ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the response of the principal masters and regents of St Andrews to the ‘New Foundation’ and to the arrival of Andrew Melville amongst them. By early 1588, it was clear to a visitation of the university that the ‘Melvillian’ reform programme had largely failed to make an impact. As an anonymous writer made clear in a ‘memorial’ given to the commission:
The reasons for the failure at St Andrews of the intellectual programme that had been adopted apparently wholeheartedly at Glasgow are many. Conservatism, familial interest and a lack of clarity over the roles of each college following the ‘New Foundation’ played their part at St Salvator’s, which under its provost James Martine emerged as a bastion of resistance towards Melville’s ideas and which enjoyed the patronage and support of the crown. Conversely, Melville’s radical Presbyterianism and continual altercations with the royal government over church politics led to his continued (and often forced) absence from St Andrews and impeded the progress of the reform programme at St Mary’s, a situation greatly exacerbated by Melville’s personal feud with Archbishop Patrick Adamson. However, by 1588 a measure of progress and stability had been achieved in the areas of curriculum and teaching, particularly at St Leonard’s. Although we know far too little about the adoption of the ‘New Foundation’ there in practical terms, teaching evidence for the college in this decade shows that the masters did engage with the intellectual components of Melville’s programme, and particularly with the works of Ramus, although in a decidedly less enthusiastic fashion than Melville had hoped.
