By the ‘raid of Ruthven’ (22 Aug. 1582) Lennox and James Stewart, earl of Arran [q. v.], were dislodged, and the party whose ecclesiastical policy was directed by Melvill grasped for a short season the reins of power. Seven of the bishops were ordered by the general assembly in October to be tried before presbyteries; Melvill and Smeton were appointed to examine into the case of Adam Bothwell [q. v.], bishop of Orkney. But on 27 June 1583 James escaped from the hands of the confederated lords, and the bishops were again protected.
In January 1584 Robert Browne [q. v.], the English separatist, arrived at Dundee from Middelburg with a handful of his followers. Making his way to St. Andrews, he obtained from Melvill a commendatory letter to James Lawson [q. v.], minister of St. Giles's, Edinburgh, and settled in the Canongate for a short time, but after quarrelling with the Edinburgh presbytery, returned to England.
Melvill, on 15 Feb. 1584, was summoned before the privy council at Edinburgh to answer for alleged treason in a fast sermon at St. Andrews in June previous. He appeared on 17 Feb. and explained his language, a strong and perhaps ambiguous outcome of his favourite doctrine of the independence of the church. There was no ground for charging him with sedition, nevertheless the privy council determined to proceed with his trial. Next day he read a formal protest against the action of the council in a spiritual matter, claiming to be tried, in the first instance, by an ecclesiastical court at St. Andrews, the scene of the alleged offence. Order was made for his imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle for contempt of court. His friends kept him in hiding. When the place of his proposed incarceration was changed to Blackness Castle, Linlithgowshire, they assisted him to escape, with his brother Roger, to Berwick, where he joined the banished lords of the Ruthven raid. In the following May the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs was established, and the jurisdiction of bishops restored, while Adamson, archbishop of St. Andrew's, suppressed the teaching of theology at St. Mary's College.
From Berwick, in June, Melvill proceeded to London, accompanied by Patrick Forbes (1564–1635) [q. v.], and was soon joined by a number of ministers of his party in flight from Scotland. At the court of Elizabeth he did his best to win friends for the Scottish presbyterians. He was well received at Oxford and Cambridge in July, both by the puritan leaders Rainolds and Whitaker, and by men of letters. Returning to London, he read a Latin lecture on Genesis at the chapel in the Tower, which was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and placed by its lieutenant at the disposal of the Scottish ministers. Arran's fall, a preliminary to James's English alliance, led to the return to Scotland of Melvill and his friends. On 4 Nov. 1585, at Stirling, the confederated lords became once more masters of the situation.
The Linlithgow parliament of December 1585 restored the ‘peregrine’ ministers to their places, but left untouched the reactionary measures of the previous year. A personal contest between James and the presbyterian ministers, headed by Melvill, produced only certain royal ‘explanations’ of the obnoxious acts. In February 1586 a compromise with episcopacy was agreed on between the more moderate ministers and members of the privy council. At the meeting of the synod of Fife, in April, Adamson was arraigned by James Melvill, evidently acting in concert with his uncle, and a sentence of excommunication was passed, in a manner ‘precipitant and irregular’ (MCCRIE). The general assembly in May removed the excommunication and made terms with Adamson; its decree formally divided the kingdom into provincial synods and presbyteries. James ordered Melvill to Baldovie during pleasure, and presently sent him (26 May) on a mission to jesuits north of the Tay. But during the autumn he resumed his academic labours at St. Mary's, although under injunction not to preach except in Latin. He acted as a ruling elder in the kirk-session of St. Andrews. In 1590 he was placed at the head of the university of St. Andrews as its rector.
In June 1587 Melvill was moderator of the general assembly at Edinburgh. At the end of the month James visited St. Mary's College with Du Bartas, the French poet, commanded a lecture from Melvill, and heard an oration by Adamson in support of prelacy. Melvill answered Adamson with great tactical skill, proving his arguments to be derived from Roman catholic authorities. As moderator he convened a special meeting of the general assembly for 6 Feb. 1588, in view of the threatened expedition of the Spanish Armada. James resented the interference. A party, headed by George Gordon, sixth earl of Huntly [q. v.], urged him to open the Scottish ports to the Armada, but a deputation from the assembly, with Melvill's pupil Robert Bruce (1554–1631) [q. v.] as moderator, steadied his purpose; a bond of national defence against Spain was promoted by the presbyterian clergy.
At the coronation of the queen on Sunday, 17 May 1590, only presbyterian ministers offi-
