Andrew Melville, a Scottish religious reformer, born at Baldo-vy, Forfarshire, Aug. 1, 1545, died in Sedan, France, in 1622. He was educated at the university of St. Andrews, and passed several years at Paris, Poitiers, and Geneva, alternately studying and teaching. In 1574 he returned to Scotland, and was appointed principal of Glasgow college. He took a prominent part in the theological controversies of his age, and in the establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland. Toward the close of 1580 he was made principal of St. Mary's college in the university of St. Andrews, and lecturer on theology and the oriental languages. In 1582 Melville opened an extraordinary meeting of the Presbyterian general assembly with a sermon, in which he vigorously opposed the absolute authority assumed by the court in ecclesiastical affairs. He assisted in drawing up the remonstrance against the policy of the court, subsequently presented to the king at Perth by a deputation of which he was the head. The earl of Arran, one of the council, being irritated at the bold tone of this document, asked fiercely: "Who dares subscribe these treasonable articles?' "We dare," replied Melville, and immediately seizing a pen, affixed his name to it.

This was imitated by all his colleagues, and the council suffered them to depart uncensured. But within two years Melville was summoned before the privy council on a charge of treason for words uttered in the pulpit, and Arran exerted himself for his conviction. The accusation could not be proved, and he was sentenced to imprisonment on the charge of irreverence toward the council; but he escaped to London, and returned to Scotland, on the fall of Arran, in November, 1585. In 1587, 1589, and 1594 he was chosen moderator of the general assembly; in 1590 he became rector of the university; and in 1595 he delivered at the coronation of the queen a Latin poem entitled Stephaniskion, which, being printed at the solicitation of James VI., was read with admiration throughout Europe, He was accustomed to address the king with the utmost plainness upon his foibles and vanity; and being a member of a commission appointed in 1596 to remonstrate with regard to certain measures inimical to religion, he chided James so severely as to exeite him to great anger, but finally subdued him and obtained every concession demanded.

James after his accession to the English throne continued his efforts to obtain control of the Scottish church, in which he had hitherto been thwarted in great part by Melville. In May, 1606, he and other leading Presbyterians were summoned to London under pretence of being consulted by the king upon Scotch ecclesiastical affairs. They obeyed, but soon discovered that they were not free agents; and Melville, for having indited a Latin epigram expressive of his contempt for certain ceremonies he had witnessed at the royal chiipel. was brought before the privy council, found guilty of scandalum magnatum, and committed to the tower, where he remained till 1611, when, at the solicitation of the duke de Bouillon, he was liberated on condition that he should expatriate himself. Retiring to Sedan, then belonging to the dukes of Bouillon, he was appointed professor of theology at the university of that city. His earliest production was a volume of Latin poems (Basel, 1574). There is a MS. commentary by him on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, still extant. - See the " Life of Andrew Melville," by Dr. McCrie (2 vols., 1819).