King James and Imprisonment
In 1599 he was deprived of the rectorship, but was made dean of the faculty of theology. The close of Melville's career in Scotland was at length brought about by James in characteristic fashion. In 1606 Melville and seven other clergymen of the Church of Scotland were summoned to London in order "that His Majesty might treat with them of such things as would tend to settle the peace of the Church." The contention of the whole of these faithful men was that the only way to accomplish that purpose was a free Assembly. Melville delivered his opinion to that effect in two long speeches with his accustomed freedom, and, having shortly afterwards written a sarcastic Latin epigram on some of the ritual practised in the chapel of Hampton Court Palace, and some eavesdropper having relayed it to the king, he was committed to the Tower of London, and detained for four years. On being freed, but refused permission to return to his own country, he was invited to fill a professor's chair in the Academy of Sedan, and there he spent the last eleven years of his life.
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