MELVILLE AT HAMPTON COURT
'But who, if he be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad, for human kind,
Is happy as a lover.'
_The Happy Warrior._
A month before the meeting of the Perth Parliament, viz. in May 1606,
Melville and his nephew, together with other six ministers, received a
letter from the King, commanding them to go to London to confer with him
on the affairs of the Church. The letter was very vaguely worded; but it
was apparent that James's purpose was either to secure their
capitulation to Episcopacy, or to deprive them of all further
opportunity of resisting it. The ministers were much perplexed as to
whether they should go or stay, but at last they decided to face all
risks and obey the King's summons.
On reaching London at the end of August (1606), they got a warm welcome
from many ministers in the city who were friendly to their cause. They
were offered hospitality by their Graces of Canterbury and York, but
they declined a meeting with these prelates till they had seen the
King. They soon learned that the King's object in bringing them to
London was that they might be set to the public discussion of the
affairs of the Church. This the ministers, for many good reasons, were
resolved not to do: they could be no parties to any proceedings which
brought into question the Church's discipline, and they had no warrant
for taking part in such proceedings. With whom were they to hold debate?
The English prelates could find within their own Church those who would
take them up in regard to the merits of their ecclesiastical system: and
the two Scottish archbishops who had come to London to be present at the
conference between the King and the eight brethren, could not open their
mouths against Presbytery, as the ministers had brought with them
documents, in which these prelates had bound themselves to maintain the
established constitution of the Presbyterian Church.
The ministers were nearly a month in London before they met the King,
who had been making a tour in England. The first interview between them
took place at Hampton Court on 20th September. The King was in good
humour, and very familiar; he bantered James Balfour on the length to
which his beard had grown since they last met in Edinburgh, and was
gracious all round.
Next day was the Sabbath, when they were all enjoined by the King to
attend a service in the Royal Chapel, to be conducted by Dr. Barlow,
Bishop of Rochester. They had been brought to London to be schooled
into conformity; and as part of the process, the English bishops had
been commanded to prepare a series of sermons for their benefit. These
were such a travesty on the texts of Scripture they were supposed to
expound, that if they had been addressed to the ministers' own
congregations in Scotland, the humblest of their hearers would have
resented them. Whatever these bishops could do, they certainly could not
preach. They belonged to that section of the clergy who disparage the
preacher's function in comparison with the priest's, and who in their
own practice do a great deal to bring the former into something like
contempt. If the sermons preached before the eight brethren did not
convince or edify them, they at least amused them, and gave them
practice in the Christian virtue of patience. Dr. Barlow's was not the
worst, though his hearers regarded it as an admirable '_confutation_' of
the text. The preacher, among the four, who reached the climax of
absurdity was Dr. Andrewes, Bishop of Chichester. He was one of the
extreme High Churchmen of his time: no man urged the doctrine of passive
obedience to a more abject degree, or did more to support with the
sanction of religion the most extravagant pretensions of the Crown. It
was Andrewes who at the Hampton Court Conference declared that James was
inspired by God--the same man who made it his nightly prayer, as he
tells us himself, that he might be preserved from adulating the King! Of
all the sermons preached to, or rather _at_, the eight brethren, his,
as we have said, was the most preposterous, consisting as it did of a
deduction of the King's right to call Assemblies of the Church, from the
passage in Numbers which describes the blowing of the trumpets by the
sons of Aaron to summon the congregation to the tabernacle! Well might a
Scottish lord, who heard Andrewes preach before the Court on the
occasion of James's visit to Scotland in 1617, say of him as he did,
when asked his opinion by the King, that he played with his text rather
than preached upon it. The last of the series of the discourses was the
most candid, and pointed most directly to the object at which they were
all aiming; for the preacher reached the close of the attack upon the
Presbyterians by turning round to the King and exclaiming, 'Downe, downe
with them all!'
On Monday, 22nd September, the ministers were brought to confer with the
King in presence of the Scottish Council. Two points for discussion came
up: First, the proceedings of the Aberdeen Assembly; and, second, the
proposed holding of an Assembly in which order and peace might be
restored to the Church. James Melville spoke for the brethren with great
courtesy, and at the same time with great decision. He declined, in name
of all, to discuss these questions till they had had an opportunity for
consultation among themselves. Other matters were brought forward by the
King, but not formally discussed. One of these was a letter that had
been addressed by James Melville, from his sick-bed, to the Synod of
Fife, in regard to the articles in which the King claimed supremacy in
ecclesiastical affairs. '"I hard, Mr. James Melvill," said the King,
"that ye wreitt a Lettre to the Synod of Fyff at Cowper, quhairin was
meikle of Chryst, but lytle guid of the King. Be God I trow ye wes
reavand or mad (for he spak so) ye speek utherwayis now. Now, wes that a
charitabill judgment of me?"--"Sir," says Mr. James, with a low
courtessie, "I wes baith seik and sair in bodie quhan I wreit that
Lettre, bot sober and sound in mind. I wreit of your Majestie all guid,
assureing my selff and the Bretherine that thais Articles quhairoff a
copy cam in my handis could not be from your Majestie, they wer so
strange; and quhom sould I think, speik, or wryt guid of, if not of your
Majestie, quho is the man under Chryst quhom I wisch most guid and
honour unto."'
At the consultation held among the brethren in regard to the points
raised, they decided that when the conference was resumed they would
give their answer through one of their number; and that, as to the first
question before them, they would decline, for reasons which we need not
rehearse, to give any judgment on the Aberdeen Assembly. Meanwhile,
however, the King had resolved that each of the ministers should answer
the questions for himself, in the hope that their answers would prove
conflicting, and so give him an advantage.
At the second conference there were present the members of the English
Council, the most eminent of the prelates, and the most illustrious of
the nobles. On the King's right hand sat the Primate, with many of
England's proudest earls and all the great ministers of state; on his
left the young Prince Henry, with the Scottish nobles and councillors;
behind the arras several other nobles and bishops were gathered. In the
midst of the assemblage stood the eight Scottish ministers, unabashed by
the glitter of rank and royalty--plain men decorated with no honours,
but in intellect and dignity of character the peers of the best in that
company; and to the crowd of courtiers gathered that day in the Council
Hall of England they taught a lesson in one of the duties owing to a
sovereign which few courtiers have practised--the duty of telling him
the truth.
The subject of conference was, as we have said, the conduct of the
ministers who had held the Assembly in Aberdeen. The first to be asked
their opinion by the King were the Scottish bishops and councillors, who
answered promptly and unanimously that 'they had ever damnit that
Assembly.' Turning from them to the eight brethren, and addressing their
chief--the man above all others whom James sought to entrap: '"Now,
Siris," sayis the King, "quhat say ye, and first Mr. Andro Melvill?"
Quho, with meikle low courtessie, talkit all his mynd in his awin maner,
roundly, soundly, fully, freely, and fervently, almaist the space of ane
hour, not omitting any poynt he could remember.' James Balfour was the
next called on, and the King, by the time he was done with Melville and
him, evidently realised that he was getting the worst of the
encounter--'smelling how the matter went, he seemit weary.' Balfour was
followed by James Melville, who at the close of his examination had the
courage to hand to the King a supplication addressed to him by the
condemned ministers, which James received with an angry smile. Next came
Scott, whose speech was 'ane prettie piece of logicall and legal
reasouneing, quhilk delighted and moved the judicious audiens.' The rest
followed 'all most reverently on kneis, but thairwith most friely,
statly, and plainely, to the admiration of the English auditorie, quho
wer not accustomit to heir the King so talkit to and reassounit with.'
When all had been examined, Melville craved to be heard again, and had
the last word: he 'spake out in his awin maner, and friely and plainely
affirmit the innocence of thais guid, faithfull, and honest Britherin,
in all thair proceidingis at Abirdein; and thairfoir he recomptit the
wrongis done unto thame at Linlithgow, as ane that wes present as an eye
and ear witness; and taking him in direct termes to the Advocat, Mr.
Thomas Hammiltoune, he invyit scharpely againes him, telling him planely
and pathetically, of his favouring and spaireing the Papistis, and
craftie, cruell, and malicious dealing againes the Ministeres of Jesus
Chryst; so that he could have done no moir againes the saints of God
then he had at Linlithgow! At the quhilk words the King luiking to the
Archbisschoppes, sayis, "Quhat? Me thinkis he makes him the Antichryst!"
And, suddentlie, again with ane oath, "Be God! It is the divelis name
in the Revelatioune! He hes maid the divel of him, welbelovit
Bretherine, brother Johne!" And so, cuttitly ryseing, and turneing his
back, he sayes, "God be with yow, Siris!"' As the King was moving out of
the Presence Chamber he turned round and asked what remedy the Eight
proposed for the jars of the Church, when they all as with one voice
replied, 'A free Assembly!'
While on their way from Hampton Court to their lodgings in Kingston, the
Eight were recalled and charged not to return to Scotland, or to come
near the King or Court until they were sent for. After this they enjoyed
a short holiday--'we had three dayis to refresche us and relax our
myndis dureing the quhilk we wer visiting the fieldis about, namely,
Nonsuche and Richmont.'
Monday, 29th September, being Michaelmas Day, an elaborate service was
held in the King's Chapel, the two Melvilles being present by the King's
command. The younger suspected, rightly as it proved, that the King's
object was to try their patience and provoke his uncle to an outburst of
indignation which might bring him into trouble. The service was so high
that a German visitor at the English Court declared it was not a whit
behind the solemnity of the Mass but for the absence of the adoration of
the Host. The snare set for Melville on this occasion succeeded, for it
was a satirical verse on this service that was afterwards made the
pretext for sending him to prison.
After the service, the Eight were summoned before the Scottish Council,
convened in the house of the Earl of Dunbar. They were called in, one by
one, and once more questioned as to their approval of the Aberdeen
Assembly. James Melville, who was the first called, made a patriotic
speech, protesting warmly against the trial of Scotsmen on English soil
and by English law; the others followed him in the same strain. His
uncle was the last to be called, and he 'gaiff thame enought of it, alse
plainely and scharplie as he wes accustomit, namely, telling thame
flattly, that they knew not quhat they did; and wer degenerat from the
antiant nobilitie of Scotland, quho wer wont to give thair landis and
lyffes for the fridom of the Kingdome and Gospel, and they wer bewraying
and ovirturneing the same! Till it became laite, and eftir sune-sett,
that they were faine to dimitt us to the nixt calling for.'
On the 2nd of October, the Eight were called again before the Scottish
Council, and questions put to them bearing still on the same subject, to
which they gave the same answers. The King, in fact, was only marking
time to detain Melville and his colleagues in London till he had
'effecuate matteres at home' according to his mind.
For a month the ministers were not asked to appear again in Court; the
session of Parliament had begun, and the King was engaged with the
business of the Legislature. During this time they all lived together,
and their lodging was the resort of many of their Puritan brethren in
the city and neighbourhood. They had much 'guid exercise' in the Word
and in prayer. But the King and the Bishops having set spies on them who
reported the way in which they were spending their time, they were all
commanded to go into ward--each with a separate bishop. Andrew
Melville's gaoler-in-lawn was to be the Bishop of Winchester, and his
nephew's the Bishop of Durham; but the two made such a spirited protest
to the King, that his command was not meanwhile enforced.
On the last day of November--it was a Sabbath--Melville, with his nephew
and Wallace, was summoned to Whitehall to answer for certain Latin
verses which had come into the King's hand. These were the lampoon which
Melville had made on the Michaelmas service in the Royal Chapel, and he
at once acknowledged the authorship. Interrupted in his apology by the
Primate, Bancroft, who presided in the absence of the King, and who
denounced his offence as treason, he turned upon him the torrent of his
invective. 'My lords,' exclaimed he, 'Andrew Melville was never a
traitor. But, my lords, there was one Richard Bancroft (let him be
sought for) who, during the life of the late Queen, wrote a treatise
against his Majesty's title to the Crown of England; and _here_'
(pulling the _corpus delicti_ from his pocket) 'is the book which was
answered by my brother, John Davidson.' While Bancroft was stunned and
silenced by the impetuosity of the attack, Melville went on to charge
him with the chief responsibility for the Romish ritual that had been
introduced into the English Church, and for the silencing of the Puritan
ministers; and then taking him by the white sleeves of his rochet, he
shook them 'in his maner frielie and roundlie, and called them Romish
rags and the mark of the Beast.' The Primate was the reputed author of a
book attacking Presbytery, and entitled _The English Scottizing for
Genevan Discipline_. Melville denounced him as having proved himself in
that work 'the Capital Enemy of all the Reformed Churches of Europe,
whom he would oppose to the effusion of the last drop of blood in his
body, and whom it was a constant grief to him to see at the head of the
King's Council in England.' He next turned his invective on another
prelate present--Barlow--who in writing on the Hampton Court Conference
had spoken of the King as in the Kirk of Scotland, but not of it: he
marvelled that the Bishop had been left unpunished 'for making the King
of no religion.' He was just beginning to put the rapier of his satire
into the four sermons preached in the Royal Chapel against Presbytery,
when he was interrupted by a Scottish nobleman present. 'Remember,' said
he, 'where you are and to whom you are speaking.'--'I remember it very
well, my lord,' retorted Melville, 'and am only sorry that your
lordship, by sitting here and countenancing such proceedings against me,
should furnish a precedent which may yet be used against yourself or
your posterity.'
An hour after the close of this memorable scene, the Eight were
recalled, and Melville was admonished by the Lord Chancellor and
ordered to go into ward, at his Majesty's pleasure, with the Dean of St.
Paul's; the others were 'commandit to the custodie of their ain wyse and
discreit cariage.' A warrant was at the same time issued by the Council
to the Dean, enjoining him to give no one access to his prisoner, and to
do his utmost to convert him to Episcopacy. To the Dean's house,
accordingly, Melville went, and he remained there till the following
March.
In that month the King renewed his order to the other ministers to take
up their lodgings, each in a bishop's house. James Melville again sent a
protest to the clerk of the Council; he also saw both the Bishop of
Durham and the Primate on the business; and his accounts of the
interviews are very piquant. In his visit to the Primate he was
accompanied by Scott. Bancroft received them with great deference, and
sought to impress them with the King's courtesy in desiring that they
should be entertained by the highest of the clergy. James Melville
answered, with much dignity, that compulsory courtesy was agreeable to
no man; that the Scottish ministers were more acustomed to bestowing
hospitality than receiving it; and that with such contrary opinions as
they held on matters of Church and State, the bishops would not be
pleasant hosts, and as little would the ministers be pleasant guests.
Bancroft was frank enough to admit, that it was more to meet the wishes
of the King than to please themselves that he and the other prelates
offered entertainment to the ministers: he was, in truth, afraid that
the latter, with their scrupulous notions, would prove dull guests and
be offended at the games of cards and other diversions with which the
lords of the Anglican Church were in the habit of passing their social
hours. The conversation then turned to the pet project of the King--the
conforming of the Scottish Church to Episcopacy. James Melville,
speaking in his own mild way, was listened to with patience by the
Primate; but when Scott began to enter into the subject in a
characteristically Scottish fashion, with great seriousness and
elaboration, Bancroft's patience failed him; and interrupting his
discourse, smiling and laying his hand on his shoulder, the Primate
said, 'Tush, man! Tak heir a coupe of guid seck.' And therewith filling
the cup, he made them both drink, and after a little mild conviviality
the two ministers left the Palace.
At the end of March the chief prisoner received an order from the
Council to transfer himself to the custody of the Bishop of Winchester.
He left the Dean's, but _forgot_ to go to the Bishop's, and for two
months his evasion of the Council's instruction was winked at, and he
lodged with the other brethren. The last act in this prolonged drama was
now to be performed, and the King's part in it was characteristically
base. Early in the morning of Sabbath, 26th April, one of the Earl of
Salisbury's servants came to Melville at his lodging in Bow with an
urgent message to him to meet the Earl at Whitehall early on the same
day. Melville had no suspicion that the Premier had summoned him for any
unfriendly purpose, and at once, borrowing his landlord's horse, posted
off to Court. He took a moment to look in on his nephew, who suspected
that he was to be called again before the Council, and who, as soon as
his uncle left, followed on foot to the Palace with other two of the
ministers. The Premier did not keep his appointment; and Melville, tired
of waiting, came to the inn at Westminster, where he knew that his
nephew and other two brethren were to dine, and joined them in their
meal: 'And quhill our buird coverit,[26] and the meitt put thairon, he
uttirit to us ane excellent meditatioun, quhilk he had walking in the
gallerie, on the second Psalme, joyneing thairwith prayer; quhairby we
wer all muche movit; accounting the same in place of our Sabbath
foirnoone's exercise, endit, and, sitting doun to dinner, he rehersit
his St. Georgis Verses, with vehement invectioun againes the
corruptiounes and superstitiounes of England. Thairfoir, his cousine,
Mr. James, sayes to him, "Remember Ovidis verses--
'Si saperem, doctas odissem jure sorores
Numina cultori perniciosa suo!'"
[Footnote 26: While our table was being spread.]
His answer was in the verses following:--
"Sed nunc (tanta meo comes est insania morbo)
Saxa (malum!) refero rursus ad icta pedem."
"Weill," sayis his cousine, "eit your dinner, and be of good courage,
for I sall warrand yow ye sal be befoir the Council for your
Verses."--"Weill," sayis he, "my heart is full and burdened, and I will
be glaid to haif ane occasioun to disburdein it, and speik all my mynd
plainely to thame for the dishonouring of Chryst, and wraik of sua many
soulis for their doeings; be the beiring doun the sinceritie and fridom
of the Gospel, stoping that healthsome breath of Godis mouth, and
maintaining of the Papistis' corruptiounes and superstitiounes."--"I
warrand you," sayis Mr. James, "they know you will speik your mynd
friely; and thairfoir, hes concludit to make that a meines to keip yow
from going home to Scotland."--He answered, "Iff God hes ony thing to
doe with me in Scotland more, He will bring me home to Scotland again
iff He haiff any service for me: giff not, let me glorifie Him, quhidder
or quhairever I be; and as I haif said often to yow, cousine, I think
God hes sume pairt to play with us on this theatre!" We had not half
dyneit quhen one comes to him from Lord Salisberie; to quhom he said,
"Sir, I waitted longe upon my Lordis dinner till I waxed verie hungrie,
and could not stay longer. I pray my Lord to suffir me to tak a lytle of
my awin dinner!" That messenger wes not weill gone quhill againe comes
another; soone eftir that, Mr. Alexander Hay, the Scottish Secretar,
telling him that the Counsel was long sett attending him. At the heiring
quhairoff, with great motioun, raysing, he prayit; and, leiving us at
diner (for we wer expressely chairgit that we come not within the
Police), went with Mr. Alexander Hay, with great commotioun of mynd.'
Within an hour of Melville's leaving them, a messenger whom they had
sent to ascertain the result of the Council meeting returned with tears
in his eyes to announce that their Chief had been conveyed to the Tower.
The proceedings at the Council we learn from the French Ambassador at
the English Court. The King did not appear in the Council Chamber, but
was in close attendance at the keyhole of the next apartment. 'The Earl
of Salisbury took up the subject, and began to reprove him for his
obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge the Primacy, and for the verses
which he had made in derision of the Royal Chapel. Melville was so
severe in his reply both in what related to the King and to the Earl
personally, that his lordship was completely put to silence. To his
assistance came the Archbishop of Canterbury, then the Earl of
Northampton, then the Lord Treasurer; all of whom he rated in such a
manner, sparing none of the vices, public or private, with which they
are respectively taxed (and none of them are angels), that they would
have been glad that he had been in Scotland. In the end, not being able
to induce him to swear to the Primacy, and not knowing any other way to
revenge themselves on him, they agreed to send him prisoner to the
Tower. When the sentence was pronounced, he exclaimed: "To this comes
the boasted pride of England! A month ago you put to death a priest, and
to-morrow you will do the same to a minister." Then addressing the Duke
of Lennox and the Earl of Mar, who were in the Council, he said, "I am a
Scotchman, my lords, a true Scotchman; and if you are such, take heed
that they do not end with you as they have begun with me."'[27] The
King was more disconcerted by this parting shot of Melville's than by
anything that had happened at the interview.
[Footnote 27: _Ambassades de M. de la Boderie_, quoted by M'Crie, p.
271.]
On 6th May, Melville's colleagues learned the fate the King had decreed
for them. James Melville was commanded to leave London and go into ward
at Newcastle-on-Tyne; the other six were to return to Scotland to be
confined in districts named in the King's warrant, and they were
excluded from any share in the business of the Church courts.
When the others took their journey northwards, James Melville and
William Scott remained in London for a fortnight to make arrangements,
if possible, to mitigate the imprisonment of their Chief. James
Melville, through the indulgence of one of the warders, saw his uncle at
the window of his prison for a short time each day during this interval,
and permission was obtained for Melville's servant to wait upon him in
the Tower; but no other favour was granted. James Melville used every
means to gain permission to stay in London and attend to his uncle's
comfort, but in vain; and with a sore heart he had to make up his mind
to leave him. On the day he and Scott were setting out for the north,
two or three of their acquaintances in London visited them; and one of
these, a Mr. Corsbie, 'a guid brother, apothecarie of calling,' brought
with him 'a great bag of monie alse meikle as he could weill carie in
his oxter.' The money had been raised by friends in the city who had
been touched by the noble bearing of the ministers before the King and
Council, to defray the expenses of their journey as well as the outlay
incurred during their residence in London, which the King, with
unspeakable meanness, had failed to discharge. This gift the two
brethren courteously and gratefully declined. Since James's accession to
the English Throne there had been a great outcry against the Scots on
account of the beggarly rabble who crossed the Tweed and came to Court
to importune the King for 'auld debts' due to them by his Majesty; and
Melville and his colleague were resolved that they would furnish the
English people with another and a truer version of the character of
their countrymen by leaving London poorer than when they came to it.
Besides, there were many among the Puritan clergy in the English Church
who had been cast out of their livings, and had more need of the money:
instead of taking the help offered, the two brethren would rather
endeavour to raise money in their own country, poor as it was, to
relieve the necessities of these ministers. Their friends gave warm
expression to their sense of the honourable motives which led Melville
and Scott to decline the gift; and accompanying them to the Tower steps,
where the boat was lying that was to convey them to their ship, they
bade them affectionate farewell. As the two were rowed down the Thames,
they cast many a wistful look back to the prison where they were leaving
their beloved friend and Chief at the mercy of a graceless tyrant. And
so ended one of the most picturesque and honourable passages in the
history of the Scottish Church.