herbs, &c., making ‘ane quart att anis, quhilk he drank att twa drachtis, twa sindrie dyetis’ (Pitcairne's Criminal Trials, i. 165). In June 1583 Adamson delivered some powerful sermons before the king, ‘inspired,’ says Calderwood, ‘with another spirit than faithful pastors are.’ At the end of this year he went as James's ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth, pretending, as his enemies alleged, that he was going to Spa for the sake of his health. Of his proceedings in London the satirist Sempil has given a coarse account, which is followed with much satisfaction by Calderwood. If one may believe these authorities, the archbishop constantly defrauded his creditors, and was a very gross liver. From the bishop of London (it was asserted) he borrowed a gown to preach in, and never returned it; from the French ambassador he tried to borrow a hundred pounds, but had to be content with ten. He had only one audience with the queen, and on that occasion his conduct in the precincts of the palace—under the very walls—was so unseemly that he narrowly escaped a cudgelling at the hands of the gatekeeper. His enemies accused him of using all possible misrepresentations during his stay in England to bring reproach upon the presbyterian party; but none could deny that his eloquence attracted many hearers, and that he was held in high respect by English churchmen for learning and ability. In the following May he returned to Scotland, and sat in the parliament which met on the 22nd of that month. Strong measures were passed in this parliament against the presbyterians, Adamson and Montgomery being the leading counsellors. But while he stood high in the king's favour and constantly preached before him, Adamson became daily an object of greater dislike to the people, so much so that on one occasion, when he was preaching at the High Church, Edinburgh, the majority of the congregation rose from their seats and abruptly left the building. In 1585 he published a ‘Declaration of the King's Majesty's Intention in the late Acts of Parliament,’ a tract which gave great offence to the presbyterian party, especially when it was inserted two years afterwards in Thynne's continuation of Holinshed, ‘with an odious preface of alledged treasons prefixed unto it.’ Long afterwards, in 1646, at the time of the civil wars, this ‘Declaration’ was reprinted—and by the puritans!
The close of 1585 witnessed the return to Scotland of Andrew Melville, with many of the noblemen who had fled to England after the raid of Ruthven; and now the prospects of the presbyterian party began to brighten. When the synod of Fife met at St. Andrews in the following April, a violent attack was made on Adamson by James Melville, professor of theology, the nephew of Andrew. The scene was animated. At Melville's side throughout the delivery of the address sat the archbishop. After making some observations of a general character on the discipline of the kirk, Melville turned fiercely on Adamson, sketched shortly the history of his life, upbraiding him with his opposition to the kirk, and assured him that the ‘Dragon had so stinged him with the poysoun and venome of avarice and ambition, that swelling exorbitantlie out of measure, he threatned the wracke and destructioun of the whole bodie in case he were not tymouslie and with courage cut off’ (Calderwood). Seeing there was no chance of gaining a fair hearing, Adamson made no attempt at an elaborate defence. At a later meeting of the synod he was charged to offer submission (1) for his transgression of the ordinances of the general assembly; (2) for the injuries he had inflicted on the kirk; (3) for his contemptuous bearing before the synod; (4) for ‘opin avowing of antichristian poprie and blasphemous heresy.’ In answer to these charges the archbishop, appearing in person, denied that the synod had any jurisdiction over him, and appealed to the king and parliament. Then, taking the charges severally, he contended (1) that his suspension by the assembly was illegal; (2) that all he had done was done openly from his seat in parliament; (3) that the complaint was too general, but that he was prepared to answer any particular charge set down in writing; (4) that he had shown himself from his earliest years a public opponent of popery. But these answers did not satisfy his opponents, and the synod passed sentence of excommunication on the archbishop, who replied by excommunicating Andrew and James Melville with some others. In the following month the general assembly remitted the sentence of excommunication passed by the synod, as the illegality of the synod's proceedings was obvious; and the Melvilles, for the active part they had taken, did not escape the king's displeasure, Andrew being ordered to reside in his native place until further notice, and James being dismissed to his professorial duties. As archbishop of St. Andrews, Adamson was ex officio chancellor of the university, and he was now required by the king to give public lessons, which the whole university was to attend (James Melville's Diary). At the next meeting of the assembly (June 1587) more trouble awaited him. He was charged with detaining the
