Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

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obliged to dismiss, having previously presented a
supplication, earnestly craving that no ultimate deci-
sion respecting the church might be adopted without
the admission of free discussion.
During the following winter James Melville was
occupied partly in the arrangement of his family
affairs, but principally in re-establishing order in the
university. The plague, which had for some time
raged with great violence, was now abated, and the
people, regaining their former confidence, had begun
to return to their ordinary affairs. Taking advantage
of this change, the two Melvilles resolved to resume
their labours, and accordingly entered on their re-
spective duties about the middle of March. In the
beginning of April the synod of Fife convened, and
it was the duty of James Melville, as moderator at
the last meeting, to open their proceedings with a
sermon. He chose for his text that part of the
twelfth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans,
in which the Christian church is compared to the
human body�composed, like it, of many members,
the harmonious operation of which is essential to the
health of the whole. After showing by reference
to Scripture what was the constitution of the true
church�refuting the doctrine of "the human and
devilish bishopric "�adverting to the purity of the
reformed constitution of their church, and proving
that the inordinate ambition of a few had been in all
ages the destruction of that purity�he turned towards
the archbishop, who was sitting with great pomp in
the assembly, charged him with the overthrow of
the goodly fabric, and exhorted the brethren to cut
off so unworthy a member from among them. Not-
withstanding the remonstrances and protests of the
prelate, the synod immediately took up the case�
went on, with an inattention to all the forms of
decency and some of those of justice which their
warmest advocates do not pretend to vindicate, and
ordered him to be excommunicated by Andrew
Hunter, minister of Carnbeer Thus, by the fervour
of their zeal, and perhaps goaded on by personal
wrongs, did an assembly, composed in the main of
worthy men, subject themselves to censure in the
case of a man of a character disgraceful to his pro-
fession; and whom, had they been content to act
with more moderation, nothing but the strong hand
of civil power could have screened from their highest
censures, while even it could not have defended him
from deserved infamy. But the informality of the
synod's proceedings gave their enemies an unfortu-
nate hold over them, and was the means of baffling
their own ends. By the influence of the king the
General Assembly, which met soon afterwards, an-
nulled their sentence, and the Melvilles, being sum-
moned before the king, were commanded to confine
themselves�Andrew to his native place and James
to his college. Thus did matters continue during
that summer. James Melville lectured to a numer-
ous audience on the sacred history, illustrating it by
reference to geography and chronology. On each
alternate day he read lectures on St. Paul's Epistle
to Timothy, in the course of which he took many
opportunities of attacking the hated order of bishops.
Melville was now to obtain what had all along
been the object of his highest wishes�a settlement
as minister of a parish. In 1583 the charge of the
conjunct parishes of Abercrombie, Pittenweem, An-
struther, and Kilrenny, became vacant by the decease
of the incumbent, and thus they continued for seve-
ral years. When the presbytery of St. Andrews re-
sumed their meetings on the return of the banished
ministers, commissioners were appointed to visit
these parishes, and to bring them if possible to the
unanimous choice of a minister. James Melville,
who had been nominated one of these commission-
ers, soon gained the affections of the people, inso-
much that they unanimously requested the presby-
tery to send him among them. That court no less
warmly urged his acceptance, and he accordingly
removed to his charge in July, 1586.
It may be readily conceived that to perform the
duties of four parishes was a task far beyond the
moral and physical capabilities of any single indi-
vidual, more especially after they had so long wanted
the benefit of a regular ministry. Their conjunction
was the result of the mercenary plans of Morton and
his friends, but no man was less actuated by such
motives than Melville. No sooner did he become
acquainted with the state of these parishes than he
determined on their disjunction, at whatever pecu-
niary loss. When this was effected, he willingly
resigned the proportions of stipend in favour of the
ministers provided for three of the parishes, while he
himself undertook the charge of the fourth (Kilrenny)
�he obtained an augmentation of stipend, built a
manse, purchased the right to the vicarage and teind
fish for the support of himself and his successors,
paid the salary of a schoolmaster, and maintained
an assistant to perform the duties of the parish, as
he was frequently engaged in the public affairs of the
church. Such instances of disinterested zeal are in-
deed rare; but even this was not all. Many years
afterwards he printed for the use of his people a
catechism which cost 500 merks, of which, in writ-
ing his Diary, he mentions that he could never
regain more than one fifth part. While he was thus
anxiously promoting the moral and religious im-
provement of the parishioners, he was also distin-
guished by the exemplification of his principles in
the ordinary affairs of life. An instance of his gene-
rosity occurred soon after his settlement in his new
charge. In the beginning of 1588 rumours were
spread through the country of the projected invasion
by the Spaniards. Some time before the destruction
of the Armada was known, Melville was waited on,
early in the morning, by one of the bailies of the
town, who stated that a ship filled with Spaniards
had entered their harbour in distress, and requested
his advice as to the line of conduct to be observed.
When the day was further advanced, the officers (the
principal of whom is styled general of twenty hulks)
were permitted to land, and appear before the minis-
ter and principal men of the town. They stated
that their division of the squadron had been wrecked
on the Fair Isle, where they had been detained many
weeks under all the miseries of fatigue and hunger;
that they had at length procured the ship which lay
in the harbour; and now came before them to crave
their forbearance towards them. Melville replied
that, although they were the supporters of Christ's
greatest enemy the pope, and although their expedi-
tion had been undertaken with the design of deso-
lating the Protestant kingdoms of England and Scot-
land, they should know by their conduct that the
people of Scotland were professors of a purer religion.
Without entering into all the minute facts of the case,
it may be enough to say, that the officers and men
were all at length received on shore and treated with
the greatest humanity. "Bot we thanked God with
our heartes that we had sein tham amangs ws in that
forme," is the quaint conclusion of James Melville,
alluding to the difference between the objects of the
expedition and the success which had attended it.
But however disinterested James Melville's con-
duct might be, it was not destined to escape the most
unjust suspicions. When subscriptions were raised
to assist the French Protestants and the inhabitants
of Geneva (cir. 1588), he had been appointed col-