PROFESSOR ANDREW MELVILL
It does not appear that the fustigations at first formed brilliant
scholars. The University was, for a long time, more famous for its
professors than for its pupils. Few learned men, at that period, were
regarded as prophets in their own countries; and a goodly proportion of
those who were so regarded had to emigrate for fear of being stoned.
Many of the fugitives settled at Geneva, and taught there; and the
readiness of the welcome accorded to the men who were considered
suitable may be illustrated from the career of Andrew Melvill, the
Scottish scholar, who subsequently reformed the Scottish Universities,
and went to profess theology at Sedan. Andrew Melvill had been teaching
in a college at Poictiers, and the town had been besieged by the
Huguenots. Then--
‘The siege of the town being raised, he left Poictiers, and accompanied
by a Frenchman, he took journey to Geneva, leaving books and all
there, and carried nothing with him but a little Hebrew Bible in his
belt. So he came to Geneva, all upon foot, and as he had done before
from Dieppe to Paris, and from that to Poictiers; for he was small
and light of body, but full of spirits, vigorous, and courageous.
His companions of the way, when they came to the inn, would lie down
like tired dogs, but he would out and sight the towns and villages,
whithersoever they came. The ports of Geneva were carefully kept,
because of the troubles of France, and the multitude of strangers that
came. Being therefore inquired what they were, the Frenchman, his
companion, answered:
‘“We are poor scholars.”
‘But Mr. Andrew, perceiving that they had no wish for poor folks, being
already overlaid therewith, said:
‘“No, no; we are not poor! We have as much as will pay for all we take
as long as we tarry. We have letters from his acquaintance to Monsieur
de Bèze; let us deliver those, we crave no further.”
‘And so, being convoyed to Beza and then to their lodging, Beza
perceiving him a scholar, and they having need of a Professor of
Humanity in the College, put him within two or three days to trial
in Virgil and Homer; wherein he could acquit himself so well that
without further ado, he is placed in that room of profession; and at
his first entry a quarter’s fee is paid him in hand. So that howbeit
there was but a crown to the fore betwixt them both, and the Frenchman
weak-spirited and wist not what to do, yet he found God’s providence to
relieve both himself and help his companion till he was provided.’
There follows a picture of Melvill’s life in the city:
‘In Geneva he abode five years; during the which time his chief study
was Divinity, whereon he heard Beza’s daily lessons and preachings;
Cornelius Bonaventura, Professor of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac
languages; Portus, a Greek born, Professor of the Greek tongue, with
whom he would reason about the right pronunciation thereof; for the
Greek pronounced it after the common form, keeping the accents; the
which Mr. Andrew controlled by precepts and reason, till the Greek
would grow angry and cry out:
‘“_Vos Scoti, vos barbari! docebitis nos Græcos pronunciationem linguæ
nostræ, scilicet?_”
‘He heard there also Francis Hotman, the renownedst lawyer in his time.
There he was well acquainted with my uncle, Mr. Henry Scrymgeour,
who, by his learning in the laws and policy and service of many noble
princes, had attained to great riches, acquired a pretty plot of ground
within a league of Geneva, and built thereon a trim house called “the
Vilet,” and a fair lodging within the town, all which, with a daughter,
his only born, he left to the Syndics of the town.’