uncle and other exiled ministers in London; but at the earnest request of the Earls of Angus and Mar he stayed his journey at Newcastle-on-Tyne, remaining there to preach to the exiled presbyterians. While at Newcastle he drew up an ‘Order of Exercise in Doctrine, Prayer, and Discipline’ (Calderwood, iv. 150, printed in Diary, pp. 173–84); and also a paper on the ‘Abuses and Corruptions of the Kirk’ (Calderwood, iv. 150–7; Diary, pp. 186–93). In November he returned to Berwick, and while there he was, at the instance of the Earl of Arran, prohibited from preaching by the governor, Lord Hunsdon. From Berwick he sent a letter ‘to the brethrein of the ministrie of Scotland, who have latelie subscrived to the popish supremacie of the king and ambitious tyrannie of the bishops over their brethern’ (Calderwood, iv. 219–36; Diary, pp. 200–18). He is also supposed to have been the author of the dialogue ‘Zelator, Temporizar, Palemon,’ affixed to his uncle's ‘Answer to the Declaration of Certain Intentions set out in the King's Name.’ On being prohibited from preaching at Berwick he joined the exiled ministers in London. After the capture of the castle of Stirling by the exiled lords, he, in November 1585, returned to Scotland. During the absence of himself and his uncle in England, the New College had been converted by Bishop Adamson from a school of theology into one of arts and philosophy; but by the act of parliament passed at Linlithgow in December all ejected professors were to be restored to their chairs, and on 25 May 1586 the privy council made a special arrangement for settling the disputes between the Melvilles and Bishop Adamson (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 74–5).
In April 1586 James Melville, in the opening sermon at the meeting of the synod of Fife, vehemently attacked Bishop Adamson, who ‘was sitting at his elbow’ (Calderwood, iv. 495), affirming that he threatened the ‘wracke and destruction’ of the kirk if he ‘were not tymouslie and with courage cut off’ (ib.) The bishop was thereupon excommunicated, but retaliated by sending ‘a boy with one or two of his jackmen’ to read an excommunication of the Melvilles in the kirk of Edinburgh (ib. p. 503). He also gave in an appellation of the sentence of excommunication, which was answered by James Melville (ib. pp. 504–47). In consequence of their disputes with Adamson, the Melvilles were on 26 May called before the king and council, who ordained that while Andrew should meanwhile be sent to the north to instruct the jesuits, James ‘should attend in his own place for the instruction of the youth committed to his care,’ and ‘the bishop should teach weekly two lessons of theology within St. Salvator's College’ (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 74–5).
In 1586 Melville undertook the charge of the parish of Anstruther Wester, Fifeshire, to which he was ordained on 12 Nov.; and on 8 May 1587 he was also presented by James VI to the vicarage of Abercrombie. In 1589 the charge, which had included the two Anstruthers, Pittenweem, Abercrombie, and Kilrenny, was reduced to Anstruther Easter and Kilrenny; and on 6 Oct. 1590 he removed to Kilrenny, where, besides building a manse, he purchased the right to the vicarage and the tithe-fish for the support of himself and his successors. While at Anstruther he in 1588 obtained shelter and relief for a number of distressed sailors from the wrecked Spanish Armada.
Having been appointed moderator of the general assembly on 17 June 1589, Melville, in his sermon preached at the opening of the succeeding assembly in August 1590 on the subject of discipline, took occasion to inveigh against all attempts to establish conformity with the church government in England; and more especially denounced Bishop Adamson, who was then, he said, ‘making a book against our discipline.’ Yet, when in the spring of 1591 he was sent to conduct the trial of the bishop, and the bishop professed repentance for all his past errors, Melville agreed to recommend his absolution from excommunication (Calderwood, v. 119).
Melville was one of the commissioners appointed by the Edinburgh convention of 17 Dec. 1593 to wait upon the king to have order taken with the excommunicated lords (ib. v. 270), and at a meeting held at Edinburgh on 29 Oct. was appointed to be ‘speech-man’ to those named to present a petition to the king at Linlithgow (ib. p. 277). But the court party suspected him of having furnished money to the turbulent Earl of Bothwell [see Hepburn, Francis Stewart], and it was proposed in May 1594 to omit his name from the list of commissioners from the assembly to the king. He requested to be included as a special favour, that he might have an opportunity of clearing himself. When, however, after the commissioners had concluded their business, he brought the matter before the king, not only did the king decline to lay anything to his charge, but in a private interview expressed himself in very flattering terms in regard both to Melville and his uncle. ‘So of the strange working of God,’ records the gratified Melville, ‘I that came to Stirling the traitor returned to Edinburgh a great courtier, yea a cabinet minister’ (Diary, p. 317).
