During his residence at St. Cyrus he was on several occasions in danger of his life from armed attacks on his house by William Douglas the younger of Glenbervie and others, but was relieved by the exertions of his neighbours.
The ministers in St. Andrews, Messrs. Black and Wallace, having offended by their preaching, the king ordered them to be summarily removed from their charge, and brought Gladstanes from Arbirlot to fill their place.
He went to London in the latter part of that year, but before starting he, along with his brethren of the presbytery of St. Andrews, renewed the national covenant, or Scots confession of faith, and subscribed it.
When at London, on 12 October 1604, he was appointed by James VI archbishop of St. Andrews; but on his return, fearing the displeasure of his co-presbyters, he did not disclose what had taken place.
James also compelled him to yield another of the old primatial residences, Monimail, Fife, in order that he might confer it on Sir Robert Melville of Murdocairnie.
Your Majesty will relegat him to some Æolia, ut illic vacua se jactet in aula.’ James commanded Melville with certain others to appear before him in London, and he was never permitted to return to St. Andrews.
The ostensible occasion of the summons was the king's desire for the conference at Hampton Court, which Gladstanes also attended as one of the representatives of the bishops (22 September 1606).
The privy council issued a special charge (17 January 1607) to the members to obey the act of assembly within twenty-four hours under pain of being put to the horn or denounced rebels.
To secure full submission four commissioners from the king attended the synod meeting at Dysart on 18 August to induct Gladstanes as permanent moderator, but resistance continued.
In September he was far on his way, and from Standford on the 11th of that month intimated his approach in a letter of remarkable sycophancy, calling James his ‘earthly creator’.
[2] Gladstanes at this time was a good deal resident in Edinburgh, where, as James Melville states, he kept a ‘splendid establishment,’ and was surrounded by ‘crowds of poor ministers’.
His body had to be buried immediately in the parish church; but a public funeral was accorded to him in the following month at the expense of the king, on 7 June.
[2] Gladstanes, in his connection with the university of St. Andrews, revived the professorship of canon law, to which he nominated his own son-in-law, and he also made great efforts for the restoration of degrees in divinity.
Spotiswood, his successor, eulogises him as a man of good learning, ready utterance, and great invention, but of too easy a nature.