the second Book of Discipline was approved of. The attention of the Assembly was about this time directed to the reformation and improvement of the universities, and Melville was, in December 1580, removed from Glasgow, and installed principal of St. Mary's college, St. Andrews. Here, besides giving lectures in divinity, he taught the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Rabbinical languages, and his prelections were attended, not only by young students in unusual numbers, but also by some of the masters of the other colleges. He was moderator of the Assembly which met at St. Andrews on 24 April 1582, and also of an extraordinary meeting of the Assembly, convened at Edinburgh on 27 June thereafter, in consequence of the arbitrary measures of the court, in relation particularly to the case of Robert Montgomery, the excommunicated Archbishop of Glasgow. He opened the proceedings with a sermon, in which he boldly inveighed against the absolute authority claimed by the government in ecclesiastical matters. A spirited remonstrance being agreed to by the Assembly, Melville and others were appointed to present it to the king, then with the court at Perth. When the remonstrance was read before his majesty in council, the king's unworthy favourite, the earl of Arran, menacingly exclaimed, "Who dare subscribe these treasonable articles?" "We dare", said the undaunted Melville, and taking a pen, immediately signed his name. His example was followed by the other commissioners, and so much were Lennox and Arran over-awed by their intrepidity, that they dismissed them peaceably. For about three years Melville had preached, assisted by his nephew, in the parish church of St. Andrews. In February 1584 he was cited before the privy council, to answer a charge of treason, founded on some seditious expressions, which it was alleged he had made use of in a sermon on the 4th chapter of Daniel, on the occasion of a fast kept during the preceding month; particularly that he had compared the king's mother to Nebuchadnezzar, who was banished from the kingdom, and would be restored again. At his appearance, he denied using these words, entered into a full defence of those he had actually used, and presented a protest and declinature, claiming to be tried by the ecclesiastical court. When brought before the king and council, he boldly told them that they had exceeded their jurisdiction in judging of the doctrine, or calling to account any of