ABSTRACT
At St Andrews the decade after 1597 offers a strange contradiction in terms of sources. Not only does the evidence of reforming commissions and visitations dry up, but so too do the unprinted sources in the Balcarres Papers and the university muniments, while the narratives of David Calderwood and James Melville also cease to be interested in university affairs. There is thus a large gap in sources between the visitation of 1599 and Melville’s eventual removal from St Andrews in 1606, except for some references to his behaviour and conduct in the St Andrews Presbytery. On the other hand, the period between 1595 and 1603 is the first time that we see actual teaching sources in abundance for the university, especially for divinity. What emerges from both sets of sources is the marginalisation of Melville and his colleagues in St Mary’s by the royal government and its supporters at the university. Detailed accounts of the colleges prepared between the 1597 and 1599 visitations suggest that there was a growing air of stability across the university following the turmoil of the 1580s and 1590s. Melville, deprived of a voice in national church politics, seems to have focussed his efforts upon the education of local ministers and students, and on providing them with the tools to combat unorthodox doctrinal viewpoints, particulary those of Catholicism. A survey of the sources that survive for teaching at St Mary’s reflects what one would perhaps expect given Melville’s intellectual background – namely tuition that blended a Ramist approach to biblical exposition and exegesis with Calvinist and Presbyterian theological commonplaces. However, from a comparison with the sources that survive for arts teaching after 1597 it seems possible to detect a divergence in teaching between the colleges, with St Salvator’s and St Leonard’s staunchly defending the use of Aristotelian and other traditional texts above all others, including those by Ramus. Together, these sources suggest that the period of ideological ferment at St Andrews was over and, despite Melville still being in residence, a new age of royally-controlled moderation was already being ushered in.
