MELVILLE 



MEMLING 



129 



Baldovy, near Montrose. He was educated at the 

 grammar-school of Montrose, whence lie removed in 

 his fourteenth year to the university of St Andrews. 

 Here he remained four years, and left it with the 

 reputation of l>eing ' the ftest philosopher, poet, and 

 Grecian of any young master in the land.' He then 

 proceeded to Paris, where he continued his studies 

 for two years. His reputation mu.-t have been 

 already considerable, for in his twenty-first year he 

 w .is chosen regent in the college of" St Marceon, 

 Poitiers. Some time afterwards he proceeded to 

 Geneva, where through the influence of Beza, with 

 whose opinions in religion and politics he already 

 sympathise;!, he was. appointed to the chair of 

 Humanity in the Academy. On his return to Scot- 

 land ( 1574 ) he was appointed Principal of the college 

 of Glasgow, where he did the highest service to 

 the cause of learning throughout the country. He 

 had a very important share in drawing up that 

 charter of the Presbyterian polity, the Second 

 Book of Discipline (see DISCI PUNK). In 1580 

 Melville was chosen Principal of St Mary's College, 

 Si Andrews. Here, 'Iwsides giving lectures on 

 theology, he taught the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, 

 and Rabbinical languages.' In 1582 he preached 

 the owning sermon before the General Assembly, 

 and boldly 'inveighed against the bloody knife of 

 absolute authority, whereby men intended to pull 

 the crown off Christ s head and to wring the sceptre 

 out of his hand.' Two years later Melville was 

 summoned before the Privy-council on account of 

 a sermon preached at St A'ndrews ; and to escape 

 imprisonment he removed to London. Here he re- 

 mained till the downfall of Arran in the following 

 year, and then after an absence of twenty months 

 returned and resumed his office at St Andrews. He 

 was repeatedly elected moderator of the General 

 A-~embly and rector of the university. At Cupar 

 in 1590 Melville headed a deputation to ' remon- 

 strate' with the king; and when .lames reminded 

 the zealous remonstrant that he was his vassal, 

 'Sirrah:' retorted Melville, 'ye are GuiCs silly 

 ;il ; there are two kings and two kingdoms in 

 Scotland : there is King .lames, the head of this 

 commonwealth, and there is Christ Jesus, the King 

 of the church, whose subject James the Sixth is, 

 and of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a lord, 

 nor a head, but a member.' In 1606 Melville, with 

 seven other ministers, was called to England to 

 confer with the king. Having ridiculed the service 

 in the Chanel Royal in a Latin epigram, he was 

 summoned before "the English Privy council, when 

 he broke out into a torrent of invective against the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury for encouraging popery 

 and superstition, profaning the Sabbath, Ac. The 

 king, violating every principle of justice, imme- 

 diately sent him to the Tower, where he remained 

 for more than four years. In 1611 he was released 

 on the solicitation of the Duke of Bouillon, who 

 wanted his services as a professor in his university 

 at Sedan in France. Melville, now in his sixty 

 sixth year, would fain have returned to Scotland, 

 but James would not listen to his request. Melville 

 died about fi;>, but neither the date of his death 

 nor the events of his last years are ascertained. 

 See M'Cria't Life of Melville (2 vols. 1819). 



JAMKS MKI.VII.LE, nephew of Andrew Melville, 

 was born near Montrose in l.V>0. After receiving 

 the best education that Scotland could then offer, he 

 MUM legent or tutor ill the college of Glasgow, 

 anil afterwards professor of Oriental Languages in 

 the university of St Andrews. In i:,si; he settled 

 as minister in Kilrenny, Fife, taking an active 

 though not a commanding part in the affairs of the 

 church at large, lie- is mainly remembered, how- 

 ever, for his so-called Ilinn/, extending from 1550 

 to Ifioi. Ejected in 1000. he died in 1614 at 

 Berwick on-Tweed. Melville sees all the persons 

 3-21 



and events of his day from his own point of view as 

 a Presbyterian minister. Nevertheless his record is 

 of real interest and importance for students of the 

 peii<xl which it covers. There are editions in the 

 Bannatyne Club (1829) and Wodrow Society ( 1842 ). 



Mi'lville, HERMAN, an American author, was 

 born in New York city, August 1, 1819. He be- 

 came a sailor, but in 1842 he deserted from a whal- 

 ing-ship, owing to the captain's harsh treatment, 

 at the Marquesas Islands. There he was kept four 

 months as the prisoner of a savage tribe in the 

 Typee Valley, whence he was rescued by an 

 Australian whaler. Returning to the L"'nited 

 States in 1846, he published Typee, a spirited 

 account of his residence in the Marquesas, in 1847 

 Omoo, a continuation' of his adventures in Oceania, - 

 and a number of tales and three volumes of poetry. 

 Died in New York 28th September 1891. 



Melville, SIR JAMES, of Halhill, born in 1535, 

 was sent as page of honour to the young Queen 

 Mary in France, and subsequently undertook 

 numerous missions to the court of England and of 

 the Elector Palatine. He died 1st November 1607, 

 leaving interesting Memoirs, of which the standard 

 edition is that of the Bannatyne Club ( 1827). 



Melville, VISCOUNT. See DUNDAS. 



Melville, WHYTE-. See WHYTE-MELVILLE. 



Membrane, in Anatomy. This term is applied 

 to designate those textures of the animal body 

 which are arranged in the form of lamin.-e, and 

 cover organs, or line the interior of cavities, or 

 take part in the formation of the walls of canals or 

 tubes. The structure and special uses of some of 

 the most imjiortant of the animal membranes are 

 noticed in separate articles, such as Mucous Mem- 

 brane (see DIGESTION), Serous Membrane (q.v.), 

 &c. ; and the membranes in which the fri'tus is 

 enclosed are described in the article Placenta. 



Memel, a Prussian seaport, defended by a 

 citadel and two forts on the sea side, lies at the 

 northern extremity of the Kurisches Haff, at its 

 opening into the Baltic, 70 miles NNE. of Danzig. 

 It has a large harbour, and exports from Lithuania 

 and Russia timber, flax and linseed, coal, manure, 

 grain, and herrings to the annual value of 900,000 

 to 1,000,000, timber constituting half the value; 

 Great Britain takes one-third of the total. The 

 imports, which generally exceed a million sterling, 

 include the exports in transit, and textiles, colonial 

 produce, and wine and spirits for local use. The 

 town possesses manufactories of brandy, soap and 

 chemicals, saw-mills, iron-foundries, breweries, and 

 shipbuilding-yards. There is a good school of 

 navigation. Pop. (1875) 19,796; (1890) 19,282. 

 Memel was founded in 1252 bv the Livonian order, 

 who gave it to the Teutonic knights, by whom it 

 was fortified in 1404. It suffered severely in the 

 Lithuanian wars (13th to 15th centuries). Here 

 in 1807 Frederick-William III. of Prussia took 

 refuge, and a treaty with England was signed. 

 Having been almost wholly destroyed by fire 

 in 1854, it was rebuilt in modern style. For the 

 river Memel, see NIEMEN. 



Memling, or more correctly MEMLINC, HANS, 

 Flemish painter, was born at Mainz in the first 

 half of the 15th century, of Dutch parents, and 

 died at Bruges, where most of his life was spent, 

 on llth August 1494. His painting gained him 

 a wide reputation, extending even to England and 

 Italy. His principal works are sacred subjects, 

 such as 'The Last Judgment' (at Danzig), 'Seven 

 Sorrows and Seven Joys of the Virgin,' ' Marriage 

 of St Catharine,' ' Adoration,' several Madonnas, 

 and the fourteen small paintings that adorn the 

 shrine containing St Ursula's relics at Cologne ; 

 and portraits, as of Sir John Donne, of Burgo- 



