: in the county of Kincardine and it may be conjectured that he himself was a younger bro ther. According to Archbishop Spotswood, he studied in the University of St Andrews a: but Dr Mackenzie, whose authority is seldom entitled to much regard, has transferred him to Aberdeen. He visited France in 1561; and for the space of five years prosecuted the study of the laws under the celebrated Cujacius. Having taken the degree of licentiate, he returned to Scotland with the view of following the profession of an advocate. This plan he however relinquished, and afterwards directed his attention to the study of theology. Having received ordination, he was presented to the living of Arbuthnot and Logie-Buchan ". The period at which he entered into the church was highly important. The Reformation had been placed on no unsolid basis: but many disputes with regard to doctrine and discipline a Spotswood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland, p. 335. b Mackenzie's Lives of Scots Writers, vol. iii. p. 186. c Moreri informs us that Cujacius was successively professor at Toulouse, Cahors, Bourges, Valence, Turin, and again at Bourges (Dictionnaire Historique, tom. iii. p. 524); but he has neglected to specify the various periods of his removal from one university to another. I have also consulted the Elogia of Papirius Masso, but with no better success. d T. Middleton's Appendix to Spotswood, p. 24. were still agitated; and the contest between presbytery and episcopacy was proceeding towards its highest pitch of violence. He appears to have sat in the general assembly constituted at Edinburgh on the first of July, 1568. It being reported that Thomas Bassenden, a printer in that city, had published a bawdy song at the end of the psalm-book, and that he had also published a treatise in which the king was denominated the head of the church, he was commanded by the assembly to expunge the of fensive song, and to submit the other work to the inspection of Arbuthnot. In the year 1569 the principal as well as some other members of King's College, Aberdeen, having been expelled by the ecclesiastical visiter, Arbuthnot was promoted to the vacant office. 66 By his diligent teaching and dexterous government," says Spotswood," he not only revived the study of good letters, but gained many from the superstitions whereunto they were given." In 1572 his Orationes de Origine et Dignitate Juris were published at Edinburgh in quarto. This production was honoured with an encomiastic poem by Thomas Maitland; who represents Arbuthnot as one of the brightest orna e Petrie's Hist. of the Catholick Church, cent. xvi. p. 359. ments of his country. The concluding verses I shall transcribe : Nec Cereris laudi, aut Bacchi tua gloria cedet, Nomine nec niteant templa dicata tuo, To enhance the value of this eulogium, it must be recollected that Maitland was a zealous Catholic. Of the general assembly constituted at Edinburgh on the sixth of August, 1573, Arbuthnot was chosen moderator. In that of Edinburgh, March the sixth, 1574, he was nominated among the commissioners who were to summon before them the chapter of Murray, accused of presenting a testimonial in favour of George Douglas, bishop of that see," without just trial and due examination of his life, and qualification in literature h." This assembly also authorized him, with Dr John Row and others, to draw up a plan of ecclesiastical polity for the future inspection of the members i. f Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum, tom. ii. p. 153. Calderwood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland, p. 63. h Ibid. p. 64. i Ibid. p. 65. At Edinburgh on the firft of April, 1577, he was again chosen moderator'. During the same year he was appointed, together with Andrew Melvin and George Hay, to attend a council which was expected to meet at Magdeburg for the purpose of establishing the Augsburg Confession. The council however was not convened. About this period a copy of The Book of Discipline was presented to the Earl of Morton as regent of the kingdom: and, for the solution of doubts and the removal of difficulties, he was referred to Arbuthnot, Adamson, Melvin, and other nine commissioners of inferior eminence !. The general assembly having met at Edinburgh on the twenty-fourth of April, 1578, it was resolved that a copy of The Book of Discipline should be presented to the king, and another to his council; and that, if a conference should be demanded, they on their part would nominate Arbuthnot, Melvin, and other ten delegates, to attend at any appointed time". In the assembly which convened at Stirling on the eleventh of June, Arbuthnot, together with Buchanan, Sir Peter Young, and others, was impowered to confer j Calderwood, p. 76. k Petrie's Hist. of the Catholick Church, cent. xvi. p. 392. I Calderwood. p. 79. m Petrie, p. 394. with several of the nobility, prelates, and gentry, relative to the polity of the church ". These and other circumstances which might be adduced, tend to evince the respectability and importance of his character. His probity and moderation seem to have equalled his literary attainments: notwithstanding the violence of the times, he has never been found subjected to censure °. In the year 1583 he received a presentation to one of the churches of St Andrews; but the king commanded him to remain in his college under pain of horning. When the clergy complained of this arbitrary exertion of the royal prerogative, it was answered that his Majesty had issued the order with a view to promote the general interests of the church". It is probable however that the real cause of the prohibition was an apprehension lest the removal of Arbuthnot to such a situation might tend to the advancement of the schemes which were then in agitation. Whatever might n Calderwood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland, p. 83. • The Papists themselves seem to have revered his virtues. Nicol Burne, who in his Admonition to the Antichristian Ministers of the Deformit Kirk of Scotland, written in 1581, has treated the rest of the Protestant clergy with the utmost contempt, is unwilling to extenuate the merits of Arbuthnot. Bot yit, gude Lord, quha anis thy name hes kend, With thy elect Arbuthnot I commend, Althocht the lave to Geneve haist with speid. Petrie's Hist. of the Catholick Church, cent. xvi. p. 438. 441. |