[Footnote 25: Foolish pomp.]
The Parliament had restored Episcopacy, but the a.s.sembly had not yet wholly succ.u.mbed. To secure this end, and so to give to what was entirely his own despotic act the appearance of a change desired by the Church itself, was the King"s next aim. And this opens up one of the most disgraceful chapters in the history of James"s relations with the Scottish Church.
CHAPTER IX
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 doc.u.ments, in which these prelates had bound themselves to maintain the established const.i.tution 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 pa.s.sive 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 G.o.d--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 a.s.semblies of the Church, from the pa.s.sage 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 a.s.sembly; and, second, the proposed holding of an a.s.sembly 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 G.o.d 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, a.s.sureing 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 rehea.r.s.e, to give any judgment on the Aberdeen a.s.sembly. 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 ill.u.s.trious of the n.o.bles. 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 n.o.bles and councillors; behind the arras several other n.o.bles and bishops were gathered. In the midst of the a.s.semblage 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 a.s.sembly 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 d.a.m.nit that a.s.sembly." 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 s.p.a.ce 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 rea.s.sounit 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 recompt.i.t 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d! It is the divelis name in the Revelatioune! He hes maid the divel of him, welbelovit Bretherine, brother Johne!" And so, cutt.i.tly ryseing, and turneing his back, he sayes, "G.o.d 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 a.s.sembly!"
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 Ma.s.s 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 a.s.sembly. 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 n.o.bilitie 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 t.i.tle 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 ent.i.tled _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 n.o.bleman 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 pa.s.sing 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 superst.i.tiounes 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 G.o.dis mouth, and maintaining of the Papistis" corruptiounes and superst.i.tiounes."--"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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 Amba.s.sador 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 a.s.sistance 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 p.r.o.nounced, 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: _Amba.s.sades 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 n.o.ble 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 pa.s.sages in the history of the Scottish Church.
CHAPTER X
THE KING"S a.s.sEMBLIES
"Gold? . . . . . .
Ha, you G.o.ds! . . . Why, this Will lug your priests and servants from your sides."
_Timon of Athens._
Before we go on to the closing chapter of Melville"s personal history, we must glance at the course of events in Scotland from the time he and his brethren were called to London, up to the Glasgow a.s.sembly in 1610, when the Church made a total surrender to the King, and "Jericho was buildit up againe in Scotland."
The Invincibles of the Church having been put out of the way by imprisonment or banishment, the King felt that he might safely call an a.s.sembly to execute his wishes, and to ratify in the Church"s name the restoration of Episcopacy as it had been decreed by the Parliament. So in the beginning of December 1606, the a.s.sembly was summoned to meet in Linlithgow. Letters were sent by the King to every presbytery; and they not only intimated the meeting, but named the representatives to be sent. In the event of the presbyteries refusing to return the King"s nominees, these were instructed to appear without any presbyterial mandate. The business was stated to be the suppression of Popery and the healing of the jars of the Church. In this programme the former item was the gilt on the pill of the latter. James Balfour--who was in London at the time--exposed the real character of the a.s.sembly"s business when he was told of it by Bishop Law of Orkney, who had come to Court to report the proceedings to the King: ""_In nomine Domini incipit omne malum!_ This is pretendit bot the dint will lycht on the Kirk ..."--"They sall call me a false knave," replied the Bishop, "and never to be believit again, if the Papists be not sa handleit as they wer never in Scotland."--"That may weill be,"" was Balfour"s rejoinder.
When the House came to the matter which was the real occasion for the a.s.sembly being held, the question was put, What was the cause of the jars of the Kirk? And the answer given was, The want of a free a.s.sembly.
King"s men as they were, the members had not yet been tamed to entire servility; as was further shown by their agreeing to pet.i.tion James on behalf of the banished ministers, and by their appointing another a.s.sembly to be held in Edinburgh in the following year. The King"s Commissioner--the Earl of Dunbar--was surely in a compliant mood when he allowed the House such liberty! But at this point the trump card he had been concealing in his sleeve was thrown on the table. He proposed in the King"s name that until the business for which the a.s.sembly had been called was settled, _Constant_ Moderators should be appointed for the presbyteries. As it was said at the time, these Constant Moderators were to be thrust like little thieves into the windows to open the door to the great thieves--the bishops. Strong objection was made to this fatal innovation on Presbytery, and it was agreed to, only after cautions, proposed by the House, had been accepted by the Commissioner.