It has always been a principle of the presbyterian church of Scotland, that the ministers of religion ought not to be distracted from the duties of their office by holding civil places. The first General Assembly (Dec. 1560) agreed to petition the Estates, to “remove ministers from civil offices, according to the canon law.” Buik of the Universall Kirk, p. 2. At the request of the regent Mar, the assembly, or convention, which met at Leith in January 1571–2, allowed Mr Robert Pont, on account of his great knowledge of the laws, to act as a Lord of Session. Buik of the Universall Kirk, p. 54. But in March 1572–3, the regent Morton having laid before them a proposal for appointing some ministers Lords of Session, the Assembly “votit throughout that naine was able nor apt to bear the saides twa charges.” They therefore prohibited any minister from accepting the place of a senator; from this inhibition they, however, excepted Pont. Ibid, p. 56. In 1584, Pont resigned his place as a Lord of Session, or rather was deprived of it, in consequence of the act of parliament passed that year, declaring that none of the ministers of God’s word and sacraments—“in time cuming sall in ony waies accept, use, or administrat ony place of judicature, in quhatsumever civil or criminal causes, nocht to be of the Colledge of Justice, Commissioners, Advocates, court Clerkes or Notaris in ony matteris (the making of testamentes onely excepted).” Skene’s Acts, fol. 59, b. Edinburgh, 1597. Lord Hailes’s Catalogue of the Lords of Session, p. 5, and note 34.
The name of Pont often occurs in the account of ecclesiastical transactions during the remainder of the sixteenth century. The writer of Additional Notes to Lord Hailes’s Catalogue of the Lords of Session, calls him by mistake, “the first presbyterian minister of the West Kirk,” p. 8. Edinburgh, 1798. William Harlaw preceded him in that situation, (Keith, 498,) and continued to hold it in August 1571. See Letter to him from the dukeand Huntly, in Bannatyne’s Journal, 217. Pont was also commissioner of Murray, and provost of Trinity College, Edinburgh. Upon the death of the earl of March, James VI. offered him the bishopric of Caithness, but he declined accepting it. Keith’s Scottish Bishops, 129. He was the author of several publications, besides the sermons against Sacrilege, repeatedly mentioned.
The time of his death, and his age, appear from the following inscription on his tombstone, in St Cuthbert’s churchyard:
ILLE EGO, ROBERT9 PONTA‑
N9 IN HOC PROPE SACRO
CHRISTI QUI FUERA‾‾ PASTOR
GREGIS AUSPICE CHRISTO
ÆTERNÆ HIC RECUBANS EX‑
SPECTO RESURGERE VITÆ.
OBIIT DIE‾‾ ÆT 81, MEN‑
SIS 8 MAII, A. D. 1606.[355]
Particulars respecting Knox’s residence at St Andrews.—The following particulars are extracted from the MS. Diary of Mr James Melville. “Ther wer twa in St Androis wha war his aydant heirars, and wraitt his sermons, ane my condiscipule, Mr Andro Young, minister of Dumblane, who translated sum of them into Latin, and read thame in the hall of the collage insteid of his orations.” The other was a servant of Mr Robert Hamilton, but with what view he took notes Melville could not say. Diary, p. 28.—“Mr Knox wald sum tymes cum in, and repast him in our colleage yeard, and call ws schollars unto him and bliss ws, and exhort ws to knaw God, and his wark in our countrey, and stand be the guid caus, to use our tyme weill, and learn the guid instructiones and follow the guid example of our maisters. Our haill collag [St Leonard’s] maisters and schollars war sound and zelus for theguid caus, the uther twa colleges not sa.” p. 23. “This yeir in the moneth of July, Mr Jhone Davidsone, an of our regents, maid a pley at the marriage of Mr Jhone Colvin, quhilk I saw playit in Mr Knox presence, wharin, according to Mr Knox doctrine, the castle of Edinburgh was besieged, takin, and the captin, with ane or twa with him, hangit in effigie.” p. 24. This seems to have been an exercise among the students at the university. The following extract shows that the fine arts were not then uncultivated, and that the professors and students attended to them in their recreations. “I lernit singing and pleying on instrumentis passing weill, and wald gladlie spend tyme, whar the exercise thairof was within the collag; for twa or thrie of our condisciples pleyed fellin weill on the virginals, and another on the lute and githorn. Our regent had also the pinalds in his chalmer, and lernit sum thing, and I efter him.” Melville adds, that his fondness for music was, at one period, in danger of drawing away his attention from more important studies, but that he overcame the temptation, p. 25.
I may add an extract from the same Diary, relating an incident in the life of one who entertained a high respect for Knox, and afterwards became a distinguished minister in the church. “The ordor of four kirks to a minister, then maid by the erle of Morton, now maid regent, against the quilk Mr Johne Davidsone, an of the regents of our collag, made a buik called The Conference betwix the Clark and the Courtier; for the quhilk he was summoned befor the Justice Air at Haddington this winter (1573) the lest of our course, and banished the countrey.” p. 24. This dialogue, which is in verse, contains the following lines:
Had gude John Knox not yit bene deid,
It had not cum unto this heid: