On Melville's arrival in Edinburgh, in July, 1574, he was invited by the regent Morton to enter his family as a domestic tutor; but this invitation was declined by Melville, who ivas averse to a residence at court, and preferred an academic life. He was early gratified in this wish, for, having taught for a short time as private tutor in the house of a near relative, he was urged by archbishop Boyd and other leading men for the princi- palship of Glasgow College, and was promptly appointed by the General Assembl}'. In this new position his learning, energy, and talents were eminently serviceable, not only to the university over which he presided, but to the whole kingdom and to literature in general. He introduced improvements of great importance in teach- ing and discipline, and infused an uncommon ardor into his pupils. It was not, however, as a mere scholar or academician that Melville now distinguished himself. The constitution of his office, as a professor of divinity, entitled him to a seat in the ecclesiastical judicatories, and he took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical dis- putes of the time, and was active in the Church courts and in the conferences held with the Parliament and privy council on the then much agitated subject of Church government. During Melville's absence from Scotland, an incongruous species of Church govern- ment—norhinally Episcopalian, but which neither satis- fied Episcopalians nor Presbyterians — had been intro- duced. He, however, was not a believer in prelacy. He
insisted that prelacy is not founded upon scriptural au- thority, and that it is foreign to the institutions and practices of apostolical times. His stay in Geneva, more- over, had afforded him a very favorable opportunity to judge of the workings of the Presbyterian parity, and, in consequence, he was determined to exert himself for the establishment of like institutions in his own coun- try. Hetherington will have it that the Episcopalians are in " the habit of ascribing the decided Presbyterian form of Church government in Scotland to the personal influence of Andrew Melville, who, they say, had brought from Geneva the opinions of Calvin and Beza, and succeeded in infusing them into the Scottish minis- ters, who had previously been favorable to a modified prelacy." But no less an authority than Dr. Cook, him- self a Presbyterian, holds that until Melville's arrival from Geneva " a modified and excellent form of episco- pacy" was prevailing in the Church of Scotland, and that it was the indifference of tlie earl of Morton, who was now acting regent, that resulted perniciously to the country, and paved the way for the agitation of " new plans of ecclesiastical polity" (i, 237, 238). He certainly was not given the name of Episcopomastrix, or the "scourge of bishops," by any Episcopalian, and there seems every reason for the opinion that Melville was reaUy the first Scotchman to press the interests of Pres- byterianism. There is one thing certain, however, that even though INIelville did not come determined to oust prelacy from Scottish churches, he yet steered clear of the regent's proposals, which, if Melville had acceded to them, " might have enabled that craftj' statesman [Mor- ton] to rivet securely the fetters with which he was striving to bind the Church, instead of being mightily instrumental in wrenching them asunder" (Hethering- ton, p. 78, col. 2). Slelville's intrepidity was often very remarkable. On one occasion, when threatened by IMorton in a menacing way, which few who were ac- quainted with the regent's temper could bear without apprehension, Melville replied, "Tush, man! threaten your courtiers so. It is the same to me whether I rot in the air or in the ground ; and I have lived out of your country as well as in it. Let God be praised ; you can neither hang nor exile his truth !"
In March, 1575, jNIelville had an opportimity to pub- licly press his reforming schemes. He was at this time a member of the General Assembly, and his name was in- cluded in a committee appointed to confer with the gov- ernment on the subject of the polity of the Church, and to prepare a scheme of ecclesiastical administration to be submitted to a general assembly. In 1578 his labors were finally crowned with success. He presided this j'ear over the assembly, and had the pleasure to take the vote ap- proving the second book of Discipline, from that period the standard of Presbyterian Church government. An- other matter to which the attention of the General As- sembly was at this time directed was the reformation and improvement of the universities. Here Melville also took a leading part. The high state of learning and discipline to which the University of Glasgow had been raised by him, and the comparatively low grade of education in the other colleges, had become an object of public noto- riety, and it was necessary that measures be taken for reforming and remodelling them. A new theological school was agreed upon for St. Andrew's, and it Was resolved to translate Melville thither. At the end of the year 1580 he was installed principal of St, Mary's College, in the University of St. Andrew's, and in this new position he distinguished himself by his usual zeal and ability. Besides giving lectures on theology, he taught the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and rabbinical lan- guages, and his prelections were attended not only by young students in unusual numbers, but also by several masters of the other colleges. But his scholastic labors, however arduous and multifarious, could not prevent him from continuing an active worker for the interests of the Church, even in the pulpit. Immediately after his removal to St. Andrew's, Melville began to i;)€rform