189 



MELVILLE, SIR JAMES. 



MEMLINa, HANS. 



190 



guished himself by hia usual zeal and ability. Besides giving lectures 

 on theology, he taught the Hebrew, ChulJee, Syriac, and Rabbinical 

 languages, and hia prelections were attended not only by young 

 students in unusual numbers, but also by several masters of the other 

 colleges. In these scholastic labours however he did not lose sight of 

 the condition of the Church, and being called on to open an extra- 

 ordinary meeting of the General Assembly in 1582, he inveighed in 

 his sermon in strong terms against the arbitrary and oppressive 

 measures of the court His boldness gave offence to the regent ; and 

 shortly afterwards he was cited before the privy council on a charge 

 of high treason founded on some expressions which it was alleged he 

 had made use of in the pulpit. The charge was not proved ; but being 

 determined to silence him, the privy council found him guilty of 

 behaving irreverently before them, and sentenced him to imprison- 

 ment, and to be further punished in his person and goods as his 

 Majesty should see fit. Fearing his death was ultimately intended, 

 he was urged by his friends to make his escape ; and accordingly, 

 leaving Edinburgh, he went first to Berwick and then to London, 

 where he remained till about the end of 1585, when, Arran being 

 driven from the court, Melville returned to Scotland after an absence 

 of about twenty months, and resumed his former station in the 

 university. His sincerity and zeal however were by no means agree- 

 able to the king, who wished to assume an absolute control over the 

 affairs of the Church ; and, in order to accomplish his wish to get rid 

 of him, the king had recourse to one of those stratagems which James 

 thought the essence of ' king-craft." 



In May 1606, after the king had ascended the English throne, 

 Melville received a letter from his majesty desiring him to repair to 

 London that his majesty might consult him and others of his learned 

 brethren on ecclesiastical matters. Melville and others went accord- 

 ingly, and had various interviews with the king, who at times con- 

 descended even to bo jocular with them ; but they soon learned that 

 they were interdicted from leaving the place without special per- 

 mission from his majesty. Melville having written a short Latin 

 epigram, in which he expressed his feelings of contempt and indigna- 

 tion at gome rites of the English church on the festival of St. Michael, 

 was immediately summoned before the privy-council, found guilty 

 of 'scandalum magnatum,' and, after a confinement of nearly twelve 

 months, first in the house of the Dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards 

 in that of the Bishop of Winchester, was committed to the Tower. 

 Here he was kept a prisoner till February 1611, a period of about 

 four years, when, at the solicitation of the Duke of Bouillon, who 

 wished his services as a professor in the University of Sedan, ho was 

 permitted to depart the kingdom. 



In 1 620 his health, which had previously been slightly impaired, 

 grew worse, and in the course of the year 1622 he died at Sedan, in 

 the seventy-seventh year of his age, but under what circumstances is 

 not accurately known. 



Melville appears to have been low in stature and slender in his 

 person, but possessed of great physical energy. His voice was strong, 

 his gesture vehement, and he had much force and fluency of language, 

 with great ardour of mind and constancy of purpose. His natural 

 talents were of a superior order ; and perhaps his biographer waa not 

 far wrong in saying, " next to the Reformer I know no individual 

 from whom Scotland has received such important services, or to 

 whom she continues to owe so deep a debt of national respect and 

 gratitude, as Andrew Melville." 



(M'Crie, Life of Melville.) 



MELVILLE, or MELVIL, SIR JAMES, in supposed to have been 

 born in 1535. He was the third son of Sir John Melville of Raith, 

 one who early joined the party of the Reformation in Scotland, and 

 after suffering from the animosity of Cardinal Beaton, at length fell 

 victim to his successor, Archbishop Hamilton, in 1549. Young 

 Melville, then about fourteen years old, was upon this, it seems, sent 

 by the queen dowager's influence and direction, and under the pro- 

 tection of the French ambassador returning to France, to be a page 

 of honour to the youthful Mary, queen of Scotland. He appears 

 however to have continued in the ambassador's employ till 1553, 

 when he got into the service of the constable of France. He after- 

 wards made a visit to the court of the Elector Palatine, and being 

 well received, remained there for some time, but ultimately came to 

 Scotland. It would be a profitless task to follow the knight in all 

 his missions and movements. He was a courtier in the strict sense of 

 that term ; one to whom a court was the whole world, and its prin- 

 ciples of action the great code of duty. He appears to have had a 

 high idea of his own importance, and sometimes blames himself for 

 the unfortunate temper, which he says he possessed, of finding fault 

 with the proceedings of the great. All this and much more we learn 

 from the elaborate memoirs of his own life and times, which he was 

 careful to write for the benefit of posterity. Two mutilated editions 

 of tliia curious work were published in English, besides a French 

 translation, but an accurate edition was published some years since 

 from the original manuscript. Sir James died on the 1st of November 

 1607. 



MEMLING, HANS, or JAN, until recently more commonly called 

 HKMI.INO, and sometimes HEMMEUNCK, and MEMMELINCK: Memling 

 appears to be the correct form. Like big name, the place of the birth 

 of this admirable painter of the old Flemish or German school of the 



15th century, has been the subject of much discussion. Dr. Boissere'e 

 writes his name Hemling, and upon the strength of a manuscript found 

 by Herr von Lassberg at Eppishausen, near Constanz, has assumed 

 Constanz to be the place and 1439 to be the date of his birth. This 

 date is later, though approximate to the common account, aud accords 

 with the dates on most of his pictures. Vau Mander calls him 

 Memmelinck, and a native of Bruges : according to some accounts he 

 was born at Damme, near Bruges, about 1425. As regards the spelling 

 of his name, it is shown by M. de Bast, of Ghent, that the initial letter 

 of the name on his pictures is the same letter as the initial of Maria 

 on a coin of Mary of Burgundy, and in many other names commencing 

 with M in documents of the period. It is the capital M of that 

 time, though more like the modern H : it very much resembles an H 

 with an additional short stroke in the middle, reaching from the 

 under side of the cross line to the bottom of the letter ; or somewhat 

 like a small Roman m, the two outside strokes being twice the height 

 of the middle one. This peculiar letter however occurs in two instances 

 as an H also ; the question can therefore scarcely be said to ha abso- 

 lutely decided. Because a Hans Hemling, or Memling, is mentioned 

 in a German manuscript, it does not follow of necessity that he is 

 identical with the celebrated painter of this name ; nor, on the other 

 hand, does Memling's residence in Bruges prove that he was a Fleming, 

 as he may have been attracted there by the fame of John van Eyck. 

 Marcus van Vaernewyck, in his ' Historic van Belgis,' 1565, notices a 

 German painter of the name of Hans who lived at Bruges, and he 

 alluded very probably to Memling. Vasari also apparently alludes to 

 Memling when he speaks of Ausse (Ansse) of Bruges. The dates of 

 Memling's pictures range, according to the printed accounts, between 

 1450 and 1499. The date 1450 is found on the portrait, at Venice, of 

 Isabella of Aragon, wife of Philip of Burgundy ; this picture is men- 

 tioned in the anonymous ' Journal ' published by Morelli in 1800 

 " Notizia d'Opere di Disegno nella prima Meta del Secolo XVI., 

 esistenti in Padova, Cremona, Milano, Pavia, Bergamo, Crema, e 

 Venezia, scritta da un Anonimo di quel Tempo,' in which the painter 

 is called Mamelino, or Memelingo. If this date be correct, Memling 

 must have been born before 1439, and cannot have been the Hans 

 Hemling of Constanz. The data 1499 is found on a small picture in 

 the possession of M. van Ertborn nt Utrecht ; it is also the year in 

 which he finished some paintings for tho Carthusian convent of 

 Mirafiores near Burgos in Spain, in which he is said to have died not 

 long afterwards : the account is given by Ponz, in his ' Viage de 

 Espafta." This convent was destroyed by the French in 1812. Mem- 

 ling appears to have lived some years in Spain : he is supposed to be 

 the Juan Flamenco of Flanders who was at Miraflores between 1496 

 and 1499, and perhaps later. He probably also visited Italy and 

 Germany, and certainly Cologne ; and he is said to have served Charles 

 the Bold, duke of Burgundy, both as painter and as warrior. The 

 story is, that he was at the battles of Gransou and Morat in 1476, and 

 in the beginning of 1477 was admitted, ill from wounds and destitute, 

 into the Hospital of St. John at Bruges, a religious institution, into 

 which, by provision of its foundation, none but inhabitants of Bruges 

 or Maldeghem could be admitted. It was during his residence in this 

 hospital that he painted the beautiful pictures which still adorn that 

 establishment and Bruges, and have placed his name among the first 

 of the painters of the 15th century. 



The principal work by Memliug in this hospital is the history, in 

 minute figures, of St. Ursula and her companions, exquisitely painted 

 in oil, in many compartments, upon a relic case of a gothic design, 

 known as La Chasso de Ste. Ursule. This chasse, or shrine, has been 

 made the subject of a special work by Baron von Keversberg, entitled 

 ' Ursule, Princesse Britannique, d'apres le Legende, et les Peintures 

 d'Hemling,' Ghent, 1818. The paintings have been drawn in litho- 

 graphy by Messrs. Manche and Ghemard. Memling painted also during 

 his stay in this hospital the small picture of the 'Adoration of the 

 Magi,' and the splendid large altarpiece of the 'Marriage of St. 

 Catherine,' both of which are still there. 



The 'Marriage of St. Catherine,' in which the figures are much 

 larger than is usually the case in Memling's works, was painted in 

 1479, and is one of the most brilliant pictures of the 15th century. It 

 is in three compartments, a centre and two revolving wings. In the 

 centre is the marriage of St. Catherine, attended by angels and various 

 saints; and in the background are painted episodes illustrating the 

 lives and martyrdoms of the attendant saints and of St. Catherine 

 herself. The left wing is the beheading of John the Baptist; the 

 right wing is the vision of John the Evangelist in the island of Patmos : 

 the last is a remarkably comprehensive composition. On the exterior 

 of the left wing are two Hospital Brothers, the Apostle James and 

 St. Antony of Padua ; on the right exterior are two of the Hospital 

 Sisters, with saints Agnes and Clara. There is an inscription on this 

 work, but, as it has been renewed, it cannot be taken as an authority 

 in a difference respecting the signification of letters. There are three 

 other pictures by Memling in this hospital : a ' Descent from the Cross,' 

 on wood, with two wings ; the ' Madonna and Child,' with a portrait 

 of Martin van Nieuwenhoven, burgomaster of Bruges in 1497, on two 

 panels closing one upon the other, painted in 1487 ; and a female, 

 inscribed ' Sibylla Sambetha quae et Persica an : ante Christ nat. 2040.' 

 There are other works by this painter in the Academy of Arts, and in 

 other buildings of Bruges. 



