of his colleagues at St Andrews, nnd an ample testimonial from the presbytery.
Among the signatures attached to that document appear those of Alexander
Henderson, John Carmichael, Robert Howie, and John Dykes, the first high-
ly celebrated, and the others well known to those who have studied the history
of the period. The head of the family of Errol, who resided in the parish to
which S lrang had been appointed, had as a sort of chaplain a Jesuit of the name of
Hay, whose subtilly and eloquence are said to have been the means of converting him and his family to the llomnn catholic faith, and of spreading the doctrines of papistry through the country. These circumstances afforded Strang an opportunity not to be omitted, and he is said to have so far counteracted the efforts of the Jesuit, that, although he could never persuade lord Errol fully to embrace the protestant doctrines, he was the means of converting his family. His son, Francis, a youth of great hopes, died in early life in that faith, and his daughters, ladies 31ar and Buccieugh, adhered to it throughout their lives.
Among the steps by which king James and the Scottish bishops were now attempting gradually to introduce episcopacy and conformity to the Anglican church, one was the restoration of academical degrees in divinity, which had been discontinued in Scotland almost since the period of the Reformation, as resembling too much some of the formalities of the system which had been abolished?" In the year 1616, it was determined to invest several persons with the honour of doctor of divinity at St Andrews, and, as it was considered good policy to introduce a few popular names into the list, Mr Strang, though in no way attached to the new system, was among others fixed upon. In the following year the monarch revisited his native country, and, among the long train of exhibitions which marked his progress, the public disputations held in the royal presence were not the lejist. One of these was held at St Andrews by the masters of the university and doctors of divinity, and according to his biographer, "by the universall consent of all present, Dr Strang excelled all the rest of the speakers in discourse, which was pious, modest, but full of the greatest and subtilest learning."But any favour which he might gain with the learned monarch upon this occasion was more than counterbalanced in the following year by his opposition to the famous articles of Perth: he was the only doctor in divinity who voted against their adoption. Yet, notwithstanding this circumstance, when the archbishop of St Andrews got the court of High Commission remodelled with the view of compelling conformity to these articles, Dr Strang's name was included among the members. It is greatly to his honour that he did not attend its meetings or give his sanction to any of its acts; a circumstance which renders it at least doubtful whether he approved of the principles of such an institution. In the year 1620, Dr Strang was chosen one of the ministers of Edinburgh; but he was too shrewd an observer of the signs of those times, and too much attached to his flock to desire a more public and a more dangerous field of ministration. Neither persuasion nor the threat of violence could induce him to remove.
In 1626, Dr Strang received the king's patent, appointing him principal of the university of Glasgow, in place of Dr John Cameron, who resigned the charge and returned to France. At the same time he received an unanimous invitation from the masters of the university, but it was not till a second letter arrived from court, and till he had received many urgent solicitations, both from the university and the town, that he could be prevailed upon to accept the office. His modesty, as well as his prudence, seems to have inclined him to a refusal; and although, perhaps, with such commands laid upon him, he could not with a good grace resist, the subsequent part of his history leads to a be-
