead the people in moral rectitude. If he leads well, the people will flourish under his reign, but if he leads poorly, the people will, in turn, suffer.227 By portraying James in the exalted and glorious language of “viva Dei viventis imago” (“the live image of the living God”), Melville expressed his own reverence for the monarchy and endeared himself to the King.228 Following the delivery of the Στεφανισκιον, the King asked Melville to submit it to the printer for publication and expressed his personal gratitude.229 In 1594 Melville composed his Principis Scoti-Britannorum natalia in honor of the birth of Prince Henry and published it at the press of Robert Waldegrave in Edinburgh.230 Although earlier in the year Melville had been suspected of involvement in the Earl of Bothwell’s schemes against the King, he was apparently able to demonstrate his innocence by the time of the Prince’s baptism on 30 August 1594. The publication of his poem, celebrating the Prince’s birth, again underscores his public role as a Latin poet of distinction and a prominent humanist in the service of the King. Anticipating that both James and Henry would one day reign over both England and Scotland, Melville’s Natalia and its subsequent publication at the King’s insistence offended Queen Elizabeth. Despite the political posturing which ensued with James feigning ignorance of what had been written, his avid interest in poetry and political theory as evidenced by his 1584 The Essayes of a Prentise, in the Divine Art of Poesie and his subsequent 1599 Basilikon Doron suggest that he understood precisely what Melville had written and approved of it.231

Et prædulce decus patriæ: populiq[ue] patrumq[ue] / Vel bello quærenda salus, per mille pericla, / Mille neces,& morte ipsa quod durius usquam est? / Quo patriæ non raptet amor cælestis & aulæ / Aetheriæ, æterna Regem quæ luce coronat?” 227 ╇Ibid., 5. Melville wrote: “o quam sumus una / Coniuncti qui regnamur cum Rege catena? / Virtutis secat ille viam dux praevius? ultro / Nos comites. Fertur preceps per devia? Iam nos / Præcipites. Vernat Zephyris felicibus?& nos / Floremus. Lapsum urget hyems? nos flore caduci / Defluimus, ruimusq[ue].” 228 ╇Ibid.; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 61. 229 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 279. 230 ╇ Andrew Melville, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia (Edinburgh, 1594). On Waldegrave see Katherine S. Van Eerde, “Robert Waldegrave: the Printer as Agent and Link between Sixteenth-Century England and Scotland,” Renaissance Quarterly, 34.1 (1981), 40–78. On Henry’s baptism see Rick Bowers, “James VI, Prince Henry, and A True Reportaire of Baptism at Stirling 1594,” Renaissance et Rèforme, 29.4 (2005), 3–22. 231 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 61. Cf. Daniel Fischlin and Mark Fortier (eds.), James I The True Law of Free Monarchies and Basilikon Doron (Toronto, 1996), 85–176; Jenny Wormald, “James VI and I, Basilikon Doron and The



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

237

Similar to Buchanan’s Genethliacon Jacobi sexti regis Scotorum written in honor of James’ birth, Melville’s Natalia exhibits its own Â�distinctiveness in its conception of the young Prince, the future Henry IX, as the one who would unify the English and Scottish thrones and lead them victoriously into battle, vanquishing the Catholic and Iberian forces.232 Composed in the Horatian lyrical pattern of the juxtaposition of opposites, the poem begins with the pastoral imagery of “the primrose blooms,” “the pale greenery,” “dewy buds,” and the “air and sun serene.”233 It then proceeds to the bellicose imagery of the subjugation of “Iberian pride” by the “Scoto-Britannic champions,” the defeat of Spain portrayed as the three headed monster of the underworld Geryon, and the picture of “the Roman Jupiter … Fostering wars with iron, bronze, lead, and gold.” 234 Melville integrated classical figures with the prophetic language of Scripture, portraying the Scoto-Britannic king as crushing the papacy’s triple crown “worn by the Roman Cerberus” and leading his people in a glorious victory as “the fierce Iberian” and “the smooth Italian” are “consumed by fire.” He contrasted the “thrice cursed Pope” with the “thrice blessed king” of the Scoto-Britannic commonwealth, who is “dear to heaven and dear to his fellow citizens, under God” and maintained that he will be Yahweh’s “right hand” armed by his “living power” and will bring victory to his people.235 Trew Law of Free Monarchies: The Scottish Context and the English Translation” in Linda Levy Peck (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (Cambridge, 1991), 36–54. 232 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 31–32, 154–155; Melville, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia, 2. Melville wrote: “Fas jungit et jus ScotoBritannicum: / Lex jungit et res Scoto-Britannica: / Scoto-Britanno Rege princeps / In populum vocat unus unum / Scoto-Britannum. Gloria nunc quibus, / Quantisque surget Scoto-Britannica / Rebus? Nec ævi terminanda / Limitibus, spatiisve cœli … fastu donec Iberico / Late subacto sub pedibus premas, / Clarus triumpho delibuti / Gerionis, triplicem tiaram, / Qua nunc revinctus tempora Cerberus / Romanus atra conduplicat face / De rupe Tarpeia fragores / Tartareos tonitru tremendo: / Quo terram inertem quo mare barbarum, / Orcumque, et oras territat igneas, / Septem potitus verna sceptris / Et solio gemini Draconis.” 233 ╇ Melville, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia, 1. Melville wrote: “Vernantis anni in limine primula / Veris tenelli cum rosa luteum / Pingit virorem, et rore florem / Cœligeno saturat comantem, / Florentis ævi in lumine primula / Pulcherrimarum nunc rosa virginum, / Flos virginum, flos fœminarum / Rore poli irriguus sereni, / Vernante Regis floriduli satu, / Florentis Annæ præviridi sinu, / Enixa florem in lucis auras / Purpureum roseo renidens / Regina Regi mista potentibus / Cœli faventis motibus. O diem /Lætum! O serenæ lucis auram! / O niveum, nitidumque solem! /Qui primus aura lampadis aureæ / Affulsit ori germinis aurei: / Quem primulum primo tenellis / Luminibus tener hausit infans. / Infans paterna debitus indole / Scepteris avitis: debitus inclytis / Ortu Britannis Rex supremo / Jure, Caedoniisque priscis.” 234 ╇Ibid; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 278–281. 235 ╇Ibid. Melville writes: “O superba / Hesperiæ geminæ corona! / Diu crevit arbos maxima quam brevis / Evertit hora. Carpit Aëneam / Aërugo lamnam. Fit minutis /

238

chapter six

Combining classical and scriptural references throughout the Natalia, Melville employed numerous figures and images from antiquity to advance his own vision of the inevitable future cosmic conflict between the Scoto-Britannic kingdom and the Catholic and Iberian powers.236 References from Geryon, Cerberus, and the Tarpeian rock to the sword of Aeneas, Jupiter, and Orcus are blended together and even connected with scriptural language, images, persons, and events. By referring to Spain as Geryon, the three-headed monster of the underworld, and the Pope as “the Roman Cerberus,” Melville openly identified these Catholic powers as the Gog and Magog of St John’s Apocalypse, “the twin born dragon.”237 References to the king of the Roman gods Jove and the god of the underworld Orcus are juxtaposed to the biblical deity Yahweh, as well as references to the fall of the angels from heaven, the flood during the days of Noah, and the drowning of King Pharaoh in the sea. Melville portrayed Prince Henry as a messianic figure who, as God’s right hand, will bury “the insolent spirit of empire in its tomb.”238 Continuing his preoccupation with history in general and Scottish history in particular, Melville composed his Historiæ vera laus sometime before 1602. Published as liminary verses to John Johnston’s Inscriptiones historicæ regum Scotorum, he extolled the merits and value of history and endeavored to establish its place in the arts as well as its position in the life of the body politic.239 As “the touchstone of every age,

Præda avibus leo fortis ingens. / Fastus triumphos jactet Ibericus, / Fraus vim venenis misceat Itala, / Et ferro, et ære, et plumbo, et auro /Bella fovens jaculetur omnem / Romanus orcum Juppiter: ocyus / Ferox Iberus, mollior Italus, / Grexque eviratus, Â�purpurato / Cum Iove torruerint caduci / Armante Jova numine vivido / Dextram Â�coruscam: et fulmine luridum / Trudente ad orcum ter sacratum / Pontificem, atque Italum, atque Iberum.” 236 ╇ On this eschatological vision see Arthur H. Williamson, “Scotland, Antichrist and the Invention of Great Britain” in John Dwyer, Roger A. Mason, and Alexander Murdoch (eds.), New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 1982), 34–58. 237 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 278, 329. 238 ╇ Melville, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia, 3; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 280–281. Melville wrote: “Sic fastuosos indigenas poli / Caliginosis compedibus dedit: / Sic conscelestum absorpsit orbem / Diluvie: Phariumque Regem / Mersit profundo: Scilicet impotens / Rivalis alti conditor ætheris:€/ Orbisque rector, fraudis atræ / Impatiens, tumidique fastus / Ultor. Beatus Rex ter, et amplius, / Carusque cœlo et civibus, in Deo, / Qui spiritus mole insolentes / Imperii, posuisse gaudet.” 239 ╇ Andrew Melville, “Historiæ vera laus” in John Johnston, Inscriptiones historicæ Regum Scotorum, continuata annorum serie a Fergusio primo conditore ad nostra tempora (Amsterdam, 1602).



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

239

light of truth, eye of the mind, / Mind of the spirit, rule of life, and life of the soul,” Melville celebrated history as the “Golden messenger of great and admirable accomplishments” and as the “mother of arts and of all good things.”240 As the “advisor of kings, and the god-like source of laws,” he conceived of history as that which should inform and direct both the prince and his subjects.241 As a discriminating and discerning source, history, according to Melville, enables one to distinguish “public things from private,” as well as the “sacred from [the] profane.” History is useful as a guide during times of peace and war, and happiness is promised both to those who write it as well as read and study it.242 Although Melville’s Historiæ is only twelve lines long, it embodies many of the principles that undergirded his conception of the conflict which lay ahead between the Scoto-Britannic and Iberian empires. Along with the Historiæ vera laus, Melville published as a preface to Johnston’s 1602 Inscriptiones a fragment of his national Scottish epic, Gathelus.243 Composed sometime during the years 1594–1602, it is unclear whether the poem remained unfinished or whether it was completed and subsequently lost. We do know that, in addition to these published verses, he composed a brief 29 line poetic introduction to the Gathelus.244 Described as a “northerly Aeneid” in Vergilian verse, Melville followed the narrative of Hector Boece’s 1527 Scotorum historiæ in retelling the story of Scotland’s Graeco-Egyptian origins.245 Unlike Buchanan 240 ╇Ibid.; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 282–283. Melville wrote: “Index ævi omnis, lux veri, mentis ocellus, / Mens animi, vitæ regula, vita animæ; Nuncia magnarum et mirandarum aurea rerum, / Quæ sine laude latent, quæ sine labe patent; Artium et omnigenum genitrix altrixque bonarum …” 241 ╇Ibid. Melville wrote: “Et Regum monitrix, et Legum Diva creatrix, / Divaque frænatrix, et procerum et populi ….” 242 ╇Ibid.; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 282–283. Melville wrote: “Publica privatis secernens, sacra prophanis, / Et pacem et bellum temperat Historia. / FELIX qui potis est hanc recte scribere: felix / Quisquis et hanc recta cum ratione legit.” 243 ╇ Andrew Melville, Gathelus, Sive de Gentis origine fragmentum in John Johnston, Inscriptiones historicæ Regum Scotorum, continuata annorum serie a Fergusio primo conditore ad nostra tempora (Amsterdam, 1602). 244 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 284–287. 245 ╇ James Macqueen, “Scottish Latin Poetry” in R.D.S. Jack (ed.), The History of Scottish Literature Vol.€I (Aberdeen, 1987–1988), 220; McGinnis and Williamson, George BuchaÂ�nan the Political Poetry, 286. On Boece’s history see N. R. Royan, “The Relationship between the Scotorum Historia of Hector Boece and John Bellenden’s Chronicles of Scotland” in Sally Mapstone and Juliette Wood (eds.), The Rose and the Thistle: Essays on the Culture of Late Medieval and RenaisÂ�sance Scotland (East Linton, 1998), 136–157; Roger A. Mason, “Scotching the Brut: Politics, History and National Myth in SixteenthCentury Britain” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scotland and England 1286–1815 (Edinburgh, 1987), 60–84.

240

chapter six

who dismissed the Gathelus-Scota story as myth, Melville was willing to employ it for his own literary purposes. While it is highly unlikely that he accepted the Gathelus-Scota myth as literal, historical fact, he was willing to utilize it for poetic purposes to illustrate the struggle between the Hibernian and Iberian peoples. If it may be said that Gathelus’ two sons, Hiber and Hemecus, are “the Western equivalent of Ishmael and Isaac,” then Melville’s national epic was intended to express, in some sense, his view of Scotland’s origins, as well as her prophetic destiny.246 Melville’s early humanist formation prepared and predisposed him to the idea of composing a national Scottish epic. During his time in Paris in the mid-1560s he had moved in humanist circles where Â�historiography was practiced, discussed, and viewed as a literary art. His relationship and study under Buchanan during these years constitute the single most important humanist influence in the area of historiography as the elder humanist was busy at work writing his controversial Rerum Scoticarum historia.247 Quite likely, during this period Melville himself read and discussed the drafts of the Historia with Buchanan. We know that his humanistic interest in Buchanan’s history continued well beyond the 1560s as his 1581 visitation to see his dear friend and consult the Historia, as well as his extensive annotations made in his own personal copy attest.248 Unwilling to wait passively for its eventual publication, Melville played an active role in seeing it through the press. Just as Buchanan had looked to Boece’s Historiæ in support of certain political theses and was heavily indebted to him, so Melville looked to Boece’s history in an effort to justify his conception of a Scoto-Britannic empire that would emerge and defeat the Iberian and Catholic powers of Europe.249 While Boece’s Historiæ was an indispensable historical source from which Melville drew in the composition of his own national epic, the Gathelus reveals, at certain points, the distinct influence of Buchanan himself. Following Buchanan, Melville portrayed the people as those who bestowed upon Gathelus the “titles of majesty” and “royal authority,” as well as the “other symbols of kingship,” namely the decorative sword, sceptre, and crown.250 In keeping with the elder humanist, he also ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 286. ╇I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 416–418, 425. 248 ╇ Roger A. Mason, “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994), 125. 249 ╇ McFarlane, Buchanan, 427–428. 250 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 34, 292–293; Melville, Gathelus. Melville writes: “Hic primum Augustos titulos et Regia jura, / 246 247



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

241

depicted Gathelus as a king who bestowed rights upon “the assembled fathers” and joined with the people “in handling the shared reins of governance.”251 Like Buchanan, who was concerned to combat the idea that Scotland was a barbarous land full of ignorance and bereft of wisdom, Melville stressed Gathelus’ acquisition of true wisdom from the Athenian patriarchs, the Egyptian sages, and Moses himself, as well as his bestowal of it to all of his descendants, especially his son Hemecus.252 Yet, while there are unmistakable traces of Buchanan’s influence and despite his selective use of both Boece’s and Buchanan’s respective histories, Melville’s parallel between the children of Abraham and the Â�children of Gathelus was “altogether original.”253 Likewise, his€“future-Â�oriented, prophetic reading of Scottish experience” also represents a significant departure from either Boece or Buchanan. Unlike Boece and Buchanan, Melville contributed to late sixteenth century Scottish historiography by composing a narrative epic in apocalyptic terms, which unveiled€ScotÂ� land’s unique destiny and mission.254 Melville’s originality may also be seen in the contrasting portraits of Gathelus’ sons Hiber and Hemecus.255 In an effort to work out Scotland’s British mission, he unfavorably portrayed Hiber as “the Exalted,” “Warlike” king intent upon extending his fame and kingdom by whatever means deemed necessary. As a monarch who lusts for wealth and whose hunger exceeds even the god of the underworld Orcus, he is led to take what he wants “by waging unbridled war” and by slaughtering “great numbers of people.” To put it succinctly, Hiber is depicted as “[m]ore savage than all others.”256 By way of Â�contrast, Marmorea exceptus cathedra in fatalibus arvis, / Cæteraque a populo delati insignia Regni, / Et gemmis stellatum ensem, sceptrumque, coronamque, / ….” 251 ╇ Melville, Gathelus; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 34, 292–293. Melville writes: “Dicere jus populo, et patribus dare jura vocatis / Pergit: Et æquatas rerum molitur habenas.” 252 ╇Ibid.; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 296–297. Melville wrote: “Ore Gatheli omnes, quotquot dictata magistri / Omnia, quæque domi patriis audivit Athenis, / Quæque arcana hausit sacris Memphitica byblis: / Quæque pio didicit Mosis dum pendet ab ore, / Quo duce bellaci meruit decora alta triumpho, / Assueti Grajisque notis Phariisve figures / Excipere, aut menti mandare excepta tenaci, / Cantabria secum in regnum perduxit Emecus.” 253 ╇Ibid., 287. 254 ╇ McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 282, 287. 255 ╇Ibid., 34, 290–291. Melville wrote: “Cecropida Scotæ thalamo dignate superbo: / En geminos fontes tellus creat alma, nec unus / Amborum est Genius. Gravidæ tibi coniugis alvus / Mox pariet geminos, verum haud una indole fratres. / Clarus uterque geret regali fronte coronam: / Vi major, virtute minor; fraude ille, fide hic. / Ille triumphales maculabit sanguine lauros, / Atque cruentatis insurget in æthera terris. / Hic Phœbi lauru et foliis pacalis olivæ, / Atque umbrata geret civili tempora quercu.” 256 ╇ Melville, Gathelus; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 294–297. Melville wrote: “Et nunc dirus Iber auri sitibundus, et Orco / Iejunus

242

chapter six

Hemecus “the Good,” the “peaceful prince,” defends the descendants of Gathelus, as well as the laws and his own virtue. As a modest king, he is eager “to nurture the generous feelings of his heart” and to seek the glory and honor of another rather than himself.257 The poem itself recounts how Gathelus of Athens left Greece, joined the service of the Egyptian Pharaoh, defeated the Ethiopians, took Scota as his wife, and traveled to a new land where he established his kingdom. Driven from Egypt by the Exodus plagues and concerned for his family’s safety, he journeyed to that portion of northwest Iberia known as Galacia. Gathaleus’ sons subsequently settled in Ireland with the elder, Hiber, inheriting the Spanish throne while the younger, Hemecus, became the King of Ireland.258 Blending mythical classical references with historical figures and events from sacred history, Melville carefully juxtaposed references to Hercules, Neptune, Orcus, Cadmus, the altars of Busiris, the springs of Helicon, and the laurel of Phoebus with references to Ammunhotep, Isaac’s progeny, the Egyptian plagues, and Moses.259 In describing the establishment of Gathelus’ new Iberian home, he referred to “his household gods” and spoke of his coronation as being “ordained by fate.”260 In contrast to these pagan categories, Melville depicts the Edenic state of the land of Hemecus, describing it in explicitly Old Testament terminology as possessing rivers which “overflow in milk and honey.”261 As he had done in the Natalia, his frequent and

magis, effræni rapit omnia bello: / Cædibus et vastat populos, et regna ruinis / Evertit, scelere ante alios immanior omnes.” 257 ╇Ibid; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 294–295. Melville wrote: “Hic vero quanquam natu minor, haud minor oris / Laude verecundi, et liquidas sub pectore flammas / Acer alit, sancteque studet bene parta tueri, / Nec sibi, sed fratri, carisque parentibus ambit / Nomen, et illustrem ventura in secula famam.” 258 ╇Ibid; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 286–297. 259 ╇Ibid. 260 ╇Ibid; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 292–293. In referring to Gathelus’ “household gods,” Melville took the opportunity to link this ancient superstition with its contemporary Catholic manifestation. Melville wrote: “Huc memorant tandem subducta classe Gathelum / Sedibus optatis extremo in limite mundi€/ Occidui hic posuisse lares, urbemque Brigantum, / Atque Brigantinas arces immania templa, / Nunc ubi Barbarico ritu sacrisque profanis / Ossa asinina orbis stolide Romanus adorat / Nobilitato urbis cognomine Compostellæ.” 261 ╇Ibid.; McGinnis and Williamson, George Buchanan the Political Poetry, 296–297. Melville wrote: “Mitis Imecum autem sequitur clementia cæli / Ubere dives agri: Et cunctarum opulentia rerum, / Atque greges atque armenta, atque hæc pascua passim / Pinhuia, serpentum sine morsu et dente luporum / Terra, venenata re et peste immunis ab omni est: Nec gignit nec fert illatum aliunde venenum: Flumina sed lactis, sed flumina mellis inundant.”



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

243

Â� liberal use of classical references and pagan practices and categories were marshaled along with citations from sacred history and the language of the Pentateuch in advancing his own conception of Scotland’s origins, as well as her future role in the impending conflict with the Catholic and Iberian powers of Europe. Shortly after the publication of Gathelus (1602), in late 1603 or early 1604 Melville wrote one of his most famous poems, entitled Anti-TamiCami-Categoria.262 Written in defense of the Millenary petitioners and in opposition to the 1603 Answer written by the vice-chancellor, doctors, proctors and various other members of the University of Oxford with an accompanying letter from the vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Melville endeavored to persuade the king by means of bitter satire and an appeal to the king’s Protestant sensibilities.263 The Millenary petition had been privately submitted to James during the early part of 1603, shortly after his arrival in London. Despite the limited scope of the reforms proposed by the Puritans, such as the abandonment of the sign of the cross in baptism, confirmation, and the surplice, the petition precipitated a vigorous response by members of the Oxford and Cambridge communities.264 In light of the link established in the Answer between the English Puritans and the Scottish Presbyterians, Melville composed a piece which is more remembered for its “delightful title” than for its witty satire or splenetic mockery.265 Although written shortly after James’ accession to the throne in 1603, the poem was not published until 1620 when it was appended to David Calderwood’s Parasynagma Perthense et iuramentum ecclesiæ ScoticaÂ� nae, an account of the Perth Assembly of 1618. Despite the claim of Grosart and others that Melville’s Categoria was published in 1604, Calderwood’s publication appears to be the earliest. The poem’s lack of

262 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 64. The full title of Melville’s poem is Pro Supplici Evangelicorum Ministrorum in Anglia ad Serenissimum Regem Contra Larvatam geminate Academiae Gorgonem Apologia, sive Anti-tami-camiCategoria. As Doelman has observed, in light of the absence in the poem of any reference to the Hampton Court Conference, which occurred in January 1604, it is very likely that Melville composed it in late 1603 or early 1604. 263 ╇ The full title was The Answer of the Vice-Chancellor, the Doctors with the Proctors and other Heads of Houses in the University of Oxford. 264 ╇ Stuart Barton Babbage, Puritanism and Richard Bancroft (London, 1962), 44; Mark McCloskey and Paul R. Murphy, The Latin Poetry of George Herbert: A Bilingual Edition (Athens, OH, 1965), 177. 265 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 64; Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 82.

244

chapter six

immediate publication did not prevent its informal circulation, and it, in turn, provoked various replies.266 Dismissed by archbishop Spottiswoode as the work of “a seditious fiery man,” Melville’s Categoria propelled its author to become “a symbol of Presbyterian intransigence” well beyond the time of the 1604 Hampton Court Conference. His symbolic significance during the controversy surrounding the Perth Assembly is attested by the fact that so many authors who sought James’ favor chose to attack him. From George Herbert’s Musae responsoriae to Thomas Atkinson’s “Melvinus delirans,” Melville’s Categoria continued to draw attention as its author was viewed as a symbol of Scottish independence and opposition to Anglicanism and to the efforts by James to centralize power and consolidate his control over the Kirk.267 Melville’s reputation as a distinguished humanist and scholar served to attract aspiring young scholars looking to make a name for themselves and curry royal favor.268 The king’s own dislike of Melville certainly made the humanist a welcomed target of satire, ridicule, and “epigram wars.”269 Composed of over two hundred lines, Melville’s Categoria has been described as “a long and vigorous Sapphic ode” divided into three basic sections.270 Unlike the first section (ll. 1–64), which dealt with religious ceremonies prescribed by the Anglican Prayer Book, the second (ll. 65–128) and third sections (ll. 129–204), which respectively addressed religious reforms advocated by several leading Protestant theologians 266 ╇ F. E. Hutchinson ed. The Works of George Herbert (Oxford, 1978), 587; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 104. 267 ╇ James Doelman, “The Contexts of George Herbert’s Musae Responsoriae,” George Herbert Journal, 2 (1992), 44, 46, 48; Thomas Atkinson, “Melvinus Delirans Sive Satyra Edentula Contra Ejusdem Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoriam,” British Library, MS Harley 3496. Cf. George Eglishem, Adversus Andreae Melvini cavillum in aram regiam Epigrammata Prophylactica; Adamson, De Sacro Pastoris Munere. 268 ╇Izak Walton, The Life of Mr. George Herbert (London, 1670), 35. Walton wrote: “This Mr. Melvin was a man of learning, and was the Master of a great wit, a wit full of knots and clenches: a wit sharp and satyrical; exceeded, I think, by none of that Nation, but their Buchanan.” Cf. McCloskey and Murphy, The Latin Poetry of George Herbert, 28, 54–57. Even George Herbert, who wanted to consign Melville’s poem to the flames, was compelled to recognize his opponent’s stature as a distinguished scholar and skilled poet when he called him “poeta belle.” Herbert wrote: “Quin te laudibus orno: quippe dico, / Caesar sobrius ad rei Latinae / Vnus dicitur aduenire cladem: / Et tu solus ad Angliae procellas / (Cùm plerumque tuâ sodalitate / Nil sit crassius, impolitiúsue) / Accedis bene doctus, et poeta.” 269 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 72. 270 ╇ W. Hilton Kelliher, “The Latin Poetry of George Herbert” in John R. Roberts (ed.), Essential Articles for the Study of George Herbert’s Poetry (Hamden, CT 1979), 527. Cf. Leon J. Richardson, “On Certain Sound Properties of the Sapphic Strophe as Employed by Horace,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 33 (1902), 38.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

245

and the wisdom and grandeur of God, were the least objectionable to the Anglicans.271 Some responses to the Categoria, such as Herbert’s Musae responsoriae, attempted to ridicule the title as well as its meter, facetiously suggesting the corresponding titles of “Anti-furi-PuriCategoria” and “Anti-pelvi-Melvi-Categoria” and subtly intimating the feminine appeal of the Sapphic meter. The portion of poetic verse found most objectionable addressed matters of sacred ritual.272 Comparing the words of a priest at infant baptism to the noise of a screech-owl, the sound of sacred music to the clash of Phrygian cymbals, and a fixed liturgy to the incantation of a magic wheel, Melville€ touched an Anglican nerve and provoked a flurry of poetic responses.273 Of course, Melville’s Categoria had itself been prompted by Oxford’s Answer, which had expressed the boast that “there are at this day more learned men in this kingdom than are to be found among all the ministers of religion in all Europe besides.”274 In an attempt to debunk Anglican hubris and appeal to the brilliance and glory of the Protestant Reformed tradition in its conflict with Catholicism, Melville connected references to Bucer, Calvin, Beza, and Martyr with references to the Cantabrigian William Whitaker and the Oxonian John Rainolds. While such implicit comparisons are admittedly difficult to justify, given the intellectual caliber and stature of these continental divines, Melville’s inclusion of Whitaker and Rainolds may be better understood as part of a much broader appeal to James to look to Strasbourg and Geneva rather than to Rome in leading the state and Church.275

271 ╇ Melville, Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria; Kelliher, “The Latin Poetry of George Herbert,” 527. 272 ╇ McCloskey and Murphy, The Latin Poetry of George Herbert, 10–13. He wrote: “Cur, vbi tot ludat numeris antique poesis, / Sola tibi Sappho, femináque vna placet? / Cur tibi tam facilè non arrisêre poetae / Heroum grandi carmina fulta pede? / Cur non lugentes Elegi? Non acer Iambus? / Commotos animos rectiùs ista decent. / Scilicet hoc vobis proprium, qui puriùs itis, /Et populi spurcas creditis esse vias: / Vos ducibus missis, missis doctoribus, omnes / Femineum blandâ fallitis arte genus: / Nunc etiam teneras quò versus gratior aures / Mulceat, imbelles complacuêre modi.” 273 ╇ Melville, Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria, 42. Melville wrote: “Turbida illimi cruces in lavacro / Signa consignem? Magico rotatu / Verba devolvam? Sacra vox sacratâ immurmuret undâ / Strigis in morem? Rationis usu adfabor infantem vacuum? canoras / Ingeram nugas minus audienti / Dicta puello?” 274 ╇Hutchinson, The Works of George Herbert, 590. 275 ╇ Melville, Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria, 45. Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 64. Melville wrote: “solumque / Et salum coeli aemula praecinentis / More modoque / Concinunt Bezae numeris modisque / Et polo plaudunt: referuntque leges / Lege quas sanxit pius ardor & Rex / Scotobritannus.”

246

chapter six

Although the publication of Melville’s Categoria in 1620 enabled it to receive a much broader readership, its initial circulation did little to advance the Presbyterian cause in Scotland or the Puritan cause in England. If judged in terms of whether it achieved the objective of persuading James to the Puritan agenda, then the poem must be viewed as a failure. Indeed, it seems to have been counterproductive, doing little to endear Melville to the King or engender sympathy for the Puritans. If viewed from the perspective of poetic wit, literary creativity, and religious polemics, the poem must be judged a success. However one assesses its relative success, we may at least observe its aesthetically entertaining style and its highly instructive insights into the concerns, fears, and attitudes of Scottish Presbyterians towards the Anglican Church and ultimately the Catholic powers of Europe. If the Categoria accomplished anything, it reinforced in James’ mind that, while Melville occupied a prominent and strategic place of service at St Andrews and functioned as a humanistic ornament of Scotland, he nevertheless remained a chief ecclesiastical opponent of the King and a genuine threat to any efforts to consolidate power by bringing the Kirk of Scotland into greater conformity to her southern neighbor. Perhaps it is best to view the Categoria as a defiant poem composed not to persuade opponents but to reinforce the advocates of Presbyterianism of the essential correctness of their position. Like so many other of Melville’s satirical poems, the Categoria was intended for his like-minded colleagues and was designed to entertain, derogate, comfort, and console. Conclusion As both principal of St Mary’s and rector of the University, Melville experienced mixed results in his efforts to incorporate the New Learning at St Andrews. Despite the tardiness of reform at both St Salvator’s and St Leonard’s, Melville, working with a truncated staff, was able to accomplish modest reforms at St Mary’s. Continuing the same approach he had implemented at Glasgow where he had enjoyed remarkable success, Melville assumed a significant portion of the divinity curriculum, lecturing upon the loci communes of theology and the primary books of the Old and New Testaments, as well as providing instruction in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac. He introduced advanced instruction in such ancient near-eastern languages at St Andrews and was able to incorporate some of the latest developments in European humanism in the area of biblical studies.



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

247

As his presence and growing reputation became associated with St Mary’s, Melville began to attract students from abroad. Part of his success in building the reputation of the College and attracting students may be attributed to his own personal charisma and interaction. His custom of cultivating table talk with his fellow masters and scholars, which had been remarkably successful at Glasgow in persuading his opponents and inculcating the New Learning, was a powerful pedagogical tool which he most likely employed in his efforts to convince his opponents at St Leonard’s. Staunchly opposing the various forms of medieval Aristotelianism prevalent at St Andrews and vigorously advocating the study of the philosopher’s writings in the original language, paying careful attention to historical and philological issues, Melville succeeded in instilling these humanistic values and methods in many of his students and colleagues. While the evidence appears to be lacking to support the opinion that the University experienced a “humanist revolution” during these years, Melville was successful in accomplishing more modest objectives. His sympathetic, yet critical, appropriation of the writings of Ramus, while constituting only a portion of his reform agenda, was not the most important aspect, nor was it his primary objective in his discussions and debates with the regents and scholars of St Leonard’s. Rather, by challenging his opponents to go ad fontes, studying Aristotle in the original Greek rather than relying upon Latin translations and scholastic commentaries, Melville served as an important purveyor of the New Learning in Scotland. His prominent role in opposing the errors of late medieval scholasticism at Glasgow and St Andrews strongly suggests that he occupied a leading role in the 1583 commission and may even have drafted the commission’s own declaratory propositions regarding Aristotle’s errors. During his exile in England and his visits to Oxford and Cambridge, Melville continued to expand his ever growing network of scholars committed to the ideals and values of the European Renaissance by forging relationships with the Anglican John Rainolds and Thomas Savile. Despite their differences, they were quite naturally drawn together by their common elite intellectual culture, sharing a set of humanist values and promoting the New Learning of the Renaissance. This humanist culture enabled Melville to find common ground with those with whom he had theological differences and forge relationships based upon a shared commitment to the study of Hebrew, Greek, and classical literature. While his visit to these seats of learning was motivated in part by the desire to establish ecclesiastical support, his humanist impulses led

248

chapter six

him to seek out and establish relationships with those with whom he shared a common intellectual culture. Similarly, the 1587 visit of Du Bartas as well as Melville’s literary circle provides further insight into his place in the Scottish Renaissance. Du Bartas’ visit was a clear indication of James VI’s high regard for Melville’s abilities as a scholar and poet. Viewed as a humanistic ornament of the country, Melville’s European reputation, dramatic reforming success at Glasgow, and prominent position as principal at St Mary’s made him an obvious choice as one who might thoroughly impress the French poet. The decade he spent on the continent in France and Switzerland at some of the leading centers of the French Renaissance and Protestant Reformation provided yet another point of contact between the two and was, undoubtedly, a factor in the King’s decision to bring Du Bartas to St Andrews. Likewise, Melville’s correspondence and subsequent relationship with Isaac Casaubon provides yet another important indicator of his place within the broader humanistic culture of sixteenth-century Europe. Linked with Melville in “a sacred friendship,” united by their common humanistic culture and values, Casaubon expressed his own admiration and offered a special plea to Melville to publish a number of his writings on sacred literature. Casaubon’s correspondence in 1601 further reveals that after more than 25 years since his departure from Geneva, Melville’s scholarly reputation continued to be promoted by Beza, Henri Estienne, and Jacques Lect. In addition to foreign figures, during these years Melville established close ties with the Scottish humanists David Hume of Godscroft and John Johnston. United with Godscroft and Johnston in their commitments to the Presbyterian cause in Scotland, Melville experienced a high degree of intellectual affinity with these Latin poets. His relationship with Godscroft appears to have been forged during their exile in England during the years 1584–1585 and to have continued by means of correspondence during the early seventeenth century. Johnston, on the other hand, had been Melville’s close associate and companion at St Andrews for thirteen years and appears by means of his historical epigrams to have influenced Melville in the composition of his own Gathelus. In addition to publishing their separate works together, Melville contributed two epigrams on Mary Queen of Scots in Johnston’s Inscriptiones, again emphasizing their mutual fascination with Scottish history. Moreover, Melville’s poetry during this period appears to provide some justification for the claim that he served as “a kind of unofficial



scotland: st andrews (1580–1607)

249

Latin laureate to James VI.” Unlike some of Melville’s later poetry, several of his poetic compositions during these years, such as the 1590 Στεφανισκιον, 1594 Natalia, 1602 Gathelus, and 1604 Anti-Tami-CamiCategoria, possess a distinctive political agenda and were either greatly pleasing or an irritant to James VI. His poetry during this period only enhanced his European reputation as many of his poems were circulated in England and on the continent. Indeed, if the response to his AntiTami-Cami-Categoria may be taken as an indicator of his prominence and caliber as a Latin poet, then he must be regarded as a significant poet of the period. His poetry, while bearing the marks of his dear friend and father-figure Buchanan, nevertheless, exhibits its own creativity and originality, particularly in the Gathelus, in his characterization of the mythical figures Hiber and Hemecus and in his eschatological vision of Scotland’s mission and destiny.

Chapter seven

ENGLAND AND FRANCE: LONDON AND SEDAN (1607–1622) Prelude to Conflict By the time Melville’s controversial Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria had been circulated, the direction in which James intended to lead the Church following the union of 1603 had already been determined. The King’s intentions were made clear at the Hampton Court Conference held in January 1604 when James assembled both Anglican and Puritan representatives to discuss those matters addressed in the 1603 Millenary Petition.1 Despite the royal invitation to supply submissions which would be given serious consideration, the Puritan proposals, which addressed both matters of doctrine and government, were dismissed, leaving them and their northern sympathizers discouraged and pessimistic regarding the prospect of further reform.2 James made it clear by his actions subsequent to the Hampton Court Conference that he had no intention of conforming the English Church to the Scottish model. In fact, the attempt to move the Scottish kirk in the direction of Anglicanism proved most vexing for him during the last decade of his life. Through the reassertion of Episcopal authority by the Glasgow Assembly in 1610 and subsequent liturgical modifications culminating in the 1618 Five Articles of Perth, James attempted to move the Scottish kirk in the direction of the Church of England.3 Although he obtained 1 ╇ On the Hampton Court Conference see F. Shriver, “Hampton Court Re-visited: James I and the Puritans,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 33 (1982), 48–71; Mark H. Curtis, “The Hampton Court Conference and its Aftermath,” History, 46 (1961), 1–16. Alan Cromartie, “King James and the Hampton Court Conference” in Ralph Houlbrooke (ed.), James VI and I: Ideas, Authority and Government (Aldershot, 2006). Cf. also William Barlow, The Summe and Substance of the Conference … in his Maiesties Privie-Chamber, at Hampton Court. Ianuary 14. 1603 (London, 1605). On the Millenary Petition see John Phillips Kenyon, The Stuart Constitution, 1603–1688: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge, 1986), 117–119. 2 ╇ Stuart Barton Babbage, Puritanism and Richard Bancroft (London, 1962), 66; James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 555; John Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland Vol. III ed. M. Russell (Edinburgh, 1851), 143. 3 ╇ For an excellent historiographical discussion and analysis of whether James€ was actually attempting to move the Scottish Kirk toward Anglicanism see Jenny Wormald,

252

chapter seven

parliamentary ratification of the Five Articles in 1621, the bitter and Â�formidable resistance he encountered from those fearful of the reinstitution of Catholicism in Scotland forced James to abandon his plans for liturgical reform according to the pattern of the Anglican Church.4 Of course, tension between the King and the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland had existed long before the union of 1603 and may be seen particularly during the 1590s when James objected to the convening of a General Assembly without royal approval. As moderator of the 1594 Assembly, Melville had opportunity to speak candidly to the King regarding the Kirk’s prerogative to meet with or without the crown’s approbation. To make matters worse, the King’s reluctance to deal decisively with the Catholic Earls in Scotland had created distrust within the Assembly and had exacerbated an already tenuous relationship.5 With a history of opposition and conflict between the crown and Kirk, as well as the practice of repeatedly proroguing the General Assembly, as had occurred in 1604 and 1605, tensions mounted over the issue of the rights of ecclesiastical courts, and the 1605 Aberdeen Assembly merely precipitated the inevitable confrontation.6 To complicate matters, Melville’s own relationship with the King had progressively deteriorated since the first half of the 1590s when his services as a court poet in behalf of the crown had been so enthusiastically received. Following his fateful confrontation with the King in 1596 at “The Headaches of Monarchy: Kingship and the Kirk in the Early Seventeenth Century” in Julian Goodare and Alasdair A. MacDonald (eds.), Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden and Boston, 2008), 365–393. Cf. also A.R.€MacDonald, “James VI and I, the Church of Scotland, and British ecclesiastical convergence,” Historical Journal, 48 (2005), 885–903. 4 ╇ David Stevenson, The Scottish Revolution 1637–1644: The Triumph f the Covenanters (Newton Abbot, 1973), 23–24; E. G. Selwyn, The First Book of the Irenicum of John Forbes of Corse (Cambridge, 1923), 12–13. On the Five Articles of Perth see Ian B. Cowan, “The Five Articles of Perth” in Duncan Shaw (ed.), Reformation and Revolution (Edinburgh, 1967), 160–177. L. A. M. Stewart, “‘Brothers in treuth’: propaganda, public opinion and the Perth Articles debate in Scotland” in R. Houlbrooke (ed.), James VI and I: Ideas, Authority and Government (Aldershot, 2006); “The political repercussions of the five articles of Perth: a reassessment of James VI and I’s religious policies in Scotland,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 38 (2007), 1013–36; J. D. Ford, “Conformity in conscience: the structure of the Perth Articles debate in Scotland, 1618–1638,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 46 (1995), 256–77; “The lawful bonds of Scottish society: the Five Articles of Perth, the Negative Confession and the National Covenant,” Historical Journal, 37 (1994), 45–64. 5 ╇ Alan R. MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 1567–1625 Sovereignty, Polity and Liturgy (Aldershot, 1998), 56–57; Melville, JMAD, 316–317. 6 ╇ Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. II, (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824), 112, 114; Melville, JMAD, 570–576.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

253

Falkland, Melville witnessed the gradual curtailment of his ecclesiastical and civil liberties with the 1597 restriction preventing doctors and regents from attending the courts of the Kirk and his 1602 confinement within the precincts of St Mary’s College.7 To be sure, his 1604 AntiTami-Cami-Categoria did nothing to endear him to the King and probably had the effect of further alienating him as the poem served as a vivid reminder of Melville’s resolute and vociferous opposition to episcopacy. In addition to these deliberate attempts to restrict his movement and minimize his influence within the kingdom of Scotland, James went even further, attempting to disabuse Melville of what the Earl of Morton had earlier referred to as his “owersie dreames” of Genevan discipline and polity.8 Provoked by the 1605 Aberdeen Assembly, James summoned Melville along with seven ministers to London in May 1606 with the express purpose of obtaining their opinion on the Aberdeen Assembly. In addition, he used the opportunity to instruct them on the value and legitimacy of the Anglican liturgy and polity, as well as the royal prerogative in ecclesiastical matters.9 Unwilling to condemn the Aberdeen Assembly as unlawfully convened and openly declaring their “innocence,”10 Melville and his colleagues were subjected to four sermons delivered by the distinguished Anglican clergymen the bishop of Lincoln, William Barlow, the President of St John’s College, John Buckeridge, the bishop of Chichester, Lancelot Andrewes, and the Dean of Christ’s Church, John King.11 Barlow’s sermon was delivered first and set the tone for the subsequent three discourses by endeavoring to establish the antiquity and the 7 ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by the Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV … for Visiting the Universities of Scotland. Volume III. University of St. Andrews (London, 1837), 197; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 93–94. ╛╛╛╛8 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 54. ╛╛╛╛9 ╇ Spottiswoode, History III, 176–182; David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland Vol. VI ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1845), 559–597. ╛╛╛╛10 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 659, 661; Andrew Melville, Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Musae et P. Adamsoni Vita et Palindoia (1620), 20. Melville wrote Pro Conventu Ministrorum Abredoniæ. Anno 1605. Melville wrote: “Cui pro lege libido hominis, pro rege tyrannus / Fingitur: & pravè hæc fictio fista placet. / Hic aulæ est manceps, verna aulæ, & mancipium alui, / Legibus exilio, regibus exitio. / Sacra patrum si lege coit, si more coronæ: / Rege inconsulto non coit ergo suo. / Legibus humanis, divinis: moribus avi / Et prisci atque novi tum foris atque domi: / Exemplis patrum patriis, patrum peregrines, / Hi coiere patres de meliore nota. / Invide quid carpis? Quid damnas Zoile? Christum / Non hos allatras, Zoile, quos laceras.” 11 ╇ Ibid., 659; Spottiswoode, History III, 177.

254

chapter seven

actual superiority of bishops.12 In an attempt to ingratiate himself to the King, Buckeridge, in the second sermon, overtly likened the presbyterians to “many Popes” who exalt themselves above the Emperor and lucidly argued for royal supremacy in the church.13 Lancelot Andrewes, in the third sermon, argued that the right and power to call ecclesiastical councils or assemblies resides squarely with a Christian Emperor or monarch.14 Described by James Melville as “a most violent invective” against presbyterianism, which included the colorful and impassioned plea to the King “Doune! Doune with thame all!”15, the fourth and final sermon argued for the jure divino character of episcopacy and maintained that presbyterianism, while perhaps legitimate abroad, was inherently incompatible with monarchy and, consequently, illegitimate in Scotland and England.16 It is difficult to surmise exactly what James hoped to accomplish by means of this exhibition of Anglican principles. Certainly his overt, persuasive efforts should not be accepted at face value given his past experience with the recalcitrance of the Scottish Presbyterians and Melville’s own deeply held theological convictions, which had led him on more than one occasion to challenge royal authority and even to employ his poetic skills in openly ridiculing his opponents. James’ actions may be construed as an attempt to force the hand of his fellow countrymen so that he might deal decisively with them and, thus, effectively eliminate the opposition. James Melville was certainly convinced that the King had other less noble intentions than what had been

12 ╇ William Barlow, The First of the Foure Sermons Preached before the kings Maiestie, at Hampton Court in September Last. This Concerning the Antiquity and Superioritie of Bishoppes. Sept. 21, 1606 (London, 1607). 13 ╇ John Buckeridge, A Sermon Preached at Hampton Court before the Kings Maiestie, on Tuesday the 23. of September, Anno 1606 (London, 1606), B4. Buckeridge wrote: “Dum se Donatus super Imperatorem extollit, dum se Episcopus Romanus, or, Dum Presbyterium, he might haue said, either while Donatus the Bishop of Rome, or the Presbytery, one Pope, or many Popes doeth extoll himselfe aboue the Emperor: non verendo eum qui post Deum, not reuerencing nor fearing him, who next after God is reuerenced and feared of all men.” 14 ╇ Lancelot Andrewes, A Sermon Preached Before the Kings Maiestie, at Hampton Court, Concerning the Right and Power of Calling Assemblies, on Sunday the 28. of September, Anno 1606 (London, 1606). 15 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 667. 16 ╇ John King, The Fourth Sermon Preached at Hampton Court on Tuesday the Last of Sept. 1606 (Oxford, 1606); P. E. McCullough, “King, John (d. 1621),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 31 (Oxford, 2004), 635. McCullough is mistaken in identifying the “sermon’s prime target” as James Melville. It is far more likely that Andrew was the target given his position as principal at St Mary’s.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

255

Â� otherwise expressed.17 Whatever the King’s designs, the gauntlet had been thrown down and Melville found himself unable to resist the challenge. Denied any opportunity to respond publicly to James’ “pulpit-show,” Melville resorted once again to one of his favorite pastimes, the satirical epigram.18 In response to William Barlow’s sermon on episcopal superiority in which he celebrated at length the praises of archbishop Richard Bancroft, Melville composed a lively epigram lambasting the archbishop, which was later described as “too coarse to be reprinted.”19 Likening Barlow’s portrayal of Bancroft to Praxiteles’ portrayal of Venus, Melville identified the Athenian sculptor’s failure with Barlow’s. Just as Praxiteles’ had failed in his attempt to portray a goddess (“Divam”) and instead depicted a prostitute (“lupam”), so Barlow failed in depicting Bancroft as a pastor (“Pastorem”) but instead portrayed him as a devouring wolf (“lupum”). Delighting himself in splenetic mockery, Melville employed a clever, yet bitter, pun on the words “lupam” and “lupum” suggesting that instead of being a protector and defender of the flock, Bancroft was an exploiter.20 While his epigrams directed at archbishop Bancroft were enough to incite the ire of any devout Anglican, his stinging epigram on the altar of the Church of England incurred the most vociferous reply. Following the series of sermons at Hampton Court in late September 1606, Melville was ordered to be present at the English Chapel Royal at Windsor for the celebration of the festival of St Michael.21 Suspecting a trap, James cautioned his uncle to beware of any design intended to ensnare or provoke him. The ceremonial service was afterwards described by a certain German observer of the company of Count de Vaudemontis when he declared, “I never saw such worship! Certainly there is nothing concerning the mass wanting here except the adoration of the transubstantiated 17 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 681. He wrote: “The purpose of all this wes to snare Mr Andro Melvill, quhom they knew to be frie of speech, that they mycht haif sume appearance of just occasioun to mak him fast, and sua to be quyt of his hinder in the prosecution of the Episcopall purpose.” 18 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 153. 19 ╇ Roland Greene Usher, Reconstruction of the English Church Vol. II (New York and London, 1910), 162–163. 20 ╇ John Row, The History of the Kirk of Scotland, from the Year 1558 to August 1637€ (Edinburgh, 1842), 236. Melville wrote: “Praxiteles Coæ Veneris dum pingeret ora, / Cratinæ ad vultus pinxerat ora suæ: / Divinum Barlo pastorem ut pingeret, Angli €/ Præsulis ad vultus pinxerat ora sui. / Praxiteles Venerem pinxit Divamne lupamve? / Pastorem Barlo pinxerat anne lupum?” 21 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 65; Melville, JMAD, 664.

256

chapter seven

bread!”22 While this assessment reflects only the opinion of a single individual, Melville’s poetic response may be viewed as confirmation of the Catholic appearance of the service. His poem In aram Anglicanam ejusque apparatum was apparently covertly obtained and delivered by one of the royal chaplains into the hands of the King, who ostensibly took great offense and subsequently summoned Melville to give an account of it before the Privy Council.23 As McCrie has suggested, James may merely have feigned outrage and offense at the humanist’s derisive epigram while, in fact, he secretly considered it harmless and of little significance.24 Remarkably, given the content of the epigram on the altar, these Latin verses figured prominently in the subsequent conflict between the episcopalians and presbyterians.25 Along with Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria, In aram Anglicanam possessed a symbolic significance and occupied a notable place in the unfolding struggle for control of the Kirk. This may be seen both in how the Scottish Presbyterians subsequently employed such Latin verse in advancing their own agenda and in how the Anglicans, wishing to obtain the King’s favor, chose to attack one of the King’s most prominent ecclesiastical adversaries and one of the most distinguished humanists in Scotland.26 Viri clarissimi A. Melvini musae, et P. Adamsoni vita et palindoia [sic], published in 1620, was a collection of Melville’s poetry designed to combat Thomas Wilson’s preface to a collection of Patrick Adamson’s Latin verse. By the time Viri clarissimi musae had been published, Melville was seventy-five years of age, living in exile on the continent and laboring at the University of Sedan. His verses had been circulated privately prior to publication and continued to provoke a number of poetic responses well beyond the days of the Millenary Petition and the Hampton Court Conference. Indeed, according to

22 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 664. Melville records the German’s words as follows: “Ego nunquam vidi talem cultum! Nihil hic profecto deest de solemna missa, preter adorationem transubstantiali panis!” Cf also Row, History, 237. 23 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 682–683; Calderwood, History VI, 599. 24 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 158. 25 ╇ James Doelman, “Circulation of the late Elizabethan and Early Stuart Epigram,” Renaissance et Réforme, 29.1 (2005), 63. 26 ╇ Thomas Dempster, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Scotorum: sive, de scriptoribus Scotis Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1829), 497; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 67. Dempster wrote: “In eum tunc eruditi quique, cum ut arrogantis hominis audaciam castigarent, tum ut regi suo placerent, stylum strinxerunt.”



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

257

Antoine Le Fevre de la Boderie, Melville’s Latin verse was widely discussed in London.27 Among those who replied both immediately as the Latin verses were circulated in private and subsequently after they had been published were John Gordon, John Barclay, Joseph Hall, George Eglishem, Thomas Atkinson, and George Herbert.28 In 1619 Thomas Wilson attacked Melville in a preface he wrote to a collection of poetry by Patrick Adamson entitled De sacro pastoris munere.29 Thus, the sheer number of respondents to Melville’s satirical poetry underscores his symbolic significance as an icon of Presbyterian intransigence and poetic dexterity. As a lightening rod for criticism, Melville occupied an unenviable and undeniable place within the religious and intellectual life of Scotland and England in the early modern period. The epigram itself was a biting satire on Anglican worship and a subtle indictment of the King. Referring to “two closed books” (“clausi libri duo”), “two blind lights” (“Lumina caeca duo”), and “two dry wash basins” (“pollubra sicca duo”), Melville stressed the spiritual ignorance and darkness of the Church of England and, by implication, the poverty of its worship.30 Indeed, the worship of God is held back, Melville maintained, on account of Anglican ignorance, suggested in the words “her blind light” (“Lumine caeca suo”), and moral corruption, suggested in the words “her buried filth” (“sorde sepulta sua”).31 The epigram reaches its bitter crescendo with the identification of the Anglican liturgy with the corrupt “Roman ritual” (“Romano ritu”).32 The poem vividly discloses Melville’s personal revulsion to what he had been subjected to, and its composition may be understood, in part, as a way in which he dealt with his frustration. Undoubtedly, there was for Melville an element of personal disappointment in James’ endorsement of the Anglican

╇ Antoine Le Fèvre de la Boderie, Ambassades de monsieur de la Boderie en Angleterre sous le règne d’Henri IV. & la minorité de Louis XIII. depuis le années 1606 jusqu’en 1611 Vol. I, (1750), 458, Vol. II, 208–209; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 66–67. Cf. letter dated 8 May 1607 de la Boderie à Monsieur de Puisieux. 28 ╇ James Doelman, “The Contexts of George Herbert’s Musae Responsoriae,” George Herbert Journal, 2 (1992), 48. George Eglishem responded to Melville’s epigram on the royal altar in his 1618 “Adversus Andreae Melvini cavillum in aram regiam Epigrammata Prophylactica.” 29 ╇ Patrick Adamson, De sacro pastoris munere ed. Thomas Wilson (London, 1619). 30 ╇ Melville, Viri Clarissimi Musae, 24. 31 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 66. 32 ╇ Melville, Viri Clarissimi Musae, 24. 27

258

chapter seven

liturgy, and this epigram was one way in which he attempted to deal with his own personal disappointment and irritation. Summoned by the Privy Council to account for his offending Latin verse, Melville confessed first that he had written such verses and that he had intended to present them to the King. After expressing his reasons for composing the epigram, he took the opportunity to reply to archbishop Bancroft for his publication on the topic of the succession.33 It is difficult to imagine from Melville’s position what positive outcome could have resulted from such a virulent assault upon the archbishop of Canterbury. Perhaps he recognized that he could not receive a fair hearing from the English Privy Council and so took advantage of the occasion to critique thoroughly the abuses and corruptions of the Anglican Church.34 Whatever the reason for this particular tactic, the Privy Council determined that confinement was the appropriate measure to be taken. At first, Melville was warded with John Overall the Dean of St Paul’s until 9 March 1607 at which time he was supposed to be transferred into the custody of Thomas Bilson, bishop of Winchester until the King determined what was to be done with him. Unguarded, Melville delayed reporting to bishop Bilson’s residence and instead sought out his Scottish colleagues, spending the months of March and April in their company until the order was renewed.35 While the King was deliberating what to do with Melville and the Scottish ministers, Melville continued to resort to epigrammatic satire as a form of recreational pleasure and therapeutic release.36 Having been unlawfully detained and subjected to unwarranted interrogation, Melville found in the composition of his satirical poetry a catharsis for 33 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 679; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England,€66. Cf. also Richard Bancroft, A Svrvay of the Pretended Holy Discipline. Contayning the Beginninges, Successe, Parts, Proceedings, Authority, and Doctrine of it: With Some of the Manifold, and Materiall Repugnances, Varieties and Vncertaineties, in that Behalfe (London, 1593); Daungerous Positions and Proceedings, Published and Practised within this Iland of Brytaine, Under Pretence of Reformation, and for the Presbiteriall Discipline (London, 1593). 34 ╇ Ibid. James Melville wrote: “[Melville] tuik occasioune plainely in his face, befoir the Counsell, to tell him all his mynd, quhilk burst out as inclossit fyre in water! He burdeinit him with all thais corruptiounes and vanities, and superstitiounes, with profanatioune of the Sabbath day, silenceing, imprissouning, and beiring doun of the true and faithfull Preicheres of the Word of God, of setting and holding upe of Antichrystiane Hierarchie and Popische Ceremonies.” 35 ╇ Ibid., 681, 700; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 166. 36 ╇ Andrew Melville, Melvini epistolae, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh, 110–111.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

259

what he considered morally objectionable and theologically problematic. His penchant for satirical verse may be observed in an epigram he wrote, ridiculing the English St George while extolling the Scottish St Andrew.37 Learning of the vain and superstitious practices of the Court associated with the celebration of St George’s Day of 23 April, Melville “irrtat and much incensit within him” composed another six line satire, deriding England’s patron saint. Contrasting “St Andrew, Christ’s divinely-inspired apostle” (“Andreas, Christi divinus Apostolus”), with “St George, the Armenian archheretic” (“Armenijs, Georgius, Hæresiarcha”), Melville extolled Scotland’s apostolic (“Apostolicis”) faith while derogating England’s apostate (“Apostaticis”) faith.38 Again employing a pun on the words “Apostolicis” and “Apostaticis,” Melville sought to celebrate the superiority of Scotland’s patron saint and its religious practice. While dining with his Scottish colleagues just three days later on 26 April 1607, he recited for his friends a meditation on Psalm 2 and his satiric verses on St George, which he delivered “with vehement invectioun againes the corruptiounes and superstitiounes of England.” Quoting from book two of Ovid’s Tristia, James endeavored to dissuade his uncle from returning to his favorite pastime which had landed him in such controversy. Undaunted by the consequences of his merciless satirizing of the Anglican Church, Melville replied by quoting the next two lines of the Roman poet and identifying with the constraining impulse to return to the Muses.39 Although Spottiswoode maintained that the justification for Melville’s imprisonment was impertinence before the English Privy Council, the formal charge leveled against him was the epigram he had written on the

37 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 706. Melville wrote: “Andreas, Christi divinus Apostolus, est qui / Nunc Scotos ritus signat Apostolicos: / Armenijs, (ut fama,) Georgius, Hæresiarcha, / Nunc Anglos ritus signat Apostolicos. Signa, Andreæ, ergo sunt nullo Georgi? Undique Apostolicis, millibus Apostaticis!” 38 ╇ Ibid. 39 ╇ Ibid., 707. James Melville writes: “Thairfoir, his cousine Mr James sayes to him, ‘Remember Ovidis verses: “Si saperem doctus odissem jure sorores / Numina cultori perniciosa suo!” His answer was in the verses following: “Sed nunc tanta meo comes est insania morbo / Saxa demens refero rursus addicta pedem.” The text of Ovid, which James Melville records, differs at several points from modern critical editions. Cf. Ovid, Ovid: Tristia. Ex Ponto trans. Arthur Leslie Wheeler (Cambridge, MA and London, 1965), 55–56. “Si saperem, doctas odissem iure sorores, / numina cultori perniciosa suo. / At nunc—tanta meo comes est insania morbo— / saxa malum refero rursus ad ista pedem.”

260

chapter seven

royal altar.40 Only six lines in length, the epigram was easily circulated and quickly “became a central focus in the struggles between the churches of England and Scotland.”41 After delivering a vituperative harangue, which offended both the King and Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury on 26 April 1607 at Whitehall, Melville was judged to have committed a “scandalum magnatum” and was consigned to the Tower where he was to remain indefinitely.42 The seriousness of this alleged offense may be questioned by the fact that despite being labeled a “scandalum magnatum,” there is no indication that this ‘treasoness offense’ was to be treated as a capital crime.43 James VI and the Tower of London Based upon frivolous charges, Melville’s imprisonment damaged James’ reputation on the continent and reflected poorly upon him as a Protestant King and his ability to govern the religiously diverse countries of Scotland and England. Melville’s fame throughout Protestant Europe, his renowned learning, and his salutary influence in the resuscitation of Scotland’s medieval universities only accentuated what appeared to many in the Protestant world as “scandalous.”44 For approximately four years he remained a prisoner in the Tower, experiencing the diminishment of his personal and civil liberties, the prevention of his involvement in the work of the University, and the restriction of his participation in the life of the Kirk. Shortly after he was confined to the Tower, he was divested of his office as principal of St Mary’s, and despite the petition authored by his students requesting his reinstatement, the Aberdonian Robert Howie was appointed principal of the College and installed on ╇ Spottiswoode, History III, 183; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 174. ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 67. 42 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 178. 43 ╇ Row, History, 236–237. 44 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 68. Cf. De la Boderie, Ambassades, II, 207–209; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 181; Robert Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers and Most Eminent Ministers of the Church of Scotland Vol. II, pt. I (Glasgow, 1845), 54. On 29 June 1607 Monsieur Montmartine wrote to Robert Boyd of Trochrig, expressing his astonishment and grief over the news of Melville’s imprisonment. He wrote: “I cannot almost belive. But this miserable age is capable of any thing … happy are such as share not in the infection!” For a broader consideration of James’ reputation after his death see Ralph Houlbrooke, “James’s Reputation, 1625–2005” in Ralph Houlbrooke (ed.) James VI and I: Ideas, Authority and Government (Aldershot, 2006). 40 41



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

261

27 July 1607.45 Though he would continue his participation in the ecclesiastical politics of his native country during his years of exile in France, his imprisonment in the Tower signaled the end to his residence and labors in Scotland and the most important years of his service in the cause of humanism. Notwithstanding the unusually strict conditions of his confinement, namely the denial of all visitation and the privilege of retaining a servant in his quarters, as well as the use of all writing materials, Melville continued to consult the Muses, writing Latin poetry on the walls of his cell with the tongue of his shoe buckle.46 When his quarters were inspected, his examiners found the walls covered in Latin verse “in fair and beautiful characters.”47 Once these stringent restrictions were lifted and he was permitted writing utensils, he composed both Latin paraphrases of the Psalms as well as a defense of himself, entitled Prosopopeia apologetica.48 He often included unrevised specimens of his poetry in his frequent correspondence with his nephew. He sent James his initial versions of Psalms 1, 2, and 16 along with his letters, desiring an evaluation of them.49 His nephew replied by inquiring why he was attempting to duplicate what Buchanan had already so exquisitely executed in his 1566 Psalm paraphrases. After quoting from Vergil’s Ciris50 and clarifying that he was not seeking praise or glory in his Latin verse, he confessed that he

45 ╇ James Kerr Cameron, ed. Letters of John Johnston and Robert Howie (Edinburgh and London, 1963), lxx–lxxi; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 178. 46 ╇ In addition to the initial deprivations Melville experienced, the extreme weather that inmates of the Tower were subjected to during the winter months of 1607 and 1608 led James to entertain grave concerns about his uncle’s health. That winter was peculiarly harsh, leaving the Thames frozen over for several months and exposing Melville€and€those in the Tower to dangerous weather conditions. Despite his age, the frigid winters, and sweltering summers spent in the Tower, Melville’s health remained robust. Cf. Melville, Melvini Epistolae, 44–47, 329; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 197–198, 207. 47 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 196–197. 48 ╇ Andrew Melville, Paraphrases des Psaumes I–II–XVI–XXXVI–CXXIX. MSS, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh; P. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan centre d’influence Française a propos d’un manuscrit du xvii siècle (Paris, 1913), 202–207; Andrew Melville, Prosopopeia apologetica (c. 1608), Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library, DC6.45, 22–23; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 67; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 216, 462. McCrie maintained that Melville’s Psalm paraphrases were first printed in 1609 while he was still in the Tower. 49 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 87–90. 50 ╇ On Vergil’s “Ciris” see R.O.A.M. Lyne, Ciris A Poem Attributed to Vergil (Cambridge, 2004). For our purposes it is not necessary to argue either for or against Vergilian authorship of the Ciris. Rather, it is important only to observe that Melville more than likely believed it to be an authentic text.

262

chapter seven

continued to compose such poetry because he felt constrained by inspiration, passion, and by his own native inclinations. Perhaps, above all, he cultivated this literary art out of pure pleasure and, with regard to the Psalms, the prospect of providing new insight into the sacred text of scripture.51 His nephew described him as being “inflamed with the sacred love of the Muses” and reposing “in the embraces of Minerva.”52 In addition to Melville’s constraining artistic impulses which compelled him to continue composing Latin verse even when deprived of all writing materials, his defiant Neo-Stoicism may also account, in part, for his poetic activity. Defeated in the eyes of many and silenced by his imprisonment, Melville exhibited an almost uncontrollable urge to continue writing Latin poetry. Perhaps resolved that his release would never be secured and that he would live out the remainder of his days in the Tower, Melville turned inward toward contemplation and upward in spiritual devotion. His Psalm paraphrases, written during his confinement, represent the clearest expression of this inward and upward movement. His Neo-Stoicism, while providing a way in which he dealt with his circumstances, did not preclude his constraining impulse to express himself and register his dissent. Prior to his imprisonment in the aftermath of the 1604 Hampton Court Conference and the events surrounding the famous meeting at Whitehall in 1606, Melville had defiantly expressed himself in splenetic mockery. While such poetry was intended to strengthen the resolve of his own constituency and provide some degree of consolation, it also served as a catharsis, a way to deal with his own frustrations and bitter disappointments. Exhibiting his clever wit and playful spirit, Melville in 1610 composed his “most celebrated” poem of this period on the subject of the clandestine marriage of Sir William Seymour to Lady Arabella Stuart.53 Writing of the cause of their respective imprisonments and exploiting a pun on the word for “altar,” Melville maintained that they both had been incarcerated for the sake of an ara. Seymour’s beautiful “Ara” (“Ara-/bella”) had been the cause (“causa”) of his imprisonment while Melville’s verses on the sacred altar (“Ara sacra”) had been the cause of his. Due to its pithiness and the different versions which have survived, it was in all ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 93. ╇ Ibid., 126–133; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 230. 53 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 67. Melville wrote: “Communis tecum mihi causa est carceris, Ara-/ bella tibi causa est; Araque sacra mihi.” 51 52



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

263

likelihood first circulated orally. In addition to being sent to Seymour, the epigram was broadly distributed throughout the English court and remains an example of the “seria mixta jocis” in which Melville frequently delighted.54 When Melville’s strict restrictions were lifted, he enjoyed the visitation of a number of distinguished scholars and was consulted by several prominent Protestant theologians on the continent regarding the controversies of the day.55 In addition to his correspondence with both the professor of divinity at Franeker and later a prominent CounterRemonstrant Sibrandus Lubbertus and Jacobus Arminius, Melville conferred with the Scottish theologian John Cameron.56 Having earned his MA at the University of Glasgow in 1599, he proceeded to the continent where he served first as a regent, teaching Latin and Greek at the Collége de Bergerac in Bordeaux and subsequently philosophy at the University of Sedan at the invitation of the duc de Bouillon. Monsieur L. Capell wrote of Cameron that “he spoke Greek extempore, with the same easines and elegancy that other persons speak Latine.”57 He also spent time studying in Paris, Geneva, and Heidelberg before returning to Bordeaux where he became a minister in 1608. As a good friend of Casaubon, Cameron was indebted to him for providing assistance in securing his appointment as a regent at the Collége de Bergerac.58 It is unclear whether Melville had met Cameron prior to their conference in the Tower. While at Glasgow, Cameron certainly would have heard the stories of Melville’s years as principal during the 1570s, and he may have even heard accounts of his fellow countryman during his two

╇ Ibid; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 223. ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 98–99. Melville was in communication with the bishop of Norwich and Latin satirist Joseph Hall whose Virgidemiarum was first published in 1597. On Hall see Kenneth Fincham and Peter Lake, “Popularity, Prelacy and Puritanism in the 1630s: Joseph Hall Explains Himself,” English Historical Review, 111 (Sep., 1996), 856–881. 56 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 200–202, 258; Frederick Shriver, “Orthodoxy and Diplomacy: James I and the Vorstius Affair,” EHR, 85 (Jul., 1970), 451–452; Melville, Melvini epistolae, 112–113. On Cameron see G. Bonet-Maury, “John Cameron: A Scottish Protestant Theologian in France,” Scottish Historical Review, 7 (1909–1910), 325–345; Brian G. Armstrong, Calvinism and the Amyraut ‘heresy’: Protestant Scholasticism and Humanism in Seventeenth-Century France (Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1969), 6–12, 31–70. 57 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers, II:II, 86. 58 ╇ H. M. B. Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654 (Glasgow, 1917), 170–178. 54 55

264

chapter seven

years’ study in Geneva.59 It is also possible, given their common nationality and connection with the University of Glasgow, that Casaubon, who had corresponded with Melville and who was on close terms with Cameron, had encouraged the young scholar to cultivate a relationship with him.60 However they first came to know each other, we do know from Melville’s correspondence that they “hotly engaged” in a theological dispute over the discipline of the Church but were forced prematurely by the Tower bell to terminate it.61 In addition to Cameron, Melville made the personal acquaintance of Isaac Casaubon during his confinement. In 1601 Casaubon had initiated correspondence with him, expressing his sincere admiration of his piety and erudition and imploring him to publish more of his work for the greater benefit of the Church.62 By the time of his visitation his attachment to Reformed Protestantism had changed as he had developed a sympathy for Catholicism during his service at the French court to the Catholic convert Henri IV.63 Following Henri’s assassination in 1610, Casaubon, concerned for his personal safety, left Paris and traveled to England at the invitation of archbishop Richard Bancroft.64 During Casaubon’s residence in London he frequently visited Melville in the Tower and enjoyed critical discussions of both the authors of antiquity and the sacred scriptures. Despite their apparent theological differences, Melville found in Casaubon a humanist and classical scholar who shared his commitment to the values and methods embodied in the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance. Their shared humanistic culture enabled Melville to set aside whatever theological differences he may have had with Casaubon so that they might together enjoy critical discussions on both the sacred and profane authors of antiquity. Among those with whom Melville corresponded during his confinement in the Tower was the professor of divinity at the Academy of Saumur, Robert Boyd of Trochrig. Educated under Robert Rollock and Charles Ferme at the newly founded University of Edinburgh where he 59 ╇ Isaac Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni epistolæ (Rotterdam, 1709), 129. Casaubon confessed that he first heard of Melville while he was in Geneva from Beza, Henri Estienne, and Jacques Lect. 60 ╇ Ibid., 129, 253–254. 61 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 112–113. 62 ╇ Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni epistolæ, 129. 63 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 258. 64 ╇ L. J. Nazelle, Isaac Casaubon: sa vie et son temps (1559–1614) (Genève, 1970), 147–168.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

265

received his MA in 1594, Boyd proceeded to the continent where he lived in Tours, Bordeaux, and Poitiers before settling in Montaubon where he served as professor of philosophy in its Protestant university. After a brief period in Verteuil where he was ordained to the ministry, he accepted a position at Saumur which enabled him to serve as both a pastor and a professor of philosophy in its Protestant academy. In 1608 he was appointed professor of divinity and served in that capacity until he was recalled by King James to Scotland to become principal of the University of Glasgow.65 In 1627 he published a portion of his Latin poetry under the title Hetacombe Christiana.66 On 23 October 1610 Melville wrote to Boyd on the subject of the ordination of the Scottish bishops according to the Anglican form.67 John Spottiswoode of Glasgow, Andrew Lamb of Brechin, and Gavin Hamilton of Galloway all were consecrated by the bishop of London in 1610.68 Despite the acts “of these three Grampian wolves” (“De tribus lupis Grampianis”), in his letter Melville twice addressed Boyd with the affectionate designation “my sweetest Boyd” (“suavissime Bodi”) and encouraged him to persevere in fortitude and wisdom in his labors.69 While this correspondence is admittedly limited in revealing much about their relationship, it does further disclose the extent of Melville’s extensive network of Protestant humanists. Notwithstanding Melville’s remarks regarding his “idle life” in prison, he kept himself occupied with the composition of Latin poetry, extensive correspondence as represented in the Melvini epistolae, frequent visitations from learned scholars, and other literary projects.70 In addition to his Psalm paraphrases and Prosopopeia apologetica, he probably composed during his time in the Tower a metrical paraphrase of the epistle to the Hebrews.71 One of his earliest theological compositions consisted of his refutation of the 1608 sermon delivered by George Downham on the occasion of the consecration of James Montagu, 65 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers, II:I, 7–8, 12–13, 30–31, 52–58, 117–122. 66 ╇ Robert Boyd, Roberti Bodii a Trochoregia hecatombe Christiana, hymnus ekatoustrophos, ad Christum servatorem (1627). 67 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers, II:I, 90–91. 68 ╇ Calderwood, History VII, 150–151. In response to this act, Melville wrote De tribus lupis Grampianis,indelebile charactere ad Tamesin notatis. 69 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers II:I, 90–91. 70 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 173–175. 71 ╇ Andrew Melville, “Paraphrasis epistolæ ad Hebræos Andreæ Melvini,” British Library, MS Harley 6947.9; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 463.

266

chapter seven

bishop of Bath and Wells. Later published that year under the title Two Sermons, Downham’s work defended the jure divino character of episcopacy and provoked a bevy of replies of which Melville’s was but one. The fact that the tract had been liberally distributed in Scotland may account for Melville’s initial urgency in formulating a response.72 When he was not otherwise engaged, he spent time tutoring two of his relatives, a nephew of his deceased brother and the third son of his nephew James.€Both boys had been named after Melville and both received from him a thorough grounding in the ancient languages, philosophy, and classical literature.73 Thus, when he was not writing Latin poetry, composing Latin and Greek letters, drafting versions of his other literary projects, or consulting with fellow scholars, Melville was actively involved in serving as a classical tutor just as he had done in Poitiers, Montrose, and Berwick. After spending almost two years in prison, toward the end of 1608 Melville submitted to the King a collection of Latin verse he had composed, hoping to obtain royal favor and secure his release. In conjunction with his poetic overture and at the urging of archbishop Spottiswoode, he also wrote a conciliatory letter to the English Privy Council, apologizing and seeking its forgiveness for the offense caused by his verses on the royal altar. Despite these pacific gestures, his release€was denied. Prior to these conciliatory efforts, an unsuccessful attempt had been made by the Protestants of La Rochelle in late 1607 to secure his freedom and obtain his services as professor of Divinity in their College. Uncertain how to proceed, the King denied the request and kept Melville under confinement.74 Archbishop Spottiswoode’s suggestion that Melville return to Scotland and assume a post at the University of Glasgow was probably unappealing to both Melville and the King though for different reasons.75 The scrutiny and oversight which would have been imposed upon him was as much a deterrent to him as

72 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 1–8; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 206; Kenneth Gibson, “Downham, George (d. 1634),” ODNB, Vol. 16 (Oxford, 2004), 801. 73 ╇ Melville, JMAD, xxxvii; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 213–214. 74 ╇ De la Boderie, Ambassades, II, 430, 433; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 198– 199. On La Rochelle during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries see Judith Pugh Meyer, “La Rochelle and the Failure of the French Reformation,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 15 (Sum., 1984), 169–183. 75 ╇ Calderwood, History VII, 46.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

267

his potential subversiveness was to the King.76 Not surprisingly, Spottiswoode’s recommendation was rejected. Finally, in February 1611, after considerable political negotiations and diplomatic efforts, Melville received a letter from the French Protestant and Maréchal de France, Henri de la Tour d’ Auvergne, duc de Bouillon, informing him that he had secured his release and was offering him a position at the University of Sedan.77 While we cannot say definitively that Melville’s release may be attributed to the intercession of the French Reformed minister in London, Aaron Cappel, we do know that he supported the duc’s petition and that he had personal reasons for doing so, namely a brother studying at the University of Sedan. An even more likely reason for Melville’s release at this time may be found in the duc himself. As a Huguenot grandee, the duc de Bouillon represented power and influence, as well as political opportunity. Always looking to strengthen his political position and religious alliances, James may have viewed this request as an ideal opportunity to solidify further his Protestant ties in France.78 When the Queen Regent, Marie de’ Medici received the news that the duc de Bouillon had applied for Melville’s release without first consulting with the French court, she opposed the effort. After the duc offered his apologies for disregarding the royal protocol, the spurious grounds upon which the release was opposed were dropped and the humanist was freed.79 Of course, James’ decision to release Melville was made upon the condition that he neither preach nor publish but restrict himself to reading and teaching in the University.80 This Melville was able to adhere to for only a short period of time. In 1618 he composed a collection of aphorisms, which were anonymously published in Amsterdam in 1622 under the title De adiaphoris. Scoti TOU TUXONTOS aphorismi. It is also possible that he may have written or contributed to a work published in 1622 in London, entitled Scoti TOU TUXONTOS paraclesis

╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 68. ╇ Calderwood, History VII, 153; Melville, Melvini epistolae, 78, 173. On Henri de la Tour d’ Auvergne, duc de Bouillon see Mack P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion 1562– 1629 (Cambridge, 1995), 174. Sir James Sempill was apparently involved in helping to mitigate Melville’s imprisonment. 78 ╇ Charles G. D. Littleton, “Cappel, Aaron (1560–1620),” ODNB, Vol. 10 (Oxford, 2004), 2; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 262–263. 79 ╇ De la Boderie, Ambassades, V, 517, 530–533, 541. 80 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 264. 76 77

268

chapter seven

contra Danielis Tileni Silesii paraenesin. Thus, even from distant Sedan, Melville continued to write Latin verse and maintain a correspondence regarding the ecclesiastical politics of Scotland.81 Henri’s success in persuading James to release the aging scholar coincided with a number of developments in both Britain and the continent, which made the request and negotiations of the duc favorable. During the year 1610, when Henri first applied for Melville’s release, one of Melville’s most implacable opponents archbishop Bancroft died.82 When George Home, Earl of Dunbar, died in January 1611 shortly after Bancroft, the opposition, which had effectively prevented Melville’s release, was now removed.83 Moreover, with the official reassertion of Episcopal authority in the Church of Scotland by the 1610 Glasgow Assembly, James may have considered the struggle over episcopacy won and Melville no longer a serious threat. James may have also desired that this staunch Calvinist and humanist employ his remaining energy and efforts in combating the theology of Conrad Vorstius.84 While it is impossible to identify any single factor as solely responsible for Melville’s release, it is much more likely that all of these combined created an atmosphere favorable to his liberation. The Melvini Epistolae During Melville’s imprisonment and banishment he carried on an extensive correspondence with his life-long companion, fellow humanist, and beloved nephew, James. Without question this relationship was the most intimate and enduring of his life and was, arguably, the one which most profoundly shaped him as a Renaissance humanist. While the early influences of Buchanan, Ramus, Scaliger, and Beza should not be underestimated in shaping the humanistic trajectory of Melville’s life, there was no other scholar who knew him as well or who had developed such intimate bonds of friendship as his beloved nephew. Among those who

╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 72. ╇ Calderwood, History VII, 151. 83 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 262; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 68. 84 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 68. On the history of episcopacy in Scotland see D. G. Mullan, Episcopacy in Scotland: the History of an Idea, 1560–1638 (Edinburgh, 1986). On Vorstius see Shriver, “Orthodoxy and Diplomacy: James I and the Vorstius Affair,” 449–474. 81 82



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

269

comprised the vast network of Melville’s humanist associations and those with whom he forged intimate ties, such as Arbuthnot, Smeaton, Johnston, and Hume of Godscroft, the scholar with whom he corresponded the most and revealed his triumphs as well as his insecurities and anxieties was James Melville.85 Acquainted in childhood, their relationship spanned five decades from 1574 until his nephew’s death in 1614 and may be best characterized as that of a father and son. James addressed him in his letters as “my loving father”86 while Andrew referred to him as “my dearly beloved son.”87 Although separated by approximately eleven years and despite their remarkable resemblance, oftentimes confused as brothers, the deep and abiding love Melville expressed for his nephew and the reverence and affection James consistently exhibited toward his uncle was virtually indistinguishable from paternal love and filial admiration.88 Addressing his uncle with the words, “O matchless Melvin, honour of our lands,” James succinctly expressed his profound esteem for his imprisoned uncle and his heartfelt grief over his mistreatment and confinement.89 85 ╇ For a broader consideration of friendship in the early modern period see Alexandra Shepard, Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2003); Elizabeth A. Foyster, Manhood in Early Modern England Honour, Sex, and Marriage (London and New York, 1999); Tim Hitchcock and Michèle Cohen (eds.) English Masculinities 1660– 1800 (London and New York, 1999). 86 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 133; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 460. When Melville was banished to France, James wrote the following poetic verse as a tribute to his esteemed and beloved uncle: “No marvell Scotland thow be like to tyn, / For thou hes lost thy honey and thy wine, / Thy strength, thy courage, and thy libertie, / Went all away, when as he went from thee. / In learning, upright zeal, religion trew, / He maister was, but now bid all a Dieu, / Be mute, you Scottish muses: no more verse! / But sobbing say, Le mond est à l’envers.” 87 ╇ Melville, JMAD, xxxiii–xxxiv. Melville wrote the following in honor of James: “Chare nepos, de fratre nepos, mihi fratre, nepote / Charior, et quicquid fratre nepote queat / Charius esse usquam; quin me mihi charior ipso, / Et quicquid mihi charius esse queat. / Consiliis auctor mihi tu, dux rebus agendis, / Cum privata, aut res publica agenda fuit. / Amborum meus una animo, corde una voluntas, / Corque unum in duplici corpore, et una anima. / Una ambo vexati odiis immanibus, ambo / Dignati et Christi pro grege dura pati. / Dura pati, sed iniqua pati, sub crimine ficto, / Ni Christum, et Christi crimen amare gregem. / Qui locus, aut quæ me hora tibi nunc dividat, idem / Hic locus, me hæc eadem dividat hora mihi. / Tune tui desiderium mihi triste relinquas? / Qui prior huc veni, non prior hinc abeam? / An sequar usque comes? Sic, sic juvat ire sub astra, / Tecum ego ut exul eram, tecum ero et in patria. / Christus ubi caput, æternam nos poscit in aulam, / Arctius ut jungat nos sua membra sibi. / Induviis donec redivivi corporis artus / Vestiat, illustrans lumine purpureo. / Æternum ut patrem, natumque et flamen ovantes, / Carmine perpetuo concelebremus, Io.” 88 ╇ Ibid., 15. 89 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 459. James Melville wrote: “O matchless Melvin, honour of our lands! / How are we grieved and gladit with thy bands! / We grieve to

270

chapter seven

In writing to James on the occasion of his departure for France in 1611, Melville expressed his profound affection for his nephew, addressing him as “my dear son, my dear James” and declaring, “I retain you in my heart, nor shall anything in this life be dearer to me, after God, than you.”90 The intimate bonds of their friendship, which they built over the course of their lives, was broken only by death and has been uniquely captured in the Melvini epistolae. The Melvini epistolae largely consists of Andrew’s and James’ correspondence, beginning with the former’s imprisonment to the year 1613 when Melville resided in France at the University of Sedan and his nephew, recently remarried, resided in Berwick-on-Tweed in northern England.91 Written partly in James’ own hand, the collection of letters belonged to him and were before his death on 19 January 1614 entrusted into the care of a certain Sir Patrick Hume of Ayton.92 The collection of letters is of immense historical value, providing insight into Melville’s activities and relationships during his imprisonment and banishment while also opening a window into his humanity and intellectual culture. The style of the letters is familiar, yet urbane. Composed in Latin instead of Middle Scots, Melville and his nephew frequently referred to and quoted from the most elegant literary figures of ancient Greece and Rome. Indeed, Melville frequently included in his correspondence his own Latin poetry, which he had composed for his own literary recreation.93 The subject matter of the Melvini epistolae reflects the humanist’s Â�station in life as well as his intellectual, literary, and religious interests. see sic men comitt as thee, / We joy to hear how constantly thou stands / Pleading the cause of God cast in thy hands / Against this bastard brood of Bischoprie, / Whais ydle rites, pompe, pryd and graceless glore, / Justlie thou haits; hait still, hait more and more. / Happie, thryse happie, Melvine, thoch in warde, / Men loves thy cause, God has it in regarde, / No prisone can thy libertie restraine / To speak the right, but flatterie or but faired, / Pure, plain, not mingled, maimed or impaired. No brangled titles can thy honour staine, / Thy tell-treuth fervent freedom wha would blame, / ‘Wrays but his awin fals, faint, or servile shame.” 90 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 189; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 274–275. 91 ╇ The full title of the manuscript is: “D. Andreæ Melvini epistolæ Londino e turri carceris ad Jacobum Melvinum Nouocastri exulantem scriptæ, cum ejusdem Jacobi nonnullis ad eundem. Annis supra millesimū sexcentessimo octavo, nono, decimo, undecimo. Item Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ Oratio Apologetica ad Regem An. 1610, mense Aprilis”; Robert Pitcairn, “Prefatory Notice” in JMAD, xv. Cf. also M‘Crie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 463. Correspondence with Alexander Hume, John Forbes, and Patrick Symson are also included in this collection. 92 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 463. 93 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 107.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

271

The letters exhibit a conversational tone and remarkable variety, discussing everything from ecclesiastical and political affairs, personal updates, and inquiries to advice on love and marriage, suggestions on comforting the grieving, and religious controversies.94 They reveal his views on the problems facing Scotland and the Kirk, as well as his observations on life and his view of the world. Indeed, a careful examination of the Melvini epistolae discloses a side of the humanist not portrayed in many of the presbyterian histories of the early seventeenth century. They are, for that reason, indispensable to any critical reassessment of Melville’s role in the growth of humanism in Scotland. Perhaps the most obvious feature of the Melvini epistolae is the candid portrayal of Melville’s humanity. In contrast to McCrie’s mythical and heroic portrait, depicting him as “a stranger to fear”95 who possessed “invincible fortitude”96 and courage, which “never once failed him nor did his spirits suffer the least depression,”97 the correspondence during these years reveals a far different image. The Melvini epistolae disclose to the reader the portrait of a man who was subject to all of the frailties, fears, and insecurities of humanity — a man susceptible to discouragement and dejection. On 13 November 1610 Melville wrote to his nephew, informing him of the duc de Bouillon’s application for his release.98 Despite his resolute declarations regarding his call to duty and moral obligations, he expressed despondency and even a tone of despair in light of the triumph of what he called “pseudo-episcopatum in Britannia.”99 In a letter dated 14 November 1610 Melville again expressed hesitation, uncertainty, and doubt with respect to his future, candidly confessing to James, “Until my fate is fixed, I cannot be free from anxiety.”100 Uncertain of the vicissitudes of banishment and the unexpected challenges which would confront a man in the twilight of his life, he expressed his apprehension and insecurity regarding his future. Far from McCrie’s idealized depiction, the Melvini epistolae disclose the image of ╛╛╛╛94 ╇ J. W. Binns, “The Letters of Erasmus” in T.A. Dorey (ed.), Erasmus (London, 1970), 60–61. By employing a conversational tone, Melville was writing in the humanistic tradition of Erasmus who wrote: “Talem oportere esse dictionem Epistolae, quales sunt amicorum inter ipsos confabulationes.” And “Epistolam … colloquium est inter absentes.” ╛╛╛╛95 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 243. ╛╛╛╛96 ╇ Ibid., 324. ╛╛╛╛97 ╇ Ibid., 203. ╛╛╛╛98 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 173–174. ╛╛╛╛99 ╇ Ibid., 173. 100 ╇ Ibid., 175; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 266.

272

chapter seven

a man who fully experienced and conveyed to his most intimate friend the fears and anxieties which occupied his thoughts. A careful reading of the Melvini epistolae also reveals a man who indulged his volatile temperament with fits of anger born out of personal offense. In contrast to McCrie’s depiction of Melville as expressing only “wholesome and friendly anger” and maintaining that “on no occasion was it ever excited by a sense of personal injuries, which he meekly bore and forgave,” the letters reveal a different picture.101 In a passage in which he openly admitted that he had been injured by both the commonwealth and the church, Melville confessed upon seeing two of his former students who had become advocates of episcopacy that “[t]he sight of them made my mouth water; and I poured forth my indignation on them in my usual manner.”102 Given his admission that he had been personally injured by both the state and church and his evident feelings of betrayal toward his former pupils who now supported episcopacy, it€is difficult to sustain the opinion that Melville always expressed righteous indignation and never succumbed to his baser nature. On the contrary, Melville’s words and actions reveal a certain vindictiveness toward those whom he felt had personally disappointed and perhaps even betrayed him in abandoning his agenda for reform.103 If the Melvini epistolae reveal the frailties and insecurities of a man who was infamous for his brashness and notorious for his explosive anger and volatile disposition, then the letters also disclose a remarkable capacity for affection, tenderness, and loving concern. After receiving encouraging letters from Hume of Godscroft and William Welwood, Melville exhibited the genuine bonds of affection when he wrote to his nephew: “I keep all my friends in my eye: I carry them in my bosom: I€commend them to the God of mercy in my daily prayers.” Unwilling to involve his friends in trouble by writing to them on controversial subjects, Melville exhibited an authentic concern for their well-being and prosperity.104 After receiving the news of Scaliger’s death in January

101 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 325–326. M‘Crie wrote: “But his anger, even when it rose to its greatest height, was altogether different from the ebullitions of a splenetic or rancorous mind.” 102 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 54; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 257. 103 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 325–326. Writing of Melville’s anger, he adds: “And there was always about it an honesty, an elevation, a freedom from personal hate, malice, and revenge, which made it respected even by those who censured its violence, or who smarted under its severity.” 104 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 325; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 298.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

273

1609, he confessed to James: “What a loss, in respect of piety and erudition, has the church sustained by the death of my friend the great Scaliger€… How can I but be touched and deeply affected for the loss of such a person, and of others whom I loved in this world, and who have gone before me!” For Melville the death of Scaliger was much more than merely the loss of one Europe’s greatest humanists and scholars of the northern European Renaissance. Scaliger’s death was an enormous loss to the Church and yet Melville’s words indicate the profound sense of personal loss he experienced with the reception of this news.105 His sympathy and compassion were not limited only to distinguished scholars, such as Scaliger and Johnston, but were expressed with great tenderness and sensitivity to less conspicuous individuals. After receiving the news of the death of a certain Myrrha, Melville wrote, “I cannot refrain from bewailing the death of my friend Myrrha … How dearly I€loved her you know … Often has the decease of that choice woman drawn tears from my eyes since I received the afflicting tidings.”106 Much like the loving attachment Melville had formed with his young pupil in Poitiers, the son of “an honourable councellar” of Parliament who was tragically killed during the seige of the city in 1569, so Melville had grown deeply attached to Myrrha confessing that he had dearly loved her and mourning her death with tears. Just as “[t]hat bern gaed never out of his hart; bot in teatching of me [James Melville], he often rememberit him with tender compassion of mynd,” so Melville “often” remembered Myrrha with a similar, if not more profound, feeling of compassion and deep personal loss.107 Not surprisingly Melville’s most profound words of affection were reserved for his dearest and most intimate companion, his beloved nephew, James.108 Upon his death in 1614, Melville mourned his loss in an epitaph written in his honor. He referred to him as “My dear nephew, the nephew of my brother, to me a brother, my precious nephew (“Chare nepos, de fratre nepos, mihi fratre, nepote / Charior”).109 These simple

╇ Ibid., 76–77; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 221–222. ╇ Ibid., 293, 303; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 288. McCrie suggests that “Myrrha” referred to in this letter was the sister of the minister of Leith John Murray. 107 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. 108 ╇ Pitcairn, “Prefatory Notice” in JMAD, xxxiii–xxxiv. 109 ╇ Ibid. Melville wrote: “Chare nepos, de fratre nepos, mihi fratre, nepote / Charior, et quicquid fratre nepote queat / Charius esse usquam; quin me mihi charior ipso, / Et quicquid mihi charius esse queat. / Consiliis auctor mihi tu, dux rebus agendis, / Cum privata, aut res publica agenda fuit. / Amborum meus una animo, corde una voluntas, / 105 106

274

chapter seven

yet moving words succinctly convey something of the depth of Melville’s affection and love which he bore for his nephew. James had during his life willingly reciprocated, expressing his own profound love for his uncle, father-figure, former colleague, fellow humanist, and intimate companion. Upon receiving the news of his uncle’s banishment and his intention to move to Sedan, James confessed, “My soul fails and melts within me, and the tears rush into my eyes at the thought, of which I€cannot get rid, that I shall see your face no more.”110 The same tender compassion and love which Melville had expressed repeatedly to his nephew over the course of their long relationship, he himself received in these poignant words by his nephew. In addition to disclosing the complexity of Melville’s humanity by revealing his human frailties as well as his capacity for tender love, compassion, and deep affection, the Melvini epistolae also reveal his playful spirit and wry sense of humor. After reflecting upon the profound loss to the Church, the society of letters, and himself as a result of the death of Scaliger, Melville shifted the tone of his letter from one of somber reflection to playful jocularity. Confessing his loquacity as an old man, he needled James’ romantic pursuits by reminding him that he, too, was once rumored to have been in love and that the present seemed a particularly fitting time to indulge in youthful romance and to imitate his nephew “as closely as possible.” He added, ‘You know what I mean. Dictum sapient.”â•›’111 Melville’s ability to shift quickly in his letters from grave and weighty matters to trivial and humerous ones reflects the intimacy and familiarity he enjoyed with James as well as their mutual delight in dry humor and playfulness. Melville’s correspondence during these years also provides a unique perspective from which to view the Protestant, humanistic culture in which he lived and to which he made rich contributions. Written largely Corque unum in duplici corpore, et una anima. / Una ambo vexati odiis immanibus,€ ambo / Dignati et Christi pro grege dura pati. / Dura pati, sed iniqua pati, sub crimine ficto, / Ni Christum, et Christi crimen amare gregem. / Qui locus, aut quæ me hora tibi nunc dividat, idem / Hic locus, me hæc eadem dividat hora mihi. / Tune tui desiderium mihi triste relinquas? / Qui prior huc veni, non prior hinc abeam? / An sequar usque comes? Sic, sic juvat ire sub astra, / Tecum ego ut exul eram, tecum ero et un patria. / Christus ubi caput, æternam nos poscit in aulam, / Arctius ut jungat nos sua membra sibi. / Induviis donec redivivi corporis artus / Vestiat, illustrans lumine purpureo. / Æternum ut patrem, natumque et flamen ovantes, / Carmine perpetuo concelebremus, Io.” 110 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 184; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 268. 111 ╇ Ibid., 78; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 222.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

275

in Latin with generous digressions in Greek and interlarded with Hebrew, the letters exhibit a philological prowess and belong to the broader European humanistic tradition embodied by Erasmus and Budé. Like Budé, Melville conceived of philology as “the essence of humanism” and the linguistic character of his correspondence underscores that belief.112 His Latin prose and poetry, combined with frequent and liberal recourse to Greek and Hebrew, reinforce his humanistic belief in the intrinsic value of such studies and in the cultivation of the imitatio veterum of the Renaissance.113 He often juxtaposed classical quotations, references, or allusions with sacred texts and theological assertions. In responding to James’ melancholy letter dated 25 November 1611 in which he informed his uncle of the death of John Johnston and the ruinous state of the Kirk,114 Melville wrote from Sedan in May 1612, citing the apostolic injunctions from I Thessalonians 5.16 and Romans 12.12 and reminding his nephew of the truth of God’s providence and deferred retribution. Instead of appealing again to sacred scripture in an effort to justify his remarks regarding deferred retribution, Melville quoted from Pindar, invoking the truth of the couplet and maintaining that nothing “pronounced from the tripod of Apollo” was ever more true than the words of the Greek poet.115 Blending classical quotations and references with moral imperatives from scripture, Melville tacitly acknowledged the value of the pagan authors of antiquity, even while expressing the distinctively Christian character of his humanism. Likewise, in advising his nephew regarding two marriage prospects, he adroitly juxtaposed the classical adages Γλαυκας εις Αθηνας (“Owls to Athens”) and Sus Minervam (“A pig teaching Minerva”) along with references to Solon, Seneca, Varro, Vergil, and Scipio Africanus as well as the reassurances of divine sovereignty and providential direction in his decision making.116 Without any hint of incompatibility or incongruity, Melville frequently employed such classical tropes in communicating his own Christian theology. 112 ╇ David O. McNeil, Guillaume Budé and Humanism in the Reign of Francis I (Genève, 1975), 61, 78. On Erasmus’ letters see J. W. Binns, “The Letters of Erasmus” in T.A. Dorey (ed.), Erasmus (London, 1970), 55–79. 113 ╇ Rebecca W. Bushnell, “George Buchanan, James VI and neo-classicism” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994), 93, 94. Sixteenth-century Scotland was a “multi-lingual culture” consisting of Middle Scots, Gaelic, English, and Latin. 114 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 281. 115 ╇ Ibid., 290; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 285. 116 ╇ Ibid., 83.

276

chapter seven

The Melvini epistolae also discloses the portrait of an aged scholar who never experienced the abatement of his love of the studia humanitatis or the cultivation of bonae litterae. In an effort to avoid a “listless and inert” old age, he gave himself in the twilight of his academic career to, as he put it, “those studies to which I devoted myself in the younger part of my life.”117 He never abandoned his love of Latin poetry, nor did he ever forsake the Muses. The Latin poetry of the Renaissance coupled with his favorite classical poets were his constant companions during his years of exile in Sedan. Indeed, he confessed to his nephew, “I try daily to learn something new,” referring to his humane studies, and quoted from Palingenius, declaring, “the very mention of whose name gives me new life.”118 The letters during these years underscore the extent to which his humanism had become a constitutive feature of his intellectual makeup. The classical culture of sixteenth-century Europe, which had profoundly shaped the trajectory of his intellectual life, remained a dominant influence even during his later years so that we may say that he was a humanist from first to last. From his earliest days at Montrose under Marsilier to his finals days at Sedan, Melville was an intellectual whose elite, humanistic culture informed his value system, as well as his view of life. Integrated with his Protestant culture, it became as much a part of his daily life as his spiritual exercises. As good humanists, Melville and his nephew relished wit and delighted themselves in clever repartee, timely aphorisms, and classical wisdom. Repeatedly throughout their correspondence they included poetic verse from Latin authors, especially Vergil, as well as specimens of their own creation.119 In explaining his present leisure to his uncle, James quoted from Vergil’s Bucolica ecloga I and the words of the shepherd “O Meliboeus, God has made this leisure for us” (“O Melibœe, Deus nobis hæc otia fecit”).120 Similarly, Melville on 26 September 1609 wrote to his nephew reflecting upon divine providence and faithfulness and quoted in support of his sentiments lines from books IV and VII of Vergil’s Aeneid.121 Without question “the prince of Latin poets,” Vergil, occupies

╇ Ibid., 295; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 287. ╇ Ibid; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 287. 119 ╇ Ibid., 115. 120 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 127. Cf. Vergil, P. Vergili Maronis opera Vergil with Introduction and Notes (Oxford, 1892), 1. 121 ╇ Ibid., 45–46, 91–93. Cf. Vergil, P. Vergili Maronis Opera Vergil with Introduction and Notes, 154, 216. In James’ response to this letter he included lines from Buchanan’s 117 118



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

277

a prominent place in the Melvini epistolae as a common classical authority to which both of the Melvilles made frequent recourse.122 While the Melvini epistolae reveals the portrait of a genuine and thoroughgoing humanist, the collection also reveals an individual who possessed a sincere concern for the liberties of the Kirk and a resolute opposition to what he termed “pseudo-episcopacy.”123 In January 1610 Melville wrote to his nephew, providing his own assessment of the methods and tactics of the advocates of episcopacy. Under the guise of “the mask of antiquity, and the pretext of royal authority,” Melville maintained that they “torture the passages of scripture” beyond recognition. By employing “injunctions, proclamations, edicts, and pretended judicial processes,” he declared, “they break through every barrier, and pervert all laws, human and divine.”124 Despite his rather bleak evaluation of the advocates of episcopacy, Melville remained sanguine that the truth would prevail when he wrote, “[I] look for victory over the Â�prostrate audacity of our adversaries through the divine blessing.”125 When he was subsequently informed of the 1610 Glasgow Assembly and the Â�reassertion of episcopal authority in Scotland, he responded with grief, distress, and anger.126 Although he had in another letter to his nephew applied to€himself and his colleagues the words of the historian Sulpicius Severus, he continued to hold out hope that the truth would triumph in the end.127 The University of Sedan Having received 60 pounds from the King at the time of his liberation, in April 1611 Melville was finally released from the Tower and set sail for Psalm Paraphrases. Cf. George Buchanan, Georgii Buchanani paraphrasis Psalmorum Davidis poetica (Glasgow and Edinburgh, 1797), 27, 69. Compare also James Melville’s 1609 letter to Patrick Symson. 122 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 215. 123 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 134. 124 ╇ Ibid., 134–135; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 235. 125 ╇ Ibid., 135; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 235–236. 126 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 253–254; William Scot, An Apologetical Narration of the State and Government of the Kirk of Scotland since the Reformation (Edinburgh, 1846), 248. 127 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 27, 135; Nathaniel Lardner, Works of Nathaniel Lardner (London, 1838), 520. Melville quotes Sulpicius Severus: “qua tempestate omnis fere sacro Martyrum eruore orbis infectus est: quippe Certatim gloriosa in certamina ruebatur; multoque avidius tum martyria gloriosis mortibus quærebantur, quam nunc episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur. Nullis unquam magis bellis mundus exhaustus est: neque majore unquam triumpho vicimus quam quum decem annorum stragibus vinci non potuimus.”

278

chapter seven

Sedan where he intended to assume his new post as professor of divinity at the University.128 After a brief stay in Rouen, he proceeded to Paris where he enjoyed the company of his fellow Scot and friend, George Sibbald. Using the words of Horace, Sibbald had written a letter to Robert Boyd of Trochrig dated 14 May 1611, expressing his earnest desire to see Melville.129 During his brief stay in Paris, Melville had the opportunity to visit with “one of the leading theologians in France,”130 Pierre Du Moulin, who was later to join the faculty at Sedan in the early 1620s.131 Upon leaving Paris, Melville traveled to Sedan where he commenced his labors at the newly founded University. Founded in 1578 by Guillaume Robert de la Marck, duc de Bouillon, the University of Sedan received generous support from his successor Henry de La Tour d’Auvergne, duc de Bouillon, and supported professorships in law, philosophy, and humanity as well as in theology, Hebrew, and Greek.132 Despite such firm support from the duc de Bouillon and€the National Synod, by 1611 the University’s enrollment had diminished considerably compared with its sister university at Saumur. According to one estimate, in 1606 the University at Saumur numbered 128 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 68; Melville, Melvini epistolae, 188–190. 129 ╇ Robert Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers and Most Eminent Ministers of the Church of Scotland Vol. II Pt. I (Glasgow, 1834), 97; Christopher Smart, The Works of Horace translated into Verse with a prose interpretation Vol. II (London, 1767), 93. Sibbald wrote to Boyd referring to Melville as “my good master” and comparing himself with “mater Horatiana” quoted from L. 4. Ode 5 Ad Augustum in Q. Horatii Flacci Carminum: “Ut mater juvenem, quem Notus invido / Flatu Carpathii trans maris æquora / Cunctantem spatio longius annuo / Dulci distinet a domo, / Votis omnibusque et precibus vocat, / Curvo nec faciem littore demovet: / Sic desideriis quæro fidelibus, &c.” Sibbald’s text differs from Smart’s by substituting the word “quæro” for “icta.” 130 ╇ W. Brown Patterson, “James I and the Huguenot Synod of Tonneins of 1614” Harvard Theological Review, 65 (1972), 242. 131 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers, II:I, 102; H. M. B. Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654 (Glasgow, 1917), 133. On Pierre Du Moulin see Lucien Rimbault, Pierre du Moulin, 1568–1658: un pasteur classique à l’age classique étude de théologie pastorale sur des documents inédits. (Paris, 1966); Brian G. Armstrong, ‘The changing face of French protestantism: the influence of Pierre du Moulin,’ in Robert V. Schnucker (ed.), Calviniana: ideas and influence of Jean Calvin, Vol.€10 (1988), 131–149; “Pierre du Moulin and James I: the Anglo-French programme,” in M. Magdelaine and others (eds.), De l’humanisme aux lumières: Bayle et le protestantisme en l’honneur d’Elisabeth Labrousse, (Paris, 1996), 17–29. 132 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 279–280. On Henry de La Tour d’Auvergne see Jacques, Marsollier, Histoire de Henry de La Tour d’Auvergne, duc de Bouillon; ou l’on trouve ce qui s’est passé de plus remarquable sous le regnes de François II, Charles IX, Henry III, Henry IV, la minorité & les premieres années du regne de Louis XIII / par M. Mar (Paris, 1719).



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

279

approximately 400 students. By 1612 the enrollment at the University of Sedan amounted to less than a third of the student body at Saumur. On 20 November 1612 a certain student at Sedan, Monsieur De Laun, wrote to Boyd of Trochrig who was at the time teaching at Saumur: “The number of students here [Sedan] is very small, and will not be near the third part of those with you.”133 Similarly, Du Moulin had expressed his concern to Boyd in a letter dated 29 May 1611 that Melville might be disappointed by the small number of students enrolled at the University.134 Despite Du Moulin’s suggestion that Melville’s and Tilenus’ sympathy for the views of Johannes Piscator was a hindrance to increasing student enrollment at Sedan,135 it is very probable in light of the University’s condition that Melville was brought in to help reverse its fortunes as he had done at Glasgow over thirty years earlier. While the circumstances surrounding the University of Sedan in 1611 were, in a number of important respects, quite different from that of Glasgow in 1574, it was, nevertheless, a struggling institution in need of resuscitation. Perhaps the duc hoped that by bringing such a prominent humanist, scholar, and religious reformer to his University it might emerge as a leading center of Reformed Protestantism. Certainly the duc’s invitation and Melville’s decision to go to Sedan was in keeping with a well-established pattern of Scottish scholars who had traveled to the continent to serve in the Protestant academies in France.136 Like John Cameron, Walter Donaldson, and Arthur Johnston, to name a few, Melville had been sought by the duc de Bouillon to teach in the University of Sedan. Unlike his younger counterparts, he brought to Sedan extensive experience and a distinguished European reputation€ as an elegant Latinist, distinguished philologian, and erudite divine.€Teaching in Paris, Poitiers, Geneva, Glasgow, and St Andrews ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers, II:I, 105. ╇ Ibid., 102. 135 ╇ Ibid. On Melville’s position regarding the views of Piscator see James Kerr Cameron, (ed.), Letters of John Johnston, c. 1565–1611, and Robert Howie, c.1565-c. 1645 (Edinburgh and London, 1963), lx. Du Moulin wrote: “I have seen here and have enterteaned Monsr. Melvil. He hath much knowledge. I have been told that he is of the opinion of Piscator, but I have not sounded him in that point least I should rufle him, for he is represented here as a little warm (un peu cholère). He is at present in Sedan. I wish he may not be uneasy there, because of the small numbers of the scholars at present there. It is said that the sentiments of Piscator, which he and Monsr. Tilenus hold, hinder many students to go to Sedan, and you know the Regulation of the last Nationall Synod.” 136 ╇ Ibid., II:I, 27; II:II, 86. 133 134

280

chapter seven

and becoming “the dominant figure in Scottish theological education,”137€Melville’s decision to go to Sedan brought credibility, as well as the promise of attracting students from all over Europe as he had in Scotland.138 When Melville arrived in Sedan, he was immediately placed in the company of the Aberdonian Walter Donaldson, who had first served as professor of natural and moral philosophy and, subsequently, as principal of the University. While it has been suggested that Donaldson probably graduated from King’s College, Old Aberdeen, we do know that he matriculated at the University of Heidelberg on 11 September 1599 where he studied law. During his time in Heidelberg, he probably made the acquaintance of his fellow Scot Arthur Johnston. In 1603 both men received invitations from the duc de Bouillon to come to Sedan to teach at the University.139 In addition to Donaldson’s labors at the University, he subsequently served as pastor of the Protestant church in Sedan.140 The neo-Latin poet and graduate of King’s College John Leech141 once described Donaldson as a poet laureate. In addition to the composition of Latin verse, Melville found in Donaldson a love of the Greek language and its literature, a field in which the latter lectured at Sedan.142 In addition to Donaldson, Melville was joined by another Scot John Smith, who served as professor of philosophy, and by Jacques Cappel, who taught Hebrew at the University.143 While there is some evidence for McCrie’s claim that Cappel “lived on terms of great intimacy with Melville,” even calling the Scot “a most learned man and most dear colleague” (“vir doctissimus et collega charissimus”),144 we do know that the aged humanist honored the Frenchman by composing two poems 137 ╇ John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 288. 138 ╇ Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654, 58–59. During his time in St Andrews, Melville attracted students from France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Prussia, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Switzerland. On the French academies see Frances Amelia Yates, The French Academies of the Sixteenth Century (London, 1947). 139 ╇Nicola Royan, “Johnston, Arthur (c. 1579–1641),” ODNB, Vol. 30 (Oxford, 2004),€347. 140 ╇ John Durkan, “Donaldson, Walter (bap. 1574),” ODNB, Vol. 16 (Oxford, 2004),€517; G. Toepke (ed.), Die Matrikel der Universität Heidelberg Vol. I (Heidelberg, 1884), 198. 141 ╇ On Leech see Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940), 163–171. 142 ╇ Durkan, “Donaldson, Walter (bap. 1574),” 517. 143 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 280; Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan,192. 144 ╇ Ibid., 280–281.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

281

for his 1613 Historia sacra et exotica ab Adamo. In these poems Melville celebrated Cappel’s worth as an author and even praised King James as€“l’ami des Muses.”145 Donaldson, Smith, and Cappel were joined by the€professor of divinity Daniel Tilenus, who shared with Melville the lecturing responsibilities, each lecturing three times per week. While Tilenus lectured on the loci communes of theology, Melville delivered lectures on the sacred literature of the canon.146 With a penchant for controversy, Tilenus, during Melville’s time in Sedan, entered into a disputation with Pierre Du Moulin over the dual natures of Christ.147 In addition to this controversy, Tilenus also changed his position with regard to Arminian theology. Opposing Arminianism earlier in his career, he later adopted it.148 In a letter dated 20 November 1611 Monsieur De Laun observed that, while Melville and Tilenus essentially agreed on the doctrine of justification, they did not agree on the issue concerning the absolute decree of reprobation or on the interpretation of Romans 7.149 According to Wodrow, in addition to espousing Arminian theology and hierarchical prelacy, he opposed Presbyterianism. When it was discovered that Tilenus had abandoned his Calvinism and was teaching Arminian theology instead, Melville joined with his colleagues at Sedan in opposing him.150 After Tilenus left 145 ╇ Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan,192, 198–199. Melville wrote: “Clara serenati lux orta a lampade Phœbi; / Clarior a Phœbi luce, Jacobe, tui. / Temporibus dum picta suis tibi surgit ab ævo / Historiæ antiquæ fabrica structa recens: / Gesta verecundis opulentas singula dictis; / Quæ veri e sacris fontibus hausta refers, / Linguarum et rerum gnarus: quæ gnava vetustas / Prodidit innumeris pœne voluminibus / Quæ tibi ruspanti cunctis potiora favissis / Gaza hæc tecta diu mente manuque tua est. / Flava triumphato tibi tempore adorea parta / Gemmea de veri luce corona venit.” In the second poem he wrote: “Quo nunc μουσαγετη, πολυίστορι, ποικιλομήτη / Παμβασιλει, veterum lecta ανάλεκτα virum? / Quem toto nihil orbe latet: qui cognitus orbi / Vera animata loquens Bibliotheca sibi. / Hæc causa hic cur Rex hoc dingus munere tanto, et / Res tanti hæc Regis digna patrocinio? / Quin spe reque ingens, divinaque indole Princeps / Carolus hoc ultro munere lætus ovat.” On Melville’s poetry during this period see: Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiæ Pœtarum Scotorum, Vol. II (Amsterdam, 1637), 76–81; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville, II, 310; William Duguid Geddes (ed.), Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston Vol. II The Epigrammata and Remaining Secular Poems (Aberdeen, 1895), 129; Andrew Melville, Viri clarissimi A. Melvini musae et p. Adamsoni vita et palindoia (1620), 35; J. W. Binns, Intellectual€Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writers of the Age (Leeds, 1990), 68. 146 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers II:I, 105. 147 ╇ Patterson, “James I and the Huguenot Synod of Tonneins of 1614,” 250. 148 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 281, 304. 149 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers II:I, 105. 150 ╇ Ibid.,106. Cf. also Daniel Tilenus, De disciplina ecclesiastica brevis et modesta disseratio ad ecclesiam Scoticam (Aberdeen, 1622); Parænesis ad Scotos, Genevensis disciplinæ zelotas (London, 1620).

282

chapter seven

the University, Melville may have contributed to a work entitled Scoti TOU TUXONTOS paraclesis contra Danielis Tileni Silesii paraenesin, which was designed to refute his former colleague’s defense of the Five Articles of Perth.151 Shortly after Melville arrived in Sedan, he was confronted with the fallout of Tilenus’ teaching at the University.152 A number of students who disagreed with Tilenus eventually decided to leave Sedan altogether and to transfer to Saumur.153 In light of the declining numbers and an appealing offer to become the private tutor to the sons of Monsieur de Barsack, Thesaurer of the Parliament of Dauphiné, Melville in November 1612 accepted the position, but, shortly thereafter, found it undesirable and returned to his post at the University.154 As a humanist Melville had served as a private tutor throughout his life. He often turned to this work when the circumstances surrounding his labors at the university were either impossible, as in the case of Poitiers and Berwick, or unavailable and undesirable, as in the case of Montrose, London, and Sedan. The situation surrounding Tilenus at Sedan had apparently degenerated to the point where Melville not only contemplated leaving but, in fact, left the University. Perhaps his decision to leave suggests that, as a man in his mid 60s, he simply lacked the energy, which he had possessed in a seemingly boundless supply in his younger years at Glasgow, needed to revive a struggling university. Whatever his precise reasons for leaving Sedan, he very quickly came to the conclusion that the University was where he belonged and returned to it. While in Sedan Melville continued a correspondence with a number of prominent intellectuals on the continent among whom were the French statesman and governor of Saumur, Philippe du Plessis-Mornay, the Dutch jurist and theologian, François Gomaer or Franciscus Gomarus, and the classical scholar and poet, Daniel Heinsius, who, like

151 ╇ Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 72. Cf. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan, 104. 152 ╇ On Tilenus see Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan, 95–117. 153 ╇ Melville, Melvini epistolae, 292; Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers II:I, 105. On 20 November 1612 De Laun wrote of Tilenus: “Tilenus is in such reputation in this place that every body who does not chim in with him in all things is reconed ignorant.” 154 ╇ Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers II:I, 107. Melville traveled to Greenoble in Dauphiné where he resided with Barsack and assumed the responsibility of tutoring his three sons. With a salary of 150 crowns, he was given the option of going to Die if a suitable academic vacancy was available.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

283

Gomarus, took an active part in the 1618–1619 Synod of Dordrecht.155 Associated with Joseph Scaliger, Heinsius as a young scholar cultivated an avid interest in the classical languages and published numerous editions and commentaries on Vergil, Terence, Theocritus, Seneca, Ovid,€ Horace, Aristotle, and Hesiod among others.156 As a famous poet€and scholar connected with the University of Leiden, he contributed to the fields of classical philology, history, politics, and literary criticism, as well as to biblical translation and commentary.157 Prior to his appointment in 1612 as professor of history and politics at Leiden, he had been made professor extraordinarius of poetry in 1603 and professor extraordinarius of Greek in 1605. In addition to his collection of Dutch poetry, which he published in 1616 under the title Nederduytsche Poemata, he composed Latin verse, looking to classical models for poetic techniques, imagery, and ideas. His commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics is said to have “established Heinsius’ reputation as an Aristotelian literary critic of renown.”158 It is not surpising given their shared interests, intellectual culture, and common commitment to Reformed Protestantism that Melville and Heinsius established a correspondence. Nor is it surprising, as fellow humanists, that they were as drawn together by their common cultural values as they were by their shared religious commitments. The one had become as much a constitutive part of their intellectual makeup as had the other. Arthur Johnston The most accomplished and gifted Latin poet with whom Melville was associated during his years in Sedan was Arthur Johnston. Known as “the Scottish Ovid”159 and regarded by Samuel Johnson as second only to 155 ╇ Ibid., 53; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 304. On Heinsius see Baerbel BeckerCantarino, Daniel Heinsius (Boston, 1978); Paul R. Sellin, Daniel Heinsius and Stuart England (New York and London, 1968). On Du Plessis-Mornay see Raoul Patry, Philippe du Plessis-Mornay, un Huguenot homme d’Etat (1549–1623) (Paris, 1933). On Gomarus see Carl Bangs, Arminius: A Study in the Dutch Reformation (Nashville, 1971). In addition to these individuals, Melville carried on a correspondence with Robert Durie and John Forbes of Alford. 156 ╇ Robert G. Collmer, “Review: Daniel Heinsius by Baerbel Becker-Cantarino,” South Central Bulletin, 39: 1 (1979), 21. 157 ╇ William Gilbert, “Review: Daniel Heinsius and Stuart England by Paul R. Sellin,” Renaissance Quarterly, 23:1 (1970), 87. 158 ╇ Baerbel Becker-Cantarino, Daniel Heinsius (Boston, 1978), 143. 159 ╇ J. W. L. Adams, “Scottish Neo-Latin Poetry” in P. Tuynman, G.C. Kuiper, and E. Keßler (eds.), Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Amstelodamensis (München, 1979), 7.

284

chapter seven

Buchanan among the Latin poets of Scotland, Johnston is said to have mastered the elegiac couplet, making the Ovidian distich his own.160 Throughout his entire poetic career with few exceptions, he employed the elegiac meter and adroitly cultivated rhythms and forms of expressions akin to Ovid.161 However, unlike his ancient counterpart, Johnston avoided altogether the Amores or love poetry and delighted himself in themes of a more local or national character.162 Indeed, while it has been remarked that his poetry at points lacks inspiration or sincerity,163 its most distinctive characteristic is its urbanity.164 What Johnston’s poetry lacked in inspiration, he more than compensated for with his own literary elegance, simplicity, and poetic polish.165 Born in Caskieben, Aberdeenshire, about the year 1579, Johnston appears from his Encomia urbium to have been educated at a school in Kintore and subsequently at the University of Aberdeen.166 Despite Adams’ assertion that he was educated at Marischal College,167 given his later appointment as rector magnificus, in all likelihood he studied and was graduated from King’s College.168 Upon the completion of his Â�studies at Aberdeen, he traveled to Germany where he studied and taught at Casimir College in Heidelberg. At the invitation of Henri de la Tour, the duc de Bouillon in 1603, Johnston relocated to the University of Sedan where he served first as a regent and subsequently as professor of logic and metaphysics.169 While continuing to hold his chair in Sedan, JohnÂ� ston made two visits to Italy where, in the year 1610, he was awarded the degree Doctor of Medicine from the University of Padua. In this same year he was appointed professor of physic at the University of Sedan.170 160 ╇ William Duguid Geddes (ed.), Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston Vol. I The Parerga of 1637 (Aberdeen, 1892), xv. 161 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 173. 162 ╇ James W. L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry a Critical Survey (London, 1955), 90; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 173. 163 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 181. 164 ╇ Adams, “Scottish Neo-Latin Poetry,” 7. 165 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 181. 166 ╇ Royan, “Johnston, Arthur (c. 1579–1641),” 346–347; T. D. Robb, “Arthur JohnÂ� ston€ in his Poems,” Scottish Historical Review, 10 (Apr., 1913), 287; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 173. The traditional year of his birth, 1587, is incorrect given his presence in Heidelberg in 1601 and the inscription on Johnston’s portrait in the possession of Marischal College, the University of Aberdeen. T. D. Robb conjectures that he was born in 1577. 167 ╇ Adams, “Scottish Neo-Latin Poetry,” 6. 168 ╇ Geddes, Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston I, xxi. 169 ╇ Royan, “Johnston, Arthur (c. 1579–1641),” 347. 170 ╇ Robb, “Arthur Johnston in his Poems,” 287–288.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

285

During his time abroad, in addition to traveling throughout Italy and Germany he visited Denmark, England, and Belgium among other€countries. Yet despite his broad travels and study in Germany and Italy, he spent the majority of his time on the continent in France at the University of Sedan.171 In 1622 he left the University and returned to Aberdeen€where he composed some of his most elegant Latin verse.172 Johnston was appointed by King James medicus regius, a title which, though devoid of content, he employed in his 1625 elegy in honor of the€monarch.173 Writing on a wide variety of subject matter, Johnston composed poems on the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War, the Queen of Bohemia, a lawsuit with Malines, letters to his Scottish friends, the succession to the earldom of Mar, and the Aberdeenshire tragedy on the burning of Frendraught.174 His earliest poems include a criticism of the physician George Eglishem, who had attacked Buchanan’s 1566 Psalm paraphrases, as well as the poems Nicrina and Querelae Saravictionis et Biomeae in which the author’s imitation of Ovid is evident.175 In 1618 he published Προπεμπτικόν ad … principem Ludovicum comit. Palatinum on the occasion of Prince Louis, Count Palatine’s visit to Sedan.176 Upon his return to Aberdeen, he published at the press of Edward Raban in 1632 his Parerga, as well as his Epigrammata.177 The following year he published Latin translations of the Song of Solomon and the seven penitential psalms. In 1637 Johnston published a complete Latin version of the Psalms, as well as Delitiae poetarum Scotorum to which he made substantial contributions.178 His Encomia urbium embodies elements of both praise and lament and may be taken as illustrative of Johnston’s ardent nationalism.179 While Bradner is correct in pointing out the historical irony of Melville’s and Johnston’s friendship given their ecclesiastical predilections, there can be no question that, despite their differences, they were united by a common literary culture and set of humanistic values which ╇ Geddes, Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston I, xxii. ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 173. 173 ╇ Royan, “Johnston, Arthur (c. 1579–1641),” 347; Robb, “Arthur Johnston in his Poems,” 288. 174 ╇ Geddes, Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston I, xvi–xvii. 175 ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 91; Royan, “Johnston, Arthur (c. 1579– 1641),” 347; Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 174. 176 ╇ Binns, Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, 68. 177 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 173. 178 ╇ Royan, “Johnston, Arthur (c. 1579–1641),” 347. 179 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 181. 171 172

286

chapter seven

shaped and defined their intellectual life.180 In addition to enjoying literary fellowship with David Wedderburn, Patrick Forbes, Robert Baron, John Scot of Scotstarvet, and William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, Johnston participated in a literary circle in Sedan consisting of Melville and their colleague Tilenus.181 McCrie’s claim that Johnston “lived on a footing of intimacy with Melville” is supported by a number of poems written by Melville, Tilenus, and Johnston.182 These poems, while discussing such trivial matters as a melon sent to Tilenus (Ad Andream Melvinum, de melone ad Tilenum misso),183 suggest that these Latinists thoroughly delighted themselves in such playful and diverting literary recreations. They reveal not merely an impressive linguistic and literary dexterity but a thorough knowledge of antiquity. Quoting from the ancients, such as Pindar’s well-known maxim “water is best” (“ἄριστον ὕδωρ”),184 and appealing to such classical figures and objects as Paris, Bacchus, Phasis, and Falernian wine, these poets evidenced their attachment to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome and their ability to employ such figures in the composition of their own Latin verse.185 Melville’s relationship with Johnston may be viewed as unexpected when considered from the standpoint of disposition, age, and ecclesiastical orientation. Whereas Johnston was “by nature … a courtier,” who sought the favor of kings and nobles, Melville was a thorough-going academic, who was simply out of place when disassociated from the university.186 Even Melville’s service as a court poet of sorts during the 1590s

╇ Ibid., 173. ╇ Geddes, Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston I, xvii. 182 ╇ Geddes, Musa Latina Aberdonensis II, 128–131. Cf. also Robb, “Arthur Johnston in his Poems,” 288. 183 ╇ Ibid., 129. Johnston wrote to Melville: “Melonem sine labe dedi, Melvine, Tileno, / Primitias horti deliciasque mei. / Te quoque consimili donassem munere, verum / Non bene conveniunt haec melimela seni. / Cinnama sunt potius stomacho quaerenda senili, / Et piper, et vetulo prompta Falerna cado. / Vel quas Euganeis mittit de collibus uvas / Villicus, et quae de matribus ova calent. / Et lepus, et perdrix, et nondum gramine pastus €/ Hoedulus, et quae de Phaside venit avis. / Haec tibi donari debebant munera; brumae / Frigora qui vincit, melo cicuta foret.” 184 ╇ Ibid., 130. Johnston wrote to Tilenus: “Melvino fors melo sapit, quia friget uterque, / Aut nimium huic friget nil, nimiumve calet. / Si λἱαν ὑγρὰ tibi sunt munera nostra, palatum / Non sapit. An nescis ἔστιν ἄπιστον ὕδωρ?” 185 ╇ Ibid. Tilenus wrote to Johnston: “Non miror, tumidas si exarsit femina in iras, / Visa tibi haud pomi munere digna, Pari. / En similem ob causam simili iecur uritur aestu, / Quem barba, haud soboles sat docet esse virum. / Hoc miror: tu caussam aperi, Ionstone, latentem, / Cur vocet ἐσθλὰ sibi, quae λίαν ὑγρὰ mihi.” 186 ╇ Bradner, Musae Anglicanae, 173. 180 181



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

287

definitely had its limits, especially when seeking such favor meant compromising the ecclesiastical rights of the Kirk. Separated by approximately 34 years, Melville belonged to an older generation of humanists and had been shaped intellectually by a different generation of Renaissance scholars. Whereas Melville spent more than half his life studying and teaching divinity and was actively involved in the ecclesiastical politics of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Johnston “shunned the strife of politics and theology” and sought less controversial outlets for his artistic expressions.187 Indeed, the urbanity of his poetry has been identified as “more characteristic of the eighteenth century than of his own troubled times.”188 When viewed from these perspectives, the two men seem an unlikely combination. Yet there remain a number of similarities, which account for why they were able to forge such an intimate association despite their differences. In addition to being drawn together by their common nationality, both men were cosmopolitan in their outlook on life, having pursued their education abroad, enjoyed extensive travels throughout Europe, and spent a significant portion of their life on the continent. Both men treasured the classical culture of ancient Greece and Rome and actively cultivated the art of Latin poetry. Indeed, Johnston favored the senior humanist with Latin and Greek poems addressed to him and in honor of him.189 In his poem De Andrea Melvino Johnston highly extolled Melville’s abilities and accomplishments, referring to him as “the Caledonian swan” (“Caledonio cygno”) and maintaining that he possessed “a thousand charms” (“Veneres mille”).190 Both valued the literary art of translating the Psalms into Latin verse. Endeavoring to improve upon Buchanan’s work, Melville produced translations of only a handful of Psalms while Johnston composed a complete translation, which has been hailed as “a mere literary tour de force.”191 Both Johnston and Melville were thorough-going classicists who looked to the ancient models of Ovid and Vergil respectively in the composition of their own Latin verse. Avoiding slavish imitation, both poets contributed richly to the growing body of neo-Latin literature written by Scottish authors during the early modern period. Indeed, it is safe to conclude that, were ╇ Robb, “Arthur Johnston in his Poems,” 289. ╇ Adams, “The Renaissance Poets (2) Latin,” 90. 189 ╇ Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan, 187–189. 190 ╇ Geddes, Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston II, 54. 191 ╇ Robb, “Arthur Johnston in his Poems,” 289. 187 188

288

chapter seven

they not united by a common humanistic culture and drawn together by a common set of Renaissance values, it is difficult to imagine how they could ever have forged as intimate an association as they did. Conclusion Melville’s period of exile and banishment marks a significant chapter in his development as a humanist and in the unfolding of the Renaissance in Scotland. His imprisonment and subsequent banishment, brought an unceremonious end to his academic, literary, and ecclesiastical labors in Scotland. However, its unintended consequence was to remove him from the provincial confines of St Andrews and to place him in a broadÂ�er intellectual arena where he might cultivate new humanist contacts and develop further his network of scholars committed to the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance. Despite his confinement in the Tower, Melville continued to form new relationships with some of the leading humanists of the European Renaissance and Reformation, such as Isaac Casaubon and John Cameron, while developing older contacts with such friends as Robert Boyd of Trochrig. Notwithstanding the King’s attempts to silence him by means of the strict restrictions of his confinement, Melville continued to resort to the Muses, even using his shoebuckle as a writing implement and the walls of his cell as a literary canvas. When these unnecessarily harsh Â�restrictions were finally lifted, the poet composed a number of Psalm paraphrases, a defense of himself entitled Prosopopeia apologetica, a refutation of€George Downham’s 1608 sermon on the jure divino character of episcopacy, a collection of Latin verse intended for the King, and, probably during this period, a metrical paraphrase of the epistle to the Hebrews. His cultivation of the art of Latin poetry during his imprisonment is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in his distich on the clandestine marriage of Sir William Seymour to Lady Arabella Stuart. Maintaining an extensive correspondence with a wide variety of intellectuals, such as Sibrandus Lubbertus, Jacobus Arminius, Alexander Hume, John Forbes, and Patrick Symson, his closest associate and the€humanist who contributed perhaps more any other to his development during these years was his nephew James. Not only was James his€Â�dearest and closest friend and colleague but he was the humanist who, more than any other, provided a creative literary outlet for his uncle’s Latin and Greek correspondence, as well as his Latin poetry.



england and france: london and sedan (1607–1622)

289

Their Â�correspondence during these years, as embodied in the Melvini epistolae, was the single most important venue for the expression of Melville’s elite, humanistic culture. Bound together by their common commitment to Reformed Protestantism, the two men were united by a common intellectual culture of European humanism, which cherished the ancient languages and literature of Greece and Rome, promoted the latest developments of the New Learning of the Renaissance, and cultivated the art of Latin poetry. A careful examination of the Melvini epistolae provides an important corrective to many of the idealized and mythical portraits of Melville. In contrast to the one-dimensional, simplistic, and reductionistic portraits of the humanist, the Melvini epistolae candidly discloses a much more nuanced, even contradictory, image of Melville’s humanity. In contrast to McCrie’s hagiographical portrait, the image that emerges from the Melvini epistolae is that of a man who was at times discouraged, dejected, despondent, fearful, uncertain, insecure, and anxious. In contrast to the characterization of his righteous indignation, the Melvini epistolae reveals his explosive anger and volatile disposition after feeling betrayed by his former students. Moreover, these letters clearly depict a scholar whose humanism had become a constitutive feature of his intellectual makeup. Far from a listless and inert old age, Melville devoted these years of imprisonment and exile to the same type of humanistic pursuits he had cultivated earlier in his life. When he was not teaching at the University of Sedan, he was serving as a private tutor, laboring in the art of Latin poetry, corresponding with numerous literary figures and divines, and cultivating those humane studies in which, as a youth, he had taken so much delight. The very art form which had provided a pretext for his imprisonment and banishment he continued to cultivate until his death in 1622. While his impact at the University of Sedan does not appear to have approximated what he accomplished so rapidly at Glasgow and, to a much more modest extent, at St Mary’s, his presence at Sedan only served to elevate the institution in the eyes of those who cherished both Reformed Protestantism and the cultivation of the bonae litterae of the Renaissance. Although Melville appears to have died in relative obscurity at Sedan with his place of burial unknown, it seems fitting that he lived out the remainder of his days in that country which many years before had so profoundly shaped and determined his own intellectual and cultural formation.

Chapter eight

ANDREW MELVILLE AND THE RENAISSANCE IN SCOTLAND Melville the Humanist When Andrew Melville died in 1622, the Scotland he left behind was far different from the Scotland of his youth. For one, the religious revolution known as the Scottish Reformation of 1560 had irrevocably altered the religious and political life of Scotland, changing it from a Catholic, pro-French state in which Protestantism was illegal to a Protestant, proEnglish government in which Catholicism had been outlawed.1 While humanism and the New Learning had flourished to some extent in late medieval Scotland in places like King’s College, Old Aberdeen,2 the Reformation brought with it increased access to much of the New Learning of the Renaissance, and Scottish scholars, like Melville, were eager to import it from the continent. When Melville was a youth, Greek was so little known in Scotland that even his own regents at St Andrews were unable to read the ancient Greek authors in their original language. When Melville died, the study of Greek in the Scottish universities had made significant progress, in part, because of his own reforming efforts at Glasgow and St Andrews.3 Indeed, it would be difficult to juxtapose a more dramatic contrast than the Greekless regents of St Andrews during the early 1560s with the accomplished Greek scholar and ‘Aberdeen Doctor’ John Forbes of Corse who was appointed Professor of Divinity at King’s College in 1620.4

╇ Alec Ryrie, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation (Manchester and New York, 2006), 1–10, 196–204. 2 ╇ John Durkan, “Early Humanism and King’s College,” Aberdeen University Review, 48 (Spr., 1980), 259–260; Leslie J. MacFarlane, “King’s College Aberdeen: The Creation of the Academic Community, 1495–1532,” AUR, 56 (Aut., 1995), 211; Roger A. Mason, “Scotching the Brut: Politics, History and National Myth in Sixteenth-Century Britain” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), Scotland and England 1286–1815 (Edinburgh, 1987), 64. 3 ╇ James Melville, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842), 30; John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 263. 4 ╇ Peter John Anderson, (ed.), Officers and Graduates of University and King’s College Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1893), 68; Edward Gordon Selwyn (trans. and ed.), The First Book 1

292

chapter eight

When Melville was a youth prior to his entrance to university, Scotland’s national security remained precarious with the ever-present threat of invasion by her more powerful southern neighbor. During his reign Henry VIII had provided Scotland with ample evidence of his imperial ambitions and expansionist intentions.5 Certainly the Rough Wooings of the 1540s served as a vivid reminder of the lengths to which Henry was willing to go to realize his ambitions.6 From Melville’s youth the ‘Auld Alliance’ had provided Scotland with the protection she needed.7 By the time he was in his old age, Scotland had experienced a fundamental political reorientation. Not only had the Kingdom of Scotland been united with that of England and Ireland as a result of James VI’s accession to the English throne in 1603, but the king had solidified his position as monarch by consolidating his political power. While his acts surrounding the famous Perth Assembly of 1618 may have set in motion the events which ultimately led to the overthrow of episcopacy in Scotland in 1638, James VI’s reign provided Scotland with relative political stability and the conditions necessary for the flourishing of the New Learning.8 When Melville was born in 1545 Scotland possessed three medieval universities in St Andrews, Glasgow, and Old Aberdeen.9 By the time of his death two additional universities had been founded after the Reformation in Edinburgh and New Aberdeen. While Scotland’s population and financial resources could hardly justify the existence of three, let alone five, distinct universities including two within one mile of each other, the act of founding them indicated, in addition to local pride and sectarian differences, a resolute commitment to the dissemination of

of the Irenicum of John Forbes of Corse (Cambridge, 1923), 26. For a sample of Forbes’s Greek scholarship see John Forbes, Opera Omnia 2 Vols. (Amsterdam, 1702–03). Cf. also Henry R. Sefton, “Scotland’s Greatest Theologian,” AUR, 45 (Autumn, 1974), 348–352. 5 ╇ Ryrie, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation, 59. 6 ╇ Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings: Mary Queen of Scots, 1542–1551 (East Linton, 2000). 7 ╇ Elizabeth Bonner, “French Naturalization of the Scots in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries,” Historical Journal, 40 (Dec., 1997), 1085–1086. 8 ╇Ian B. Cowan, “The Five Articles of Perth” in Duncan Shaw (ed.), Reformation and Revolution (Edinburgh, 1967), 177; David Stevenson, The Scottiswh Revolution 1637– 1644: The Triumph of the Covenanters (Newton Abbot, 1973), 15. 9 ╇ For a detailed account of the early history of these medieval seats of learning see John Durkan, “The Scottish Universities in the Middle Ages, 1413–1560” (PhD Thesis, Edinburgh, 1959).



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

293

knowledge throughout the Kingdom of Scotland.10 To the extent that the New Learning penetrated intellectual circles in Scotland during the 1540s, it was the humanism of the generation of Desiderius Erasmus and Guillaume Budé. In contrast to this earlier form, the humanism which made inroads into the elite educated circles of the 1620s belonged to the generation of Joseph Scaliger and Isaac Casaubon. As a student of Buchanan, Melville had been the beneficiary of the earlier humanism, though it must be recognized that the humanism which left its indelible mark upon him was that which flourished during the 1560s and 1570s in France and Switzerland. The developments which occurred during the second half of the sixteenth and the first quarter of the seventeenth centuries permanently transformed Scotland’s religious, political, cultural, and intellectual life. As a humanist, an integral part of Scottish university life, and an ecclesiastical statesman, Melville was not immune to but was profoundly affected by these changes. Had the northern European Renaissance never made inroads into early modern Scotland and had his brother Richard never studied on the continent, Melville’s domestic education and intellectual development would have followed a qualitatively different trajectory. His earliest influences and those who were instrumental in cultivating a profound devotion to the New Learning, namely his eldest brother Richard and Pierre de Marsilier at Montrose, established the direction and character of his future studies on the continent. Melville’s academic pursuits in Paris, Poitiers, and Geneva reveal his deep-seated humanism and the extent to which the northern European Renaissance had profoundly shaped his intellectual development. He was from first to last a humanist whose life was devoted to the work of education and the promotion of the New Learning. His humanism informed every aspect of his intellectual life and was brought to bear in his university instruction and literary productions. Shaped by the humanism of the French Renaissance and such figures as Adrian Turnèbe, Joseph Scaliger, Jean Mercier, Jean de Cinqarbres, François Portus, and Corneille Bertram, Melville himself became a leading promoter of the New Learning upon his return to Scotland in 1574. From the standpoint of his service to the Scottish universities, he was€ indeed “a scholar’s scholar.”11 From his coordinating efforts with 10 ╇ Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, 1935),128. 11 ╇ John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 276.

294

chapter eight

Alexander Arbuthnot at Aberdeen to his work with Peter Blackburn and Thomas Smeaton at Glasgow to his practice of ‘table talk’ with his students and fellow faculty members, Melville labored with other scholars in the work of university reform and intentionally trained younger scholars to fill strategic positions in the University. The reform of the University of Glasgow was not the work of a single individual but rather a community of scholars led by Melville the Principal and supported generously by Glasgow’s archbishop James Boyd, Paisley’s minister Patrick Adamson, and the Privy Council.12 In addition to his nephew James, who became his most intimate humanistic companion and confidant, he prepared his nephew Patrick Melville to succeed James when the latter was relocated to St Andrews in 1580. Likewise, after having been trained by Melville and his nephew, Blaise Laurie was appointed to teach Greek at Glasgow while Peter Blackburn taught physics and astronomy. Blackburn had been the only regent at the University when Melville arrived in 1574 and was utilized primarily, at that time, to manage administrative affairs. It was only after Melville had lectured extensively and cultivated his practice of ‘table talk’ that Blackburn came to occupy a more strategic position of instruction in the University.13 To whatever extent it may be appropriate to identify a “Second Founder of the University of Glasgow,” Melville’s leadership in resuscitating the moribund institution during the 1570s certainly entitles him to serious consideration.14 Considered from the perspective of his literary productions, Melville was “a scholar’s scholar.” Unlike Arbuthnot who intentionally composed poetry in his native Middle Scots, Melville wrote Latin poetry not for the broader population but for an educated elite who could appreciate not merely classical tropes and figures but a witty distich, a satirical epigram, an inspiring ode, a poignant elegy, or a national epic.15 Some of Melville’s compositions were of a purely private nature and were intended to be circulated and read only by a select few. For example, his satirical epigram ridiculing the English Saint George while extolling the Scottish 12 ╇ Steven John Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland: Andrew Melville and the University of St Andrews 1560–1607,” (PhD Thesis, St Andrews, 2008), 68. 13 ╇ J.D. Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951 A Short History (Glasgow, 1954), 65, 69. 14 ╇ H.M.B. Reid, The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654 (Glasgow, 1917), 1. 15 ╇ Thomas McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. II (2nd edn., Edinburgh and London, 1824),€377.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

295

Saint Andrew was written for and delivered to his Scottish dining companions just prior to his incarceration in the Tower of London.16 Likewise, his epigram on the clandestine marriage of Sir William Seymour to Lady Arabella Stuart was, in all likelihood, first circulated orally being sent to Seymour and subsequently distributed throughout the English court.17 Intended for private reading, In aram Anglicanam ejusque apparatum, a stinging epigram on the altar of the Church of England, was only made public after it was surreptitiously obtained without the author’s consent and delivered to the King.18 Many other of his compositions, such as his national epic Gathelus (1602) or his elegies on Buchanan (1582), Arbuthnot (1583), and Smeaton (1583) not to mention his infamous Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria (1604) were designed for a much broader audience. Nevertheless, Melville’s poetry was intended for the enjoyment and benefit of other scholars and those who had been privileged to receive an elite education.19 Although he was not a prolific author, as a humanist in the tradition of Beza who had first established his literary reputation by publishing the Iuvenilia in 1548 Melville did distinguish himself as a skilled Latin poet.20 His services in 1590 at the coronation of Queen Anne of Denmark, in 1594 at the birth of Prince Henry, and in 1603 at the accession of James VI to the English throne clearly indicate that he served as “a kind of unofficial Latin Laureate to James VI.”21 Prior to Melville’s Στεφανισκιον, Principis Scoti-Britannorum natalia, and Votum pro Iacobo Sexto Britanniarum Rege, Melville had established his reputation as a young Latin poet in Geneva.22 In 1574 he had published his Carmen Mosis, which was reportedly so well received in Protestant circles that it

╇ Melville, JMAD, 706. ╇ James Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England (Cambridge, 2000), 67. 18 ╇ Andrew Melville, Viri clarissimi A. Melvini musae et P. Adamsoni vita et palindoia [sic] et celsae commissionis ceu delegatae potestatis regiae in causis ecclesiasticis brevis & aperta descriptio (1620), 24. 19 ╇ Andrew Melville, Pro Supplici Evangelicorum Ministrorum in Anglia ad Serenissimum Regem Contra Larvatam geminate Academiae Gorgonem Apologia, sive Anti-tami-camiCategoria (1620); Viri clarissimi, 6; Melville, JMAD, 140. 20 ╇ Kirk Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 82 (1991), 201; Robert D. Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” Church History, 44 (Jun., 1975), 170. 21 ╇ James W.L. Adams, “The Renaissance Poets: (2) Latin” in James Kinsley (ed.), Scottish Poetry: A Critical Survey (London, 1955), 81–82. 22 ╇ Melville, Viri clarissimi, 12. 16 17

296

chapter eight

left Melville’s literary audience “in hope of graitter warks.”23 His scholarly reputation and his fame as a Latin poet, which he first built on the continent, was further attested to by the correspondence of Isaac Casaubon in 1601 and the subsequent development of their relationship.24 Of course, his reputation as a scholar and Latin poet was recognized not merely by Protestants who shared his political views or his humanistic culture but by those who, such as James VI, often found themselves at odds with him. This regard may be seen most vividly in the King’s decision in 1587 to bring the celebrated French poet Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, who was visiting the country, to meet and hear Melville lecture at St Andrews. Melville’s poetry was the natural by-product of a humanist and classical scholar who felt constrained to express himself in Latin verse. The pure pleasure which he derived from poetic composition was rivaled only by the passion and inspiration which led him to write. James Melville once described him as being “inflamed with the sacred love of the Muses” and as reposing “in the embraces of Minerva.”25 As a literary artist, his poetry was the inevitable consequence of unleashing his own native creativity. His poetry served a number of different functions in his life and was unquestionably his preferred recreational activity. CompleÂ�menting his perusal of Vergil and other classical authors, Melville frequently resorted to cultivating the art of Latin poetry as a way of entertaining himself and others.26 During his imprisonment in the Tower, he wrote Latin poetry in an effort to keep his mind engaged, his poetic skills sharp, and himself entertained. Even the deprivation of all writing materials in the Tower did not prevent him from composing Latin verse. Using his shoebuckle as a writing implement and the walls of his cell as a literary canvas, Melville surrounded himself in a sea of Latin verse.27 Like Buchanan before him, he derived particular comfort from the Psalms during his imprisonment and composed Latin paraphrases of them hoping to provide new insights into their meaning.28 ╇ P. Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan Centre d’Influence française a propos d’un manuscrit du xvii siècle (Paris, 1913), 155, 163, 166; Melville, JMAD, 63; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 51, 89. 24 ╇Isaac Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni epistolæ (Rotterdam, 1709), 129. 25 ╇ Andrew Melville, Melvini epistolae, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh, 126–133; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville, II, 230. 26 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 46. 27 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 196–197. 28 ╇ Andrew Melville, Paraphrases des Psaumes I–II–XVI–XXXVI–CXXIX. MSS, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh. 23



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

297

His unrevised poetic specimens functioned as a kind of catharsis for the embattled humanist and were often included in his Latin correspondence to his nephew.29 Given the diverse range of emotional sentiment expressed and the oppressive circumstances which surround the historical composition of many of them, the Pslams possessed an obvious appeal to the oppressed and persecuted. While Melville’s Psalm paraphrases addressed the profound spiritual needs of the human condition, other of his poetic works, such as his Carmen Mosis and Job 3, exhibited an obvious politcial agenda. Still other poems, such as his epigram on archbishop Richard Bancroft, were sharply polemical and were designed to satirize his ecclesiastical opponents. Despite the rich literary diversity which constitutes the Melvillian poetic corpus, his Latin verse was largely inaccessible to the public and served a narrowly circumscribed community of humanists and scholars.30 Viewed from the perspective of his extensive network of fellow humanists, Melville was most certainly “a scholar’s scholar”. A brief survey of his numerous academic and literary circles reads like a veritable ‘who’s who’ list among the humanists of the second half of the sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries. From Buchanan, Ramus, Scaliger, and Beza to Casaubon, Hotman, Turnèbe, and Baudouin, €Melville developed over the course of his life an elaborate set of humanist connections. With some of these scholars, his relationship appears to have been limited to attending their public lectures, while with others he developed a personal, as well as a professional, association. With Portus he debated Greek pronunciation;31 with Scaliger he discussed text critical issues regarding classical Latin poetry.32 With Casaubon he corresponded and privately discussed both sacred and profane literature;33 with Buchanan he received private poetic instruction, planned the€reform of the university of Glasgow, and offered criticisms of the Historia.34 In 29 ╇ Andrew Melville, Melvini epistolae, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh, 87–90. 30 ╇ John Row, The History of the Kirk of Scotland, from the Year 1558 to August 1637 (Edinburgh, 1842), 236. 31 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 42. 32 ╇ Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983), 126–127. 33 ╇ Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni epistolæ, 129, 253–254. Melville, JMAD, 120; Grafton, Joseph Scaliger, 126–127; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 258–260. 34 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, 14 April 1572, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 27–28; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 15; Georgi Buchanani … Opera Omnia Vol. I ed. Thomas Ruddiman (Edinburgh, 1714–1715), 21; McFarlane, Buchanan, 240; Melville, JMAD, 45, 48, 120.

298

chapter eight

Geneva he wrote epigrams commending the Hebraic and Aramaic scholarship of Corneille Bertram,35 cultivated a close relationship with his kinsman, the accomplished Hellenist Henry Scrimgeour,36 and participated in a humanistic literary circle of which the German poeta laureatus Paulus Melissus was a leading figure.37 Whether he was in Paris, Geneva, Glasgow, St Andrews, London, Oxford, Cambridge, or Sedan, Melville developed an elaborate network of scholars based on their common humanistic culture, academic interests, and religious commitments. Sometimes, as in the case of John Rainolds, Isaac Casaubon, and Arthur Johnston, it was their common humanistic and intellectual culture which enabled them to transcend their religious differences and cultivate their friendship. During his exile in the 1580s, his imprisonment in the Tower, and his subsequent banishment to the continent, Melville forged these relationships in the midst of feelings of displacement, persecution, and isolation. Accustomed to an elaborate network of humanist associates and desiring community with those with whom he shared an intellectual affinity, Melville found common ground in the cultural milieu of European humanism. Sharing similar interests and belonging to an elite, educated society in northern Europe, their humanistic culture enabled them to bracket their religious disagreements and discuss profane and sacred texts, maintain a Latin correspondence, address one another in Greek and Latin verse, and enjoy text critical discussions of ancient texts. In sharp contrast to the image of Melville as the implacable and inveterate foe of Catholicism and Episcopalianism, his humanism enabled him to forge relationships which otherwise may never have developed. Early in Melville’s career, during his exile in England in the mid1580s, he cultivated a relationship with the prominent Oxford theologian and “architect of the Anglican polity” John Rainolds. While his trip to Oxford and Cambridge was motiviated in part by a desire to secure ecclesiastical support, Melville established a relationship with Rainolds based largely on their common humanist values, intellectual culture, and commitment to religious reform. Sharing a keen interest in the ╇ Cornelius Bertram, Comparatio grammaticæ Hebraicæ & Aramicæ (Geneva, 1574). 36 ╇ Andrew Melville, “De vita et obitu Clarissimi Viri Domini Henrici Scrimgeri, Jurisconsulti ac Philosophi peritissimi,” Bodleian, Cherry MS. 5. 37 ╇ Pierre de Nolhac, Un Poète Rhénan Ami de la Pléiade: Paul Melissus (Paris, 1923), 27; Melissi schediasmatum poeticorum, pars tertia. Secundo recognita, atque edita (Paris, 1586), liber vii, 226. 35



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

299

Greek language, the critical study of Aristotle, a command of ancient Hebrew, and a guarded enthusiasm for Ramist literature, Melville enjoyed an intellectual kinship with Rainolds and developed a profound esteem and appreciation of his scholarly work. It is quite probable given the significance of Rainolds’ critical study of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Melville’s own devotion to the study and use of Aristotle in his university instruction that he read Rainolds’ work. Despite their fundamental differences in ecclesiastical polity, their shared European humanism and common religious commitments provided a basis upon which their relationship developed.38 Similarly, in 1601 at the initiation of Isaac Casaubon, Melville began a correspondence with him, which was subsequently complemented by Casaubon’s frequent personal visits during his incarceration in the Tower. Although Casaubon initiated contact with Melville by both correspondence and visitation, there can be no question that Melville himself, in his isolation, craved such humanistic companionship. Casaubon had been moved to contact Melville based upon his scholarship, literary productions, and European reputation, which he learned of, in part, from the testimony of Beza, Henri Estienne, and Jacques Lect.39 Despite Casaubon’s growing sympathy for Catholicism, Melville cultivated a relationship with him which centered upon their common devotion to the Greek language and its literature, both sacred and profane. Avoiding those theological issues which divided them and being stirred by what one scholar has called “Christian Greek,”40 Casaubon enjoyed with Melville critical discussions of the Greek New Testament.41 His love of the Hebrew Psalter, which was Casaubon’s “constant companion,” most likely provided yet another basis upon which the two humanists formed their relationship.42 From the standpoint of their common European humanism, devotion to the Greek and Hebrew languages, and critical discussions of ancient texts, as well as their mutual Genevan friends and experience, it is not surprising that they were able to forge a relationship 38 ╇ James K. McConica, “Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford,” English Historical Review, 94 (Apr., 1979), 303; W. W. Fortenbaugh, “Review: John Rainolds’s Oxford Lectures on Aristotle’s Rhetoric ed. and trans, L. D. Green,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, 109 (1989), 235. 39 ╇ Casaubon, Isaaci Casauboni epistolæ, 129. 40 ╇ Mark Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614 (Oxford, 1892), 441, 455. 41 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 120; Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983), 126–127; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 258–260. 42 ╇ Pattison, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614, 441.

300

chapter eight

despite significant religious differences. It should be remembered that Melville had, during his student days in Poitiers, served as a private classical tutor to a Catholic household, demonstrating this same ability to bracket his religious differences and build relationships based upon a common commitment to European humanism.43 Following his banishment to the continent in 1611, Melville continued to cultivate some relationships with his fellow humanists based not upon religious agreements but a shared intellectual culture. Overcoming differences in disposition, age, and ecclesiastical orientation, Melville unexpectedly formed a rather intimate relationship with the Aberdonian Arthur Johnston and participated with him and Daniel Tilenus in a literary circle in Sedan.44 Unlike the English Rainolds and the Swiss born Casaubon, Melville shared with Johnston a common Scottish heritage and thus did not have the same barriers to overcome that he experienced in other relationships. However, like Patrick Adamson and Peter BlackÂ� burn, who subsequently became archbishop of St Andrews and bishop of Aberdeen respectively and who had more of the courtier in them than Melville ever had,45 Johnston has been described as “by nature … a courtier.”46 Addressing one another in Greek and Latin verse, the two humanists employed their poetic skills to entertain and impress one another with their command of classical tropes, clever puns, and€humorous expressions. The light-hearted and playful tone of some of their poems suggests that they were the by-product of literary recreation, a long-standing diversion enjoyed by Melville.47 Even more pronounced than the differences separating him from Johnston were those which separated him from the other member of this literary circle, Tilenus.48 43 ╇ Alan R. MacDonald, “Best of Enemies: Andrew Melville and Patrick Adamson, c., 1574–1592” in Julian Goodare and Alasdair A. MacDonald (eds.), Sixteenth-Century Scotland Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden and Boston, 2008), 276. MacDonald does not sufficiently appreciate that it was Melville’s European humanism which made this relationship possible. 44 ╇ William Duguid Geddes (ed.), Musa Latina Aberdonensis Vol. II (Aberdeen, 1895), 115–135. 45 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 31–32, 56, 64–65; MacDonald, “Best of Enemies: Andrew Melville and Patrick Adamson, c. 1574–1592,” 261. 46 ╇ Leicester Bradner, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940), 173. 47 ╇ Geddes, Musa Latina Aberdonensis II, 54, 128–131; Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan, 186–189. 48 ╇ W. Brown Patterson, “James I and the Huguenot Synod of Tonneins of 1614” Harvard Theological Review, 65 (1972), 250; Wodrow, Collections Upon the Lives of the Reformers II: I, 105–106; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 281, 304.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

301

This ability to transcend differences in religion, disposition, and age and to enjoy a friendship based upon a common culture of European humanism reinforces the image of Melville as a scholar’s scholar. While George Buchanan’s academic career in Paris, Bordeaux, Coimbra, and St Andrews, as well as his literary productions, provide grounds to question the claim that Melville was the first of Scotland’s “pure scholars,”49 he was nevertheless a “pure scholar.” As a “pure scholar” he exhibited, in typical humanist fashion, a penchant toward Renaissance polymathy. His liberal course of study at university did not reflect either intellectual restlessness or an undisciplined mind.50 On the contrary, his wide-ranging studies reflected his own insatiable curiosity and intellectual vitality. He pursued his academic interests largely for their own sake and his own scholarly development. Thus, for example, his study of jurisprudence at Paris, Poitiers, and Geneva was not designed to lead to a legal career anymore than his study of medicine was intended to prepare him to become a physician or his study of mathematics to become a mathematician. These and other unrelated studies were judged to possess intrinsic value and were viewed as important disciplines to master in an effort to become a well-rounded scholar. In this respect, Melville’s broad course of study was neither exceptional nor without historical precedent. Prior to Melville’s study on the continent, other Scottish humanists had pursued a liberal education studying these disciplines as well as others. In fact, from the standpoint of the northern European Renaissance and the approach of many humanists, Melville’s course of study was not as comprehensive as it might have been. Showing no interest as a student in the Renaissance approach to music, the visual arts, and Neo-Platonic philosophy, Melville neglected these areas of study in favor of other pursuits. Unlike those humanists who had cultivated the art of drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture, Melville avoided these areas of study altogether. Although as a student at St Andrews he had exhibited a keen interest in the writings of Aristotle and as Principal of Glasgow had lectured on the writings of Plato, there is no evidence that he showed any interest in the writings of Plotinus or other NeoPlatonic philosophers.

╇ John Durkan, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland” in David McRoberts (ed.), Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 (Glasgow, 1962), 291; I.D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 78–158. 50 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 43. 49

302

chapter eight

As a “pure scholar” Melville not only pursued a liberal course of study for its own sake, but he also exhibited his penchant towards Renaissance polymathy upon his assumption of the office of Principal at the University of Glasgow where he taught a staggering array of courses. Ranging from logic, arithmetic, geometry, rhetoric, geography, and natural philosophy, to Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syraic, theology, and sacred literature, Melville assumed the lion’s share of the teaching responsibility when he first arrived at the University in 1574. Lecturing on the Greek poets Homer, Hesiod, Phocylides, Theognis, Pindar, and Theocritus, as well as the Greek rhetorician Isocrates and the Roman poets Vergil and Horace, Melville set before his auditors the very best models of classical Greek and Latin grammar, syntax, and literary elegance. In keeping with his student days when he read Aristotle in the Greek, Melville lectured on his Physica, De virtutibus, De cælo, De ortu et interitu, and Ethics as well as Plato’s Dialogues. Whereas James Melville’s account of his uncle’s course of study at university makes no mention of the Platonic dialogues, by the time of his apointment at Glasgow he had studied them either formally or privately. Either way, this astounding display of Renaissance polymathy vividly illustrates his intellectual vitality and capacious mind as a “pure scholar”.51 His choice to correspond with his fellow humanists in Latin and Greek rather than in his native Scots further supports the image of Melville as a “pure scholar”. Of course, from a purely practical standpoint the choice of Latin seemed obvious if he wished to communicate with foreign scholars who could not speak his own native language. From the days of Erasmus and Budé, corresponding in Latin was the accepted custom among the intellectual elite of Renaissance Europe. Latin enabled scholars, like Melville, to transcend the barriers created by vernacular languages and to participate in an international literary circle of humanists. His choice of Latin as the primary vehicle through which he wished to communicate even with his most intimate of associates reveals his values as a classical scholar. Like his Latin poetry, his Latin and Greek correspondence fulfulled a number of functions in his life, namely literary recreation and entertainment, artistic expression, and therapeutic release. Including, as he frequently did, in his correspondence his own unrevised poetic specimens, Melville’s Latin letters became something of a classical exercise for the humanist. As a natural and 51

╇ Melville, JMAD, 49.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

303

integral part of his intellectual culture, his choice was neither ususual nor remarkable. His decision not to correspond in the vernacular but in Latin simply underscores the pround depth to which his mind had been conditioned by the culture of the northern European Renaissance. Considered from the vantage point of European humanism, the titles “the Scots Melanchthon”52 and “the Beza of Scotland,”53 provide some insight into Melville’s distinctive contribution to the Renaissance in Scotland. Drawn largely from the ways in which European humanism shaped Melville’s thought, values, methods, and literary productions, he has been portrayed as accomplishing in Scotland what Melanchthon and Beza achieved in Germany and Switzerland respectively. Their philological study and classical training, university service, and Latin poetry have provided sufficient grounds for such comparisons. All three of these humanists played a significant role in the flowering of the RenaisÂ� sance and the development of the Reformations in their respective countries. At Wittenberg, Geneva, Glasgow, and St Andrews, all three held influential positions in their respective institutions and conveyed the fruits of the New Learning in their instruction. Having been trained in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, each modeled for their students an impressive mastery of these languages and instilled in their pupils their value in understanding both sacred and profane literature. While a young student under the educational influence of John Reuchlin, Melanchthon had made rapid progress in Latin and especially Greek, reading Aristotle in the original. Following his studies at the UniverÂ�sity of Heidelberg, at the University of Tübingen he continued to read Greek and Latin literature, publish some of his classical studies, teach Greek grammar and literature, and study Hebrew.54 In a number of respects, Melanchton’s academic interests, training, and experience mirror that of Melville himself. Likewise, Beza’s early philological study and cultivation of the art of Latin poetry resembles Melville’s early€humanÂ� istic development.55 His study of Greek under Melchior Wolmar€and€jurisÂ� prudence at Orléans, as well as his continued perusal of classical literature, is strikingly similar to Melville’s own interests and course of 52 ╇ James Bass Mullinger, The University of Cambridge: From the Royal Injunctions of 1535 to the Accession of Charles the First (Cambridge, 1884), 365. 53 ╇ G.D. Henderson, Religious Life in Seventeenth-Century Scotland (Cambridge, 1937),€32. 54 ╇ John Schofield, Philip Melanchthon and the English Reformation (Aldershot, 2006), 3–4. 55 ╇ Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” 170.

304

chapter eight

study. Prior to becoming professor of Theology at the Academy of Geneva, Beza had served from 1549 until 1558 at the Academy of Lausanne where he experienced much success. Writing in a letter dated 29 April 1558, Beza relayed to Guillaume Farel that the student enrollment at the Academy had grown from a handful of students to over seven hundred in a short period of time.56 While Beza was not the only humanistic ornament at Lausanne which attracted young scholars in search of the New Learning, the remarkable success he enjoyed there, not to mention his subsequent influence in Geneva, provides yet another obvious parallel with Melville’s academic career at Glasgow. Beza’s presence and growing reputation at Lausanne, much like Melville’s at Glasgow, served only to enhance the academic profile of the Academy and attract students. Hailed as “the father of the ‘younger Wittenberg circle of poets’â•›”57€and€as “Germany’s foremost poet” of the sixteenth century,58 Melanchthon is said to have emerged as “the center around which the literature and€learnÂ� ing of Protestant humanism … revolved.”59 Composing Latin Â�paraphrases of such classical authors as Hesiod, Homer, Plato, Opianus, and Plutarch, as well as approximately four hundred epigrams and carmina, MelanchÂ� thon set before his auditors a model of poetic eloquence and erudition. Indeed, his poetry was so well received by his peers that he has been credited with having influenced some one hundred poets.60 Similarly, with the publication of Beza’s Iuvenilia in 1548, Michel de Montaigne lauded him as the greatest French poet of the sixteenth century and his work was widely regarded in the literary world of French humanism to be among the best original compositions of the age.61 Despite being villified by his opponents for his youthful poetical indulgences, Beza later remarked in his Confessio Christianae fidei that he had always delighted himself in “poeticos lusus”.62 Melville’s poetic Â�compositions received 56 ╇ Henry Martyn Baird, Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation 1519–1605, (New York, 1899), 96. 57 ╇ Manfred P. Fleischer, “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 20:4 (1989), 561. 58 ╇ Eckhard Bernstein, “Review: Petrus Lotichius Secundus: Neo Latin Poet,” SCJ, 15:4 (1984), 511. 59 ╇ Fleischer, “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” 561. 60 ╇Ibid., 561–563. 61 ╇ Summers, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” 201; Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” 170; Anne Lake Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams: The Uses and Abuses of Poetry,” SR, 21 (1974), 84. 62 ╇ Prescott, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams,” 85, 87, 96, 101–102, 108–109, 112.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

305

similar, if not slightly more modest, praise. Remarking on the 1590 Στεφανισκιον ScalÂ�iger confessed that even “we are not able to do such” while Justus Lipsius’ felt compelled to declare, “Andrew Melville is, in fact, deeply learned.”63 Their shared devotion to Latin poetic composition may be seen in the fact that Melanchthon, Beza, and Melville all eschewed a listless and inert old age by continuing to cultivate the art of Latin verse.64 When considered from the perspective of the northern European Renaissance, Melville may be viewed in the same tradition of humanists as Melanchthon and Beza and as accomplishing in Scotland, though in a more modest fashion, what they achieved in Germany and Switzerland respectively. Such labels, however, may be misleading if they suggest that Melville was Knox’s successor in the Kirk in the same sense that Melanchthon was Luther’s and Beza was Calvin’s. While Melville, as Principal of the University of Glasgow and St Mary’s College and Rector of the University of St Andrews, occupied a prominent place within Scottish intellectual life and in the Kirk as a professor of divinity, he never produced anything like Melancthon’s 1530 Confessio Augustana and its Apology nor did he have the relationship with Knox that Melanchthon had with Luther or Beza had with Calvin.65 Described as “Luther’s long-time colleague and comrade-in-arms,” Melanchthon had taught Luther Greek in 1519 and had worked closely with him throughout his career at the University of Wittenberg.66 Similarly, Beza had been Calvin’s close associate as professor of Theology at the Academy since 1558 and became his successor when he died in 1564.67 None of these 63 ╇ Adrian Damman, Schediasmata Hadrianus Dammanis A Bisterveld Gandavensis (Edinburgh, 1590); Melville, JMAD, 279; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 302–303, 465; Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture of England, 60. 64 ╇ Fleischer, “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” 561, 563; Linder, “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” 179; Baird, Theodore Beza, 341; Andrew Melville, Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Musae et P. Adamsoni Vita et Palindoia (1620). 65 ╇ On Melanchthon’s Confessio Augustana and Apology of the Augsburg Confession see Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (eds.), The Book of Concord The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, 2000), 27–294; F. Bente, Historical IntroducÂ� tions to the Book of Concord (St Louis, 1965), 15–47. 66 ╇ Heiko A. Oberman, Luther Man between God and the Devil Trans. Eileen WalliserSchwarzbart (New Haven and London, 1989), 8, 123; Schofield, Philip Melanchthon and the English Reformation, 15. 67 ╇ Paul-F. Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève 1559–1959 Quatre siècles d’histoire (Genève, 1959), 20; Charles Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève: L’Académie de Calvin 1559–1798 (Genève, 1900), 638; Jill Rait, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605” in Jill Rait (ed.), Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland, and Poland, 1560–1600 (New Haven, CT, 1981), 92.

306

chapter eight

things can be predicated of Melville in reference to Knox. While Melville was one of over thirty individuals involved in the drafting of the 1578 Second Book of Discipline, it was not his book, nor was he “the primary author.”68 Neither their careers nor their paths during their lives ever intersected enabling them to forge a collegial relationship. While Knox at the height of his influence in Scotland during the 1560s served as minister of Edinburgh, Melville was a mere youthful scholar, pursuing his academic ambitions at St Andrews, Paris, Poitiers, and Geneva. His return to Scotland in 1574 had nothing to do with Knox’s death just two years earlier, nor is there any evidence to support the claim that he returned with a view to commencing an ecclesiastical career. Melville, unlike Knox, was an incurable academic, and while he was active throughout his career as an ecclesiastical statesman and emerged as something of an icon of Presbyterian intransigence, there is insufficent evidence to support the claim that Melville was Knox’s successor in the Kirk. Instead of looking for a successor to Knox or even Buchanan, by examining Melville in his own historical, intellectual, and cultural milieu such misleading characterizations may be avoided while appreciating his distinctive contributions to the promotion of humanism in Scotland during the early modern period. Melville the University Reformer As a lifelong academic and scholar, Melville’s labors as a university reformer remain his most notable contribution to the Renaissance in Scotland and the flowering of humanism in the early modern period. The success of his reforms at Glasgow and the dramatic reversal of fortune experienced by the ailing University have led some to label him not merely “the reformer of the Scottish universities”69 but “the chief restorer of the western university”70 and “the dominant figure in Scottish history for thirty years.”71 While such epithets go well beyond what the evidence 68 ╇ Charles P. Finlayson, Clement Litill and His Library: The Origins of Edinburgh University Library (Edinburgh, 1980), 17; J.H.S. Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland (London, 1960), 198; Caroline Bingham, The Making of a King: The Early Years of James VI and I (London, 1968), 149; John Hill Burton, The History of Scotland: From Agricola’s Invasion to the Revolution of 1688 (Edinburgh, 1870), Vol. V, 404, 469. 69 ╇ Joseph H. Summers, George Herbert: His Religion and Art (London, 1954), 55. 70 ╇ Alexander Gray, “The Old Schools and Universities in Scotland,” Scottish Historical Review, 9 (Jan., 1912), 120. 71 ╇ Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, 1935), 132.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

307

will support, Melville did occupy a prominent and influential, as well as controversial, place within Scottish university life during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. His reforming efforts at Glasgow and St Andrews, as well as his attempts to coordinate with Arbuthnot the reform of Aberdeen, all support the contention that he occupied a prominent and influential place in the reform of Scotland’s medieval universities. Yet the extent and success of these reforms coupled with the role others played in supporting and implementing them hardly warrant the rhapsodic praise heaped upon him. The ambitious scope of Melville’s proposed reforms was rivaled only by his indefatigable efforts in implementing them. When he arrived in Glasgow, he found no one qualified to assist him in university instruction and immediately began to train those who could, in time, come to assist him in conveying the New Learning at the University. Few scholars would have conceived of attempting to accomplish such sweeping reforms and still fewer would have endeavored to bear the responsibility alone for teaching the entire university curriculum. Although it is impossible to determine the extent to which either Buchanan in 1574 or Arbuthnot in 1575 influenced Melville’s plan for reform at Glasgow, we do know that his reforming efforts found their origin in the consultation and strategic planning with his fellow humanists. Only 29 years of age in 1574, his youth and enthusiasm enabled him to assume complete responsibility for the daily instruction at the University. Lecturing twice daily including his public instruction on Sundays and his daily ‘table talk’ with his fellow faculty and students, Melville combined a seemingly endless supply of energy with a remarkably high degree of discipline, resulting in a dramatic rebirth for the University. While Melville concentrated on the local situation at Glasgow, his ambitious plans for reform were not provincial but national. Much like the university reforms proposed in the 1560 First Book of Discipline, which proposed reform for all three medieval universities, Melville recognized that if Scotland’s universities were to serve both the Kirk and commonweal, they all needed to be reformed according to the latest trends of the northern European Renaissance.72 Though he designed them specifically to address the situation at Glasgow, Melville desired to see the reforms embodied in the 1577 nova erectio implemented at her

72

╇ The First Book of Discipline, ed. James K. Cameron (Edinburgh, 1972).

308

chapter eight

sister universities in Aberdeen and St Andrews. Thus, the 1577 nova erectio, in effect, functioned as a template for reform which could be adapted at Aberdeen and St Andrews to address the specific needs of each university. Given Melville’s national ambitions for university reform, his coordinating efforts with Arbuthnot and consultation with Buchanan, and his ever-expanding network of humanist associates, it is not surprising that just two years after Glasgow’s nova erectio had been adopted, St Andrews in 1579 adopted its own nova fundatio based largely upon Glasgow’s new foundation and bearing the distinctive influence of Melville himself. Although the nova fundatio of St Andrews was the joint production of a whole body of commissioners, Melville exerted a significant influence in the production of the text.73 Likewise, the 1583 proposed nova fundatio for Aberdeen, produced under Arbuthnot’s leadership but not implemented because of his untimely death in that year, bears a remarkable similarity at a number of points to Glasgow’s €nova erectio and is further evidence of Melville’s far-reaching influence.74 As a university reformer whose most immediate experience had been profoundly shaped by the humanism of the northern European RenaisÂ� sance, Melville was an innovative and forward-looking scholar who endeavored to adapt and incorporate the latest trends from the continent into Scotland’s medieval universities. By abolishing the medieval system of regenting and replacing it with specialist instruction, introducing the study of Greek during the freshman year and the undergraduate study of Hebrew, and insisting that the Principal possess competency in Syraic as well as employing the use of Ramus’ and Talon’s respective works in the curriculum, Melville’s university reforms at Glasgow fundamentally alterted the medieval trajectory of instruction which had been in place since its fifteenth-century foundation. Despite the detailed provisions for reform stipulated in the 1560 First Book of Discipline, it was not until the 1577 nova erectio that anything of significance was accomplished. Melville’s bold innovations at Glasgow were not those of a creative genius but those of a skilled and highly learned humanist who was able to draw upon his extensive continental experience at Paris, Poitiers, and Geneva and integrate into the university curriculum the very best fruits of Renaissance learning. As a forward-looking humanist, ╇ Ronald Gordon Cant, “The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective” St John’s House Papers, No. 2 (St Andrews, 1979); J. K. Cameron, “The Refoundation€of€the University in 1579,” Alumnus Chronicle of the University of St Andrews, 71 (1980), 3–10. 74 ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641, 35. 73



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

309

Melville found value in Ramus’ and Talon’s writings and should be recognized as the first to provide a place for Ramist literature within the university curriculum in Scotland. While there is insufficient evidence to support the claim that Melville advocated “a Ramist aproach to all subjects”75 and while the extent of his Ramism is unclear, his selective and critical use of Ramist literature is illustrative of his pioneering labors to introduce into the Scottish university system some of the latest scholarly trends from the continent. Although the sheer breadth of subjects Melville taught at Glasgow discloses his penchant toward Renaissance polymathy and his leadership as a forward-looking humanist, there remain other subjects which he neglected entirely to introduce. Despite having devoted more than three years of his life while on the continent to the study of jurisprudence, surprisingly there is a conspicuous absence of legal studies in Melville’s own university reforms. Nor is there any place for the study of medicine despite Melville’s own efforts in investigating this field of inquiry. These lacunae in Melville’s reforming scheme, rather than intimating that he “held little interest”76 in these fields, may indicate his own limitations in providing adequate instruction, insufficient funds to support faculty in these areas, and a desire to remain focused on the University’s primary purpose of providing well-educated, orthodox candidates for the ministry. Whatever the precise reason for these omissions, we know from his university study in Paris, Poitiers, and Geneva that, as a humanist, he found great value in these disciplines. The decision to omit instruction in jurisprudence and medicine not only represents a break with the medieval past and the conception of a studium generale, but it also reveals Melville’s practical and ecclesiastical orientation. It is worth noting that even when Glasgow’s fortunes had been reversed, there is no indication that Melville had any plans to introduce instruction in either jurisprudence or medicine. At this point, this represents a significant departure from the Genevan Academy as envisioned by Beza who desired to have from its inception chairs in both medicine and law.77 Thus, Melville’s ambitious plans for reform, while possessing a ╇Ibid., 42, 44. ╇Ibid., 44. 77 ╇ Charles Borgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève: L’Académie de Calvin 1559– 1798 (Genève, 1900), 52, 92, 638; Karin Maag, Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 (Aldershot, 1995), 25–27; Gillian Lewis, “The Geneva Academy” in Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke, and Gillian Lewis (eds.), Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1620 (Cambridge, 1994), 49. 75 76

310

chapter eight

remarkable degree of breadth, were not as comprehensive as they could have been and were tempered by the practical realties of the situation, namely inadequate staffing and finances. Melville’s ambitious, innovative, and forward-looking reforms were also at the same time profoundly conservative. Not wishing to discard or repudiate much of the medieval inheritance still found at Glasgow, Melville, in typical humanist fashion, attempted to preserve as many of the ancient sources and texts as possible while integrating with them the most current scholarship from the continent. Referring to “the most approved authors” and “the best authors,” the 1577 nova erectio explicitly identified the leading representatives of these groups as Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero.78 James Melville records that when his uncle first arrived at the University in 1574, he immediately began immersing his pupils in a sea of classical authors including Homer, Hesiod, Phocylides, Theognis, Pythagoras, Pindar, Isocrates, Theocritus, Vergil, and Horace.79 In contrast to these classical sources and despite Melville’s liberal use of Ramus’ and Talon’s writings in the University’s curriculum, there is no official endorsement of Ramist literature enshrined in the nova erectio. By employing this literature not as a complete replacement for “the most approved authors” but as a pedagogical enhancement and refinement of those ancient sources, Melville’s, conservatism as a humanist and€classical scholar was counterbalanced by his innovative and creative labors as a university reformer in adapting some of the latest continental scholarship to the Scottish context. Much of Melville’s success at Glasgow may be attributed to the strong personal influence he exerted in training both his academic staff and his students. His forceful and passionate personality displayed in his lecturing and ‘table talk’ at times gave way to his sharply confrontational and polemical penchant. When Melville arrived at Glasgow, he was determined to challenge his colleague Peter Blackburn’s resolute adherence to the authority and opinions of Aristotle. By means of rather heated arguments, Melville was able to persuade him of the value of his own more critical and nuanced approach to Aristotle’s writings.80 The venue through which Melville exerted his most compelling personal influence

78 ╇ Cosmo Innes (ed.), Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis Vol. I (Glasgow, 1854), 108–109. 79 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. 80 ╇ Durkan and Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577, 253; Melville, JMAD, 48,€67.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

311

was his daily practice of ‘table talk’ with his regents, students, or “with sic as war present efter denner and supper.”81 His informal, daily discussions during and after meals became the venue in which he displayed his erudition as a classical scholar and provided a dynamically personal dimension to his instruction. This informal ‘table talk’ became, according to the testimony of Patrick Sharpe, master of the grammar school in Glasgow, the most illuminating and enlightening forum for the discussion of classical authors.82 When Melville encountered a similar allegiance to Aristotle at St Andrews, he openly confronted the medieval Aristotelianism of his colleagues and provoked a controversy which lasted over a year. “ScathÂ� ing attacks,” “bitter disputations,” and “threats of violence” characterized this period of controversy at St Andrews and Melville found himself at the center of it.83 In addition to presenting his criticisms of Aristotle during the ordinary course of his lectures, he also delivered extemporaneous replies to those students who took the opportunity at their graduations to respond to Melville’s criticisms in their own Theses philosophicae.84 Although James Melville’s report of his uncle’s unqualified success amounts to little more than partisan fanfare, Melville was successful to a certain extent in inculcating many of the humanist values of the Renaissance, such as original language study, philology, and an historically sensitive and critical approach to textual interpretation. Challenging his students to go ad fontes and read Aristotle in the original, Melville experienced success as some of his opponents “fell to the Langages, studeit thair Artes for the right use, and perusit Aristotle in his awin langage.”85 Both in his persuasive efforts with Peter Blackburn at Glasgow and with the regents Andrew Duncan and John Malcolm at St Leonard’s, Melville could never have succeeded had he not cultivated a relationship in which a respectful, thoughtful, and at times vigorous dialogue could occur. Over a period of two years, Melville reasoned with the regents and students of St Leonard’s, discussing these and related ╇ Melville, JMAD, 49. ╇Ibid., 49–50. 83 ╇ Cant, The University of St Andrews: A Short History, 62; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville Vol. I, 170. 84 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 123–124. Cf also Ronald Gordon Cant, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 2.2 (1941), 105–150; “Supplement to the St Andrews University Theses,” EBST, 2.2 (1941), 263–273; J. F. Kellas Johnstone, “Notes on the Academic Theses of Scotland,” Records of the Glasgow Bibliographical Society, 8 (1930), 81–98. 85 ╇Ibid., 124. 81 82

312

chapter eight

issues, his nephew tells us, “in publict and privat” perhaps suggesting that his successful practice of ‘table talk’ was continued at St Andrews.86 Melville’s labors as a university reformer yielded mixed results. The reversal of Glasgow’s fortunes under Melville’s leadership was nothing short of dramatic, while the same cannot be said at either St Andrews or Sedan. Admittedly, since the circumstances surrounding each institution were markedly different from those of Glasgow, comparative evaluations of Melville’s impact remain difficult to assess. His success in leading the transformation at Glasgow within the span of six short years remains unparalleled in his career and unsurpassed during this period at either Aberdeen or St Andrews. James Melville’s remark that “ther was na place in Europe comparable to Glasgw for guid letters, during these years,” while hyperbolic, nevertheless affirms that a dramatic change had occurred at Glasgow under Melville’s leadership.87 By way of contrast, Melville’s labors as Principal of St Mary’s College and rector of the University of St Andrews yielded much more modest results. The peculiar political dynamics of St Andrews coupled with his own controversial role within the University and town significantly hindered Melville’s own efforts at reform. From the very beginning of his time there, he was embroiled in “mikle fighting and fascherie” with the former provost of St Mary’s, Robert Hamilton, the former regent of St Mary’s, John Caldcleugh, the St Leonard’s regents, John Malcolm and Andrew Duncan, James and William Lermont, David Russell, and the provost, ballies, and town council of St Andrews.88 Had he enjoyed the relative peace and tranquility he experienced at Glasgow or at least had been able to navigate successfully his way around these controversies, his influence and success at St Andrews might have been far greater. Similarly, Melville’s presence at Sedan, while certainly enhancing the intellectual stature of the University, appears to have done little more than stabilize a tenuous situation created, in part, by the controversial teaching of Daniel Tilenus.89 Melville’s influence as a humanist and university reformer continued well beyond his death in the unlikely Episcopalian stronghold of Aberdeen. Aberdeen at the time of the Reformation was notoriously slow in conforming to the new faith and became something of a center ╇Ibid. ╇Ibid., 49–50. 88 ╇Ibid., 122–127. 89 ╇ On Tilenus see Mellon, L’Académie de Sedan, 95–117. 86 87



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

313

of Catholic recusancy in the North East.90 Despite the Reformation, life in Old Aberdeen continued “virtually unchanged” with King’s College retaining its Catholic staff and St Machar’s Cathedral its Catholic bishop and chapter.91 With the support and protection of his powerful nephew, George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, bishop William Gordon was able to continue at St Machar’s until his death in 1577 despite the complaints from the 1572 General Assembly regarding the celebration of the mass in Old Aberdeen.92 When King’s College was finally purged in 1569, the conservative North continued to support advocates of Catholicism.93 Given the presence of the Marquis of Huntley, “the great patron and protector of local Catholics”94 in the North East and the prevalence of religious and political conservatism favoring the old faith, it is not suprising that when episcopacy was officially adopted in 1610 it flourished in Aberdeen. Of course, the prosperity of episcopacy in Aberdeen was tied directly to the leadership of the bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of the University, Patrick Forbes of Corse. What is suprising is that the symbol of inveterate opposition to episcopacy and the dominant influence behind Glasgow’s 1577 nova erectio, namely Andrew Melville, could exert such indirect influence on Aberdeen’s famous school of divines that he could be regarded the “intellectual grandparent” of the Aberdeen Doctors.95 As a student of Melville at Glasgow and St Andrews, Patrick Forbes, the intellectual father of the Aberdeen Doctors, embraced many of his former Professor’s humanist values and observed firsthand the reforms he instituted at both universities.96 Forbes’ education is said to have been “dominated by his second cousin, Andrew Melville” and his Â�personal 90 ╇ On the reformation in Aberdeen see Bruce McLennan, “The Reformation in the burgh of Aberdeen,” Northern Scotland, 2 (1974–75), 119–144; C.H. Haws, “The Diocese of Aberdeen and the Reformation,” Innes Review, 22 (1971), 72–84. 91 ╇ Anderson, Officers and Graduates, 3; McLennan, “The Reformation in the burgh of Aberdeen,” 137. 92 ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 8. 93 ╇ On the conservative north and the reformation at the University of Aberdeen see Gordon Donaldson, “Scotland’s Conservative North in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1985), 191–203; “Aberdeen University and the Reformation,” NS, 1 (1974), 129–142; John Durkan, “George Hay’s Oration at the Purging of King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1569: Commentary,” NS, 6 (1984), 97–112. 94 ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 63. 95 ╇ R.G. Cant, The University of St. Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 61,€67. 96 ╇ G.D. Henderson, Religious Life in Seventeenth-Century Scotland (Cambridge, 1937),€36.

314

chapter eight

attachment to him and his sympathy for presbyterian principles is intimated by his decision in 1584 to accompany him into exile in England. As one of Melville’s constant companions during his exile, when Melville visited Oxford and Cambridge, Forbes went with him.97 When Melville returned to St Andrews in 1586, Forbes accompanied him and resumed his study of theology.98 In light of the years Forbes spent studying under Melville and their intimate association during their exile in England, it is not surprising that Forbes embraced many of the values, methods, and objectives of Melville’s own university reforms. However, while Forbes shared Melville’s vision of the university as improving the quality and increasing the quantity of candidates for the ministry, opposing Catholicism, and disseminating the New Learning, he did not endorse, unlike Melville, the exclusive focus of the nova fundatio upon the basic arts curriculum and the study of divinity. Instead of a university with two faculties, Forbes advocated a return to the Old Foundation, which supported the maintenance of the three additional faculties of civil law, canon law, and medicine. Whatever in the Old Foundation was incompatible with Protestantism was omitted while the original faculties, which constituted Aberdeen’s medieval studium generale, were restored, at least on paper.99 In addition to advocating the Old Foundation and the restoration, at least in theory, of the positions of canonist, civilist, and mediciner,€Forbes may also have dissented from Melville in his approach to Aristotle. King’s College during Forbes’ service as Chancellor has been described as “â•›‘the most Aristotelian’ of all Scotland’s Colleges.”100 This opinion is certainly supported by the earliest printed Theses Philosophicae Â�produced at King’s College. Writing of Alexander Lunan’s 1622 Theses Philosophicae it has been said, “Here too Aristotle rules—and rules, indeed, with even greater stringency.”101 Although it is impossible to affirm definitively that Forbes differed from Melville on this point, his intellectual independence at other points leaves this an open question. Moreover, while Forbes’ views on presbyterianism, the New Foundation, and perhaps ╛╛╛97 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 170; W. G. Sinclair Snow, The Times, Life, and Thought of Patrick Forbes Bishop of Aberdeen 1618–1635 (London, 1952), 29. ╛╛╛98 ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 61. ╛╛╛╛99 ╇Ibid., 68. 100 ╇Ibid., 81. 101 ╇ William L. Davidson, “The University’s Contribution to Philosophy” in P.J. Anderson (ed.), Studies in the History and Development of the University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen 1906), 73–74.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

315

even Aristotle evolved over the course of his career, Melville’s distinctive influence may be seen in the bishop’s introduction of specialization by the regents.102 The abolition of the medieval system of regenting and the replacement with specialists had been a hallmark of Melvillian reform since the 1570s. Forbes’ endorsement of specialist instruction reveals the deep intellectual impression Melville left upon him. As evidence of the profound impact Melville had upon Forbes one need only recall that approximately twenty-five years after he had studied under him at Glasgow and St Andrews, he sent his son John to the University of Sedan to complete his education under Melville.103 Melville the Ecclesiastical Statesman As a humanist and scholar of the Renaissance, Melville’s services to his country were not restricted to the university and the educated elite but were frequently employed in various capacities in the Kirk. His participation in the various courts, committees, commissions, assemblies, and parishes of the Kirk was extensive and the profile which emerges from a consideration of this service is not that of an obscure and inconsequential figure but that of a prominent and influential divine.104 When Melville presented himself for service to the Kirk, he came with a European reputation as a humanist, classical scholar, purveyor of the New Learning, and skilled Latin poet. This reputation, which, as we have observed previously, was based more upon hearsay than published writings, drew attention to Melville, opened up numerous opportunities for service, and may have been partially responsible for his repeated election as moderator and his frequent appointment as an assessor to the moderator. The same seemingly boundless energy which he exerted in his reforming efforts at Glasgow and St Andrews he indefatigably applied in his service to the Kirk. ╇ Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 119. ╇ Viri Reverendi Joannis Forbesii à Corse, Vita Exterior in Opera Omnia Vol. I ed. George Garden (Amsterdam, 1702–03), 7. 104 ╇ Alan R. MacDonald, The Jacobean Kirk, 1567–1625 Sovereignty, Polity and Liturgy (Aldershot, 1998), 173. MacDonald has helpfully observed the mistake of maintaining Melville’s centrality as ‘the’ leader of a fixed group of ministers. However, his assertion that evidence of Melville’s “peculiar prominence in the Kirk, is severely lacking” is difficult to reconcile with his extensive service in the various courts and parishes of the Kirk. While the evidence will not support the view of Melville’s centrality or exclusive and dominant leadership, it does support the affirmatrion of his high degree of visibility and position of influence in the Kirk. 102 103

316

chapter eight

In his capacity as a doctor in the Kirk, Melville served as moderator of the general assembly in 1578, 1582 (both the April and June assemblies), 1587, and 1594. From 1577 to 1597 Melville served as moderator more than any other individual during this period.105 Only David Lindsay, Robert Pont, Thomas Smeaton, and Robert Bruce served more than once while Alexander Arbuthnot, John Row, David Ferguson, James Lawson, Andrew Hay, John Craig, Thomas Buchanan, James Melville, Patrick Galloway, Nicoll Dagleish, James Nicolson, and Robert Rollock served only once during this twenty year period.106 From the June meeting of the general assembly in 1578 the procedure for the election of the moderator had been to select an individual from a list of nominees.107 The fact that Melville was elected four times during this period and asked to continue to preside over a fifth assembly in June 1582 provides some indication of not merely his popularity but his influence in the Kirk.108 The highly visible position of moderator was normally reserved for those who held the office of minister of word and sacrament. Along with George Buchanan and Robert Rollock, Melville was one of three individuals during this period to serve as moderator without having been ordained to the ministry.109 While Melville was not ordained to the parish ministry, he did view his own service to the assembly as that of a doctor in the Kirk. After the King in 1597 had successfully excluded all masters, professors of the university, and doctors of divinity from service in the courts of the Kirk, in 1598 Melville attended the meeting of the

105 ╇ Acts and proceedings of the general assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland from the M.D.LX. Part Second M.D.LXXVIII-M.D.XCII ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1840), xviii, 548, 685; III, 819; Melville, JMAD, 61–62, 128–129; David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1843), Vol. III, 398, 598, 622; Vol. IV, 615; Vol. V, 307. 106 ╇ Calderwood, History III, 385, 410, 427, 443, 463, 473, 515, 576–77, 622, 675, 705, 731; IV, 549, 649, 682; V, 87, 100, 104, 133, 156, 240, 367, 394, 629; BUK, I, 381, 392; II, xviii, 413, 418, 427, 449, 463, 473, 522, 548, 576, 585, 612, 626, 646, 646, 685, 703, 729, 745, 767, 779, 786; III, 795, 819, 846, 857, 913. 107 ╇ Duncan Shaw, The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland 1560–1600 (Edinburgh, 1964), 138. 108 ╇ BUK, II, 548, 576. Having served as moderator of the April meeting of the general assembly in 1582 held at St Andrews, Melville served again as moderator at the June meeting held in Edinburgh during the same year. Melville continued as moderator over this second and distinct assembly. 109 ╇ John Spottiswoode, The History of the Church of Scotland Vol. III (Edinburgh, 1850), 58; Shaw, General Assemblies, 139–140; BUK, I, 93; III, 913.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

317

genral assembly held at Dundee.110 When he was challenged by the King for his unauthorized attendance, he replied that he had an ecclesiastical call and responsibility as a doctor in the Kirk to attend her assemblies. Although Melville and his fellow academic colleague John Johnston were forced to leave the assembly and depart from Dundee “under the paine of horning,” Melville understood his own role in the Kirk’s judicatories to be that of a doctor.111 This same understanding is confirmed by Melville’s defense of himself before the synod of Fife in 1598. When Thomas Buchanan challenged his place in the synod on account of the King’s recent act, Melville responded by declaring, “My professioun was to resolve questionnes in the Kirk of God out of his Word, and to reasone, vott, and moderat in Assemblies, when yours was to teatche the grammar rewlles!”112 As moderator of these assemblies, Melville had the opportunity at the subsequent assembly to conduct the public worship and to exercise his persuasive influence in preaching to that body.113 The direct influence he exerted on the assemblies over which he presided as moderator may be seen in his labors with those appointed assessors to the moderator. Together they determined those matters which would be brought before the general assembly. At the June meeting of the 1582 assembly, Calderwood reports that Melville “inveyghed against the bloodie guillie (so he termed it) of absolute authoritie” and offered his own political analysis of recent events.114 Likewise, at the February meeting of the 1588 assembly and the 1595 assembly held at Montrose, Melville again availed himself of this opportunity to deliver an exhortation to the assembly.115 While we must be careful not to exaggerate the role, power, or influence of the moderator, the fact remains that it was a position of some influence.116 If considered only from the perspective of the potentially potent vehicle of preaching, the moderator could inspire an agenda ╇ Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by the Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV … for Visiting the Universities of Scotland. Volume III. University of St. Andrews (London, 1837), 197. 111 ╇ Calderwood, History V, 651, 682–84; Melville, JMAD, 440. 112 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 436–437; Calderwood, History V, 681. 113 ╇ Shaw, General Assemblies, 139. 114 ╇ Calderwood, History III, 622. Calderwood’s editor renders “guillie” as “knife.” 115 ╇ BUK, II, 703; III, 846; Calderwood, History IV, 649; V, 367. 116 ╇ Shaw, General Assemblies, 136, 157–58. Shaw helpfully observes that the moderator possessed no status between assemblies nor did he even have the power to call a subsequent assembly. John Knox, of course, is the only individual who was granted the power to call a general assembly. 110

318

chapter eight

of reform, champion ecclesiastical causes, and galvanize opposition to the ever-present threat of the reassertion of Catholicism in Scotland. If considered from the standpoint of determining what matters would be presented to the assembly for its deliberation, as well as those which would be excluded, the influence of the moderator, along with his assessors, was not insignificant or trivial.117 When Melville was not serving as moderator, he was repeatedly appointed to serve along with other members of the assembly as an assessor to the moderator. From 1577 until 1597 when all masters, professors of the university, and doctors of divinity were excluded from ecclesiastical courts, Melville served as an assessor to the moderator thirteen times.118 During these two decades, it was more unusual for Melville to be omitted from this advisory body than for him to be included.119 Indeed, when Melville was not nominated to serve as an assessor at the forty-second meeting of the general assembly in 1581, Calderwood felt constrained to explain this unusual omission by stating that “Mr Andrew Melvill was not yitt come” to the assembly.120 This advisory group, which was frequently nominated at the request of the moderator, was appointed to “confer and advise upon suche things as sall be thought meete to be propounded to the Assemblie.”121 In an effort to conduct a more efficient assembly, the moderator and his assessors provided daily direction in determining the assembly’s agenda. The assessors and the moderator were instructed to convene twice daily during the course of the assembly at either 7 or 8 in the morning and

117 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 245–46. Melville also exerted an indirect influence upon the synod of Fife in 1586 when he counseled his nephew to exercise the prerogative of the previous moderator and preach to the synod. Heeding his “uncle’s advyse,” James preached on the scriptural warrant of ecclesiastical discipline and refuted what he called “the contrarie corruptiones, namlie, of the humane and devillishe bischoprik.” 118 ╇ BUK, I, 381, 392; II, 413, 418, 427, 449, 463, 522, 585, 626, 703, 729, 767; Calderwood, History III, 378, 385, 410, 427, 443, 463–64, 473, 576–77, 675, 731; IV, 649, 682; V, 104. 119 ╇Ibid., II, 626–644, 645ff; MacDonald, “Best of Enemies,” 271. The general assembly did not convene during the years 1584 and 1585. The last meeting of the general assembly in 1583 was held in October in Edinburgh at the New Kirk while the subsequent meeting was held in the “Ovir Tolbuith” in Edinburgh in May 1586. As MacDonald observes by an act of parliament in May 1584 “presbyteries and general assemblies were effectively abolished and the supremacy of bishops under the crown was asserted.” Cf. Gordon Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England 1584–8,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society 14 (1963), 67–80; Melville, JMAD, 245. 120 ╇ Calderwood, History III, 515. 121 ╇Ibid., III, 378, 385, 410, 427, 443, 463–64.



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

319

1:30 or 2 in the afternoon.122 Sometimes they convened in the “Neather Tolbuith,”123 the gallery of James Lawson,124 or in the place of the assembly.125 Among those who repeatedly served with Melville during this twenty year period were James Lawson, Robert Pont, David Lindsay, John Craig, William Christison, Andrew Hay, John Row, David Ferguson, Thomas Smeaton, Alexander Arbuthnot, John Johnston,€Thomas BuchaÂ� nan, and Andrew Polwart.126 The number of the assessors could range from as small as 4 as in 1578 to as many as 27 as in 1588.127 With the exception of the assemblies in 1588, the number of assessors was relatively small during this period. Melville’s frequent appointment as an assessor underscores the value his colleagues placed upon his counsel and judgment and may be taken as an indicator of his influence in certain circles in the Kirk. In addition to his service as a frequent moderator and assessor to the moderator, Melville also served on numerous committees and comissions.128 Nominated as much for his skills as a humanist, Latin poet, and scholar of the New Learning as for his abilities as a theologian, Melville labored on a number of strategic committees and commissions related to the Kirk’s doctrinal confession. On at least two occasions Melville was nominated to serve on a committee and a commission in which the reason for his selection was evidently his expertise in the New Learning. As a member of the 1574 committee of the general assembly to provide an expert assessment of Patrick Adamson’s Latin verse translation of the Book of Job129 and as a member of the 1583 commission to identify and enumerate the errors of the profane authors of antiquity and especially Aristotle,130 Melville was called upon as a skilled Latin poet, Hebrew scholar, classical scholar, and theologian to provide a critical evaluation. ╇ BUK, II, 472. ╇ Calderwood, History III, 378, 427, 443. 124 ╇ BUK, II, 427. 125 ╇ Calderwood, History III, 385, 398–99, 410, 463–64, 473–474. 126 ╇ BUK, I, 381, 392; II, 413, 418, 427, 449, 463, 522, 626, 703, 729, 767; Calderwood, History III, 576–77, 598. 127 ╇Ibid., II, xviii, 729; Calderwood, History, III, 398; Vol. IV, 682. There were at least 27 assessors and probably more at the August meeting of the assembly held in Edinburgh at the New Kirk. 128 ╇ Calderwood, History III, 339, 369, 374–75, 381, 382, 386–87, 388, 402–03, 579, 587, 589, 591, 631, 682, 707, 709, 732, 743; Vol. IV, 653, 684; Vol. V, 3, 87, 119, 137, 159, 215–16, 240, 255, 261–68, 321, 368, 371–72, 420, 438, 459–60. 129 ╇ BUK, I, 310. Calderwood, History III, 338. Joining Melville on this 1574 committee were George Buchanan, Peter Young, and James Lawson. 130 ╇Ibid., II, 638–39; Calderwood, History III, 743. 122 123

320

chapter eight

Melville’s Latin versification of Job 3 published in 1574 along with his Carmen Mosis was certainly known to his fellow committee members, George Buchanan and Peter Young, and was probably a factor which influenced Melville’s selection.131 Likewise, Melville’s outspoken criticisms of Aristotle at both Glasgow and St Andrews made him a rather obvious choice in serving on the 1583 commission pertaining to the profane authors of antiquity. There can be little doubt that Melville’s European reputation influenced his selection in 1574, and his reputation as a classical scholar and divine provided a sound basis for his 1583 nomination. Drawing upon Melville’s experience as an academic reformer, the general assembly repeatedly appointed him to serve on commissions related to the reform of Scotland’s medieval universities. Recognizing the corruption which existed at the University of St Andrews in the late 1570s, Melville was appointed to the 1579 commission along with Robert Pont, John Row, Andrew Hay, Thomas Smeaton, and Thomas Buchanan to assess the condition and to “redresse all such corruptiouns and defaults as appertaines to the Kirk.”132 Similarly, in 1583 Melville was appointed along with James Lawson, Nicol Dagleish, and Robert Pont to a commission to evaluate the conformity of the staff of King’s College to the proposed nova fundatio.133 In 1593 Melville was called upon once again to participate in a commission to “visit the Colledge of Auld Aberdeine,” evaluate the condition of its staff, and reform, where possible, any abuses or corruption.134 As a member of these three commissions, he labored to ensure that both universities were promoting the interests of the Kirk and crown by means of efficient operation and conformity to the best measures of university reform. There can be little doubt that the dramatic transformation which occurred at the University of Glasgow during the 1570s under Melville’s leadership provided the basis for his selection and gave him a platform from which he could influence the reform at Glasgow’s sister universities at St Andrews and Old Aberdeen. Melville’s service on behalf of the general assembly frequently involved him in matters of ecclesiastical order and discipline. In addition to his ╇ Arthur Johnston (ed.), Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (Amsterdam, 1637), 90–92. ╇ BUK, II, 434–35. 133 ╇Ibid., 624–25. 134 ╇Ibid., III, 811; I.D. McFarlane, Buchanan (London, 1981), 444–445; Anderson, Officers and Graduates, 326; Calderwood, History, III, 707; Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 31–32, 35. 131 132



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

321

appointment to the committee which ultimately drafted that work which defined the policy and jurisdiction of the Kirk of Scotland, namely the 1578 Second Book of Discipline, Melville also served on a number of related commissions.135 Shortly after he had returned to Scotland, Melville was appointed along with George Hay and John Winram to serve on the 1575 committee charged with the examination of the life and doctrine of the bishop of Murray. Before such an examination could occur, the process of his election and admission to the office had to be determined.136 Similarly, during the August meeting of the 1575 assembly in Edinburgh, Melville was appointed along with John Craig and James Lawson to address the question of the scriptural warrant of the office of bishop while George Hay, John Row, and David Lindsay were to confer upon the issue of whether the chapters which created the bishops should be tolerated in the recently reformed Kirk.137 Melville had witnessed the operation of ecclesiastical order and the exercise of discipline in Geneva, reflected deeply upon the subject, and probably discussed such matters with his friends Walter Travers and Thomas Cartwright during their stay in the Swiss city. Cartwright, it should be remembered, during his stay in Geneva, had attended, along with the Flemish minister van Til, sessions of the Geneva consistory in an effort to observe their operation firsthand.138 Given Melville’s relationship with Cartwright and their mutual interest in ecclesiastical polity, there remains a strong probability that he discussed with him his observations and obtained a detailed knowledge of the practice of the Genevan polity. In this respect, Melville’s wealth of understanding and experience again provided obvious grounds for his selection by the assembly. Complementing his service on the national level, Melville was quite active on the provincial scene serving as a regular preacher in the church of Govan during his principalship at Glasgow,139 as a frequent preacher ╇ The Second Book of Discipline, ed. James Kirk (Edinburgh, 1980), 45–46. ╇ Calderwood, History III, 339–40. 137 ╇Ibid., 355. 138 ╇ Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967), 110; A. F. Scott Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535– 1603 (Cambridge, 1925), 50–51. 139 ╇ Shaw, The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland 1560–1600, 140–141; John Durkan and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977), 286–287; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 71, 92. McCrie is mistaken in maintaining that Melville served as the pastor of the Church of Govan. While he was required by his office as principal of the University to serve as ‘minister’ of the Church of Govan, his extensive university commitments combined with his broader ecclesiastical service left little or no time for actual parish ministry. It is more accurate to describe this service as ‘regular pulpit supply’ rather than what is usually associated with the terms ‘parish ministry’. 135 136

322

chapter eight

on the Sabbath day to the inhabitants of the burgh of St Andrews,140 and as a ruling elder in the congregation of that town.141 In addition to these services, he regularly sat in the courts of the Kirk, participated in judging religious controversies, joined in the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, and delivered discourses at the weekly meeting of presbytery known as “the weekly exercise.”142 In 1591 at the meeting of the provincial assembly of St Andrews, Melville was appointed to serve, along with Robert Wilkie, David Ferguson, and Nicol Dagleish, on a commission to obtain from Patrick Adamson a fuller and clearer recantation of his errors in the vernacular. Adamson had submitted a recantation in Latin to the assembly, but it was desired that this statement should be robustly and lucidly articulated in the vernacular.143Appointed in 1593 by the synod of Fife to serve as a commissioner regarding the King’s tolerance of Catholicism and idolatry in the Kingdom of Scotland, Melville was directed “to speake plainlie unto his Majestie” regarding these matters. Appointed with David Ferguson, Andrew Lamb, Thomas Buchanan, Nicol Dagleish, James Melville, and the commission of gentleman and barons, Melville and his fellow commissioners were instructed to declare “freelie unto his Majestie, the minde and resolutioun of all his faithfull and godlie subjects within this province.”144 While Melville’s service on both the national and provincial levels does not warrant the conclusion that he dominated or reigned supreme in the courts of the Kirk,145 it does provide a sound basis for the affirmation of his highly visible leadership and his opportunity to influence the agenda, policies, and reforms of the Kirk as a well-respected humanist and divine. His extensive service as a repeated moderator, a frequent assessor to the moderator, a member of numerous committees and commissions at both the national and local levels, and a regular preacher in local parishes makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that he frequently ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 607. ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 335, 339. 142 ╇ Calderwood, History V, 339. 143 ╇Ibid., 119. 144 ╇Ibid., 261–268. 145 ╇ Robert Sangster Rait, “Andrew Melville and the Revolt Against Aristotle in Scotland,” English Historical Review (April, 1899), 257; T. Angus Kerr, “John Craig, Minister of Aberdeen, and King’s Chaplain” in Duncan Shaw (ed.), Reformation and Revolution: Essays Presented to the Very Reverend Principal Emeritus Hugh Watt, D.D., D.Litt. on the Sixtieth Anniversary of His Ordination (Edinburgh, 1967), 110. Cf. Maurice Lee, Jr., “James VI€ and the Revival of Episcopacy in Scotland: 1596–1600,” Church History, 43 (Mar., 1974), 55. 140 141



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

323

occupied a prominent and influential place of service within the Kirk. The image of Melville which emerges from a consideration of his involvement in the Kirk is that of a reformer who worked in conjunction with other doctors and clerics as a primus inter pares and who, because of his academic experience and training on the continent, was peculiarly qualified and capable of providing considerable leadership to the Kirk. Ironically, the capacity in which Melville is most well-known, namely his service as an ecclesiastical statesman, has received relatively little attention by historians of the early modern period.146 To the extent that he has been considered in this capacity, his efforts have been largely defined by his dramatic and flamboyant encounters with James VI. The popular perception of Melville as an ecclesiastical statesman has been shaped, by in large, by certain dramatic encounters in his life, such as his famous meeting with the King at Falkland Palace in 1596.147 In light of this and other colorful depictions of Melville as an inveterate controversialist and pugnacious advocate of presbyterianism, it might be tempting simply to dismiss him as a hopelessly failed ecclesiastical diplomat who was temperamentally and constitutionally unfit for the work. This, however, would be a mistake. A careful examination of Melville’s service as an ecclesiastical statesman reveals a much more complex and nuanced portrait.148 While Melville experienced more than his share of heated exchanges with the King, his direct manner and confrontational style were not surprising or uncharacteristic. As a student, he had exhibited a certain precocity and audacity in challenging his masters, as in the case of his Greek instructor François Portus, or in offering unsolicited critical suggestions of classical texts, as in the case of Joseph Scaliger.149 Even when he was no longer a student of Buchanan and the gap between them had considerably narrowed, Melville offered his own candid criticisms of his Historia.150 Despite the intellectual gap which existed between master and pupil, Melville was undaunted and cultivated a fierce independence

146 ╇ One notable exception to this may be found in Alan MacDonald’s essay “Best of Enemies.” Although it is not the stated purpose of the article to explore Melville’s labors as an ecclesiastical statesman, there is some exploration of this in the context of Melville’s relationship with Patrick Adamson. 147 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 369–70. 148 ╇ Ibid., 142, 370, 679; Calderwood, History IV, 3–20; V, 439–441; VI, 591. 149 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 42; Anthony T. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983), 126–127, 289. 150 ╇Ibid., 120.

324

chapter eight

which frequently led him into controversy. This willingness to challenge authority was exhibited in his confrontations of the Aristotelians at the universities of Glasgow and St Andrews. Thus, when Melville disputed with the King and frequently lectured him, a pattern of cheekiness had already been established. His superiority in learning and academic attainments combined with their age difference provided Melville with even less restraint and made him more susceptible to resort to harangues when frustrated by the King’s obduracy. Melville’s service as an ecclesiastical statesman was, in one sense, neither unique nor exceptional. A cursory examination of the records of the general assembly and the seventeenth-century histories reveals that numerous individuals functioned in this capacity on behalf of the Kirk. Melville was merely one among many. James Melville, for example, upon his return from exile in England in 1586 went immediately to court and the parliament where he joined a group of ministers who “suted abrogatioun of the acts of parliament, and an act for establishing discipline.” They also presented to the King their formal criticisms of and objections to the last acts of parliament. Unsuccessful in their public efforts to advance their agenda for reform, James and his ecclesiastical colleagues worked behind the scenes privately lobbying for further change. As he reported they “ranne to the lords, everie one after other, and some times all together: we discharged our consciences to them; we threatened them, waried them, and cursed them.”151 Despite these sharply confrontational tactics of threatening, denouncing, and cursing, by 1596 James Melville had developed a reputation for his “myled and smooth maner” and on account of it had ingratiated himself to the King.152 Indeed, his winsome manner and skill as an ecclesiastical diplomat may be seen in the fact that the King in 1594 made him one of his trusted counselors. As Calderwood remarked, James “went to Stirline a suspected tratour, returned to Edinburgh a great courteour, yea, a cabinet counseller.”153 Recognized along with his uncle as one of “his most faithfull and trustie subjects,” the King repeatedly sought James’ counsel.154 In 1594 after he had marched north to Aberdeen with both Melvilles in company to confront the recusants, the King chose James to serve as his official messenger and representative to Edinburgh. In addition to receiving orders ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 489–90. The editor renders “warried” as “denounced.” ╇ Melville, JMAD, 369; Calderwood, History V, 439. 153 ╇ Calderwood, History V, 327. 154 ╇Ibid., 376–77. 151 152



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

325

from the King to “wrait to Eingland to Mr Bowes, ordinar Ambassatour,” James was commissioned to travel to Edinburgh to assure, preach, and testify to the King’s indignation and acts against the rebels.155 Although a number of clerics and doctors in the Kirk served as ecclesiastical statesmen during the reign of James VI, what often distinguished Melville’s service was his outspoken and candid approach to the King. James Lawson, minister of Edinburgh, had early on identified this quality of Melville when in 1584 he referred to him as “a man whom I would wishe to be of more quiett dispositioun.”156 The King, sharing this sentiment, did not put it so diplomatically when he said that Melville was a little man whose heart was in his mouth.157 Melville’s outspoken candor frequently went beyond the accepted boundaries of respectful discourse with the King and proved to be offensive. The overly familiar manner and liberties he gratuitously assumed in his dealings with James may have been rooted, in part, in their age difference. Melville, it must be remembered, first met the King in 1574 during his visit with George Buchanan at Stirling when he was 29 while James was only 8 years of age.158 When Melville emerged in June 1582 as the outspoken leader of the ecclesiastical commission charged with presenting the Kirk’s grievances to the King, James was a mere 16 years of age.159 In this encounter, James Stewart, Earl of Arran after hearing the “Greiffes and Articles” presented, threw down the gauntlet when he asked the commissioners who among them would subscribe to such “treasonable Articles?” Melville, unable to resist this taunt replied, “We dar, and wil subscryve tham, and gif our lyves in the cause!”160 Melville’s signing of the document and his call to his fellow commissioners to join him may, in fact, say less about his actual courage and fortitude in the face of daunting opposition and more about the political support and protection he had from members of the nobility sympathetic to presbyterianism. Shortly after this encounter with James VI and without Melville’s involvement, those nobles led by William Ruthven, 1st earl of Gowrie who supported presbyterianism abducted the King in August 1582 and held him for almost a year at Ruthven Castle in Perthshire.161 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 318–19; Calderwood, History V, 353–56. ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 717. 157 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 325; Calderwood, History V, 378. 158 ╇Ibid., 48. 159 ╇ BUK, II, 581; Melville, JMAD, 133; Calderwood, History III, 631. 160 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 133. 161 ╇ BUK, II, 594–96. 155 156

326

chapter eight

Melville’s service as an ecclesiastical statesman was normally conducted as a member of a commission of the general assembly where his voice was only one among many. As an ecclesiastical statesman, he frequently petitioned the King regarding matters of reform which affected both the Kirk and commonweal.162 Despite his aversion to “politick dealing” in the ministry, he repeatedly exhibited a willingness to work within the system to broker the best arrangement for both the Kirk and commonweal.163 Occasionally, his principles collided with the political complexities of the situation and he abandoned a more conciliatory posture for a directly confrontational one.164 He understood, nevertheless, how to work within the system even if he had little taste or patience for it as an academic and churchman. When Melville returned from exile in England in 1586, his nephew reports that one of the activities he engaged in was “waiting on court and parliament.” In addition to his persuasive efforts which led him to travel “up and down all the countrie” urging further reform and promoting protestant unity, Melville recognized the importance of securing the political support of the nobility and used whatever influence and relationships he had at court and parliament to advance the cause of reform.165 When Melville was not dealing directly with the King or heads of state, he frequently chose to work behind the scenes through unofficial channels to accomplish his objectives. In 1575 James Douglas, earl of Morton and regent, offered Melville the financially advantageous parish of Govan.166 The regent, it will be recalled, had, upon Melville’s return to Scotland, offered him the chaplaincy which he respectfully declined in favor of a university post.167 The regent’s second offer was probably made at the prompting of Patrick Adamson, who had accepted the very position of chaplain which Melville had declined in 1574.168 While James Melville’s interpretation of the regent’s motives remain plausible though speculative, he does indicate that his uncle “delt ernestlie with the Regent him selff, and be all moyen, namlie, of the said Mr Patrik.”169 In other words, after Melville had appealed to the regent himself in person on ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 653; V, 138, 159, 215–16, 255, 330–31, 376–77. ╇Ibid., V, 238. 164 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 325. 165 ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 491. 166 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 53–54. 167 ╇Ibid., 45. 168 ╇ J. D. Mackie, The University of Glasgow 1451–1951 (Glasgow, 1954), 66. 169 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 54; Calderwood, History III, 369. 162 163



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

327

behalf of the ailing university, he “lobbied” the regent behind the scenes via his friend at court, Adamson. Melville called upon Adamson to use his influence with the regent at court to secure the parsonage and vicarage tiends of Govan for the University of Glasgow.170 Similarly, in 1578 Melville worked in concert with Thomas Smeaton both in the Kirk’s judicatories and at court to erect a college of divinity at St Andrews. James Melville remarks that both his uncle and Smeaton “war the first motioners of a Anti-Seminarie to be erected in St Androis, to the Jesuit Seminaries, for the course of Theologie; and cessit never, at Assemblies and Court, till that wark was begoun and sett fordwart.”171 Recognizing the need for both ecclesiastical and political support for the establishment of a divinity school which could counteract the problem created by the Jesuit seminaries, Melville and Smeaton employed whatever leverage and persuasive techniques were at their disposal to secure the needed support in both the Kirk and court. Smeaton himself had frequently worked through unofficial channels to warn and counsel members of the nobility regarding the dangers of Catholicism. In addition to “publiclie and privatlie” warning ministers and scholars of these religious dangers, James Melville reports that Smeaton, desiring “to know the relligion and affection of noble men,” spent time with members of the nobility in order to caution them regarding the dangers of the “evill companie” of Catholics and admonishing them “nocht to send thair berns to dangerus partes” of Europe where they might fall prey to such errors.172 While Melville’s diplomatic interactions with the King proved on more than one occasion to be ultimately self-defeating, not all of his persuasive efforts were unsuccessful. On some occasions the King conceded certain points and adopted particular measures, in part, because of Melville’s ecclesiastical diplomacy. During the King’s visit to the North in 1594 to confront the rebels, a significant number of the entourage favored sparing the property of the Catholic recusants at Strathbogie. Melville, along with the assistance of Lord Lindsay and “Capteans of horsemen and futmen,” persuaded the King to go “contrar to the graitest part of the Counsall” and to demolish the house as well as the houses of Slains and Newton belonging to the earl of Erroll and one of the Gordons

╇ MacDonald, “Best of Enemies,” 263–264; Mackie, The University of Glasgow, 66. ╇ Melville, JMAD, 76; Calderwood, History III, 407. 172 ╇Ibid. 170 171

328

chapter eight

respectively.173 Similarly, when Melville was appointed in 1592 as a commissioner to present to the King certain articles approved by the general assembly, he encountered an agitated James VI who was “hote against the ministrie.” Despite the King’s objection to those who had criticized him and the nobility as well as those who had defended John Knox, George Buchanan, and “the Good Regent,” Melville offered his own defense of these men and was assisted by Patrick Galloway and Robert Bruce. After the King’s temper had subsided, he met in conference with Galloway and Bruce with the result that the acts against the Kirk would be annulled and a place would be provided for her in parliament.174 In 1593 Melville, along with Robert Bruce, Patrick Galloway, and David Lindsay, served on a commission which petitioned the King regarding the liberties of the Kirk. As they presented their articles to the parliament and realized that nothing was going to be done in favor of the Kirk at that time, they urged the King not to do anything which would compromise her liberties. Finding the commissioner’s request reasonable, the King consented.175 When Melville fled to England in 1584 to avoid imprisonment in that “foull holl” Blackness, he used his connections and influence among the Scottish nobility who were living in Berwick to secure permission from the English court for him to reside as an exile in London.176 When he arrived with his associates in London on 20 June, he met with Elizabeth’s principal secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham, and delivered official papers from ambassador Davidson in Edinburgh.177 Melville was assisted in his diplomatic efforts by James Carmichael and Patrick Galloway. During their stay in London, Carmichael corresponded with Walsingham and expressed his gratitude to him on behalf of his fellow contrymen for vindicating them from various calumnies. In this letter dated 26 May 1585 Carmichael wrote to Walsingham of “their commoun enemies” and identified them as “that Roman Antichrist, and his supposts, confederats of that cruell Councell of Trent” and as “that Italian beast” and appealed to him for his continued support before the Queen.178 Together with Carmichael, Melville conferred on several occasions with the ╇Ibid., 319; Calderwood, History V, 357. ╇ Calderwood, History V, 159–60. 175 ╇Ibid., 255. 176 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 229. 177 ╇ Donaldson, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” 72; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 228–229. 178 ╇ Calderwood, History IV, 368–71. 173 174



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

329

Â� diplomat and ambassador to Scotland, Robert Bowes, and the poet and courtier, Sir Philip Sydney.179 Melville’s outspoken opposition to Catholicism and its reassertion in Scotland as seen in his attitude toward the Ruthven Raid of 1582 placed him in a favorable and sympathetic position with those, such as Walsingham, who repeatedly expressed his own concern over the potential threat of the reassertion of Catholicism in England.180 Melville the Man As a figure of the sixteenth-century Scottish Renaissance, Melville’s legacy as a humanist, university reformer, and ecclesiastical statesman has been obscured by heroic and mythical images which have less to do with the Melville of history and more to do with the Melville of popular imagination. Surprisingly, the work which has been invaluable to historians in understanding the Jacobean era, namely James Melville’s 1602 Autobiography and Diary and 1610 True Narratioune is the same source from which the Melville legend has been constructed. These legendary€portraits and mythical images find their origin in James Melville’s narrative history. These colorful vignettes conveyed by James Melville in “a kind of gossipy garrulousness,” while providing the reader with “a certain animated savour,” have tended to distort and misrepresent the man when accepted at face value, viewed in isolation, and interpreted out of its historical context.181 James Melville’s middle Scots has been described as “racy, vigorous, and idiomatic,”182 and it has been praised by the nineteenth-century historian P. Hume Brown as “one of the most delightful books of its kind in the language.”183 Though James himself was “not a great writer, nor a great scholar,”184 his Diary has been commended for its honesty and candor, as well as its simplicity, clarity, rich diction, and “appreciation of small things,” the stuff of memoirs. CombinÂ� ing “aureate terms” and rhetorical figures with his own wealth of

╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 229. ╇ David Hume, The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1743), 307. 181 ╇ Maurice Lindsay, History of Scottish Literature, (London, 1977), 127. 182 ╇ J. H. Millar, A Literary History of Scotland, (London, 1903), 163. 183 ╇ P. Hume Brown, John Knox: A Biography Vol. II (London, 1895), 267. 184 ╇ W. P. Ker, “James Melville” in Henry Craik (ed.), English Prose Selections (London, 1893), 506. 179 180

330

chapter eight

Â� vernacular Â�expressions, the narrative history possesses a certain literary appeal despite its overtly partisan tone and agenda.185 These portraits, depicted in such lively and vivid detail, when accepted uncritically and considered in isolation have tended to present an image of Melville that is one-dimensional, simplistic, and lacking the rich texture, nuance, and contradiction which so often characterize human experience. Just as John Knox has been abstracted out of his original historical setting and “dissected as a body of theories” to the neglect of his humanity, so certain features of Melville’s personality and events in his life have been abstracted from his genuine humanity, frailty, and historical context to create the image of a Scottish Hercules.186 A careful analysis of the events in Melville’s life yields a far different portrait. Rather than deriving the image of an indomitable Scottish strongman who invariably acted altruistically and principally, the portrait which emerges is that of an ordinary person subject to all of the fears, insecurities, frailities, and contradictions of humanity. The picture is not one of an idealist who always defiantly and fearlessly spoke his mind and willingly accepted the consequences of his actions.187 On the contrary, a close study of his life reveals an individual who acted pragmatically on many occasions, frequently exercised guile and enlightened self-interest (or what Gordon Donaldson has called in reference to John Knox “a prudential regard for his own safety”), and feared death.188 An examination of the Diary also reveals both Melville’s volatile temperament and penchant toward controversy as well as his capacity to express largesse, compassion, tenderness, and forgiveness.189 When these other vignettes are brought into relation with the well-known heroic portraits, an altogether more human figure emerges from the pages of James Melville’s Diary. The image which is brought into focus by these accounts reveals Melville’s authentic and complex humanity. ╇ Duncan Glen, Scottish Literature: A New History from 1299 to 1999 (Kirkcaldy, 1999), 26; Ker, “James Melville,” 505–506. 186 ╇ James Kirk, “John Knox and the Historians” in Roger A. Mason (ed.), John Knox and the British Reformations (Aldershot, 1998), 12; Gordon Donaldson, “Knox the Man”€in Duncan Shaw (ed.), John Knox: A Quartercentenary Reappraisal (Edinburgh, 1975), 18. 187 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 324, 327–328. McCrie wrote of “the heroic courage and firmness which he [Melville] uniformly displayed in the hour of danger” and of his “great intrepidity” and “invincible fortitude” which made his spirit “incapable of being tamed by threats or violence.” 188 ╇ Donaldson, “Knox the Man,” 23. 189 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville II, 325–326. 185



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

331

Several confrontational incidents recorded in the Diary when considered out of context have contributed significantly to Melville’s mythical image. These confrontations with the regent James Douglas, fourth earl of Morton in 1578,190 the provost, baillies, and members of the town council of St Andrews in 1581,191 the King in 1584 and 1596 at Edinburgh and Falkland Palace respectively,192 and the English Privy Council at Whitehall on 30 November 1606193 portray Melville as intrepid, defiant, principled, undaunted by threats of physical violence, emotionally volatile, and zealous in advocating the truth. While such vignettes present a figure who exhibited remarkable courage and fortitude in the face of formidable opposition, they have, nevertheless, provided a basis for subsequent historians to construct the image of Melville as a Herculean figure of the Scottish Kirk. When accepted uncritically and considered out of context, they have tended to distort rather than illuminate the historical figure.194 To be sure, historians have observed his all too obvious flaws, such as his choleric temper, peevishness, rigidity, and, at times, lack of diplomacy. His tirades, as recorded by his nephew, have provided readers with ample evidence to support the conclusion that he often indulged his temper with intemperate, vituperative, and harshly censorious speech.195 Yet there has been very little analysis of other events in his life, which offer insight into his humanity and complexity and reveal an individual who shared those motives, fears, and insecurities common to humanity and who also possessed a capacity for compassion, affection, and eleemosynary acts.196 By considering these vignettes, a fuller, more

╇ Melville, JMAD, 67–68. ╇Ibid., 86, 124–126. On one occasion having removed a placard written in French and Italian from the College gate and knowing the author, Melville once again used his position from the pulpit to rebuke openly James Lermont, heir-apparent of Balcomie. Toward the end of his sermon with Lermont present, Melville produced the placard and is reported to have thundered, “Thow Frencheist, Italianist, jolie gentleman, wha has defyled the bed of sa manie maried, and now bosts with thy bastonados to defyll this Kirk, and put hands in his servants, thow sall never enjoy the fruicts of mariage … God sall bastone thie in his righteous judgments!” 192 ╇Ibid., 142, 370. Cf also Calderwood, History IV, 10–11. 193 ╇Ibid., 679. 194 ╇ Donaldson, “Knox the Man,” 23. 195 ╇ William Arbuckle, A St Andrews Diarist: James Melville 1556–1614, (Edinburgh and London, 1964), 25. 196 ╇ James K. Cameron, “Andrew Melville in St Andrews” in D.W.D. Shaw (ed.), In Divers Manners: A St Mary’s Miscellany (St Andrews, 1990), 64; R. G. Cant, The UniverÂ� sity of St Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992), 61. 190 191

332

chapter eight

nuanced portrait of the man in all of his inconsistency, complexity, and contradictory behavior emerges. There are two accounts in the Diary during Melville’s time on the continent in which he is portrayed as acting in an intentionally deceptive manner, concealing his Protestantism in an effort to preserve his own life by portraying himself as a Catholic.197 The first of these vignettes occurred in 1569 in Poitiers during the siege by Gaspard de Coligny while the second occurred in 1574 at the gates of Orléans during Melville’s return to Scotland.198 While Melville was in Poitiers during the third war of religion, serving as a private tutor to the son of a member of Parliament, he was accused of being a Huguenot and as such a threat to the town. After presenting himself as a loyal Catholic and acting the part even to the point of cladding himself with armor and mounting a horse for battle, he persuaded his accuser to retract his statement.199 Similarly, when questioned by the guards at the gates of Orléans regarding whether or not he were a Huguenot, he feigned ignorance and acted as though he condoned the Catholic mass.200 Both of these accounts depict a man acting not out of principle or candor, willing to profess and defend his own Protestant religious commitments despite the consequences, but rather a man who was acutely aware of the hard realities of the situation and who deliberately chose to portray himself as something other than what he really was. Regardless of the moral probity of his actions, Melville’s intentional deception reveals a pragmatism that is not easily reconciled with the principled, idealistic, and heroic portraits constructed from the Diary. Moreover, given the state of civil war in France during the 1560s and the horrific violence surrounding the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres of 1572, both situations could easily have resulted in Melville’s death.201 Aware of the physical threat posed to his own safety, he acted not with disregard out of sheer principle but exhibited an enlightened self-interest and expediency in acting to preserve his own life. While his instinct toward ╇ Melville, JMAD, 42. One might also cite Melville’s deception at the gates of Geneva where he led the guards to believe that they possessed the financial means to support themselves when in fact “thair was but a crown to the fore betwixt tham bathe.” 198 ╇ Hilary J. Bernstein, Between Crown and Community Politics and Civic Culture in Sixteenth-Century Poitiers (Ithaca and London, 2004), 158–159. 199 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. 200 ╇Ibid., 43. 201 ╇ On the St Bartholomew’s Day massacres see Robert M. Kingdon, Myths about the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacres 1572–1576 (Cambridge, MA and London, 1988). 197



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

333

Â� self-preservation can hardly be faulted, the means which he chose to protect himself seem at odds with his actions in other circumstances where the threat of physical violence was either wholly absent or unlikely. Melville’s willingness to serve in a Catholic household in Poitiers may indicate that his Protestant convictions at that point were not as pronounced as they later became. This tutorial arrangement also suggests that his humanist culture enabled him to transcend the religious divide for the sake of the promotion of the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance. As we have observed previously, in a number of different relationships throughout Melville’s life, he exhibited a willingness to set aside his theological and religious differences and cultivate relationships based upon a shared culture of European humanism. A third vignette which further reveals the complexity of Melville’s humanity may be seen in his response to the 1584 sentence ordering his imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle. Upon learning that the decree had been altered changing the place of incarceration from Edinburgh Castle to that “foull holl” Blackness, Melville escaped with his brother Roger by ship in the middle of the night and sailed to Berwick.202 Rather than stand boldly on his principles and receive the punishment James had determined, Melville pretended he was going to accept the punishment and fled Scotland out of fear for his own physical well-being.203 We see in this account not a Scottish strongman but a man who, when faced with the hard reality of imprisonment in “a solitary and unwholesome dungeon kept by a creature of Arran,” took the first available opportunity and fled to England, becoming a fugitive hunted by the crown.204 Perhaps his escape suggests that he wished to live to fight another day and avoid a premature martyrdom. If so, like Knox, he was in good company. From Alexander Alane, John Willock, Alexander Seton, and John Macalpine to George Buchanan, James Wedderburn, John Rough,€Andrew Charteris, and John Borthwick, an example of fleeing in the face of danger had been set for Melville, and he willingly followed in their path.205 In addition to these anecdotes, there remain three other vignettes from the Diary which provide further nuance and insight into the

╇ Melville, JMAD, 143–144; Calderwood, History IV, 12. ╇ John Spottiswoode, The History of the Church of Scotland, Vol. II, (Edinburgh, 1850), 309. Spottiswoode reports that the ministers were declaring that Melville “compelled for safety of his life to quit the kingdom” had left the country. 204 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 204. 205 ╇ Kirk, “John Knox and the Historians,” 17–18. 202 203

334

chapter eight

Â� complexity of Melville’s humanity disclosing his capacity for compassion, tenderness, and mercy. The account of his consolation of his dying pupil in Poitiers,206 his conveyance of the news of his brother’s death to his nephew James in 1575,207 and his treatment of Patrick Adamson after the cleric fell out of favor with the King208 together present a side of Melville not disclosed in the heroic and mythical portraits. Writing of his uncle’s affection for his young pupil, James poignantly added “that bern gaed never out of his hart; bot in teatching of me, he often rememberit him with tender compassion of mynd.” Far from a stoical academic or an intellectual interested only in ideas, Melville expressed to his pupils the kindness, affection, and compassion he himself had received from his own tutor and father-figure George Buchanan during their days in Paris.209 Similarly, after receiving the devastating news of his brother’s death and burdened with the responsibility of informing his nephew James, Melville “by his countenance first, and after a sweit and confortable delling” with James conveyed the report.210 Far from the caricature of the reformer as an “ancient prophet emerging from his seclusion to hurl denunciation and protest,”211 we see in this account a person in all of his frailty and vulnerability, mourning the loss of a loved one and exhibiting tenderness, compassion, and sympathy to a son who was mourning the death of his father.212 A third scene which provides even further insight into Melville’s humanity may be found in the account of Patrick Adamson’s poverty and sickness. As Melville’s ecclesiastical opponent for many years, Adamson repeatedly opposed the presbyterians, attacked Melville, and labored behind the scenes with the archbishop of Canterbury to subvert Presbyterianism in Scotland.213 Having fallen out of royal favor, lost the support of the monarch, and found himself destitute and in poor health,€ Adamson in desperation appealed to Melville for assistance. In contrast to the King, who had abandoned Adamson in his poverty and sickness and refused his pleas for assistance, Melville visited

╇ Melville, JMAD, 40. ╇Ibid., 50–51. 208 ╇Ibid., 289. 209 ╇ Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, 14 April 1572, Bodleian, Smith MS 77, 27–28; I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan, (London, 1981), 255–256. 210 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 40, 51. 211 ╇ Reid, The Divinity Principals, 57. 212 ╇ Melville, JMAD, 51. James Melville described by this as “the heaviest newes that ever I haid hard befor in all my lyff.” 213 ╇ Spottiswoode, History II, 237; McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 220. 206 207



andrew melville and the renaissance in scotland

335

him, Â�supported him financially for several months, and appealed on AdamÂ�son’s behalf to the citizens of St Andrews for their financial support.214 Aware that Adamson had squandered not only his own financial resources but those of the Kirk as well, Melville harbored no resentment, nor did he delight in Adamson’s misfortune. On the contrary, he determined instead to support him and his family out of his own financial resources and interceded on his behalf to ameliorate his circumstances.215 To be sure, this support did come with a price, namely Adamson’s recantation of Episcopacy in his work Palinodia as well as in a vernacular confession.216 Nevertheless, Melville’s largesse, compassion, and sympathy stand in stark contrast to the King’s abandonment and rejection of the destitute and ailing Adamson. The portrait which emerges from these three vignettes is not of Melville the controversialist who delighted himself in splenetic mockery and relished lampooning Episcopacy and the Church of England. To be sure, his poetry is capable of supporting that portrait.217 On the contrary, we find an ordinary man who, in the face of death, physical illness, and poverty, expressed compassion and tenderness towards those who were suffering. We see a man who suffered significant personal loss and was himself victimized by his enemies and yet refused to become bitter, showing compassion to those who were in need and expressing generosity to those who had wronged him.218 In short, the image which is revealed in these vignettes is altogether different from the mythical and legendary portraits. Just as the Melvini epistolae portray a man who was subject to discouragement, dejection, anxiety, and hesitation, so the Diary depicts a man who engaged in intentionally deceptive behavior, acted not out of principle but enlightened self-interest, and feared death. Similarly, in contrast to the image of Melville as a cantankerous, belligerent, and strident individual, James Melville discloses a man with a capacity for largesse, compassion, tenderness, and eleemosynary acts. While it is not necessary to choose one set of characteristics to the exclusion of the other or to deny their apparent incompatibility or contradictory ╇ Melville, JMAD, 289. ╇ Spottiswoode, History II, 415. 216 ╇ Reid, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland,” 130; Calderwood, History V, 119. 217 ╇ Parasynagma Perthense et ivramentvm ecclesiæ Scoticanæ et A.M. AntitamiÂ� camicategoria, 42; W. Hilton Kelliher, “The Latin Poetry of George Herbert” in John R. Roberts (ed.), Essential Articles for the Study of George Herbert’s Poetry (Hamden, CT, 1979), 528; F. E. Hutchinson (ed.), The Works of George Herbert (Oxford, 1978), 588, 610; Joseph H. Summers, George Herbert: His Religion and Art (London, 1954), 55. 218 ╇ McCrie, Life of Andrew Melville I, 315–316. 214 215

336

chapter eight

character, a careful reading of the Diary provides valuable insight in recovering Melville’s humanity and correcting the mythical images. Conclusion While James Melville’s narrative history remains the most important source on the life and work of Melville, it must be used critically and cautiously. It was not his intention to write a biography of his uncle, nor did he do so. His accounts of his uncle are incorporated into a larger narrative in which James portrays him as playing a much more significant role in university affairs in Scotland and in the reform of the Kirk than what can be supported from other historical sources of the period. The heroic images found in the Diary were narrated by one who was intimately attached to and who had been profoundly shaped by Melville himself. Thus, it is quite natural that he would portray his kinsman, friend, colleague, and fellow humanist in a favorable light. Curiously, the same document which has provided the raw materials from which the Melville legend has been constructed is the same source which discloses his common humanity and personal shortcomings. A careful reading of the Diary in conjunction with the Melvini epistolae yields a far more nuanced and textured portrait of the humanist and reformer than has been previously recognized. Nevertheless, without the Diary our knowledge of many of the details of Melville’s life would have been lost and our ability to determine his place within Scottish intellectual life in the early modern period would have been significantly hindered. Melville, much like his close friend Buchanan, was a product of the French humanism of the northern European Renaissance and his subsequent academic career and intellectual life in Scotland may be viewed as an outworking of his formative experience in France and Switzerland. Upon his return to Scotland in 1574 he served as a prominent and influential leader in the Scottish universities, promoting many of the values and methods of French humanism in his native country. His creative adaptation of the New Learning, such as the incorporation of Semitic cognates, the abolition of regenting, as well as the introduction of specialist instruction, and the writings of Ramus and Talon into the university curriculum, remains his distinctive achievement. While none of these innovations and reforms proved permanent, the effort to bring the Scottish universities into conformity with the most recent developments and advances on the continent remain the most enduring monument to him as a forward-looking humanist.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Literature Manuscripts Bodleian Library, University of Oxford Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, 14 April 1572, Smith MS. 77, 27–28 Letter of Andrew Melville to Peter Young, June 1573, Smith MS. 77, 29 Letter of Andrew Melville to Stephen Powle, March 1584, Tanner MS 168, fol. 204v Letter of Hercules Rollock to Peter Young, 1573, Bodleian, Smith MS. 77, 33–34 Letter of Stephen Powle to Andrew Melville, 1 March 1584, Tanner MS 168, fol. 204v. Letter of Stephen Powle to Andrew Melville, 30 April 1583, Bodleian, Tanner MS. 168 f. 203v. Melville, Andrew, “De vita et obitu Clarissimi Viri Domini Henrici Scrimgeri, Jurisconsulti ac Philosophi peritissimi,” Bodleian, Cherry MS. 5 British Library, London Atkinson, Thomas “Melvinus delirans sive satyra edentula contra ejusdem AntiTami-Cami-Categoriam,” MS Harley 3496 Letter of Patrick Adamson to the archbishop of Canterbury 16 June 1584, Harley MS. 7004 folios 3 to 3verso Letter of Andrew Melville to Jean Castoll, 23 February 1584, British Library, MS Cotton Caligula C. IX, f. 167 Andrew Melville, “Paraphrasis epistolæ ad Hebræos Andreæ Melvini,” British Library, MS. Harley 6947.9 National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh Melville, Andrew, Floretum Archiepiscopale, National Library of Scotland, Wodrow Folio XLII, ff. 126r–127v. Special Collections, University of Edinburgh Melville, Andrew and James Melville, Melvini Epistolae Melville, Andrew Paraphrases des Psaumes I–II–XVI–XXXVI–CXXIX. MSS, ——â•›, “Prosopopeia apologetica” (c. 1608) Special Collections, King’s College, University of Aberdeen Christopher Jansen, 1595 De prædestinatione. Sive de cavsis salvtis et damnationis æternæ dispvtatio, Jean Masson, 1597 De libero arbitrio theses theologicæ, Class Theses, 1599 Scholastica diatriba de rebvs divinis ad anquirendam & inveniendam veritatem, Patrick Geddie, 1600 De ivstificatione hominis coram deo theses theologicæ, John Scharp, 1600 Theses theologicæ de peccato, Thomas Lundie, 1602 Vtrum episcopus Romanus sit antichristvs necne? Andrew Morton, 1602 Theses theologicæ de sacramentis, & missa idololatrica,

338

selected bibliography

Bibliothèque de Genève, Université de Genève Letter of Théodore de Bèze and Jean Pinault to Andrew Melville 12 April 1574, Bibliothèque de Genève, MS. Fr. 408, f. 30–31

Published Sources Adamson, Patrick, A Declaratioun of the Kings Maisties Intentioun and Meaning Toward the Lait Actis of Parliament (Edinburgh, 1585) ——â•›, Vita Patrici Adamsoni Opera Tho. Voluseni J. C. in De Sacro Pastoris Munere (London, 1619) Anderson, James Maitland ed., Early Records of the University of St. Andrews (Edinburgh, 1926) Anderson, P.J., Officers and Graduates of University & King’s College Aberdeen 1495–1860 (Aberdeen, 1893) Andrewes, Lancelot, A Sermon Preached Before the Kings Maiestie, at Hampton Court, Concerning the Right and Power of Calling Assemblies, on Sunday the 28. of September, Anno 1606 (London, 1606) Bancroft, Richard, Daungerous Positions and Proceedings, Published and Practised within this Iland of Brytaine, Under Pretence of Reformation, and for the Presbiteriall Discipline (London, 1593) ——â•›, A Sermon Preached at Paule’s Crosse the 9. of Februarie, being the first Sunday in the Parleament, Anno. 1588. (London, 1588) ——â•›, A Svrvay of the Pretended Holy Discipline. Contayning the Beginninges, Successe, Parts, Proceedings, Authority, and Doctrine of it: With Some of the Manifold, and Materiall Repugnances, Varieties and Vncertaineties, in that Behalfe (London, 1593) Barlow, William, The First of the Foure Sermons Preached before the kings Maiestie, at Hampton Court in September Last. This Concerning the Antiquity and Superioritie of Bishoppes. Sept. 21, 1606 (London, 1607) ——â•›, The Summe and Substance of the Conference … in his Maiesties Privie-Chamber, at Hampton Court. Ianuary 14. 1603 (London, 1605) Bertram, Cornelius, Comparatio grammaticæ Hebraicæ & Aramicæ (Geneva, 1574) Bizzari, Petri, “Ad Andream Milvinum” in Delitiae cc. Italorum Poetarum, huius superorisque aevi illustrium ed. Janus Gruterus Vol. I (Francofurti, 1608), 437–438. Buchanan, George, Georgii Buchanani paraphrasis Psalmorum Davidis poetica (Glasgow and Edinburgh, 1797) Bucholtzer, Abraham, Isagoge Chronologica, Id est: Opusculam ad Annorum Seriem in Sacris Bibliis Contexendam, Compendio Viam Monstrans ac Fundamenta Indicans (In Officina Sanctandreana, false imprint, 1596), National Library of Scotland, E.84.f.16.f. OO VIIIv. Buckeridge, John, A Sermon Preached at Hampton Court before the Kings Maiestie, on Tuesday the 23. of September, Anno 1606 (London, 1606) Calderwood, David, The History of the Kirk of Scotland by Mr. David Calderwood, ed. T. Thomson, 8 vols. (Edinburgh, 1842–49) Carleton, George, Bp Carletons Testimonie Concerning the Presbyterian Discipline in the Low-Countries, and Episcopall Government here in England. Wherein is briefly discovered the Novelty of the one, and Antiquity of the other; with a short taste of the inconveniences that attend the new Plat-forme, where that is set up in the roome of the old Primitive Government (London, 1642) Cartwright, Thomas, “Præfatio ad lectorem” in Ecclesiasticae disciplinae … explicatio (Rupelae, 1574) Casaubon, Isaac, Isaaci Casauboni Epistolæ (Rotterdam, 1709) Charteris, Henry, Narrative of the Life and Death of Mr Robert Rollock of Scotland in Select Works of Robert Rollock, Principal of the University of Edinburgh ed. William M. Gunn (Edinburgh, 1849)



selected bibliography

339

Damman, Adrian, Schediasmata Hadrianus Dammanis A Bisterveld Gandavensis (Edinburgh, 1590) De la Boderie, Antoine Le Fèvre, Ambassades de monsieur de la Boderie en Angleterre sous le règne d’Henri IV. & la minorité de Louis XIII. depuis le années 1606 jusqu’en 1611 Vols. I–V (1750) Du Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste, The Historie of Iudith in Forme of a Poem. Penned in French, by the Noble Poet, G. Salust. Lord of Bartas. Englished by Tho. Hudson. (Edinburgh, 1584) ——â•›, L’Uranie ou Muse Celeste de G. de Saluste Seigneur du Bartas. Urania sive Musa Cœlestis Roberti Ashelei de Gallica G. Salustij Bartasij Delibata (London, 1589) ——â•›, The Triumph of Faith. The Sacrifice of Isaac. The Ship-wracke of Ionas. With a Song of the Victorie Obtained by the French King, at Yvry. Written in French, by W. Salustius lord of Bartas, and translated by Iosuah Siluester, merchant Aduenturer (1592) Dunlop, Annie I., “Introduction” in Acta Facultatis Artium Universitatis Sanctiandree 1413–1588 Vol. I, (Edinburgh, 1964) Epicedia illustri heroi Caspari Colignio, Colignii comiti, Castilionis domino, magno Galliarum thallasiatchae variis linguis a doctis piisque poetis decantata (Geneva, 1573), GLN2464. Evidence, Oral and Documentary, taken and received by the Commissioners … for visiting the Universities of Scotland Vol. III, University of St Andrews (London, 1837) Hume, David, The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus Vols.I–II (Edinburgh, 1743) ——â•›, Lusus poetici, in tres partes distincti (London, 1605) Johnston, Arthur ed., Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum Vols. I–II (Amsterdam, 1637) Johnston, John, Heroes ex omni historia Scotia lectissimi (Edinburgh, 1603) ——â•›, Inscriptiones historicae regum Scotorum, continuata annorum serie a Fergusio primo regni conditore ad nostra tempora (Edinburgh, 1602) Melville, Andrew, Gathelus, Sive de Gentis origine fragmentum in John Johnston, Inscriptiones historicæ Regum Scotorum, continuata annorum serie a Fergusio primo conditore ad nostra tempora (Amsterdam, 1602) Melville, Andrew, “Historiæ vera laus” in John Johnston, Inscriptiones historicæ Regum Scotorum, continuata annorum serie a Fergusio primo conditore ad nostra tempora (Amsterdam, 1602), ——â•›, Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia (Edinburgh, 1594) ——â•›, Pro Supplici Evangelicorum Ministrorum in Anglia ad Serenissimum Regem Contra Larvatam geminate Academiae Gorgonem Apologia, sive Anti-tami-cami-Categoria (1620) ——â•›, Στεφανισκιον Ad Scotiae Regem, Habitvm in Coronatione Reginae. 17. Maij 1590 (Edinburgh, 1590) ——â•›, Viri clarissimi A. Melvini musae et P. Adamsoni vita et palindoia [sic] et celsae commissionis ceu delegatae potestatis regiae in causis ecclesiasticis brevis & aperta descriptio (1620) Melville, James, The Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville ed. Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, 1842) Mercerus, Joannes, Chaldaea translatio Abdiae et Ionae prophetarum:Latino sermone recens donata, cum scholiis … per Iohannem Mercerum, (Paris, 1550) ——â•›, Commentarii locupletiss. In prophetas quinque priores inter eos qui minores vocantur: quibus adiuncti sunt aliorum etiam … commentarii, ab eodem excerpti. (Geneva, 1583) ——â•›, Commentarij in librum Iob: Adiecta est Theodori Bezae epistola, in qua de huius viri doctrina, & istorum commentariorum vtilitate disseritur. (Geneva, 1573) ——â•›, Commentarij in Salomonis Prouerbia, Ecclesiasten, & Canticum canticorum (Geneva, 1573)

340

selected bibliography

——â•›, Euangelium Hebraicum Matthæi, recèns è ludæorum penetralibus erutum, cum interpretatione Lat. (trans.) (Paris, 1555) ——â•›, Tabulæ in grammaticen linguæ Chaldææ: quae & Syriaca dicitur (Paris, 1560) Rainolds, John, An Excellent Oration of the Late famously Learned John Rainolds, D. D. and Lecturer of the Greek Tongue in Oxford. Very Usefull for all such as Affect the Studies of Logic and Philosophie, and Admire Profane Learning (London, 1638) ——â•›, Johannis Rainoldi, De Romanæ Ecclesiæ Idololatria, in Cultu Sanctorum, Reliquiarum, Imaginum, Aquæ, Salis, Olei, Aliarumq; rerum Consecratarum, & Sacramenti Eucharistiæ, Operis Inchoati Libri Duo (Oxford, 1596) ——â•›, The Overthrow of Stage-Playes, By the Way of Controversie betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes (Oxford, 1629) Rollock, Hercules, De Augustissimo Iacobi 6. Scotorum Regis, & Annæ Frederici 2, Danorum Regia filiae Conjugio: 1, Calend. Septemb. 1589 in Dania Celebrato (Edinburgh, 1589) Row, John, History of the Kirk of Scotland from the Year 1558 to August 1637, ed. David Laing (Edinburgh, 1842) Ruddiman, Thomas, ed. Georgi Buchanani … Opera Omnia Vol. I (Edinburgh, 1714–1715) Scot, William, An Apologetical Narration of the State and Government of the Kirk of Scotland Since the Reformation (Edinburgh, 1846) Spottiswoode, John, The History of the Church of Scotland Vols. I–III (Edinburgh, 1850) Travers, Walters, Ecclesiasticae disciplinae et Anglicanae ecclesiae ab illa aberrationis, plena E Verbo Dei, & dilucida explicatio (Rupelae, 1574) Wodrow, Robert, Collections upon the Lives of the Reformers and Most Eminent Ministers of the Church of Scotland Vol. I–II (Glasgow, 1834)

Secondary Literature Books Anderson, P. J., Notes on Academic Theses, with Bibliography of Duncan Liddel (Aberdeen, 1912) Arbuckle, William, A St. Andrews Diarist: James Melville 1556–1614 (Edinburgh and London, 1964) Armstrong, Brian G., Calvinism and the Amyraut ‘heresy’: Protestant Scholasticism and Humanism in Seventeenth-Century France (Maddison, Milwaukee, and London, 1969) Babbage, Stuart Barton, Puritanism and Richard Bancroft (London, 1962) Baird, Henry Martyn, Theodore Beza The Counsellor of the French Reformation Â�1519–1605 (New York, 1899) Bangs, Carl, Arminius: A Study in the Dutch Reformation (Nashville, 1971) Bardgett, Frank D., Scotland Reformed: The Reformation in Angus and the Mearns (Edinburgh, 1989) Barnard, Howard C., The French Tradition in Education: Ramus to Mme Necker de Saussure (Cambridge, 1922) Barnaud, Jean, Pierre Viret: sa vie et son œuvre (1511–1571) (Saint-Amans, 1911) Becker-Cantarino, Baerbel, Daniel Heinsius (Boston, 1978) Benedict, Philip, Rouen During the Wars of Religion (Cambridge, 1981) Bernstein, Hilary J., Between Crown and Community: Politics and Civic Culture in Sixteenth-Century Poitiers (Ithaca, 2004) Bingham, Caroline, James VI of Scotland (London, 1979) ——â•›, The Making of a King: The Early Years of James VI and I (London, 1968) Binns, J. W., Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writers of the Age (Leeds, 1990)



selected bibliography

341

Boissonnade, Prosper, Histoire de Poitou (Paris, 1977) ——â•›, Histoire de l’ Université de Poitiers passé et present (1432–1932) (Poitiers, 1932) Bolam, C. G., The English Presbyterians: From Elizabethan Puritanism to Modern UnitariÂ� anism (London, 1968) Borgeaud, Charles, Histoire de L’Université de Genève L’Académie de Calvin 1559–1798 (Genève, 1900) Bouwsma, William James John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (New York, 1988) Bower, Alexander, The History of the University of Edinburgh: Chiefly Compiled from Original Papers and Records, Never Before Published (Edinburgh, 1817) Boyer, G. and P. Thomas, eds., L’université de Toulouse: son passé, son présent (1929) Bradner, Leicester, Musae Anglicanae: A History of Anglo-Latin Poetry 1500–1925 (New York and London, 1940) Breen, Quirinus, John Calvin: A Study in French Humanism, (Hamden, CT, 1968) Broadie, Alexander, The Tradition of Scottish Philosophy: A New Perspective on the Enlightenment (Edinburgh, 1990) Brown, P. Hume, George Buchanan: Humanist and Reformer (Edinburgh, 1890) ——â•›, John Knox: A Biography Vols.I–II (London, 1895) ——â•›, ed. Vernacular Writings of George Buchanan (Edinburgh, 1892) Bulloch, John Malcolm, A History of the University of Aberdeen 1495–1895 (London, 1895) Burleigh, J. H. S. A Church History of Scotland (London, 1960) Burns, J. H. The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarch in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996) Burton, John Hill, The History of Scotland: From Agricola’s Invasion to the Revolution of 1688 Vol. V, (Edinburgh, 1870) ——â•›, The Scot Abroad Vols. I–II (Edinburgh, 1864) Cameron, James K. ed., The First Book of Discipline: With Introduction and Commentary (Edinburgh, 1972) ——â•›, ed. Letters of John Johnston c.1565–1611 and Robert Howie c.1565–c.1645 (Edinburgh and London, 1963) Campbell, Lily B., Divine Poetry and Drama in Sixteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1959) Campbell, William M., The Triumph of Presbyterianism (Edinburgh, 1958) Cant, Ronald Gordon, The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective (St Andrews, 1979) ——â•›, The University of St. Andrews: A Short History (St Andrews, 1992) Chaix, Paul et al., Les Livres Imprimés à Geneve de 1550 à 1600 (Geneva, 1966) Charles, Amy M., A Life of George Herbert (Ithaca and London, 1977) Clément, Louis, Henri Estienne et Son Oeuvre Français (Paris, 1899) Collinson, Patrick, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (Oxford, 1967) Craik, Henry ed., English Prose Selections (London, 1893) De Nolhac, Pierre, Un Poète Rhénan Ami de la Pléiade: Paul Melissus (Paris, 1923) Dempster, Thomas, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum: Sive, De Scriptoribus Scotis (Edinburgh, 1829) Dent, C. M., Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford (Oxford, 1983) Dez, Pierre, Histoire des protestants et des églises réformées du Poitou (La Rochelle, 1936) Doelman, James, King James I and the Religious Culture of England (Cambridge, 2000) Doerksen, Daniel W., Conforming to the Word: Herbert, Donne, and the English Church before Laud (London, 1997) Donaldson, Gordon, The Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill (London, 1969) ——â•›, Scotland: Church and Nation through Sixteen Centuries (London, 1960) ——â•›, The Scottish Reformation (Cambridge, 1960) Douen, Emmanuel Orentin, Clément Marot et le Psautier huguenot (Paris, 1878) Dufour, Alain, Théodore de Bèze: Poète et Théolgien (Genève, 2006)

342

selected bibliography

Durkan, John and James Kirk, The University of Glasgow 1451–1577 (Glasgow, 1977) Fumaroli, Marc (ed.), Les origines du College de France (Paris, 1998) Fatio, Olivier, Méthode et Théologie: Lambert Daneau et les Débuts de la Scolastique Réformée (Genève, 1976) Fatio, Olivier and Olivier Labarthe eds. Registres de la Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève tome III 1565–1574 (Genève, 1969) Feingold, Mordechai, The Mathematician’s Apprentice: Science, Universities and Society in England, 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1984) Ferme, Charles, A Logical Analysis of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans ed. W. L. Alexander (Edinburgh, 1850) Finlayson, Charles P., Clement Litill and His Library: The Origins of Edinburgh University Library (Edinburgh, 1980) Fischer, Th. A., The Scots in Germany: Being a Contribution Towards the History of the Scot Abroad (Edinburgh, 1902) Fischlin, Daniel and Mark Fortier eds. James I The True Law of Free Monarchies and Basilikon Doron (Toronto, 1996) Forbes-Leith, William, Pre-Reformation Scholars in Scotland in the Sixteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1974) Ford, Philip J., George Buchanan Prince of Poets, (Aberdeen, 1982) Foyster, Elizabeth A., Manhood in Early Modern England Honour, Sex, and Marriage (London and New York, 1999) Franklin, Julian M., Jean Bodin and the Sixteenth-Century Revolution in the Methodology of Law and History, (New York, 1963) Fuller, Thomas, The Church History of Britain Vols.I– III (London, 1868) Graham, Michael F., The Uses of Reform: ‘Godly Discipline’ and Popular Behavior in Scotland and Beyond, 1560–1610 (Leiden, 1996) Gaisser, Julia Haig, Catullus and his Renaissance Readers (Oxford, 1993) Geddes, William Duguid, ed., Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston Vol. I The Parerga of 1637 (Aberdeen, 1892) ——â•›, Musa Latina Aberdonensis Arthur Johnston Vol. II The Epigrammata and Remaining Secular Poems (Aberdeen, 1895) Geisendorf, Paul F., L’Université de Genève 1559–1959 (Genève, 1959) ——â•›, Théodore de Bèze (Genève, 1949) Giesey, Ralph E. and J.H.M. Salmon, “Editor’s Introduction” in François Hotman, Francogallia (Cambridge, 1972) Glen, Duncan, Scottish Literature: A New History from 1299 to 1999 (Kirkcaldy, 1999) Goodare, Julian and Alasdair A. MacDonald (eds.), Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Leiden and Boston, 2008) Goodare, Julian and Michael Lynch eds., The Reign of James VI (East Linton, 2000) Grafton, Anthony and Joanna Weinberg, “I have Always Loved the Holy Tongue”: Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship (Cambridge, MA, 2011) Grafton, Anthony T., Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship Vol. I Textual Criticism and Exegesis (Oxford, 1983); Grafton, Anthony and L. Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge, MA, 1986). Grant, Alexander, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years Vols. I–II (London, 1884) Graves, Frank Pierrepont, Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, (New York, 1912) Grossman, Maria, Humanism in Wittenberg, 1485–1517 (Nieuwkoop, 1975) Gunn, William M. ed., Select Works of Robert Rollock, Principal of the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1849) Hall, Basil, John Calvin Humanist and Theologian (London, 1956)



selected bibliography

343

Hazlett, Ian, The Reformation in Britain and Ireland (London and New York, 2003) ——â•›ed, Traditions of Theology in Glasgow 1450–1990: A Miscellany (Edinburgh, 1993) Heal, Felicity, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford, 2003) Henderson, G.D., The Burning Bush: Studies in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1957) ——â•›, The Founding of Marischal College Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1947) ——â•›, Religious Life in Seventeenth-Century Scotland (Cambridge, 1937) Hewitt, George R., Scotland under Morton 1572–80 (Edinburgh, 1982) Hitchcock, Tim and Michèle Cohen eds. English Masculinities 1660–1800 (London and New York, 1999) Hofmeister, Adolph ed., Die Matrikel der Universität Rostock, Vol. II (Rostock, 1889) Holt, Mack P., The French Wars of Religion 1562–1629 (Cambridge, 1995) Hooykaas, Reijer, Humanisme, Science et Réforme, Pierre de la Ramée, 1515–1572 (Leyden, 1958) Horn, D. B., A Short History of the University of Edinburgh 1556–1889 (Edinburgh, 1967) Hotson, Howard, Commonplace Learning: Ramism and its German Ramifications, 1543–1630 (Oxford, 2007) Houlbrooke, Ralph ed., James VI and I: Ideas, Authority and Government (Aldershot, 2006) Howell, Wilbur Samuel, Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500–1700 (Princeton, 1956) Hutchinson, F. E. ed., The Works of George Herbert (Oxford, 1978) Hyde, A.G. George Herbert and His Times (London, 1906) Innes, Cosmo ed., Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis, Vol. I, (Glasgow, 1854) Johnson, Francis R., Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England: A Study of English Scientific Writings from 1500–1645 (Baltimore, 1937) Johnstone, J. F. Kellas, The Lost Aberdeen Theses (Aberdeen, 1916) Junod, Louis and Henri Meylan, L’Académie de Lausanne au XVIe siècle (Lausanne, 1947) Kelley, Donald R. Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship: Language, Law, and History in the French Renaissance (New York, 1970) ——â•›, François Hotman a Revolutionary’s Ordeal (Princeton, 1973) Kenyon, John Phillips, The Stuart Constitution, 1603–1688: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge, 1986) Kerr, John, Scottish Education School and University: from Early Times to 1908 (Cambridge, 1910) King, John, The Fourth Sermon Preached at Hampton Court on Tuesday the Last of Sept. 1606 (Oxford, 1606) Kingdon, Robert M., Geneva and the Coming of the Wars of Religion 1555–1563 (Geneva, 1956) ——â•›, Geneva and the Consolidation of the French Protestant Movement 1564–1572 (Genève, 1967) ——â•›, Myths about the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres, 1572–1576 (Cambridge, MA and London, 1988) Kirk, James ed., The Second Book of Discipline (Edinburgh, 1980) Knox, S. J., Walter Travers: Paragon of Elizabethan Puritanism (London, 1962) Kristeller, Paul Oskar, Renaissance Thought and Its Sources (New York, 1979) ——â•›, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York and London, 1965) Lake, Peter, Anglicans and Puritans? Presbyterianism and English Conformist Thought from Whitgift to Hooker (London, 1988) Leask, William Keith ed., Musa Latina Aberdonensis: Poetae Minores Vol. III (Aberdeen, 1910) Lee, John, The University of Edinburgh from its Foundation in 1583 to the year 1839: A Historical Sketch (Edinburgh, 1884)

344

selected bibliography

Lefranc, Abel, Histoire du Collège de France (Paris, 1893) ——â•›, Le Collège de France (Paris, 1932) Lewis, John, Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565): A Humanist Observed, (Geneva, 1998) Linder, Robert Dean, The Political Ideas of Pierre Viret (Genève, 1964) Lindsay, Maurice, History of Scottish Literature (London, 1977) Lippe, Robert ed., Selections from Wodrow’s Biographical Collections: Divines of the North-East of Scotland (Aberdeen, 1890) Maag, Karin ed., Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg (Grand Rapids, 1999) ——â•›Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 (Aldershot, 1995) MacDonald, Alan R., The Jacobean Kirk, 1567–1625 Sovereignty, Polity and Liturgy (Aldershot, 1998) Macfarlane, Leslie J., William Elphinstone and the Kingdom of Scotland 1431–1514 (Aberdeen, 1985) Mackie, J. D., The University of Glasgow 1451–1951 (Glasgow, 1954) Macmillan, D., The Aberdeen Doctors (London, 1909) McRoberts, David ed., Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 (Glasgow, 1962) MacQueen, John ed., Humanism in Renaissance Scotland (Edinburgh, 1999) Mahaffy, John Pentland, An Epoch in Irish History: Trinity College, Dublin: Its Foundation and Early Fortunes 1591–1660 (London, 1903) Malcolmson, Cristina, George Herbert: A Literary Life (New York, 2004) Mallinson, Jeffrey Faith, Reason, and Revelation in Theodore Beza 1519–1605 (Oxford, 2003) Manetsch, Scott M., Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598 (Leiden, 2000) Mapstone, S. L. and J. Wood eds. The Rose and the Thistle: Essays on the Culture of Late Medieval and Renaissance Scotland (East Linton, 1998) Marsollier, Jacques, Histoire de Henry de La Tour d’Auvergne, duc de Bouillon; ou l’on trouve ce qui s’est passé de plus remarquable sous le regnes de François II, Charles IX, Henry III, Henry IV, la minorité & les premieres années du regne de Louis XIII / par M. Mar (Paris, 1719) Mason, Roger A. and Martin S. Smith, eds and trans., A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots: A Critical Edition and Translation of George Buchanan’s De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus eds. (Aldershot, 2004) McCloskey, Mark and Paul R. Murphy Trans., The Latin Poetry of George Herbert: A Bilingual Edition (Athens, OH, 1965) McCoog S.J., Thomas M., The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England 1541–1588 (Leiden, 1996) McFarlane, I. D., Buchanan, (London, 1981) ——â•›A Literary History of France: Renaissance France 1470–1589 (London, 1974) McGinnis, Paul J. and Arthur H. Williamson eds. George Buchanan: The Political Poetry (Edinburgh, 1995) ——â•›ed. and trans., The British Union A Critical Edition and Translation of David Hume of Godscroft’s De Unione Insulae Britannicae (Ashgate, 2002) McNeil, David O., Guillaume Budé and Humanism in the Reign of Francis I (Genève, 1975) McCrie, Thomas, Life of Andrew Melville Vols. I–II (London, 1824) McCrie, Thomas Jr., Life of Thomas McCrie, D.D. (Edinburgh, 1840) Mellon, P., L’Académie de Sedan centre d’influence française a propos d’un manuscrit du xvii siècle (Paris, 1913) Merriman, Marcus, The Rough Wooings: Mary Queen of Scots, 1542–1551 (East Linton, 2000) Meylan, Henri, La Haute Ecole de Lausanne 1537–1937 (Lausanne, 1937) Michel, Francisque Les Écossais en France, les Français en Écosse Vol. II, (London, 1867)



selected bibliography

345

Millar, J.H., A Literary History of Scotland (London, 1903) Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, 1935) Mours, Samuel, Le Protestantisme en France au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1959) Moussiegt, Paul, Hotman et Du Plessis-Mornay, Théories Politiques des Réformés au XVI Siècle (Geneva, 1970) Mullan, David George, Episcopacy in Scotland: The History of an Idea, 1560–1638 (Edinburgh, 1986) ——â•›Scottish Puritanism 1590–1638 (Oxford, 2000) Muller, Richard, Christ and the Decree. Christology and Predestination in Reformed Theology from Calvin to Perkins (Grand Rapids, MI, 1986) Mullinger, James Bass, The University of Cambridge: From the Royal Injunctions of 1535 to the Accession of Charles the First (Cambridge, 1884) Nauert, Charles G. Jr., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, 1995) Nazelle, L. J., Isaac Casaubon: sa vie et son temps (1559–1614) (Genève, 1970) Nelson, Norman E., Peter Ramus and the Confusion of Logic, Rhetoric, and Poetry, The University of Michigan Contributions in Modern Philology, No. 2 (Ann Arbor, 1947) Nugent, Donald, Ecumenism in the Age of the Reformation: The Colloquy of Poissy (Cambridge, MA, 1974) Ong, Walter J. S.J., Ramus and Talon Inventory: A Short-Title Inventory (Cambridge, MA, 1958) Partee, Charles, Calvin and Classical Philosophy (Leiden, 1977) ——â•›Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (Cambridge, MA, 1958) Orem, W. T., A Description of the Chanonry, Cathedral, and King’s College of Old Aberdeen, 1724–25 (London, 1782) Parenty, Hélène, Isaac Casaubon helléniste: des studia humanitatis à la philologie (Geneva, 2009) Patrides, C. A., George Herbert: The Critical Heritage (London, 1983) Pattison, Mark, Isaac Casaubon 1559–1614 (Oxford, 1892) Pearson, A.F. Scott, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535–1603 (Cambridge, 1925) Perosa, Alessandro and John Sparrow eds. Renaissance Latin Verse: An Anthology (London, 1979) Provand, W.S., Puritanism in the Scottish Church (Paisley, 1923) Quick, John, Synodicon in Gallia Reformata Vol. I (London, 1692) Rait, Robert Sangster, The Universities of Aberdeen: A History (Aberdeen, 1895) Rashdall, Hastings, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Vols. I–III eds. F.M. Powicke and A.B. Emden (Oxford, 1936) Reid, H. M. B., The Divinity Principals in the University of Glasgow 1545–1654 (Glasgow, 1917) Reid, W. Stanford, Trumpeter of God: A Biography of John Knox (New York, 1974) Ridley, Jaspar, John Knox (Oxford, 1968) Rimbault, Lucien, Pierre du Moulin, 1568–1658: un pasteur classique à l’age classique étude de théologie pastorale sur des documents inédits. (Paris, 1966) Robbins, Kevin C., City on the Ocean Sea: La Rochelle, 1530–1650 Urban Society, Religion, and Politics on the French Atlantic Frontier (Leiden and Boston, 1997) Robinson, George W., trans. Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger with Autobiographical Selections from his Letters his Testament and the Funeral Orations by Daniel Heinsius and Dominicus Baudius (Cambridge, 1927) Robinson, Hastings ed., The Zurich Letters, Comprising the Correspondence of Several English Bishops and Others, with some of the Helvetian Reformers during the Early Part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Cambridge, 1842) Rummel, Erika, The Humanist-Scholastic Debate in the Renaissance & Reformation (Cambridge, MA and London, 1995) Ryrie, Alec, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation (Manchester, 2006)

346

selected bibliography

Sanderson, Margaret H.B., Ayrshire and the Reformation: People and Change 1490–1600 (East Lothian, 1997) Schofield, John, Philip Melanchthon and the English Reformation (Aldershot, 2006) Sellin, Paul R., Daniel Heinsius and Stuart England (New York and London, 1968) Selwyn, Edward Gordon trans. and ed., The First Book of the Irenicum of John Forbes of Corse a Contribution to the Theology of Re-union (Cambridge, 1923) Shaw, Duncan, The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland 1560–1600 (Edinburgh, 1964). ——â•›ed., Reformation and Revolution: Essays Presented to the Very Reverend Principal Emeritus Hugh Watt, D.D., D.Litt. on the Sixtieth Anniversary of his Ordination (Edinburgh, 1967) Shepard, Alexandra, Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2003) Shire, Helena Mennie, Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland under King James VI (Cambridge, 1969) Snow, W. G. Sinclair, The Times, Life, and Thought of Patrick Forbes Bishop of Aberdeen 1618–1635 (London, 1952) Spitz, Lewis W., The Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists (Cambridge, MA, 1963) Stelling-Michaud, S. ed. Le Livre du Recteur de L’Académie de Genève (1559–1878) Vol. I, (Geneva, 1959) Stevenson, David, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641: from Protestant Reformation to Covenanting Revolution (Aberdeen, 1990) ——â•›The Scottish Revolution 1637–1644: The Triumph f the Covenanters (Newton Abbot, 1973) Summers, Joseph H., George Herbert: His Religion and Art (London, 1954) Summers, Kirk, A View from the Palatine: The Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze (Temple, AZ, 2001) Sutherland, N. M. The Huguenot Struggle for Recognition (New Haven, 1980) Thompson, James Westfall, The Wars of Religion in France 1559–1576 (New York, 1957) Thomson, Thomas, A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times Vol. IV (London, 1893) Toepke, G., ed., Die Matrikel der Universität Heidelberg Vol. I (Heidelberg, 1884) Trinterud, Leonard J. ed., Elizabethan Puritanism (Oxford, 1971) Tuilier, André, Histoire de L ‘Université de Paris et de La Sorbonne Tome I Des origines à Richelieu (Paris, 1994) Upham, Alfred Hioratio, The French Influence in English Literature: From the Accession of Elizabeth to the Restoration (New York, 1908) Usher, Roland Greene, Reconstruction of the English Church Vols. I–II (New York and London, 1910) Van Dorsten, J. A., Poets, Patrons, and Professors: Sir Philip Sidney, Daniel Rogers, and the Leiden Humanists (Leiden and London, 1962) Wackernagel, Hans Georg, ed., Die Matrikel der Universität Basel, Vol. II (Basel, 1956) Waddington, Charles, Ramus: sa vie, ses écrits et ses opinions (1855) Walker, Hugh, Three Centuries of Scottish Literature: The Reformation to the Union Vol I. (Glasgow, 1893) Walton, Izak, The Life of Mr. George Herbert (London, 1670) Watson, Foster, The English Grammar Schools to 1660: Their Curriculum and Practice (Cambridge, 1908) Wendel, François, Calvin et l’humanisme (Paris, 1976) ——â•›Calvin, Sources et Evolution de sa Pensée Religieuse (Genève, 1985) Westcott, Allan F. ed, New Poems by James I of England (New York, 1966) Williamson, Arthur H., Scottish National Consciousness in the Age of James VI: The Apocalypse, the Union and the Shaping of Scotland’s Public Culture (Edinburgh, 1979) Yates, Frances Amelia, The French Academies of the Sixteenth Century (London, 1947) Zon, Stephen, Petrus Lotichius Secundus: Neo-Latin Poet (New York, Frankfurt on the Main, Berne, 1983)



selected bibliography

347

Essays and Journal Articles Adams, James W. L., “The Renaissance Poets: (2) Latin” in Scottish Poetry: A Critical Survey ed. James Kinsley (London, 1955), 68–98. ——â•›“Scottish Neo-Latin Poetry” in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Amstelodamensis eds. P. Tuynman, G. C. Kuiper, and E. Ke_ler (München, 1979), 1–9. Anderson, Marvin W., “Theodore Beza: Savant or Scholastic? Theologische Zeitschrift, 43:4 (1987), 320–332. Anderson, William James, “On the early career of James Beaton II, archbishop of Glasgow,” Innes Review, 16 (1965), 221–224. Armstrong, Brian G., “The changing face of French protestantism: the influence of Pierre du Moulin,” Calviniana: ideas and influence of Jean Calvin, ed. Robert V. Schnucker Vol. 10 (1988), 131–149. ——â•›“Pierre du Moulin and James I: the Anglo-French programme,” De l’humanisme aux lumières: Bayle et le protestantisme en l’honneur d’Elisabeth Labrousse, ed. M. Magdelaine and others (Paris, 1996), 17–29. Aubert, Fernand and Jacques Boussard, and Henri Meylan, “Un premier recueil de poesies latines de Théodore de Bèze,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 15 (1953), 164–191, 257–294. Baker-Smith, D., “Florens Wilson and His Circle: Émigrés in Lyons, 1539–1543” in NeoLatin and the Vernacular in Renaissance France, ed. G. Castor and T. Cave (Oxford, 1984), 83–97. ——â•›“Florens Wilson and the politics of irenicism” in A. Dalzell, C. Fantazzi, and R.J. Scheck, Acta conventus neo-Latini Torontonensis (1991), 189–198. Bald, Marjory A. “James Melville: An Obscured Man of Letters,” Modern Language Review, 21 (July, 1926), 261–268. Bardgett, Frank, “John Erskine of Dun: A Theological Reassessment,” Scottish Journal of Theology, 43 (1990), 59–86. Barker, Ernest, “The Authorship of the Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos,” Cambridge Historical Journal, 3:2 (1930), 164–181. Baroway, Israel, “The Hebrew Hexameter: A Study in Renaissance Sources and Interpretation,” ELH, 2 (Apr., 1935), 66–91. Baxter, J. H., “Alesius and other Reformed Refugees in Germany,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 5 (1934), 93–120. Billanovich, Myriam, “Benedetto Bordon e Giulio Cesare Scaligero,” Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 11 (1963), 187–256. Binns, J. W., “The Letters of Erasmus” in Erasmus ed. T. A. Dorey (London, 1970), 55–79. ——â•›“Women or Transvestites on the Elizabethan Stage?: An Oxford Controversy,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 5 (Oct., 1974), 95–120. Black, J.B., “Boece’s Scotorum Historiae” in Quartercentenary of the Death of Hector Boece First Principal of the University (Aberdeen, 1937), 30–53. Blake, Warren E., “Joseph Justus Scaliger,” Classical Journal, 36 (Nov., 1940), 83–91. Blunden, Edmund, “George Herbert’s Latin Poems,” Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, 19 (1934), 29–39. Bolgar, R. R. “Humanism as a Value System with Reference to Budé and Vivès” in Humanism in France at the end of the Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance ed. A.H.T. Levi (Manchester, 1970), 295–319. Bonet-Maury, G.,“John Cameron: A Scottish Protestant Theologian in France,” Scottish Historical Review, 7 (1909–1910), 325–345. Bonner, Elizabeth, “French Naturalization of the Scots in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries,” Historical Journal, 40 (Dec., 1997), 1085–1115. Borch-Bonger, François de, “Un ami de Jacques Amyot: Henry Scringer” in Mélanges offerts à M. Abel Lefranc (Paris, 1936), 362–373. Borgeaud, Charles, “Cartwright and Melville at the University of Geneva, 1569–1574,” The American Historical Review (Dec. 1899), 284–290.

348

selected bibliography

Boudou, Bénédicte, “La Poétique d’Henri Estienne” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 52:3 (1990), 571–592. Bowers, Rick, “James VI, Prince Henry, and A True Reportaire of Baptism at Stirling 1594,” Renaissance et Rèforme, 29.4 (2005), 3–22. Breen, Quirinus, “John Calvin and the Rhetorical Tradition,” Church History, 26 (Mar., 1957), 3–21. Broun, D., “The Birth of Scottish History,” Scottish Historical Review, 76 (1997), 4–22. Burns, J. H., “The Conciliarist Tradition in Scotland,” Scottish Historical Review, 42 (Oct., 1963), 89–104. ——â•›, “John Ireland: theology and public affairs in the late fifteenth century,” Innes Review, 41 (1990), 151–181. ——â•›, “New Light on John Major,” Innes Review, 5 (Aut., 1954), 83–100. ——â•›, “Politics, Humanism, History: George Buchanan and his Critics” in The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarch in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), 185–221. ——â•›, “Politics and History John Mair and Hector Boece” in The True Law of Kingship: Concepts of Monarch in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1996), 54–92. ——â•›, “The Political Background of the Reformation 1513–1625” in Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 ed. David McRoberts (Glasgow, 1962), 1–38. ——â•›, “Political Ideas of George Buchanan,” Scottish Historical Review, 30 (1951), 60–68. ——â•›, “The Scotland of John Major,” Innes Review, 2 (Dec., 1951), 65–76. ——â•›, “Three Scots Catholic Critics of George Buchanan,” Innes Review, 1 (1950), 92–109. ——â•›, “Catholicism in Defeat: Ninian Winzet, 1519–1592,” History Today, 16 (1966), 788–795. Bushnell, Rebecca W., “George Buchanan, James VI and neo-classicism” in Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 ed. Roger A. Mason (Cambridge, 1994), 91–111. Cameron, Euan, “Archibald Hay’s ‘Elegantiae’: Writings of a Scots Humanist at the Collège de Montaigu in the Time of Budé and Beda” in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Turonensis, ed Jean-Claude Margolin (Paris, 1980), 277–301. ——â•›, “Frankfurt and Geneva: The European Context of John Knox’s Reformation” in John Knox and the British Reformations ed. Roger A. Mason (Aldershot, 1998), 651–73. ——â•›, “The Impact of Humanist Values,” Historical Journal, 36:4 (1993), 957–964. Cameron, James K., “Andrew Melville in St Andrews” in In Divers Manners A St Mary’s Miscellany ed. D.W.D. Shaw (St Andrews, 1990), 58–72. ——â•›, “Aspects of the Lutheran Contribution to the Scottish Reformation 1528–1552,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 22:1 (1984), 1–12. ——â•›, “John Johnsone’s ‘An Confortable Exhortation of Our Mooste Holy Christen Faith and Her Frutes’: An Early Example of Scots Lutheran Piety” in Reform and Reformation: England and the Continent c.1500-c.1750 (Oxford, 1979), 133–147. ——â•›, “The Refoundation of the University in 1579,” Alumnus Chronicle of the University of St Andrews, 71 (Jun., 1980), 3–10. ——â•›, “The Renaissance Tradition in the Reformed Church of Scotland,” Renaissance and Renewal in Christian History, (Oxford, 1977), 251–269. ——â•›, “St Mary’s College 1547–1574 – The Second Foundation: The Principalship of John Douglas” in In Divers Manners (St Andrews, 1990), 43–57. ——â•›, “A Trilingual College for Scotland: The Founding of St Mary’s College” in In Divers Manners (St Andrews, 1990), 29–42. Cameron, Richard, “The Attack on the Biblical Work of Lefèvre d’Etaples 1514–1521,” Church History, 38 (Mar., 1969), 9–24. ——â•›, “The Charges of Lutheranism Brought against Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples (1520–1529),” Harvard Theological Review, 63 (Jan., 1970), 119–149.



selected bibliography

349

Cannon, Charles K., “William Whitaker’s Disputatio de Sacra Scriptura: A SixteenthCentury Theory of Allegory,” The Huntington Library Quarterly, 25 (Feb., 1962), 129–138. Cant, Ronald Gordon, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 2.2 (1941), 105–150. ——â•›, “Supplement to The St Andrews University Theses,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 2.2 (1941), 263–273. ——â•›, “The New Foundation of 1579 in Historical Perspective” St John’s House Papers, No. 2 (St Andrews, 1979) ——â•›, “The St Andrews University Theses 1579–1747: A Bibliographical Introduction,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 2.2 (1941), 105–150. ——â•›, “Supplement to the St Andrews University Theses,” EBST, 2.2 (1941), 263–273. Carlson, Harold G., “Classical Pseudonyms of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in Germany,” The German Quarterly, 13 (Jan., 1940), 15–18. Chadwick, C., “The Religion of Du Bartas,” Modern Language Notes, 69 (Jun., 1954), 407–412. Christensen, Thorkild Lyby, “Scots in Denmark in the sixteenth century,” Scottish Historical Review, 49 (1970), 125–145. Clemen, O., “Melanchthon und Alexander Alesius,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 5 (1929), 17–31. Cowan, Ian B., “The Five Articles of Perth” in Reformation and Revolution ed. Duncan Shaw (Edinburgh, 1967), 160–177. ——â•›, “The Medieval Church in the Diocese of Aberdeen,” Northern Scotland, 1 (Dec., 1972), 19–48. Crane, Mary Thomas, “Intret Cato: Authority and the Epigram in Sixteenth-Century England” in Renaissance Genres: Essays on Theory, History, and Interpretation ed. Barbara Kiefer Lawalski (Cambridge, MA and London, 1986), 158–186. Cummings, Philip W. “A Note on the Transmission of the Title of Ramus’s Master’s Thesis,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 39 (Jul., 1978), 481. Curtis, Mark H., “The Hampton Court Conference and its Aftermath,” History, 46 (1961), 1–16. Dannenfeldt, Karl H., “The Renaissance Humanists and the Knowledge of Arabic,” Studies in the Renaissance, 2 (1955), 96–117. Davis, Natalie Zemon, “Peletier and Beza Part Company,” Studies in the Renaissance, 11 (1964), 188–222. ——â•›, “Sixteenth-Century French Arithmetics on the Business Life,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 21:1 (1960), 18–48. Dawson, Jane E. A., “The Two John Knoxes: England, Scotland and the 1558 Tracts,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 42 (Oct. 1991), 555–576. ——â•›, “Trumpeting Resistance: Christopher Goodman and John Knox” in John Knox and the British Reformations, 131–153. De Félice, Philippe, “Le Colloque de Poissy (1561),” Bulletin Societé de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français, 107 (Jul.-Sep., 1961), 133–145, 125–166. De Jonge, H. J., “Joseph Scaliger’s Historical Criticism of the New Testament,” Novum Testamentum, 38 (Apr., 1996), 176–193. De la Garanderie, Marie-Madeleine, “Guillaume Budé, a Philosopher of Culture,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 19 (1988), 379–388. Dilworth, Mark, “Archbishop James Beaton II: a career in Scotland and France,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 23 (1987–1989), 301–316. ——â•›, “Ninian Winzet: Some New Material,” Innes Review, 24 (1973), 125–132. Doelman, James, “Circulation of the late Elizabethan and Early Stuart Epigram,” Renaissance et Réforme, 29.1 (2005), 59–73. ——â•›, “The Contexts of George Herbert’s Musae Responsoriae,” George Herbert Journal, 2 (1992), 42–54.

350

selected bibliography

Dolff, Scott, “The Two John Knoxes and the Justification of Non-Revolution: A Response to Dawson’s Argument from Covenant,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 55 (Jan., 2004), 58–75. Donaldson, Gordon, “Aberdeen University and the Reformation,” Northern Scotland, 1 (Dec., 1972), 129–142. ——â•›, “Knox the Man” in John Knox: A Quartercentenary Reappraisal ed. Duncan Shaw (Edinburgh, 1975), 18–32. ——â•›, “Scottish Presbyterian Exiles in England, 1584–8,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 14 (1963), 67–80. ——â•›, “Scotland’s Conservative North in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1985), 191–203. Douglas, A. E., “Erasmus as a Satirist” in Erasmus ed. T. A. Dorey (London, 1970), 31–54. Droz, E., “Notes Sur Théodore de Bèze,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 24 (1962), 392–412, 589–610. Duhamel, Pierre Albert, “The Logic and Rhetoric of Peter Ramus,” Modern Philology, 46 (Feb., 1949), 163–171. Duncan, A. A. M., “Hector Boece and the Medieval Tradition” in Scots Antiquaries and Historians (Dundee, 1972), 1–11. Duncan, George, “Bishop Patrick Forbes,” Aberdeen University Review, 32 (Spr., 1948), 171–174. Duquesne, J. “François Bauduin et la réforme,” Bulletin de l’Académie delphinal, 5e sér., IX (1917), 55–108. Durkan, John, “The Beginnings of Humanism in Scotland,” Innes Review, 4 (Spr., 1953), 5–24. ——â•›, “Buchanan’s Judaising Practices,” Innes Review, 50, (1964), 186–187. ——â•›, “The Cultural Background in Sixteenth-Century Scotland” in Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 ed. David McRoberts (Glasgow, 1962), 274–331. ——â•›, “Early Humanism and King’s College,” Aberdeen University Review, 48 (Spr., 1980), 259–279. ——â•›, “Education in the Century of the Reformation” in Essays on the Scottish Reformation 1513–1625 ed. David McRoberts (Glasgow, 1962), 145–168. ——â•›, “Education: The Laying of Fresh Foundations” in Humanism in Renaissance Scotland ed. John MacQueen (Edinburgh, 1990), 123–160. ——â•›, “George Hay’s Oration at the Purging of King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1569: Commentary,” Northern Scotland, 6 (1984), 97–112. ——â•›, “George Wishart: His Early Life,” Scottish Historical Review, 32 (Apr., 1953), 98–99. ——â•›, “Giovanni Ferrerio, Humanist: His Influence in Sixteenth-Century Scotland,” Religion and Humanism ed. K. Robbins, Studies in Church History, 17 (1981), 181–194. ——â•›, “Henry Scrimgeour, Renaissance Bookman,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, 5:1 (1971–1987), 1–31. ——â•›, “John Major: After 400 Years,” Innes Review, 1 (Dec., 1950),131–139. ——â•›, “John Rutherford and Montaigne: An Early Influence?” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 41 (1979), 115–122. ——â•›, “Native Influences on George Buchanan” in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Sanctandreani ed. I. D. McFarlane (New York, 1986), 31–42. ——â•›, “Scottish Reformers: the Less than Golden Legend,” Innes Review, 45 (Spr., 1994), 1–28. ——â•›, “Scottish ‘Evangelicals’ in the Patronage of Thomas Cromwell,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 21 (1981–1983), 139–140. Fincham, Kenneth and Peter Lake, “Popularity, Prelacy and Puritanism in the 1630s: Joseph Hall Explains Himself,” English Historical Review, 111 (Sep., 1996), 856–881.



selected bibliography

351

Fleischer, Manfred P., “Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 20:4 (1989), 559–580. Fletcher, John M., “Welcome Stranger or Resented Intruder? A Reconstruction of the Foundation of the University of Aberdeen in the Context of European University Development in the Later Middle Ages,” Aberdeen University Review, 52 (Aut., 1988), 298–313. Freedman, Joseph S., “Cicero in Sixteenth-and Seventeenth-Century Rhetoric Instruction,” Rhetorica, 4 (Sum., 1986), 227–254. Gaertner, Johannes A., “Latin Verse Translations of the Psalms 1500–1620,” Harvard Theological Review, 49 (Oct., 1956), 271–305. Gerring, John, “Ideology: A Definitional Analysis” Political Research Quarterly, 50 (Dec., 1997), 957–994. Giese, Rachel, “Erasmus’ Greek Studies,” Classical Journal, 29 (Apr., 1934), 517–526. Giesey, Ralph E., “The Monarchomach Triumvirs: Hotman, Beza and Mornay,” Bibliothèque d’humanisme et renaissance, 32 (1970), 41–56. ——â•›, “When and Why Hotman Wrote the Francogallia,” Bibliothèque d’humanisme et renaissance, 29 (1967), 581–611. Gilbert, Neal, “Renaissance Aristotelianism and Its Fate: Some Observations and Problems” in John P. Anton (ed.), Naturalism and Historical Understanding: Essays on the Philosophy of John Herman Randall, Jr. (New York, 1967), 42–52. Goodare, Julian, “How Archbishop Spottiswode became an Episcopalian,” Renaissance et Réforme, 30.4 (2006/2007), 83–103. ——â•›, “Scottish Politics in the Reign of James VI” in The Reign of James VI eds. Julian Goodare and Michael Lynch (East Lothian, 2000), 35–36. Gosselin, Edward A., “David in Tempore Belli: Beza’s David in the Service of the Huguenots,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 7 (Oct., 1976), 31–54. Grafton, Anthony T., “From De Die Natali to De Emendatione Temporum: The Origins and Setting of Scaliger’s Chronology,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 48 (1985), 100–143. ——â•›, “Joseph Scaliger’s Edition of Catullus (1577) and the Traditions of Textual Criticism in the Renaissance,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 38 (1975), 155–181. ——â•›, “Joseph Scaliger and Historical Chronology: The Rise and Fall of a Discipline,” History and Theory, 14 (May, 1975), 156–185. ——â•›, “Protestant Versus Prophet: Isaac Casaubon on Hermes Trismegistus,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 46 (1983), 78–93. Grant, W. Leonard, “Early Neo-Latin Pastoral,” Phoenix 9 (Spr., 1955), 19–26. ——â•›, “The Shorter Poems of George Buchanan, 1506–1582,” Classical Journal, 40 (Mar., 1945), 331–348. Gray, Alexander, “The Old Schools and Universities in Scotland,” Scottish Historical Review, 9 (Jan., 1912), 113–138. Green, Roger, “George Buchanan’s Psalm Paraphrases” in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Sanctandreani ed. I. D. McFarlane (New York, 1986), 51–60. Guillén, Claudio, “Notes toward the Study of the Renaissance Letter” in Renaissance Genres Essays on Theory, History, and Interpretation ed. Barbara Kiefer Lewalski (Cambridge, MA and London, 1986), 70–101. Hall, Vernon Jr., “Life of Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558),” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Ser., 40:2 (1950), 85–170. ——â•›, “The Preface to Scaliger’s Poetices Libri Septem,” Modern Language Notes, 60 (Nov., 1945), 447–453. Hannay, Robert Kerr, “The Foundation of the College of Edinburgh” in History of the University of Edinburgh 1883–1933 ed. A. Logan Turner (Edinburgh and London, 1933), 1–16. Haws, Charles H., “The Diocese of Aberdeen and the Reformation,” Innes Review, 12 (Aut., 1971), 72–84.

352

selected bibliography

Hazlett, W. Ian P., “The Scots Confession 1560: Context, Complexion and Critique,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 78 (1987), 287–320. Heller, Henry, “The Evangelicalism of Lefèvre d’Etaples: 1525,” Studies in the Renaissance, 19 (1972), 42–77. Henderson, G.D., “The Influence of Bishop Patrick Forbes,” in Religious Life in Seventeenth-Century Scotland (Cambridge, 1937), 31–59. ——â•›, “Scots Confession, 1560” in The Burning Bush: Studies in Scottish Church History (Edinburgh, 1957), 23–41. Henderson, Ian, “Reassessment of the Reformers” in Reformation and Revolution ed. Duncan Shaw (Edinburgh, 1967), 34–41. Horn, D. B., “The Origins of the University of Edinburgh,” University of Edinburgh Journal, 22 (1966), 213–225. ——â•›, “The Origins of the University of Edinburgh Part 2,” University of Edinburgh Journal, 22 (1966), 297–312. Hornik, Henry, “Three Interpretations of the French Renaissance,” Studies in the Renaissance, 7 (1960), 43–66. Hudson, Hoyt Hopewell, “Grimald’s Translations from Beza,” Modern Language Notes, 39, (Nov., 1924), 388–394. Hufstader, Anselm, “Lefèvre d’Etaples and the Magdelan,” Studies in the Renaissance, 16 (1969), 31–60. Jarrott, C. A. L., “Erasmus’ Biblical Humanism,” Studies in the Renaissance, 17 (1970), 119–152. Johnson, A. F., “Books Printed at Heidelberg for Thomas Cartwright,” The Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, series 5, 2 (Mar., 1948), 284–286. Johnstone, J. F. Kellas, “Notes on the Academic Theses of Scotland,” Records of the Glasgow Bibliographical Society, 8 (1930), 81–98. Kaden, E. H., “Ulrich Fugger et son Projet de Créer à Genève une ‘Librairie’ publique,” Geneva, 7 (1959), 127–136. Kelley, Donald R., “Guillaume Budé and the First Historical School of Law,” American Historical Review, 72 (Apr., 1967), 807–834. ——â•›, “Historia Integra: François Baudouin and His Conception of History,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 25 (Jan.-Mar., 1964), 35–57. ——â•›, “History, English Law and the Renaissance,” Past & Present, 65 (Nov., 1974), 143–146. ——â•›, “Jurisconsultus Perfectus: The Lawyer as Renaissance Man,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 51 (1988), 84–102. ——â•›, “Legal Humanism and the Sense of History,” Studies in the Renaissance, 13 (1966), 184–199. ——â•›, “The Rise of Legal History in the Renaissance,” History and Theory, 9:2 (1970), 174–194. Kelliher, W. Hilton, “The Latin Poetry of George Herbert” in Essential Articles for the Study of George Herbert’s Poetry ed. John R. Roberts (Hamden, CT, 1979), 526–552. Kingdon, Robert M., “Calvinism and resistance theory, 1550–1580” in The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450–1700 ed. J.H. Burns (Cambridge, 1996), 193–218. ——â•›, “The First Expression of Theodore Beza’s Political Ideas,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 46 (1955), 88–99. Kirk, James, “Clement Little’s Edinburgh,” in Edinburgh University Library 1580–1980: A Collection of Historical Essays, eds. Jean R. Guild and Alexander Law (Edinburgh, 1982), 1–42. ——â•›, “John Knox and Andrew Melville: A Question of Identity?” Scotia: AmericanCanadian Journal of Scottish Studies, 6 (1982), 14–25. ——â•›, “John Knox and the Historians” in John Knox and the British Reformations ed. Roger A. Mason (Aldershot, 1998), 7–26.



selected bibliography

353

——â•›, “Melvillian Reform in the Scottish Universities” in The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion and Culture eds. A.A. MacDonald, Michael Lynch, and Ian B. Cowan (Leiden, 1994), 276–300. ——â•›, “The Scottish Reformation and the Reign of James VI: A Select Critical Bibliography,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 23.1 (1987), 113–155. Lee, Maurice Jr., “Archbishop Spottiswoode as Historian,” Journal of British Studies, 13 (Nov., 1973), 138–150. ——â•›, “James VI and the Revival of Episcopacy in Scotland: 1596–1600,” Church History, 43 (Mar., 1974), 50–64. ——â•›, “John Knox and His History,” Scottish Historical Review, 45 (1966), 79–88. Letham, Robert, “The Foedus Operum: Some Factors Accounting for its Development,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 14: 4 (1983), 457–467. ——â•›, “Theodore Beza: A Reassessment,” Scottish Journal of Theology, 40 (1987), 25–40. Levi, Anthony, “Humanist Reform in Sixteenth-Century France,” Heythrop Journal, 6 (Oct., 1965), 447–464. Lewins, F., “Recasting the Concept of Ideology: A Content Approach” British Journal of Sociology, 40 (Dec., 1989), 678–693 Lewis, Gillian, “Calvinism in Geneva in the time of Calvin and of Beza (1541–1605)” in International Calvinism, 1541–1715 ed. Menna Prestwich (Oxford, 1985), 39–70. ——â•›, “The Geneva Academy” in Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1620 eds. Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke, and Gillian Lewis (Cambridge, 1994), 35–63. Linder, Robert D., “Calvinism and Humanism: The First Generation,” Church History, 44 (Jun., 1975), 167–181. ——â•›, “Pierre Viret’s Ideas and Attitudes Concerning Humanism and Education,” Church History, 34 (Mar.,1965), 25–35. Lohr, Charles H., “Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors Pi-Sm,” Renaissance Quarterly, 33 (Win., 1980), 623–734. Ludwig, Walther, “The Origin and Development of the Catullan Style in Neo-Latin Poetry” in Latin Poetry and the Classical Tradition: Essays in Medieval and Renaissance Literature eds. Peter Godman and Oswyn Murray (Oxford, 1990), 183–197. Luoma, John K., “Who Owns the Fathers? Hooker and Cartwright on the Authority of the Primitive Church,” SCJ, 8 (Oct., 1977), 45–59. Lynch, Michael, “Calvinism in Scotland, 1559–1638” in International Calvinism, 1541–1715 ed. Menna Prestwich (Oxford, 1985), ——â•›, “The Origins of Edinburgh’s ‘Toun College’: a revision article,” Innes Review, 33 (1982), 3–14. Lyon, Gregory B., “Baudouin, Flacius, and the Plan for the Magdeburg Centuries,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 64 (Apr., 2003), 253–272. MacDonald, A. R. “A Fragment of an Early Copy of James Melville’s A True Narratioune of the Declyneing Aige of the Kirk of Scotland,” Innes Review, 47 (Spr., 1996), 81–88. MacDonald, Colin M., “John Major and Humanism,” Scottish Historical Review, 13 (Oct., 1915), 149–158. MacFarlane, Leslie J., “King’s College, Aberdeen: The Creation of the Academic Community, 1495–1532,” Aberdeen University Review, 56 (Aut., 1995), 211–222. ——â•›, “A Short History of the University of Aberdeen,” Aberdeen University Review, 48 (Spr., 1979), 1–18. ——â•›, “Some Recent Research on the Founder of the University,” Aberdeen University Review, 36 (Spr., 1956), 225–241. Macqueen, James, “Scottish Latin Poetry” in The History of Scottish Literature Vol. I ed. R.D.S. Jack (Aberdeen, 1987–1988), 213–225. Margolin, Jean-Claude, “Érasme et la ‘Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense” in Les origines du Collège de France (1500–1560) (Paris, 1998), 257–278. Marotti, Arthur F., “Patronage, Poetry, and Print,” Yearbook of English Studies, 21 Politics, Patronage, and Literature in England 1558–1658 Special Number (1991), 1–26.

354

selected bibliography

Mason, Roger A., “George Buchanan, James VI and the Presbyterians” in Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 ed. Roger A. Mason (Cambridge, 1994), 112–137. ——â•›, “George Buchanan and Mary Queen of Scots,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 30 (2000), 1–27. ——â•›, “George Buchanan’s Vernacular Polemics, 1570–1572,” Innes Review, 54 (Spr., 2003), 47–68. ——â•›, “Knox, Resistance and the Royal Supremacy” in John Knox and the British Reformations, 154–175. ——â•›, “Rex Stoicus: George Buchanan, James VI and the Scottish Polity” in New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland eds. John Dwyer, Roger A. Mason, and Alexander Murdoch (Edinburgh, 1982), 9–33. ——â•›, “Scotching the Brut: Politics, History and National Myth in Sixteenth-Century Britain” in Scotland and England 1286–1815 ed. Roger A. Mason (Edinburgh, 1987), 60–84. ——â•›, “The Scottish Reformation and the Origins of Anglo-British Imperialism” in Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1603 ed. Roger A. Mason (Cambridge, 1994), 161–186. ——â•›, “Usable Pasts: History and Identity in Reformation Scotland,” Scottish Historical Review 76 (Apr., 1997), 54–68. McConica, James K., “Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford,” English Historical Review, 94 (Apr., 1979), 291–317. McEwen, James S., “John Erskine of Dun, 1508–91” in Fathers of the Kirk ed. Ronald Selby Wright (London, 1960), 17–27. McFarland, Henry S. N., “The Education of James Melvill (1556–1614),” Aberdeen University Review, 36 (Aut., 1956), 362–370. McFarlane, I. D., “George Buchanan and European Humanism,” Yearbook of English Studies, 15, Anglo-French Literary Relations Special Number (1985), 33–47. ——â•›, “George Buchanan and France” in Studies in French Literature presented to H.W. Lawton by colleagues, pupils and friends (Manchester, 1968), 223–245. ——â•›, “George Buchanan and French Humanism” in Humanism in France at the end of the Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance ed. A.H.T. Levi (Manchester, 1970), 295–319. ——â•›, “George Buchanan’s Latin Poems from Script to Print: A Preliminary Survey,” Library, 24 (Dec., 1969), 277–332. ——â•›, “The History of George Buchanan’s Sphæra” in French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 194–212. ——â•›, “Notes on the Composition and Reception of George Buchanan’s Psalm Paraphrases” in Renaissance Studies, Six Essays ed. I. D. McFarlane (Edinburgh and London, 1972), 21–62. ——â•›, “A Scottish European: George Buchanan, 1582–1982,” College Courant, 70 (1983), 9–14. McGoldrick, James Edward, “Patrick Hamilton, Luther’s Scottish Disciple,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 18 (Spr., 1987), 81–88. McKechnie, William S., “Thomas Maitland,” Scottish Historical Review, 4 (1907), 274–293. McKim, Donald K., “The Functions of Ramism in William Perkin’s Theology,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 16 (Win., 1985), 503–517. McNeill, John T., “Alexander Alesius, Scottish Lutheran (1500–1565),” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 55 (1964), 161–191. McNeill, W. A., “Scottish Entries in the Acta Rectoria Universitatis Parisiensis, 1519 to c. 1633,” SHR, 43 (Apr., 1964), 66–86. McLennan, Bruce, “The Reformation in the Burgh of Aberdeen,” Northern Scotland, 2 (1974–75), 119–144.



selected bibliography

355

McRae, Kenneth D., “A Postscript on Bodin’s Connections with Ramism,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 24 (Oct., 1963), 569–571. ——â•›, “Ramist Tendencies in the Thought of Jean Bodin,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 16 (Jun., 1955), 306–323. Meerhoff, Kees, “Logic and Eloquence: A Ramusian Revolution,” Argumentation, 5 (No., 1991), 357–374. Merriman, Marcus, “The assured Scots: Scottish collaborators with England during the Rough Wooing,” Scottish Historical Review, 47 (1968), 10–34. Mesnard, Pierre, “François Hotman (1524–1590) et le complexe de Tribonien,” Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire du protestantisme français, 101 (1955), 117–137. ——â•›, “The Pedagogy of Johann Sturm (1507–1589) and Its Evangelical Inspiration,” SR, 13 (1966), 200–219. Meyer, Judith Pugh, “La Rochelle and the Failure of the French Reformation,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 15 (Summer, 1984), 169–183. Meylan, Henri, “Bèze et les Sodales d’Orléans (1535–1545)” in Actes du Congres sur l’ancienne Université d’Orléans (Orléans, 1962), 95–100. Monheit, Michael L., “Guillaume Budé, Andrea Alciato, Pierre de l’Estoile: Renaissance Interpreters of Roman Law,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 58 (Jan., 1997), 21–40. Monter, E. William, “The Consistory of Geneva, 1559–1569” Bibliothèque d’ Humanisme et Renaissance Travaux et Documents, 38 (1976), 467–484. Morrison, Mary, “Catullus in the Neo-Latin Poetry of France before 1550,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 17 (1955), 365–394. ——â•›, “Ronsard and Catullus: The Influence of the Teaching of Marc-Antoine de Muret,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 18 (1956), 240–274. Müller, Gerhard, “Protestant Theology in Scotland and Germany in the Early Days of the Reformation,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 22:2 (1985), 103–117. Muller, Richard, “Calvin and the ‘Calvinists’: Assessing Continuities and Discontinuities between the Reformation and Orthodoxy,” Calvin Theological Journal, 30 (1995), 347–375. Nauert, Charles G., “The Clash of Humanists and Scholastics: an Approach to PreReformation Controversies,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 4 (Apr., 1973), 1–18. ——â•›, “Humanism as Method: Roots of Conflict with the Scholastics,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 29:2 (1998), 427–438. Nibley, Hugh, “New Light on Scaliger,” Classical Journal, 37 (Feb., 1942), 291–295. Nicholls, David, “France” in The Early Reformation in Europe ed. Andrew Pettegree (Cambridge, 1992), 120–141. Oakley, Francis, “Almain and Major: Conciliar Theory on the Eve of the Reformation,” American Historical Review, 70 (Apr., 1965), 673–690. ——â•›, “On the Road from Constance to 1688: The Political Thought of John Major and George Buchanan,” Journal of British Studies, 1 (1962), 1–31. Ong, Walter J. S.J., “Educationists and the Tradition of Learning,” Journal of Higher Education, 29, (Feb., 1958), 59–115. ——â•›, “Ramist Classroom Procedure and the Nature of Reality,” Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, 1 (Win., 1961), 31–47. Ozment, Steven, “Protestant Resistance to Tyranny: The Career of John Knox” in The Age of Reform 1250–1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe (New Haven, 1980), 419–434. Pantin, Isabelle, “Teaching Mathematics and Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550–1650),” Science and Education, 15:2–4 (2006), 189–207. Patterson, W. Brown, “James I and the Huguenot Synod of Tonneins of 1614” Harvard Theological Review, 65 (1972), 241–270. Perelman, C., “Pierre de la Ramée et le decline de la rhétorique,” Argumentation, 5 (Nov., 1991), 347–356.

356

selected bibliography

Perreiah, Alan “Humanistic Critiques of Scholastic Dialectic,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 13:3 (1982), 3–22. Philip, R. G., “Scottish Scholars at Geneva, 1559–1650,” Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 6 (1938), 216–231. Phillips, James E., “Elizabeth I as a Latin Poet: An Epigram on Paul Melissus,” Renaissance News, 16 (Win., 1963), 289–298. Phillips, Margaret Mann, “Erasmus and the Classics” in Erasmus ed. T. A. Dorey (London, 1970), 1–30. ——â•›, “Erasmus in France in the Later Sixteenth Century,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 34 (1971), 246–261. Phillipson, Coleman, “Jacques Cujas,” Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, New Ser., 13:1 (1912), 87–107. Pratt, Waldo Selden, “The Importance of the Early French Psalter,” Music Quarterly, 21 (Jan., 1935), 25–32. Prescott, Anne Lake, “English Writers and Beza’s Latin Epigrams: The Uses and Abuses of Poetry,” Studies in the Renaissance, 21 (1974), 83–117. ——â•›, “The Reception of Du Bartas in England,” Studies in the Renaissance, 15 (1968), 144–173. ——â•›, “The Reputation of Clément Marot in Renaissance England,” Studies in the Renaissance, 18 (1971), 173–202. Prestwich, Menna, “Calvinism in France, 1555–1629” in International Calvinism, 1541– 1715 ed. Menna Prestwich (Oxford, 1985), 71–107. Rait, Jill, “Theodore Beza 1519–1605” in Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany,€Switzerland, and Poland, 1560–1600 ed. Jill Rait (New Haven, CT, 1981), 89–104. Rait, Robert Sangster, “Andrew Melville and the Revolt Against Aristotle in Scotland,” English Historical Review (April, 1899), 250–260. Raymond, Marcel, “Jean Tagaut, poète français et bourgeois de Genève,” Revue du XVIe siècle, 12 (1925), 98–140. Reid, Steven John, “Aberdeen’s ‘Toun College’: Marischal College, 1593–1623,” IR, 58.2 (2007), 173–195. ——â•›, “Early Polemic by Andrew Melville: The Carmen Mosis (1574) and the St BartholomÂ�ew’s Day Massacres,” Renaissance and Reformation, 30.4 (Fall 2006/2007), 63–81. Reid, W. Stanford, “Calvin and the Founding of the Academy of Geneva,” Westminster Theological Journal, 18 (Nov., 1955), 1–33. ——â•›, “French Influence on the First Scots Confession and Book of Discipline,” Westminster Theological Journal, 35 (1972/73), 1–17. ——â•›, “Lutheranism in the Scottish Reformation,” Westminster Theological Journal, 7 (May, 1945), 91–111. Rice, Eugene F. Jr., “Humanist Aristotelianism in France: Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples and his circle” in Humanism in France at the End of the Middle Ages and in the Early Renaissance ed. A. H. T. Levi (Manchester, 1970), 132–149. ——â•›, “The Humanist Idea of Christian Antiquity: Lefèvre d’Etaples and his Circle,” Studies in the Renaissance, 9 (1962), 126–160. Richardson, Leon J. “On Certain Sound Properties of the Sapphic Strophe as Employed by Horace,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 33 (1902), 38–44. Robb, T. D., “Arthur Johnston in his Poems,” Scottish Historical Review, 10 (Apr., 1913), 287–298. Robinson, George W., “Joseph Scaliger’s Estimates of Greek and Latin Authors,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 29 (1918), 133–176. Royan, N. R., “The Relationship between the Scotorum Historia of Hector Boece and John Bellenden’s Chronicles of Scotland” in The Rose and the Thistle: Essays on the



selected bibliography

357

Culture of Late Medieval and Renaissance Scotland eds. Sally Mapstone and Juliette Wood (East Linton, 1998), 136–157. Rummel, Erika, “Et cum theologo bella poeta gerit: The Conflict between Humanists and Scholastics Revisited,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 23:4 (1992), 713–726. Salmon, J. H. M., “Catholic resistance theory, Ultramontanism, and the royalist response, 1580–1620” in The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450–1700, ed. J. H. Burns (Cambridge, 1996), 219–253. Schiffman, Zachary Sayre, “An Anatomy of the Historical Revolution in Renaissance France,” Renaissance Quarterly, 42 (Aut., 1989), 507–533. Schmitt, Charles B. “Towards a Reassessment of Renaissance Aristotelianism,” History of Science, 11 (1973), 159–193. Schoeck, R. J., “The Background of European Humanism: An Introduction” in Humanism in Renaissance Scotland ed. John MacQueen (Edinburgh, 1990), 1–9. Sharratt, Peter, “Peter Ramus and the Reform of the University: the Divorce of Philosophy and Eloquence?” in French Renaissance Studies 1540–70 Humanism and the Encyclopedia (Edinburgh, 1976), 4–20. ——â•›, “The Present State of Studies on Ramus,” Studi Francesi, 47–48 (1972), 201–213. Shriver, Frederick, “Hampton Court Re-visited: James I and the Puritans,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 33 (1982), 48–71. ——â•›, “Orthodoxy and Diplomacy: James I and the Vorstius Affair,” English Historical Review, 85 (Jul., 1970), 449–474. Simpson, W. Douglas, “Hector Boece” in Quartercentenary of the Death of Hector Boece First Principal of the University (Aberdeen, 1937), 7–29. Sinfield, Alan, “Sidney and Du Bartas,” Comparative Literature, 27 (Win., 1975), 8–20. Skinner, Quentin, “The Origins of the Calvinist Theory of Revolution” in After the Reformation ed. Barbara C. Malament (Manchester, 1980), 309–330. Smith, David Baird, “François Hotman,” Scottish Historical Review, 13 (Jul., 1916), 328–365. Sprunger, Keith L., “Ames, Ramus, and the Method of Puritan Theology,” Harvard Theological Review, 59 (Apr., 1966), 133–151. Stevens, Linton C., “The Contribution of French Jurists to the Humanism of the Renaissance,” Studies in the Renaissance, 1 (1954), 92–105. ——â•›, “How the French Humanists of the Renaissance Learned Greek,” Proceedings of the Modern Language Association, 65 (Mar., 1950), 240–248. Strong, John, “The Development of Secondary Education in Scotland,” School Review, 15 (Oct., 1907), 671–683. Summers, Kirk, “Theodore Beza’s Classical Library and Christian Humanism,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 82 (1991), 193–207. ——â•›, “Theodore Beza’s Reading of Catullus” Classical and Modern Literature, 15 (1995), 233–245. Sunshine, Glenn S., “Geneva Meets Rome: The Development of the French Reformed Diaconate,” Sixteenth Century Journal, 26 (Sum., 1995), 329–346. Thomson, D.F.S., “George Buchanan: The Humanist in the Sixteenth-Century World,” Phoenix, 4 (Win., 1950), 77–94. ——â•›, “The Latin Epigram in Scotland: The Sixteenth Century,” Phoenix, 11 (Sum., 1957), 63–78. ——â•›, “The Latinity of Erasmus,” in Erasmus ed. T. A. Dorey (London, 1970), 115–137. Tilley, Arthur, “Humanism under Francis I,” English Historical Review, 15 (Jul., 1900), 456–478. ——â•›, “Greek Studies in England in the Early Sixteenth Century,” English Historical Review, 53 (Apr., 1938), 221–239. ——â•›, “Greek Studies in England in the Early Sixteenth Century (continued),” English Historical Review, 53 (Jul., 1938), 438–456.

358

selected bibliography

Tinsley, Barbara Sher, “Johan Sturm’s Method for Humanistic Pedagogy,” SCJ, 20 (Spr., 1989), 23–40. Todd, Robert B., “Henry and Thomas Savile in Italy,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 58 (1996), 439–444. Van Eerde, Katherine S., “Robert Waldegrave: the Printer as Agent and Link between Sixteenth-Century England and Scotland,” Renaissance Quarterly, 34.1 (1981), 40–78. Van Schelven, A. A., “Beza’s De Iure Magistratuum in Subditos,” Archiv für ReformaÂ� tionsgeschichte, 45 (1954), 62–83. Visser, Derek, “Junius: the Author of the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos?” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 84 (1971), 510–525. Watt, Donald E.R., “Scottish Masters and Students at Paris in the Fourteenth Century,” Aberdeen University Review, 36 (Aut., 1955), 169–180. Watt, Hugh, “Henry Balnaves and the Scottish reformation,” Record of the Scottish Church History Society, 5 (1935), 23–29. West, Michael, “The Internal Dialogue of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 146,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 25 (Win., 1974), White, Allan, “The Impact of the Reformation on a Burgh Community: The Case of Aberdeen” in The Early Modern Town in Scotland ed. Michael Lynch (London, 1987), 81–101. White, Allan, “The Impact of the Reformation on a Burgh Community: The Case of Aberdeen” in The Early Modern Town in Scotland ed. Michael Lynch (London, 1987), 81–101. ——â•›, “The Reformation in Aberdeen” in New Light on Medieval Aberdeen ed. J. S. Smith (Aberdeen, 1985), 58–66. Wiedermann, Gotthelf, “Martin Luther versus John Fisher: Some Ideas concerning the Debate on Lutheran Theology at the University of St Andrews, 1525–30,” Record of the Scottish Church History Society, 22:1 (1984), 13–34. Williamson, Arthur H., “Scotland, Antichrist and the Invention of Great Britain” in New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland eds. John Dwyer, Roger A. Mason and Alexander Murdoch (Edinburgh, 1982), 34–58. Wormald, Jenny, “James VI and I, Basilikon Doron and The Trew Law of Free Monarchies: The Scottish Context and the English Translation” in The Mental World of the Jacobean Court ed. Linda Levy Peck (Cambridge, 1991), 36–54. ——â•›, “No Bishop, no king: The Scottish Jacobean Episcopate, 1600–1625” in Bibliothèque De La Revue D’Histoire Ecclésiastique: Miscellanae Historiae Ecclesiasticae VIII (Louvain, 1987), 259–267.

Theses and Dissertations Crockett, Thomas, “The Life of John Erskine of Dun” (D. Litt. Diss., Edinburgh, 1924) Durkan, John, “The Scottish Universities in the Middle Ages 1413–1560” (PhD, Thesis, Edinburgh, 1959) Kirk, James, “The Development of the Melvillian Movement in Late Sixteenth Century Scotland” (PhD Thesis, Edinburgh, 1972) Reid, Steven John, “Education in Post-Reformation Scotland: Andrew Melville and the University of St Andrews, 1560–1606” (PhD Thesis, St Andrews, 2008) Zulager, Reid R., “A Study of the Middle Rank Administrators in the Government of King James VI of Scotland, 1580–1603” (PhD Thesis, Aberdeen, 1991)

INDEX OF MELVILLE’S SELECTED WORKS Melville, Andrew Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria,╇ x, 2, 23–24, 101, 156, 160, 215, 243–245, 249, 251, 256, 295 Apology,╇ 212 Carmen Mosis,╇ ix, 16, 21, 26–27, 36, 90, 123–124, 130, 145, 155–156, 222, 226, 233, 295, 297, 320 Classicum,╇ 90, 123, 157, 233 Conjuratio puluerea anno 1650 [sic] Novemb.╇ 5, 22 De adiaphoris. Scoti TOU TUXONTOS aphorismi,╇ 267 De Rolloci scriptis,╇ 194 De vita et obitu clarissimi viri domini Henrici Scrimgeri, jurisconsulti ac philosophi peritissimi,╇ 115, 298 Epitaphium Jacobi Lindesii,╇ 119, 127, 147 Historiæ vera laus,╇ 231, 234, 238–239 In Aram Anglicanam ejusque apparatum,╇ 24, 256, 295

Gathelus,╇ x, 27, 156, 231, 234, 239–243, 295 Job╇ 3, 26, 156, 297, 320 Melvini epistolae,╇ x, 46, 59, 89, 109, 135, 229, 232, 258, 261–266, 268–278, 282, 289, 296–297, 335–336 Nova erectio,╇ ix, 15, 17, 24, 159, 166, 172, 179–188, 195, 307–308, 310, 313 Principis Scoti-Britannorum natalia,╇ x, 21–22, 156, 234, 236–238, 295 Prosopopeia apologetica,╇ 261, 265 Psalm paraphrases,╇ x, 89, 261–262, 265, 288, 297 Stejaniskion,╇ x, 21–22, 156, 227, 233, 235–236, 249, 295, 305 Tyrannus,╇ 90, 123, 157 Votum pro Iacobo sexto Britanniarum rege,╇ 22, 295 Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Musae,╇ x, 85, 145, 253, 256, 281, 295, 305

GENERAL INDEX Abercrombie, Giles,╇ 37 Aberdeen,╇ ix–x, 15, 28, 40, 48, 51, 53, 64, 158, 172, 194, 223, 285, 300, 312–313, 324; assembly,╇ x, 252–253; grammar school,╇ 48, 230; King’s College,╇ ix, 28, 49–53, 92, 126, 162, 167, 170, 172–174, 179, 189, 201, 207, 223, 230, 280, 284, 291, 294, 307–308, 312–315, 320; Marischal College,╇ 192, 284; New,╇ 292; Old,╇ ix, 24, 50–51, 61, 170, 172, 174, 179, 223, 291–292, 313, 320; royal visitation of,╇ 51; Aberdeen Doctors,╇ 2, 11, 291, 313 Aberdeenshire,╇ 284–285 Accorso, Francesco, 91 Acta Rectoria, 64–65, 103 Adamson, Patrick, archbishop of St Andrews (Constantine), xii, 14–15, 22, 85, 145, 155, 166, 168–169, 174–176, 188, 193, 195–196, 205, 210–212, 214, 221–223, 256–257, 294–295, 300, 305, 319, 322–323, 326–327, 334–335; De papistarum superstitiosis ineptiis,╇ 175 De sacro pastoris munere,╇ 193, 244, 257 Genethliacum,╇ 175 Palinodia,╇ 335 Paraphrase of Job,╇ 26, 36, 145 Poemata sacra,╇ 176 Aeschylus,╇ 142 Agricola, Rudolf,╇ 8, 78, 306 Agrippa, Cornelius,╇ 78 Aidie, Andrew,╇ 232 Aird, William,╇ 213 Albertism,╇ 77 Alciato, Andrea,╇ 32, 69–70, 91–92 Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling,╇ 286 Al-Ghazzali,╇ 78 Allane, Alexander (Alesius),╇ 40 Alps,╇ 61 Ammunhotep,╇ 242 Amsterdam,╇ 267 Amyot, Jacques,╇ 104, 113–114 Anacréon,╇ 128, 130 Anderson, Thomas,╇ 47 Andrewes, Lancelot,╇ 253–254

Anglicanism,╇ 244 Anti-furi-Puri-Categoria,╇ 245 Anti-pelvi-Melvi-Categoria,╇ 245 Angus, earl of see Archibald Douglas Annand, John,╇ 62 Anne (Anna) of Denmark, queen of Scots,╇ 22, 220, 224, 233–234, 295 Aphthonius,╇ 118 Apocalypse of St John,╇ 238 Arabic,╇ 133 Aramaic,╇ 21, 26, 32, 70–71, 73–74, 99, 116–117, 133, 149, 160, 161, 173, 181–182, 193–194, 246, 298, 302 Aratus,╇ 161 Phaenomena,╇ 161 Arbuthnot, Alexander,╇ ix, 63, 92, 126, 170–174, 178–179, 188, 194, 208, 223, 269, 294–295, 307–308, 316, 319 Aristophanes,╇ 71 Aristotle,╇ vi, 2, 4, 8, 42, 47, 55, 57, 59, 68, 71, 76–81, 111, 120, 138, 143–145, 148, 153, 159, 161, 163, 166, 183, 184, 186, 188, 196–205, 207, 215–216, 217, 247, 283, 299, 301, 302, 303, 310–311, 314–315, 319–320, 322 Analytica posteriora,╇ 81 Analytica priora,╇ 81 Categoriae,╇ 81 De cælo,╇ 68, 80, 161, 302 De interpretatione,╇ 81 De ortu et interitu,╇ 80, 161, 302 De sophisticis elenchis,╇ 81 De virtutibus et vitiis,╇ 80–81, 302 Ethica,╇ 80, 153, 166, 196, 302 Ethica eudemia,╇ 81, 153 Ethica nicomachea,╇ 81, 153 Magna moralia,╇ 81 Organon,╇ 153, 166 Physica,╇ 80, 108, 153, 161, 196, 302 Poetics,╇ 283 Topica,╇ 81 Aristotelian philosophy,╇ 79–80, 198, 204; dissent,╇ 47, 78, 144 Aristotelianism,╇ 30, 77–78, 144, 184, 188, 198–200, 205, 247, 311 Arminius, Jacobus,╇ 263, 283, 288 Arminianism,╇ 281 Articles Polytiques,╇ 96

362

general index

Ascham, Roger,╇ 119 Athens,╇ 242, 275; new,╇ 62; of the North,╇ 63 Atkinson, Thomas,╇ 23, 244, 257 “Melvinus delirans”,╇ 23, 244 Augsburg,╇ 114, 305 Augustine,╇ 127 Enchiridion,╇ 127 On heresies,╇ 127 Auld Alliance,╇ 56, 61–62, 292 Averroism,╇ 77 Axiochus,╇ 166 Ayr,╇ 40, 41 Babinot (Bonhomme),╇ 95 Baduel, Claude,╇ 114 Balbani, Niccolo,╇ 103 Balcanquhal, Walter,╇ 208, 210, 213, 218–219 Baldovy,╇ ix, 37–38, 53, 113, 152, 157 Balfour, James,╇ 208 Balnaves, Henry,╇ 41 Bancroft, Richard, archbishop of Canterbury,╇ 214, 216–218, 243, 255, 258, 264, 268, 297 Bankhead, Archibald,╇ 57 Barclay, John,╇ 23, 257 Barclay, Thomas,╇ 94 Barlow, William,╇ 251, 253–255 Baron, Éguinaire,╇ 113 Baron, Robert,╇ 286 Baronio, Cesare,╇ 131 Barsack, Monsieur de Thesaurer of the Parliament of Dauphiné,╇ 282 Basel,╇ 36, 63, 87, 156, 161 Basilius, epistle of,╇ 155 Baudouin, François,╇ 17, 25, 32, 68–70, 72, 92, 99, 297 De institutione historiae universae et eius cum jurisprudentia conjunctione,╇ 69 Justiniani leges de re rustica,╇ 69 Justiniani institutionem seu elementorum libri quattuor,╇ 69 Beaton, James, II archbishop of Glasgow,╇ 94 Beggart, Thomas,╇ 57 Belgium,╇ 280, 285 Bellenden, George,╇ 64 Bellenden, John,╇ 50, 239 Bellièvre, Jean de,╇ 142 Bérauld, François,╇ 105, 114, 118 Bergerac, Collége de, Bordeaux,╇ 263

Bertram, Cornelius (Cornelius Bertramus),╇ 26, 32, 105, 107, 112, 116–117, 123, 147, 149, 160, 167, 226, 293, 298 Comparatio grammaticæ Hebraicæ & Aramaicæ,╇ 117 De politia judaïca,╇ 116 Berwick-on-Tweed,╇ 19, 55, 152, 213, 266, 270, 282, 328, 333 Beza, Theodore (Théodore de Bèze),╇ v, 1, 3, 9, 17, 20, 25, 73, 87, 89, 91, 96, 102, 103–109, 113, 116, 122–129, 131, 134, 136–149, 175, 194, 226, 234, 245, 248, 264, 268, 295, 297, 299, 303–305, 309 Abraham sacrifant,╇ 141 Ad serenissimam Elizabetham angliae reginam,╇ 141 Cato Censorius Christianus,╇ 141 Confessio Christianae fidei,╇ 140 Du droit des magistrats,╇ 122–123, 142–143, 145 De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis,╇ 143 De iure magistratuum in subditos,╇ 142 Ebrius ad mensam,╇ 141 Histoire ecclésiastique,╇ 96 Poemata (Iuvenilia),╇ 29, 84, 137–141, 234, 295, 304 Si qua fides,╇ 141 Bicarton, Thomas,╇ 94 Bilson, Thomas, bishop of Winchester,╇ 258 Birgan, Philippe,╇ 112 Bizzarri, Pietro,╇ 55–56, 58–59, 83 Black Acts,╇ 14, 210, 212 Blackburn, John,╇ 164 Blackburn, Peter, bishop of Aberdeen,╇ 158–159, 166, 198, 201, 203, 294, 300, 310–311 Blackness Castle,╇ 212, 328, 333 Blackwood, Adam,╇ 65, 94 Blair, Homer,╇ 198 Bochetel, Guillaume,╇ 114 Bodley, Thomas,╇ 112 Boece, Hector,╇ 50–51, 172, 239–241 Scotorum Historiae,╇ 50, 239 Bodin, Jean,╇ 82, 154 Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem,╇ 154 Bohemia, queen of,╇ 284 bonae litterae,╇ 43, 47, 55, 111, 116, 129, 138, 142, 226, 276, 289 Bonaventura,╇ 78 Bonnefoy, Ennemond de,╇ 107, 120, 148



general index

Bordeaux,╇ 61, 86, 131, 263–265, 301 Borgeaud, Charles,╇ 8, 106 Borthwick, John,╇ 333 Bothwell, earl of,╇ 236 Bourges, university of,╇ 63, 91–93, 113, 120–121, 126, 136–137, 157, 170, 174 Bowes, Robert,╇ 214, 325, 329 Boyd, James, archbishop of Glasgow,╇ 92, 157, 188, 294 Boyd, Robert of Trochrig,╇ 260, 264–265, 278–279, 288 Hetacombe Christiana,╇ 265 Boyssoné, Jean de,╇ 91 Brahe, Tycho,╇ 133 Braid, laird of,╇ 192 Braidfut, William,╇ 57 Britain,╇ 268 Bruni, Leonardo,╇ 78 Bruce, Robert,╇ 38, 63, 208–209, 234–235, 316, 328 Bucer, Martin,╇ 245 Buchanan, George,╇ viii, 3, 17, 21, 22–27, 29, 32, 52, 55–56, 59, 62, 63, 82–91, 94–95, 97, 98, 99, 103, 122–123, 128–129, 131, 141–142, 145–146, 148, 152–156, 158–160, 166–167, 171, 174–176, 179–181, 186, 221, 224, 227–229, 231, 233, 237, 239–241, 244, 249, 261, 268, 276, 284, 285, 287, 293, 295–297, 301, 306–308, 316, 319–320, 325, 328, 333–334, 336 Baptistes,╇ 26 De iure regni apud Scotos dialogus,╇ 24, 26, 29, 90, 122 De Sphaera,╇ 27 Franciscanus,╇ 24, 174 Genethliacon Jacobi sexti regis Scotorum,╇ 24, 237 Jepthes,╇ 26 Opinion,╇ 186 Rerum Scoticarum historia,╇ 26, 83, 158, 240 Buchanan, Thomas,╇ 316–317, 319–320, 322–323 Buckeridge, John,╇ 254 Bucolics,╇ 110, 139 Budé, Guillaume,╇ 25, 42, 52, 62, 66, 69–70, 113, 136, 225, 275, 293, 302 De studio,╇ 70 Bullinger, Heinrich,╇ 108–109 Byzantium,╇ 120 Caesar, Julius,╇ 90, 110, 134, 154–155, 244, Commentarii (Commentaries),╇ 154

363

Caldcleugh, John,╇ 196–197, 312 Calderwood, David,╇ 6–7, 243, 317–318, 324 History of the Kirk of Scotland,╇ 7 The Parasynagma Perthense et iuramentum ecclesiæ Scoticanae,╇ 24, 101, 215, 243, 335 Calvin, John,╇ 3, 9, 19, 73, 91–92, 95–96, 102–104, 114, 118, 126, 141, 144, 147, 193, 245, 305 Calvinism,╇ 5, 178, 281 Calvinist,╇ 11, 96, 113, 122, 156–157, 228, 268 Cambridge, university of,╇ viii, 19, 55, 62, 101, 112, 119, 124, 210, 214–215, 217, 243, 247, 298, 314 Cameron, John,╇ 263, 279, 288 Campbell, Alexander, bishop of Brechin,╇ 146, 151, 155 Campbell, Dougal,╇ 164 Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent,╇ 54 Canterbury, archbishop of,╇ 214, 258, 334 Capell, L.,╇ 263 Cappel, Aaron,╇ 267 Cappel, Jacques,╇ 280 Historia sacra et exotica ab Adamo,╇ 281 Carleton, George,╇ 102, 214–215 Carmichael, James,╇ 213–214, 328 Cartwright, Thomas,╇ 10, 108, 124–126, 148, 321 Carr, John,╇ 194 Case, John,╇ 216 Caskieben,╇ 284 Casimir College,╇ 284 Catherine, sister of Henri of Navarre,╇ 220 Catholicism,╇ 56, 63, 169, 208–209, 215–217, 224, 227, 245, 252, 264, 291, 298–299, 313–314, 318, 322, 327, 329 Catholic recusancy,╇ 313 Catullus,╇ 46, 137–140, 234; Catullan style of poetry,╇ 46, 129 Casaubon, Isaac,╇ 118, 131, 149, 225–227, 230, 248, 264, 288, 293, 296–300 Cassander, George,╇ 153–154 Castoll, Jean,╇ 213 Cecil, Robert, first earl of Salisbury,╇ 260 Ceres, Fife╇ 174–175 Chapel Royal, Windsor,╇ 255 Charpentier, Jacques,╇ 67–68, 99, 104 Charpentier, Pierre,╇ 103, 107, 121 Charteris, Andrew,╇ 333 Charteris, Henry,╇ 164

364

general index

Charles IX, king of France,╇ 68, 75, 152 Charles of Lorraine,╇ 75 Châtellerault,╇ 96 Cheke, John,╇ 119 Chevalier, Antoine-Raoul,╇ 105, 116 Chrestien, Florent,╇ 88, 112, 222 Christison, William,╇ 319 Christopher, Count Palatine,╇ 108 Chronology,╇ 39, 47, 133, 183; Greek,╇ 134; Oriental,╇ 134; Roman,╇ 134 Church, of England,╇ 255, 257, 295, 335; (Kirk) of Scotland,╇ 4, 6–16, 18, 20–21, 23, 28, 162, 166–169, 175, 188–189, 205–206, 208–209, 211, 219, 230, 244, 251–252, 256, 260, 271, 274, 277, 286, 287, 305–307, 315–328, 331, 335–336 Cicero,╇ 43, 48, 71–72, 75, 78, 110–112, 137–138, 144, 153, 161, 165–166, 183–184, 188, 204, 234, 310 De Amicitia,╇ 110 De oratore,╇ 112 De fato,╇ 72 De legibus,╇ 153 De officiis,╇ 161, 166 De Senectute,╇ 110 Epistles ad Terentiam In Catilinam (Catilinarian orations),╇ 75, 165–166 Letters,╇ 110 Orations,╇ 110–111 Paradoxes,╇ 110, 161, 166 Speeches, shorter,╇ 110 Tusculanae disputationes,╇ 161 Cinqarbres, Jean de,╇ 25, 32, 72, 74, 99, 105, 160, 167, 293 De re grammatica Hebræorum opus,╇ 74 Ciris,╇ 261 Classicism,╇ 111, 144, 232 Clenard,╇ 154–155 Greek grammar,╇ 154–155 Clermont, Collège de, Paris,╇ 64, 176 Cockburn, Alexander,╇ 63 Coimbra,╇ 86, 184, 301 Coinage, Roman,╇ 121 Colchester,╇ 177 Coligny, Admiral Gaspard de,╇ 97–98, 120, 124, 332 Collace, William,╇ 57, 152–154 Collège Royal (or Collège de France), Paris,╇ ix, 19, 26, 28, 32, 49, 61–75, 81, 85, 93, 99, 101, 105, 107, 117, 119, 126, 132, 135, 183 collegium trilingue,╇ 49, 192

Copenhagen, university of,╇ 39–43 Copernicus, Nicolaus,╇ 46–47, 133 Cordier, Mathurin,╇ 102 Corpus Christi College, Oxford,╇ 215 Cossé, Timoléon de,╇ 27, 97 Couplet, elegiac,╇ 90, 124, 224, 283 Cowper, John,╇ 213 Craig, John,╇ 316, 319, 321 Craig, Sir Thomas,╇ 65, 223 Cranston, William,╇ 113, 176 Crescas, Hasdai,╇ 78 Cujas, Jacques,╇ 69–70, 91–92, 120, 157, 170 Cunningham, David, bishop of Aberdeen,╇ 64 Cunningham, James,╇ 164 Dagleish, Nicol,╇ 203, 205, 207, 316, 320, 322 Damman, Adrian,╇ 234–235 Dampierre, Jean de,╇ 138 Daneau, Lambert,╇ 17, 102, 107, 112, 119–120, 122–123, 126–127, 142, 147–148 Ad Petri Carpenterii … Petri Fabri responsio,╇ 122–123, 142 Danès, Pierre,╇ 66, 130 Daniel, book of,╇ 211 Darroch, Robert,╇ 164 Davidson, John,╇ 158, 208, 213, 218 Davison, Francis,╇ 213 Davison, William,╇ 213–214 De Laun,╇ 279, 281 Demosthenes,╇ 71, 110, 144 Olynthiacs,╇ 110 Philippics,╇ 110 Denmark,╇ 22, 39, 41–42, 220, 224, 233–235, 280, 285, 295 d’Etaples, Jacques Lefèvre,╇ 78, 136 de Thou, Jacques-Auguste,╇ 131 dialectic,╇ 57, 75–76, 78, 81–82, 109–110, 121, 153, 160, 165, 183, 185, 195 Dieppe,╇ 61, 152 Digges, Thomas,╇ 46 Dionysius of Halicarnassus,╇ 130 Dionysius Periegetes,╇ 161 Orbis terrae descriptio (De situ habitabilis orbis),╇ 161 Discipline, First Book of,╇ 19, 54, 56, 180–182, 186, 192, 307–308; Second Book of,╇ 1–2, 7–9, 19, 168, 306, 321 Distich, Ovidian,╇ 231, 284 Donaldson, Walter,╇ 279–280 Doneau, Hughes,╇ 120, 148



general index

Dorat, Jean,╇ 129 Dordrecht, synod of (Dort),╇ 215 Douglas, Archibald, earl of Angus,╇ 38, 219 Douglas, James, fourth earl of Morton and regent of Scotland,╇ 85, 152, 326, 331 Douglas, John,╇ 53–55, 57, 219 Douglas, William,╇ 164 Downham, George,╇ 265, 288 Drummond, Sir Edward,╇ 164 Du Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste,╇ ix, 22, 220–223, 248, 296 La Creation du Monde ou Premiere Sepmaine,╇ 222 La Judit,╇ 222 La Muse Chrestiene,╇ 222 Seconde Septmaine,╇ 220, 222 Uranie,╇ 220, 222 Duhamel, Pascal,╇ 67, 72, 75–76, 99 Du Moulin, Pierre,╇ 278, 281 Dun, John Erskine of,╇ 18, 39–41, 43–44, 58 Dunbar, grammar school,╇ 228 Duncan, Andrew,╇ 80, 193, 196, 201–202, 311–312 Dundee,╇ 38, 40, 113, 157, 207, 317 Dunkirk,╇ 209 Duplessis-Mornay, Philippe,╇ 122, 142 Vindiciae contra tyrannos,╇ 142 Duret, Louis,╇ 68, 72, 99 Dury, John,╇ 178, 192, 210 Earls, Catholic,╇ 252 East Lothian,╇ 20 Ecclesiastes, book of,╇ 142 Edinburgh,╇ ix, 15, 18, 38, 40, 49, 85–86, 105, 152, 155, 164, 178, 193–195, 201, 211, 223–224, 236, 316, 318–319, 321, 324–325, 328, 331; castle,╇ 212, 333; grammar school,╇ 224; plague,╇ 224 university of,╇ 264, 292, 306 Eglishem, George,╇ 23, 257, 285 epigrammata prophylactica,╇ 23, 244, 257 Egypt,╇ 242 Egyptians,╇ 104, 133, 239, 241–242 Elegy,╇ 284, 294 Elizabeth I, queen of England,╇ 128–129, 213 Elgin,╇ 49 Elphinstone, William, bishop of Aberdeen,╇ 50–51 England,╇ ix, 10, 14, 18–19, 22, 41, 45, 55–56, 61–62, 101, 112, 119, 125, 177,

365

191, 209–210, 212–213, 216, 218, 220, 226, 229, 236, 246–249, 251, 254–255, 257–260, 264, 270, 285, 292, 295, 298, 314, 324, 326, 328–329, 333, 335 Enthymeme,╇ 153 Enunciation,╇ 153 Epicedia illustri heroi Caspari Colinio […] poetis decantata,╇ 124, 157 Epigram,╇ 3, 9, 36, 43, 46, 83–84, 90, 117, 123, 129, 134, 138, 139, 141–142, 145, 149, 152, 157, 224, 228, 231, 233, 244, 248, 255–259, 263, 294–295, 297–298, 304 Episcopalianism,╇ 215, 298 Epitaph,╇ 84, 138, 141, 147, 172, 177–178, 194, 273 Erasmus, Desiderius,╇ 25, 42, 48, 52, 66, 70, 78, 97, 119, 131, 137, 139, 221, 275, 293, 302 Ciceronianus,╇ 131 de recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione,╇ 119 Minor Colloquia,╇ 48 Erroll, earl of,╇ 327 Erskine of Dun, John,╇ 18, 39–44, 58 Essex,╇ 177 Estates General,╇ 143 Estienne, Henri,╇ 17, 88, 107, 119–120, 128–130, 134, 147–149, 226, 248, 264, 299 Traité de la conformité du langage françois avec le grec,╇ 130 Estienne, Robert,╇ 130 Ethiopians,╇ 133, 242 Euclid,╇ 67, 161 Elementa geometrica,╇ 161 Euripides,╇ 71, 142 Europe,╇ 3, 30, 38, 61–62, 66–67, 71, 74, 93, 113, 115, 133, 135, 158, 161–162, 169, 178, 188, 200, 217, 222, 226, 233, 235, 240, 243, 245–246, 248, 260, 273, 276, 280, 287, 298, 302, 312, 327 Exodus,╇ 242 Fabri, Domaine,╇ 103 Falkland Palace,╇ x, 2, 252, 323, 331 Farel, Guillaume,╇ 304 Frederick III, elector Palatine,╇ 108 Ferguson, David,╇ 205, 209, 316, 319, 322 Ferme, Charles,╇ 264 Fernelius,╇ 160 Therapeutices Vniuersalis,╇ 160 Ferrerio, Giovanni,╇ 51 Field, John,╇ 214

366

general index

Fife, kingdom of,╇ 12, 174–175; provincial assembly of,╇ 205; synod of,╇ 317–318, 322 Finé, Oronce,╇ 66–67 Flamino-Spinula,╇ 89 Fontenay,╇ 96 Forbes, John, of Corse,╇ 291 Forbes, Patrick, bishop of Aberdeen,╇ 11, 213, 218, 286, 313 Forcadel, Pierre,╇ 67, 72 Forsyth, Alexander,╇ 213 France,╇ 23, 27, 32, 35, 39, 49, 61–99, 101–102, 106, 111–112, 132, 135, 142–143, 146, 159, 172, 174–177, 181, 187, 193, 199, 221, 228–229, 248, 261, 267–269, 278–288, 293, 332, 336 Franche-Comté,╇ 151 Franconia,╇ 129 François I, king of France,╇ 63 François II, king of France,╇ 62 Frankfurt,╇ 19 French humanism see humanism French,╇ 23, 47–49, 67, 110, 130, 193, 331; court,╇ 264, 267; galleys,╇ 19; Hebraist,╇ 73; Huguenot,╇ 22–23, 95, 97; play,╇ 141; poet,╇ 22–23, 138; poetry,╇ 141; monarch,╇ 62, 152; Protestantism,╇ 122; Reformed Church,╇ 96, 111; Renaissance,╇ 17, 20, 27, 32, 58, 62, 65, 91–92, 116, 172, 181, 200, 212, 248, 293; wars of religion,╇ 35, 97, 113, 134, 213 Frendraught,╇ 285 Fugger, Ulrich,╇ 114 Fullerton, Hugh,╇ 164 Fullarton, Sir James,╇ 164 Gaelic,╇ 48, 275 Gagnay, Jean de,╇ 90 Galacia,╇ 242 Galland, Pierre,╇ 76–77 Galloway,╇ 265 Galloway, Alexander,╇ 51 Galloway, Patrick,╇ 209, 213, 219, 234, 316, 328 Gask,╇ 176 Gathelus,╇ x, 27, 231, 234, 239–243, 248–249, 295 Gathelus-Scota myth,╇ 240 Gellibrand, Edward,╇ 214 general assembly,╇ 4, 15, 18–19, 80, 85, 144, 155, 168–170, 176, 178, 185, 189, 199, 203, 208–210, 230, 252, 313; moderator,╇ ix–x, 14, 167, 170,

205–206, 316–320, 324, 326, 328; assessor to the moderator,╇ 14, 167 Geneva,╇ ix, 17, 21, 25–26, 41, 58, 63–64, 74–75, 81, 83, 98, 151, 155, 157, 167, 175, 177, 200, 207, 213, 225–226, 228–229, 248, 263, 295, 297–298, 321, 332; academy of,╇ 19–20, 28, 32, 35–36, 70, 73, 93, 99; 101–149, 155, 167, 169, 225–226, 263, 279, 293, 301, 303–304, 306, 308–309 Calvinist,╇ 11; consistory,╇ 321; tradition, 9 Genevan colleagues,╇ 157, 226, 299; discipline,╇ 3, 253, 321; polity,╇ 321 Germany,╇ 21, 39–43, 55, 61, 112, 119, 280, 284, 303–305 Gesner, Conrad,╇ 137 Gibson, James,╇ 213 Gien,╇ 126 Gilbert, George,╇ 40 Girard, Simon,╇ 112 Glamis, master of,╇ 219 Glasgow,╇ 157, 159, 163, 165, 176, 298, 311; archbishop of,╇ 92, 157, 265, 294; assembly,╇ 251, 267, 277; university of,╇ ix, 1, 3, 13, 15, 17–18, 21, 28, 37, 49, 53, 61, 79–81, 86, 94, 99, 144, 146, 151–189, 191, 193–194, 198, 201, 205–208, 219, 221, 246–247, 263–266, 279, 282, 289, 291–292, 294, 297, 301–310, 313, 315, 320–321, 324, 327 Gledstanes, George, archbishop of St Andrews,╇ 14 Glencairn, earl of,╇ 210 Gomaer, François (Franciscus Gomarus),╇ 282 Googe, Barnabe,╇ 45 Gordon, George, 4th Earl of Huntly,╇ 313 Gordon, John,╇ 23, 57, 257 Gordon, William, bishop of Aberdeen,╇ 313 Goupyl, Jean,╇ 68 Gouveia, Antoine de,╇ 76 Govan, benefice of,╇ 168; incumbent of,╇ 165; parish of,╇ 20, 165–166, 168, 189, 206, 321, 326; parsonage and vicarage tiends of,╇ 169, 179, 327 Gray, Robert,╇ 51 Gray, William,╇ 152 Greece,╇ 87, 148, 242, 270, 286–287 Greek,╇ ix, 21, 31–32, 43–44, 48–53, 55, 58–59, 66, 68, 70–72, 79–80, 99, 103, 105, 107–110–114, 116–119, 130, 132–133, 138, 149, 151, 156, 160–161, 181–183, 186–187, 193, 195, 196, 202,



general index

216–217, 226, 247, 275, 278, 280, 291, 294, 299, 302–303, 305, 308; Christian,╇ 225, 299; correspondence,╇ 288, 302; grammar,╇ 110, 154–155, 165, 302–303; histories,╇ 110; idimos,╇ 225 lexicon,╇ 118, 132; literature,╇ 30–31, 65, 98, 110, 112, 115, 129, 137, 144, 151, 153, 165, 180, 203–204, 213, 216–217, 222, 226, 247, 280, 302–303; New Testament,╇ 44, 299; philosophers,╇ 77–78; plays,╇ 43; poet,╇ 110–111, 129, 132, 275, 302; poetry,╇ 129, 133, 132, 287; pronunciation,╇ 297, speeches,╇ 183, 263, 302; texts,╇ 55, 71, 133, 198, 200, 225, 247; tutor,╇ 213; verse,╇ 298, 300 Greeks,╇ 104, 133 Greifswald, university of,╇ 39 Grosart,╇ 243 Groulart, Claude,╇ 134 Guidacerio, Agazio,╇ 66 Guyenne, Collège de, Bordeaux,╇ 86, 131 Haddington,╇ 20 Hall, Joseph,╇ 257, 263 Halyburton, James,╇ 85, 152 Hamilton, Archibald,╇ 178 Calvinianae confusionis demonstratio,╇ 178 De confusione Calvinianæ,╇ 178 Hamilton, Gavin,╇ 265 Hamilton, James,╇ 213 Hamilton, John, archbishop of St Andrews,╇ 54 Hamilton, Patrick,╇ 40 Hamilton, Robert,╇ 196–197, 312 Hampton Court Conference,╇ 243–244, 251, 256, 262 Harvey, Gabriel,╇ 220–221 Hay, Alexander,╇ 57, 85, 152 Hay, Andrew,╇ 157–158, 187, 209, 213, 316, 319–320 Hay, Archibald,╇ 52 Hay, Edmund,╇ 63–64 Hay, George,╇ 52, 321 Hay, James,╇ 41 Hay, William,╇ 51 Hebrew,╇ 21, 32, 43, 48–49, 65–66, 70–73, 88, 99, 112, 114, 116–117, 132–133, 149, 160–161, 163–164, 167, 173–174, 181–182, 186, 187, 193–194, 196, 216, 226, 246–247, 275, 278, 280, 299, 302–303, 308, 319; Bible,╇ 74, 105, 212, 226; grammar,╇ 74, 154,; kings,╇ 232;

367

lexicon,╇ 26, 155, manuals,╇ 26; poetry,╇ 88; Psalter,╇ 226, 299 Hebrews, epistle to the,╇ 265, 288 Hegate, William,╇ 223 Heidelberg,╇ 280; university of,╇ 230, 303 Heinsius, Daniel,╇ 282–283 Nederduytsche Poemata,╇ 283 Helmstedt, university of,╇ 230 Henri de la Tour d’ Auvergne, duc de Bouillon and Maréchal de France,╇ 267 Henry I, duke of Guise,╇ 95, 97 Henry II, king of France,╇ 71, 75 Henry III, king of France,╇ 68 Henri IV, king of France (Henri of Navarre),╇ 62, 112, 220 Henry VIII, king of England and Ireland,╇ 292 Henry, Stewart, prince of Wales (Henry IX),╇ 233 Herbert, George,╇ 23, 160, 244–245, 256 Musae responsoriae,╇ 23, 160, 244–245 Hercules,╇ 242; Scottish,╇ 330 Hermogenes, ╇ 118 Herodian,╇ 110 Herodotus,╇ 71 Hesse, Eobanus,╇ 89–90 Hesshus, Tilemann,╇ 140 Hesiod,╇ 43, 160, 165, 283, 302, 304, 310 Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι,╇ 165 Hippocrates,╇ 68 Prognostics,╇ 68 Hippocratis Magni Coacae Praenotiones,╇ 68 Historiography,╇ 67, 240–241 Hog, Archibald,╇ 57 Home, George, earl of Dunbar,╇ 268 Homer,╇ 42–43, 71, 106, 110, 118, 132, 137–139, 160, 165, 198, 204, 221–222, 234, 302, 304, 310 Illiad,╇ 165, 222 Honter, Johann,╇ 161 De cosmographiae rudimentis,╇ 161 Horace,╇ 48, 71, 154, 160, 204, 234, 278, 282, 302, 310 Epistles,╇ 48 Hortin, Michel,╇ 112 Hotman, François,╇ 17, 25, 32, 69–70, 91–92, 99, 107, 112, 119–122–124, 128–129, 142, 148, 297 Anti-Tribonianus,╇ 121 De furoribus Gallicis,╇ 124 Francogallia,╇ 142–143, 145 Gasparis Colinii Castellonii magni quondam Franciae amiralii vita,╇ 124

368

general index

Howie, Robert,╇ 173, 232, 260 Huguenots,╇ 95, 97, 122–123, 143 Humanism,╇ 1, 13, 25, 27, 30–32, 41–42, 58, 69–70, 90, 98, 144, 146, 181, 191, 203, 217, 261, 271, 275, 289, 291–306; Christian,╇ 30; classical,╇ 31; encyclopedic,╇ 69, 71; European,╇ 39, 48, 99, 116, 246, 300–301, 303, 333; French,╇ 16–17, 23, 25, 27–29, 33, 98, 139, 160, 304, 336, 288, 336; German,╇ 42; humanista,╇ 30; humanismus,╇ 30,; studia humanitatis,╇ 30 legal,╇ 17, 25, 32, 69, 92, 121; Protestant,╇ 42–43, 304; Renaissance,╇ 30, 38, 41–42 Hume, Alexander,╇ 270, 288 Hume, David, of Godscroft (Theagrius),╇ 213, 227, 231, 234, 248, 269, 272 Aselcanus,╇ 228, 231 De unione insulae Britannica (The Bonds of the British Union),╇ 229 Lusus poetici, in tres partes distincti,╇ 228 Poemata omnia,╇ 228 Hume, Sir Patrick of Ayton,╇ 270 Hundred Years’ War,╇ 61 Hunter, Andrew,╇ 213 Huntley, Marquis of,╇ 313 hypostatic union,╇ 144 Iberia, 242 Iberian, Aristotelianism,╇ 77; empires,╇ 239; enemies,╇ 27; forces,╇ 237; home,╇ 242; Peninsula,╇ 22; peoples,╇ 240; powers,╇ 238; pride,╇ 237 Icones,╇ 138 imitatio veterum,╇ 275 induction,╇ 153 Ireland,╇ 242, 292 Ireland, John,╇ 52 Ireland, Robert,╇ 94 Irland,╇ 93 Isocrates,╇ 110, 138, 160, 165, 302, 310 Hortatory Speeches,╇ 110 Parænesis ad demonicum,╇ 165 Italy,╇ 30, 39, 55, 61, 112, 114, 129–130, 132, 147, 177, 280, 284–285 Jack, Thomas,╇ 86 James III, king of Scots,╇ 52, 211 James IV, king of Scots,╇ 50, 52 James V, king of Scots,╇ 40, 50–51

James VI, king of Scots, later James VI & I of Great Britain,╇ ix–x, 2–3, 12–13, 18, 22, 24, 32, 62, 64, 85, 97, 105, 112, 115, 158, 163–164, 175, 179, 185, 197, 210, 221, 223–224, 228, 230–231, 233–234, 248–249, 292, 295–296, 323, 325, 328 Basilikon Doron,╇ 220, 236 Essayes of a Prentise, in the Divine Art of Poesie,╇ 220, 224, 236 His Maiesties Poeticall Exercises at Vacant Houres,╇ 220 Jesuit Seminaries,╇ 327 Jews,╇ 73, 132 Johnston, Arthur,╇ 27, 279–281, 283–288, 298, 300, Ad Andream Melvinum, de melone ad Tilenum misso,╇ 286 De Andrea Melvino,╇ 287 Delitiae poetarum Scotorum,╇ 27, 36, 85, 90, 119, 123, 127, 134, 147, 155, 157, 171, 178, 224, 281, 285, 320 Encomia urbium,╇ 284–285 Epigrammata,╇ 8, 280, 285 Nicrina,╇ 285 Parerga,╇ 284–285 Penitential Psalms Paraphrase,╇ 285 Psalm Paraphrases,╇ 285 Προπεμπτικόν ad … principem Ludovicum comit. Palatinum,╇ 285 Querelae Saravictionis et Biomeae,╇ 285 Song of Solomon Paraphrase,╇ 285 Johnston, John,╇ 27, 36, 157, 173, 197, 230–232, 239, 248, 269, 272, 273, 275, 317, 319 Encomia Urbium,╇ 232 Inscriptiones historicae regum Scotorum,╇ 231 Richardus Melvinus,╇ 36 Jonah,╇ 142 jure divino,╇ 254, 266, 288 Juris Orientalis,╇ 120 jurisprudence, new,╇ 92, 99, 104, 115, 117, 119–120, 148, 171 Julius III, pope,╇ 141 Jupiter (Jove),╇ 237–238 Justinian, emperor,╇ 69, 92, 120 Code,╇ 120–121 Institutiones,╇ 69 Pandects,╇ 120 Juvenal,╇ 137 Kennedy, Gilbert,╇ 97 Ker, Sir Andrew, of Fadounside,╇ 192



general index

King, Adam,╇ 223 King, John, 253–254 King’s College, Old Aberdeen see Aberdeen Kintore,╇ 284 Knox, Andrew,╇ 164 Knox, John,╇ 4, 6–11, 18–23, 38, 56, 178, 305–306, 317, 328, 330, 333 First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women,╇ 21 Historie,╇ 21 la Compagnie,╇ 120, 127, 149, 151 la Faye, Antoine de,╇ 117, 147 la Marck, Guillaume Robert de, duc de Bouillon,╇ 278 Lamb, Andrew,╇ 265, 322 Lambin, Denis,╇ 71 l’Apologie pour Hérodote,╇ 130 La Rochelle,╇ 96, 101, 125, 266 Latin,╇ 31, 47–48, 50, 55, 66, 70–71, 75, 99, 105, 107–108, 110, 114, 117, 132, 154, 161, 164, 166, 176; correspondence,╇ 21, 28; grammar and syntax,╇ 110, 131 lexicon,╇ 118; literary circle,╇ 42; literature,╇ 30–31, 43, 47, 65, 70, 110, 129, 133, 137, 166, 176–177; paraphrases,╇ 14, 26, 43, 89–90, 141, 145, 156, 174; philosophy,╇ 71; plays,╇ 43; poetry,╇ 3, 14, 22–23, 26–29, 31, 44–46, 56, 59, 85, 87–89, 99, 117, 129–130, 132–135, 138–139, 145, 148, 154–157, 161, 175, 232–246, 283–288; poet,╇ 3, 17, 21–23, 27, 32, 36, 55, 62, 72, 84, 117, 128–129, 144; rhetoric,╇ 132; speeches,╇ 183; textual criticism,╇ 133 Latomus, Bartholomew,╇ 78 Latomus, Jacobus,╇ 141 Latomus-Nannius,╇ 89 La Tour d’Auvergne, Henry de, Henry de duc de Bouillon,╇ 278 Laurie, Blaise,╇ 294 Lausanne, academy of, ╇ 102, 112, 304; town council,╇ 104 Law, bishop,╇ 229 Law,╇ 54, 94 95, 99, 103–104, 114, 120, 137, 164, 174, 239, 242, 276, 278, 280, 309; Byzantine,╇ 120; canon,╇ 51, 314; civil,╇ 91, 104, 113, 121, 126, 137, 157, 170, 172, 314; historical school of,╇ 121 mos gallicus,╇ 69, Renaissance,╇ 71; Roman,╇ 69–70, 91, 121; school of,╇ 91–93

369

Lawson, James,╇ 85, 155, 166–167, 170, 173–175, 192, 197, 203, 207, 210, 213–214, 223, 316, 319–321, 325 Lawson, Richard, ╇ 94 l’Ave Maria, Collège de,╇ 75 Lect, Jacques,╇ 107, 149, 226, 248, 264, 299 lecteurs royaux,╇ 65–66, 85, 183 le Douaren, François,╇ 69–70, 92, 113 Leech, John,╇ 27, 280 Le Fevre, Antoine, de la Boderie,╇ 257 Lefèvre d’Étaples, Jacques,╇ 78 Leiden, university of,╇ 283 Leith,╇ 40, 178, 273 Leo X,╇ pope, 44 Lermont, James,╇ 331, 312 Lermont, William,╇ 196, 312 Le Sage,╇ 93 Leslie, William,╇ 173 L’Estoile, Pierre de,╇ 91 Lindsay, David,╇ 208, 235, 316, 319, 321, 328 Lindsay, lord,╇ 327 Lipsius, Justus,╇ 235, 305 literary criticism,╇ 283 Livy, 110, 137–138, 234 loci communes,╇ 161, 193, 246, 281 Logie, grammar school,╇ 152 Loire, river,╇ 151 Lombard, Peter,╇ 127 Sentences,╇ 127 London,╇ ix–x, 19, 152, 176, 185, 210, 213–214, 218–219, 243, 253, 257, 264–265, 267, 282, 295, 298, 328; bishop of; Tower of,╇ x, 16, 19, 89,109, 145, 197, 227, 260 Longinus, Dionysius,╇ 118 Longueil,╇ 93 Lords of Articles,╇ 208 Lords of Secret Council,╇ 168–169 Lotz, Peter,╇ 42 Loudun,╇ 96 Louis I de Bourbon, Prince of Condé,╇ 97 Louis XI, king of France,╇ 62 Louis, prince, count Palatine,╇ 285 Louvain, university of,╇ 49, 52, 63, 66, 105, 192 Lubbertus, Sibrandus,╇ 263, 288 Lucretius,╇ 71 De rerum natura,╇ 71 Lunan, Alexander,╇ 314 Lundie, laird of,╇ 192 Luther, Martin,╇ 9, 19, 41, 43, 45, 305 Lutheranism,╇ 40–41

370

general index

Lyndsay, John,╇ 147 Lyon,╇ 92, 97, 108, 151 Macalpine, John (Johannes Machabæus),╇ 39, 41–42, 58, 333 MacIlmaine, Roland,╇ 185 The Logike of the moste Excellent Philosopher P. Ramus,╇ 185 Mair, John,╇ 20, 52, 62–63, 162 Maitland, John, of Thirlestane,╇ 235 Maitland, Thomas,╇ 64–65, 176 Malcolm, John,╇ 80, 193, 196, 201–202, 311–312 Manilius, Marcus,╇ 135 Manzolli, Pier Angelo (Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus),╇ 44–47, 58–59, 144, 276 Zodiacus Vitae,╇ 44–47 Cancer,╇ 46 Mar, earl of,╇ 285 Marnix, Philippe,╇ 112 Marot, Clément,╇ 129, 139, 141 Marsilier, Pierre de,╇ ix, 31, 43–44, 48–49, 57, 276, 293 Martial,╇ 137, 139–140 Martine, David,╇ 198 Martine, James,╇ 203 Martinius,╇ 154 Mary of Guise, queen of Scots,╇ 51, 114 Mary Stewart, queen of Scots,╇ 19, 55, 211 Maximilian II, emperor,╇ 129 Medici, Marie de’, queen regent,╇ 267 Melanchthon, Philip,╇ 1, 8,–9, 39–43, 58, 78, 119, 160, 303–305 Apology,╇ 305 Confessio Augustana,╇ 305 McGruder, Duncan,╇ 94 Melissus, Paulus,╇ 17, 107, 128–130, 148, 298 Melrichstadt,╇ 129 Melville, David, brother,╇ 38 Melville, James,╇ x, 4–7, 16, 35–37, 39, 46, 48–49, 51, 53, 56–59, 64–65, 68, 72, 79–81, 83, 87, 89, 93, 95, 97–99, 106–108, 114, 120–121, 125, 127, 148–149, 152–153, 155–156, 158–163, 166, 168–169, 171–172, 176–178, 183, 186, 188, 193–194, 199–204, 208–209, 212–213, 219, 223, 229, 234, 254, 258–259, 268–269, 273, 276, 302, 310–312, 316, 322, 324, 326–327, 329–330, 334–336 Melville, James, Observant Franciscan,╇ 40 Melville, James, brother,╇ 38

Melville, John, brother,╇ 38 Melville, Patrick, nephew,╇ 163–164, 294 Melville, Richard, father,╇ 37–38 Melville, Richard, bother,╇ 39–40, 42–46, 113, 152 Melville, Robert, brother,╇ 38 Melville, Roger, brother,╇ 38 Melville, Thomas, brother,╇ 38 Melville, Walter, brother,╇ 38 Mercier, Jean,╇ 25, 32, 72–74, 99, 105, 116–117, 160, 167, 293 Tabulæ in grammaticen linguæ Chaldææ, 73 Merton College, Oxford,╇ 214, 217 Millenary petition,╇ 102, 243, 251, 256 Miln, Andrew,╇ 152 Milne, Walter,╇ 7, 54 Monarchy, Scoto-Britannic,╇ 27, 237 Moncreiff, Archibald,╇ 213 Moncrieff, Gilbert,╇ 64–65, 75, 109, 155, 158, 176 Montagu, James, bishop of Bath and Wells,╇ 265 Montaigne, Michel de,╇ 131, 138, 304 Montaubon,╇ 265 Montgomery, Robert,╇ 208 Montpellier,╇ 225 Montrose,╇ ix, 20, 37–38, 128, 152, 178, 266, 282, 317; grammar school,╇ 31–32, 43–44, 47–48, 57, 59, 152, 276, 293 More, Thomas,╇ 78 mos gallicus, see law Munster, Sebastian,╇ 26 Muret, Marc-Antoine de,╇ 90, 93, 131 Julius Caesar,╇ 90 Murray, Sir Gideon,╇ 164 Muses,╇ 261–262, 276, 281, 288, 296 Nairn, Duncan,╇ 163–164 Nancel, Nicolas de,╇ 75, 78 Navarre, Collège de, Paris,╇ 76 Neo-Platonic philosophy,╇ 23, 99, 301 Neo-Scholasticism,╇ 143 Neo-Stoicism,╇ 262 Neptune,╇ 242 Netherlands,╇ 112 Newcastle,╇ 19 new jurisprudence,╇ 25, 32, 69–70, 91–92, 99, 104, 115, 117, 119–120, 148, 171 Newton, house of,╇ 327 Newton, Adam,╇ 164 Nicolas of Autrecourt,╇ 78 Nîmes, academy of,╇ 112



general index

Niort,╇ 96 North Sea,╇ 235 Nova erectio, Glasgow╇ 1577 see index of Melville’s selected works Nova fundatio, St Andrews╇ 1555, 54; St Andrews╇ 1579, ix, 185–187, 192–193, 195–196, 202, 204, 308, 314; Aberdeen╇ 1583, ix, 172, 308, 320 Ockhamism,╇ 77 Octavians,╇ 164 Oedipus,╇ 132 Ogill, Richard,╇ 164 Ogilvy, Lord,╇ 152 Opianus,╇ 43, 304 Old Foundation,╇ 314 Orcus,╇ 238, 241–242 Orléans,╇ 103, 126, 136, 138, 151, 303, 332; university of,╇ 91, 137–138 Overall, John,╇ 258 Ovid,╇ 46, 110, 138–139, 228, 231, 234, 259, 283–285, 287 Amores,╇ 284 Elegies,╇ 110 Ex Ponto,╇ 110 Tristia,╇ 110, 259 Oxford,; university of,╇ ix, 62, 101, 184, 298, 314 Padua, university of,╇ 217, 284 Paisley, Abbey,╇ 177; minister of,╇ 146, 175, 177, 294 Pandects or Digest, of Justinian,╇ 69, 120 Paris,╇ ix, 17, 25, 32, 35, 49, 58, 61–91, 93–96, 98–99, 103, 106, 113, 126, 129–130, 132, 135, 138, 144, 148, 151–152, 155, 158, 174–177, 184, 226, 240, 263–264, 278–279, 293, 298, 301, 334; university of,╇ 19, 21, 25, 28, 32, 52, 58, 61–93, 99, 101, 116, 121, 176, 301, 306, 309 Parliament Hall, St Andrews,╇ 202 Pastorals,╇ 139 Paul IV, pope,╇ 45 Paul’s Cross,╇ 216–217 Peletier du Mans, Jacques,╇ 93 Perth,╇ 40–41, 157, 176, 209; articles,╇ 23, 251–252, 282; assembly,╇ 23, 176, 243–244, 292; grammar school,╇ 174 Perthshire,╇ 325 Petrarch, Francesco,╇ 78 philology,╇ 135, 142, 145, 148, 199, 274, 311; ancient near-esatern,╇ 133; classical,╇ 133, 282

371

Phocylides,╇ 160, 165, 302, 310 pietas litterata,╇ 137 Pindar,╇ 71, 118, 160, 275, 286, 302, 310 Pinkie, battle of,╇ 38 Piscator, Johannes,╇ 231, 278–279 Plague,╇ 108–109, 112, 125, 219; Edinburgh,╇ 224 Plagues, Exodus,╇ 242; Egyptian,╇ 242 Plato,╇ 43, 71, 111, 138, 161, 183, 188, 204, 301, 304, 310 Dialogues,╇ 161, 302 Phaedo,╇ 166 Axiochus,╇ 166 Plautus,╇ 137–138 Pléiade,╇ 129 Pliny the Elder,╇ 137 Plotinus,╇ 301 Plutarch,╇ 43, 71, 111, 137, 193, 304 Poetry,╇ 21, 23–24, 26, 30, 43, 45–46, 54, 58, 84, 88, 90, 110–112, 128–129, 138–140, 142, 144–145, 149, 156–157, 181, 221–222, 226–229, 231–234, 236, 248–249, 256–262, 283, 286, 294–296, 304, 335; Dutch╇ 283; French,╇ 141; Latin,╇ 3, 9, 23, 26–29, 31, 43–46, 58, 84–85, 88–89, 128–129, 132, 134–135, 138–139, 145, 148, 156, 175, 224, 226, 228–229, 231–246, 261, 265, 275–276, 283–288, 294, 296–297, 302–303; Greek,╇ 132–133, 165, 228 Poissy, colloquy of,╇ 103 Poitiers,╇ 18, 35, 68, 74, 92–93, 95–98, 105, 213, 223, 226, 265, 273, 308, 332–334; university of,╇ ix, 19, 21, 25, 28, 32, 70, 91–92–95, 99, 101, 106–108, 155, 213, 223, 279, 282, 293, 300–301, 306, 309 Poitou, region of,╇ 95–97; Bas,╇ 96; Haut,╇ 96 Polwarth, Andrew,╇ 115, 146, 151, 155, 213 Polybius,╇ 71, 110 Ponet, John,╇ 119 Pont, Robert,╇ 207–209, 213, 316, 319, 320 Pontano, Giovanni,╇ 46, 129 Portus, Emile,╇ 118, 151 Portus, François,╇ 32, 107–108, 118–119, 123, 128–129, 147, 149, 151, 160, 225–226, 293, 297, 323 Postel, Guillaume,╇ 132 Powle, Stephen,╇ 193, 213 Prayer Book, Anglican,╇ 244 Prelacy,╇ 281

372

general index

Presbyterianism,╇ 1–3, 9–10, 14–15, 125, 214–215, 229–230, 246, 254, 281, 314, 323, 325, 334 Presles, Collège de, Paris,╇ 75 Privy Council, English,╇ 258–259, 266, 331; Scottish,╇ ix, 105, 164, 188, 211–212, 294 Propertius,╇ 138–139, 234 Protestantism,╇ 18–19, 33, 38, 40–42, 53–54, 56, 64, 96–97, 175, 291, 314, 332; French,╇ 96, 122; Reformed,╇ 95, 106, 163, 177, 179, 203, 227, 264, 279, 283, 288–289 Psalms,╇ 26, 89, 129, 141, 261, 285, 287, 296 Ptolemaic view,╇ 27 Puritans, Elizabethan,╇ 216 Pythagoras,╇ 160, 310 Quadrivium,╇ 81 Quintilian,╇ 78–79 Raban, Edward,╇ 285 Rabelais, François,╇ 92, 139 Rainolds, John,╇ 102, 215, 245, 247, 298 Rait, David,╇ 173 Ramism,╇ 172, 184–185, 188, 194, 196, 198, 200–201, 309 Ramist literature,╇ 183–185, 188, 299, 309–310 Ramus, Petrus (Pierre de la Ramée) Arithmeticæ Libri Tres,╇ 160 Advertissements sur la réformation de l’université de Paris au roy,╇ 81 Aristotelicae animadversions,╇ 76, 78 Commentaries on the Christian Religion,╇ 173 Dialecticæ Libri Duo,╇ 160, 185 Dialecticae partitiones,╇ 76 Dialectique,╇ 160 Geometriae,╇ 82, 160 Lectures on Mathematics,╇ 173 Proœmium Mathematicum,╇ 160 Studies on Dialectic,╇ 78 Redman, John, ╇ 119 Reformed theology,╇ 175, 215 Regent Mar,╇ 146 Règnier,╇ 93 Reid, Thomas,╇ 180 Renaissance╇ 1, 13, 17, 20, 23, 29–32, 38–39, 41–45, 47, 50, 57, 64, 66, 71, 77–78, 84, 88, 90, 94, 99, 101, 130, 136, 144, 154,156, 159, 160, 163, 177–180, 184, 187, 199, 216, 218, 227, 231, 235,

247, 264, 268, 275–276, 287–289, 291, 301, 303, 308, 315, 333; English,╇ 45; European,╇ 16–17, 25, 27–28, 33, 58, 87, 98–99, 146, 148, 180–183, 185, 195, 203, 247, 273, 288, 293, 301–303, 305, 307–308, 336; French, 16–17, 20, 23, 27, 32, 49, 58, 62, 65, 91–92, 116, 172, 181, 200, 212, 248, 293; Italian╇ 119; northern European,╇ 16, 25, 27, 33, 48, 58, 148, 185, 272, 293, 301, 305, 307–308, 336; polymathy╇ 70, 98, 133, 159, 187, 301–302, 309; Scottish,╇ 3, 5, 15, 22, 24, 27–29, 32–33, 37, 50, 191, 248, 288, 303, 306, 329; values,╇ 230, 288, 311 respublica scholastica,╇ 55, 104 Reuchlin, Johannes,╇ 43, 119, 155, 303 Hebrew lexicon,╇ 155 Rimini,╇ 44 Robertson, James,╇ 213 Robertson, John,╇ 193 Rollock, Hercules,╇ 87, 123, 223–224, 234 Epithalamium,╇ 224 Panegyris de pace in Gallia,╇ 223 Rollock, Robert,╇ 164, 193, 196, 201, 208, 223, 264, 316 Rome,╇ 22, 44, 62, 87, 129, 148, 245, 254, 270, 286–287, 289 Ronsard, Pierre,╇ 128 Ross, John,╇ 164 Rostock, university of,╇ 63, 173, 230 Rouen,╇ 97, 278 Rough, John,╇ 333 Rough Wooings,╇ 38, 292 Row, John,╇ 7, 316, 319–321 Roy, Hugues,╇ 107 royal supremacy,╇ 14–15, 253 Russell, David,╇ 196, 312 Russell, Francis,╇ 55 Rutherford, John,╇ 198 Ruthven Castle,╇ 325 Ruthven Raid,╇ 210–211, 228, 329 Ruthven, William, 1st earl of Gowrie,╇ 210, 325 Rye, East Sussex,╇ 152 Saint Pierre, parish of,╇ 127 Sainte-Marthe,╇ 93 Salisbury, earl of see Cecil, Robert,╇ 260 Sallust,╇ 22, 154, 220, 296 De coniuratione Catilinae,╇ 154 Sassoferrato, Bartolo da,╇ 91 Salinacus,╇ 72–73 Sapphic meter,╇ 245



general index

Saumur, academy of,╇ 112, 265, 278, 282 Savile, Thomas,╇ 217, 247 Scaliger, Joseph Justus (Joseph della Scala),╇ 25, 29, 52, 62, 66, 71, 89, 102, 107, 112, 120, 123, 128–129, 131–136, 148, 199–200, 225, 227, 235, 268, 273, 274, 283, 293, 297, 323 Coniectanea,╇ 133 De emendatione temporum or Treatise on the Correction of Chronology,╇ 133 Manilii quinque libros astronomicon commentarius Castigationes,╇ 135 Thesaurus temporum or Treasure House of Dates,╇ 134 Scaliger, Julius Caesar,╇ 128, 131–132, 134, 136, 231–232 Poemata,╇ 134, 136 schola private,╇ ix, 19, 36, 93, 103, 105–113, 118, 146–148, 151, 167 schola publica,╇ 36, 103–106, 108–109, 111–112, 125, 134, 225 Scot, John, of Scotstarvet,╇ 286 Scot, William,╇ 4, 7 Apologetical Narration,╇ 4, 7 Scota,╇ 240–242 Scotism,╇ 77 Scoti TOU TUXONTOS paraclesis contra Danielis Tileni Silesii paraenesin,╇ 267, 282 Scots Confession,╇ 54 Scrimgeour, Henry,╇ 103, 107, 113, 146, 148, 298 Scrimgeour, Isobel,╇ 38, 113 Scipio Africanus,╇ 275 Sedan,╇ x, 19, 32, 109, 251–289, 298, 300; university of,╇ x, 21, 28, 46, 256, 263, 267, 270, 278–282, 284, 289, 312, 315 Semitic cognates,╇ 336 Seneca,╇ 142, 275, 283 sénéchaussée court, Poitiers,╇ 93 Serres, Jean de,╇ 112, 147 Severus, Sulpicius,╇ 277 Seymour, Sir William,╇ 262, 288, 295 Sharpe, Patrick,╇ 163, 311 Sibbald, George,╇ 278 Simson, Andrew,╇ 57 Simoni, Simon,╇ 103–104 Slains, house of,╇ 327 Sleidan,╇ 160 De Quatuor Summis Imperiis Libri Tres,╇ 160 Smeaton, Thomas,╇ ix, 63–64, 157, 169, 171, 174, 176–178, 185, 188, 194, 203,

373

207–208, 269, 294–295, 316, 319–320, 327 Epitaphium Metellani,╇ 177 orthodoxa responsio,╇ 178 Smith, John,╇ 280 Smith, Thomas,╇ 119 Sodales,╇ 138 Sophocles,╇ 71, 118, 138, 142 Solon,╇ 275 Song of Songs,╇ 141, 285 South Esk,╇ 37 Spain,╇ 61, 237–238 Spanish Armada,╇ 141 Spottiswoode, John, archbishop of St Andrews,╇ 3, 6–7, 164, 170–171, 177, 244, 259, 265, 266, 333 St Andrew,╇ 258 St Andrews,╇ 12, 18, 20, 40, 175–176, 205–207, 211, 223, 300, 312, 316, 322, 331, 335; university of,╇ ix, 13, 15–16, 18–21, 23–24, 28, 37, 48–49, 53–59, 61–64, 79–80, 82, 86–87, 90, 99, 107, 113, 115, 125, 144, 153–154, 157–159, 167–170, 174, 179–180, 184–187, 189, 191–249, 279, 288, 291–292, 294, 296, 298, 301, 303, 305–308, 311–315, 320, 324, 327; St Leonard’s College,╇ 17, 24, 36, 53, 57, 79–80, 86, 106, 152–154, 174–175, 184, 191–192, 195–196, 198–200, 202, 204, 246–247, 311–312; St Mary’s College,╇ ix–x, 17–18, 24, 49, 53–55, 57, 64, 79, 106, 108, 146, 157, 159, 163, 167, 170, 172–176, 179, 185, 187, 191–192, 196–197, 201–202, 205–206, 210, 219, 223, 228, 230, 246–247–248, 253, 254, 260, 289, 305, 312; St Salvator’s College,╇ 38, 176, 192–193, 195, 198, 202–203, 246 St Bartholomew’s Day massacres,╇ 76, 102, 113, 120, 122, 126, 134, 152, 156–157, 177, 332 St Edmund Hall, Oxford,╇ 214 Stewart, Esmé, Duke of Lennox,╇ 210, 228 Stewart, James, earl of Arran,╇ 97, 210, 325 Stewart, William,╇ 211 Stirling,╇ 40, 85, 157–158, 208, 219, 325 St George,╇ 259 St John’s College, Cambridge,╇ 55, 215, 253 St Machar’s Cathedral, Old Aberdeen,╇ 170, 313 St Marcean, Collège of, Poitiers,╇ 93 St Marthe, Collège Royal de, Poitiers,╇ 93

374

general index

St Michael, festival of,╇ 255 Story, Thomas,╇ 213 Strachan,╇ 213 Strasbourg,╇ 121, 245 Strathbogie,╇ 327 Stuart, Lady Arabella,╇ 262, 288, 295 Stuart, Walter,╇ 173 studium generale,╇ 309, 314 Sturm, Johann,╇ 78 Switzerland,╇ 21, 23, 27, 32, 101–149, 181, 187, 199, 221, 248, 280, 293, 303, 305, 336 Sydney, Sir Philip,╇ 214, 329 Syllogism,╇ 153 sylvae,╇ 84, 138, 224 Symson, Patrick,╇ 270, 277, 288 Syriac,╇ 21, 26, 32, 116, 133, 149, 160–161, 173, 181–182, 187–188, 193–194, 246 table talk,╇ 155, 162–163, 165, 189, 201, 247, 294, 307, 310–312 Tagaut, Jean,╇ 105 Talon, Omer,╇ 82, 94, 160, 165, 173, 183–184, 188, 195, 198, 308–310, 336 Rhetorica,╇ 82, 160, 195, 198 Tay,╇ ix, 191, 219 Terence,╇ 43, 48, 142, 154, 283, Phormio,╇ 48 testimonium vitae et doctrinae,╇ 146–147, 151, 155 textual criticism,╇ 72, 133, 136; Latin,╇ 133 Theocritus,╇ 160, 283, 302, 310 Theognis,╇ 160, 302, 310 Theophrastus,╇ 71 Thesaurus linguæ Græcæ,╇ 130 Theses philosophicae,╇ 199, 202–203, 311, 314 Thirty Years’ War,╇ 285 Thomism,╇ 77 Thucydides,╇ 71 Tilenus, Daniel,╇ 279, 281–282, 286, 300, 312 Tiraqueau, André,╇ 92 Toulouse, university of,╇ 91, 93, 116 Tours,╇ 265 Toussaint, Jacques,╇ 66, 71 Tower of London,╇ x, 16, 19, 89, 109, 145, 197, 227, 260, 295 translatio studii,╇ 62 transubstantiation,╇ 141 Travers, Walter Ecclesiasticae disciplinae … explication,╇ 87, 125, 171 Trent, Council of (Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent),╇ 54, 328

Trinity College, Cambridge,╇ 124 Trivium,╇ 81 Tübingen, university of,╇ 42, 137, 303 Tudor, Mary,╇ 18 Turnèbe, Adrien,╇ 32, 70–72, 99, 108, 113, 126, 130, 132, 135–136, 148, 160, 199, 293, 297 Twelve Tables,╇ 121 Ulpian,╇ 91 Ulrich, Jacob,╇ 112 Valence,╇ 96, 120–121 Valla, Lorenzo,╇ 77 Valois,╇ 143 Vandoeuvres,╇ 127 van Til, Thomas,╇ 147, 321 Varro,╇ 133, 138, 275 De lingua latina,╇ 133 Vatable, François,╇ 26, 66, 72 Vaudemontis, Count de,╇ 255 Vaus, John,╇ 51 Venice,╇ 55 Venus,╇ 255 Vergil,╇ 42, 48, 110, 137, 139, 141, 154, 160, 204, 221, 234, 239, 261, 275–276, 283, 287, 296, 302, 310 Aeneid,╇ 110, 141, 222, 234, 239, 276 Bucolics,╇ 110 Bucolica ecloga I,╇ 276 Eclogues,╇ 48 Georgics,╇ 48 Vermigli, Peter Martyr,╇ 245 Vernou,╇ 95 Verteuil,╇ 265 Veyrat, Job,╇ 107–108, 134 Villette (Violet),╇ 114 Viret, Pierre,╇ 102, 118 Vives, Juan Luis,╇ 77 Vorstius, Conrad,╇ 268 Vulgate,╇ 132 Waldegrave, Robert,╇ 236 Walker, Gilbert,╇ 63 Walkinshaw, Patrick,╇ 164 Walsingham, Sir Francis,╇ 177, 214, 328–329 Wedderburn, David,╇ 232, 286 Wedderburn, James,╇ 333 Welwood, William,╇ 272 Wemyss, Robert,╇ 198 Whitehall Palace,╇ 260, 262, 331 Whitelaw, Archibald,╇ 52



general index

Whitgift, John,╇ 124 Whittaker, William,╇ 102, 215 Wilcox, Thomas,╇ 214, 218 Wilkie, Robert,╇ 203, 205, 322 William of Orange,╇ 112 Wilson, Florence,╇ 52 Wilson, Thomas,╇ 23, 193, 256–257 Winram, John,╇ 321 Winzet, Ninian,╇ 52 Wishart, George,╇ 7, 18, 40, 43–44, 52 Wittenberg, university of,╇ 39–43, 58, 160, 303–305

Wolmar, Melchior,╇ 136–138, 303 Xenophon,╇ 110, 118 Young, Alexander,╇ 146, 158, 167 Young, Peter,╇ 63, 83, 90, 112, 115, 155, 166–167, 320 Young, Ninian,╇ 164 Zodiac,╇ 45 Zodiacus Vitae see Manzolli Zurich,╇ 41, 112

375