Andrew Melville

Andrew Melville (1 August 1545 – 1622) was a Scottish scholar, theologian and religious reformer. His fame encouraged scholars from the European Continent to study at Glasgow and St. Andrews.

He was born at Baldovie near Montrose, Angus, the youngest son of Richard Melville (brother to Melville of Dysart); his father died at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547, fighting in the van of the Scottish army. Andrew's mother died soon after, and the orphan was cared for by his eldest brother Richard (1522–1575).

At an early age Melville began to show a taste for learning, and his brother did everything in his power to give him the best education. He learned the rudiments of Latin at the grammar school of Montrose, after leaving which he learned Greek for two years under Pierre de Marsilliers, a Frenchman whom John Erskine of Dun had persuaded to settle at Montrose; such was Melville's proficiency that on going to the University of St Andrews he astonished the professors by using the Greek text of Aristotle, which no one else there understood. On completing his course, Melville left St Andrews with the reputation of "the best poet, philosopher, and Grecian of any young master in the land."

In 1564, at nineteen years of age, he set out for France to complete his education at the University of Paris. He applied himself to Oriental languages, but also attended the last course of lectures delivered by Adrianus Turnebus, professor of Greek, as well as those of Petrus Ramus, whose philosophical method and plan of teaching Melville later introduced into the universities of Scotland. From Paris he went to Poitiers (1566) to study civil law, and though only twenty-one was apparently at once made a regent in the college of St Marceon. After three years, however, political troubles compelled him to leave France, and he went to Geneva, where he was welcomed by Theodore Beza, at whose instigation he was appointed to the chair of humanity in the academy of Geneva.

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