SERVICES TO SCOTTISH EDUCATION--PRINCIPALSHIP OF GLASGOW AND ST. ANDREWS
'He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
... Ever witness for him
Those twins of learning that he raised in you.'
_Henry VIII._
It was in the interests of education, and for the purpose of reviving
Scottish learning, that Melville had been induced to come back to his
native land, and it will be convenient to devote a chapter to this
subject before we consider the graver, more crucial interests in which
he was destined to take a decisive part. He had not been many days in
the country when Regent Morton offered him an appointment as Court
Chaplain, with the ulterior view of attaching him to his patron's
ecclesiastical policy. Whether having this suspicion or no, Melville
declined the post. He had returned to Scotland for educational work, and
he determined to wait for an opening in one of the Universities.
Meanwhile he wished a little repose with the friends from whom he had
been so long separated; and he went to Baldovy, where he was received
with much affection. It was at this time that the attachment between him
and his nephew was formed and consecrated by a kind of sacramental act
on the part of the father of the latter--'I was resigned ower be my
father hailelie into him to veak[1] upon him as his sone and servant,
and, as my father said to him, to be a pladge of his love. And surlie
his service was easie, nocht to me onlie, bot even to the fremdest man
that ever served him.'
[Footnote 1: Wait.]
So great was Melville's scholarly reputation by this time that, at the
General Assembly held a month after his return, the Universities of
Glasgow and St. Andrews put in competing claims for his services as
Principal. He decided in favour of Glasgow, on account of its greater
need; and at the end of October he left Baldovy, accompanied by his
nephew, to enter on his academic office. On the way two days were spent
in Stirling, where the King, then a boy of nine, was residing; and the
Melvilles saw him and were much struck with his precocity in learning:
'He was the sweitest sight in Europe that day for strange and
extraordinar gifts of ingyne, judgment, memorie, and langage. I hard him
discours, walking upe and doun in the auld Lady Marr's hand, of knawlage
and ignorance, to my grait marvell and estonishment.' James never lost
his fancy for discoursing at large and learnedly to the 'marvell and
estonishment' of his hearers. But it was to visit the King's illustrious
preceptor, George Buchanan, that Melville came by Stirling. The two were
kindred spirits; they were like in their love of learning, in their
scholarly accomplishments, in their passion for teaching, in their
political and religious sympathies, in the ardour and vigour with which
they maintained their convictions, in their valorous action for the
defence of civil and religious freedom. At this time Buchanan was
beginning the work which filled his closing years--his _History of
Scotland_. Seven years afterwards the Melvilles paid him another visit,
in Edinburgh, the account of which by the younger is one of the _loci
classici_ of Scottish history. It contains, like the same writer's
description of the last appearance of Knox in the pulpit, one of the
most living pieces of portraiture in our literature: 'When we cam to his
chalmer, we fand him sitting in his chaire, teatching his young man that
servit him in his chalmer a, b, ab; e, b, eb, etc. Efter salutation, Mr.
Andro sayes, "I sie, sir, yie are nocht ydle." "Better this," quoth he,
"nor stelling sheipe, or sitting ydle, quhilk is als ill!"' Buchanan put
the proof of his Epistolary Dedication to the King into the hands of
Melville, who read it and suggested some amendments. 'I may do no mair,'
said the worn-out veteran, 'for thinking on another mater.' When
Melville asked what he meant, he replied, 'To die.' Leaving him for a
little, the Melvilles accompanied his nephew, Thomas Buchanan, on a
visit to his printer, whom they found setting up the passage of the
_History_ relating the 'burial of Davie.'[2] Its boldness alarmed them,
and they asked the printer to stop the passage meanwhile. Returning to
the house, they found him in bed, and, asking how he did, he replied,
'Even going the way of weil-fare.' His nephew then mentioned their fear
that the passage referred to would so offend the King that the work
would be suppressed. 'Tell me, man,' Buchanan answered, 'giff I have
tauld the treuthe?' 'Yes,' replied his nephew; 'sir, I think sa.' 'I
will byd his fead[3] and all his kin's, then!'
[Footnote 2: Rizzio.]
[Footnote 3: Feud.]
Melville needed a stout heart for the task that lay before him in
Glasgow. The University, which had never been prosperous, being always
starved in its revenues and undermanned, had declined so far that its
gates had to be closed for lack of students; so that when he entered on
the Principalship he actually constituted the whole Senatus in his own
person. He began by training a number of young men as regents, the
course of study embracing classics, mathematics, and mental and moral
philosophy, in each of which he carried his class as far as the highest
standards of any University in Europe; and in addition to these labours
he taught all the theological classes. When the regents were qualified
he specialised their subjects--a great reform on the old system, under
which the students passed through the entire curriculum under the same
teacher.
Melville's teaching was not confined to his class-hours nor to his
professor's desk; he sat with the students at the college table, and in
his table-talk gave them some of his best instruction. The fame of the
University rose so rapidly under his _régime_ that the class-rooms were
soon crowded: 'I dare say there was na place in Europe comparable to
Glasgow for guid letters during these yeirs, for a plentifull and guid
chepe mercat for all kynd of langages, artes an sciences.'
In 1580 Melville was translated to the Principalship of St. Mary's
College, St. Andrews. Mainly through his own exertions a new
constitution for the University had just been framed and sanctioned by
Parliament, in accordance with which that College was to be henceforth
set apart for theological education. The reforms made at this time in
St. Andrews went on the same lines as those effected in Glasgow.
Before Melville's time the study of Greek never went beyond the
rudiments: Hebrew and other Oriental languages were not taught at all;
and in philosophy Aristotle held exclusive possession of the ground. His
reforms applied particularly to these branches of learning: Greek,
Hebrew, and Syriac were taught according to the best methods of the age;
and the Platonic Philosophy was introduced. M'Crie, who always speaks
with authority on such a subject, describes the reformed curriculum as
the most liberal and enlightened plan of study in any University,
whether at home or abroad.
Melville continued in the Principalship of St. Mary's for upwards of a
quarter of a century--from the close of 1580 to 1606, when he was
summoned by the King to London, never to return to his native land.
In St. Andrews and Glasgow he had not only teaching duties, he presided
over the government of the University as well; and the same resolute
respect for law, which set him so stoutly against the King's tyranny in
the realm, made him a determined upholder of order in the University.
He was at once a fearless subject and a born ruler of men. When he
entered on his office in St. Andrews, some of the professors, chafed by
the reforms which he introduced, became insubordinate, but soon
succumbed to his authority; and more than once in Glasgow he quelled
riots among the students at the risk of his life. On one occasion, when
his friends urged him to condone an offence of a student of noble family
from fear of revenge, he answered, 'Giff they wald haiff forgiffness let
them crave it humblie and they sall haiff it; but or that preparative
pass, that we dar nocht correct our scholars for fear of bangstars and
clanned gentlemen, they sall haiff all the blud of my body first.'
In St. Andrews he was for some time Rector of the University as well as
Principal of St. Mary's, and in his exercise of civil authority in that
capacity he did more for public order than all the magistrates of the
burgh. At one time the inhabitants were greatly plagued by a bad
neighbour, the Laird of Dairsie, who had once been Provost, and who
resented his ejection from that office. On more than one occasion
associates of his, Balfour of Burley and others, had entered the city
during the night and committed gross outrages. One day the report
reached St. Andrews that Dairsie and his friends were approaching in
force to make an assault on the citizens. The magistrates were
panic-stricken; but on the report reaching the Rector's ears, he
immediately summoned the whole University together and organised a party
of resistance, placed himself at its head, bearing in his hand a white
spear (one of the insignia of his office), and by his prompt action made
the invaders glad to decamp.
During Melville's rectorship quarrels sometimes occurred between town
and gown, and in these he always showed himself jealous in regard to the
rights of the University. He had once a serious rupture with the
magistrates, on account of their unjust administration and their
rejection of eminent ministers whom he had commended for charges in the
city. Preaching in his own pulpit in the College of St. Mary's, he spoke
with such vehemence of their misdoings that he raised the town against
him. Forthwith placards were affixed to the College gates threatening
the Rector with dire revenge. Nothing daunted, Melville continued to
fulminate against the authorities--'with ane heroicall spreit, the mair
they stirit and bostit the mair he strak with that twa-eagit sword, sa
that a day he movit the Provest, with sear rubbing of the ga of his
conscience, to ryse out of his seatt in the middes of the sermont, and
with some muttering of words to goe to the dure, out-throw the middes of
the peiple.' Melville, instead of giving way to the irate magistrate,
had him brought before the Presbytery, when he expressed his regret for
disturbing the public worship, and craved forgiveness; and so peace was
restored.
The academic labours of Melville caused a great revival in Scottish
education. Not only did Scotland after this time keep her own students,
but foreign students began to attend her Universities. A few years
after Melville went to St. Andrews, names of students from all parts of
the Continent began to appear on the matriculation registers, chiefly of
St. Andrews, but of the other Universities as well. He gave an impetus
to learning not only within academic circles, but throughout the
country, as was shown in the great increase in the production of books
in all branches of literature and science. The period enriched the
nation with no names of literary genius, but the general intellectual
activity of the country made a great advance, Melville himself left no
permanent contribution to literature--his hands were too full of public
cares for that; and his entire literary remains consist of sacred poems
and fugitive pieces of verse in Latin. But he was very ready with his
pen, and served as a kind of unofficial poet-laureate. It is a curious
fact that on every occasion in the King's reign that called for
celebration, even at those times when Melville was on the worst terms
with James, an appropriate ode was forthcoming. He was a clever
satirist, and it was a lampoon which he wrote on a sermon in the Royal
Chapel at Hampton Court that was made the pretext for depriving him of
his liberty.
Such were Melville's services to education and learning. Through all the
stormy controversies into which he was plunged he never forsook his
first love, but continued his work in our Universities up to the close
of his career in Scotland.