John, a theologian of great erudition, was born at Glasgow about the year 1579. His parents are described as respectable, but their situation in life has not been specified. He received his early education in his native city, and after completing the ordinary course of study, he was employed in teaching the Greek language in the university. In this employment he continued for twelve months, and having then felt the usual desire of visiting foreign countries, he embarked for France, and arrived at Bordeaux in the year 1600. Here he immediately recommended himself to the favour and friendship of two protestant clergymen, by his agreeable manners, his frank and ingenuous disposition, his very promising talents, and his uncommon skill in the Greek and Latin languages. It is stated by Cappel that he spoke Greek with as much fluency and elegance as any other person could speak Latin; and that this rare proficiency excited the admiration of Casaubon, with whom he soon afterwards became intimately acquainted. One of the pastors of the church of Bordeaux was his own countryman Gilbert Primrose, D.D. who was himself a man of learning, and the author of several works. Through the recommendation of these clergymen, he was appointed a regent in the newly-founded College of Bergerac, where it was his province to teach the classical languages; but from this station he was speedily withdrawn by the Duke de Bouillon, who appointed him a professor of philosophy in the university of Sedan. In this new department he acquired new reputation; and the duke next made him an offer of the Greek chair, which however he thought it de-

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This patent instrument is the same in principle, and almost identical in form, with an instrument figured and described in an old work on Perspective, Joannis Francisci Niceronis Thesaurus Opticus, pars i. Printed at Paris in 1646. In the personal history of Cameron we find some indications of a restless disposition. Having continued two years at Sedan, he resigned his professorship, and, after visiting Paris, returned to Bordeaux, where he again experienced a very kind reception. In the beginning of the year 1604, he was nominated one of the students of divinity who were maintained at the expense of the church, in order to be prepared for its ministry when their services should be required, and who for the period of four years were at liberty to prosecute their studies in any protestant seminary. During this term of his exhibition, he acted as tutor to the two sons of Calignon, chancellor of Navarre; and one of them is mentioned as having made great progress in Greek literature. They spent one year at Paris, and the next two at Geneva, from whence they removed to Heidelberg, and remained there nearly twelve months. In this university, on the fourth of April 1608, he gave a public proof of his ability by maintaining a series of theses, "De triplex Dei cum Homine Federis," which have been printed among his works. During the same year, he was recalled to Bordeaux, where the death of his friend Renaud had left a vacancy in the protestant church; and he was now appointed the colleague of Dr Primrose, with whom he lived on the most cordial terms. The high reputation which he acquired by his talents and learning, opened to him a new scene of professional exertion: when Gomarus was removed to Leyden, Cameron was appointed professor of divinity in the university of Saumur, the principal seminary of the French protestants. He commenced his lectures on the thirteenth of June 1618, but he was not installed till after an interval of two months. He had experienced some opposition from the synod of Poitou, under the pretext of his having adopted the opinion of Piscator as to the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ; but in the national synod held at Alex in the year 1620, this charge was adjudged to be groundless. The principal of the college was at this time Dr Duncan, another of his learned countrymen, who were then so numerous in France. Cameron had already published several of his works, and his celebrity was in no small degree increased by his academical lectures. Such indeed was his reputation in the chair, that he was frequently honoured with the attendance of Du Plessis Morney; a man distinguished by his rank, his talents, and his zeal in the cause of religion.

During the same year, 1620, he was engaged in a formal disputation with Daniel Tilenus, a native of Silesia, who had adopted the theological opinions of Arminius. He had expressed a wish to discuss with Cameron the doctrines of grace and free-will; the time and place of meeting were duly arranged, and, according to their agreement, the professor repaired, in the neighbourhood of Orleans, to the country-house of Jerome Grosseto, a protestant gentleman of rank and learning, who had taken refuge in Scotland after the massacre of St Bartholomew, and had there been distinguished by the friendship of Buchanan. Tilenus having arrived five days after Cameron, their conference commenced on the twenty-fourth, and concluded on the twenty-eighth of April. An account of this Amica Collatio was printed at Leyden in 1621. The theological faculty of that university was not satisfied with some of Cameron's explanations; and when Rivet, as dean of the faculty, communicated to him their dissent, he defended his opinions in a brief answer. Their orthodoxy was likewise defended by Bochart, then a student of divinity, but who afterwards rose to the highest eminence among the learned men of the seventeenth century.

In 1620, the progress of the civil troubles in France had nearly dispersed all the students of the university of Saumur, and Cameron sought in England a place of refuge for himself and his family. For a short time he read private lectures on divinity in London; and in 1622 the king appointed him principal of the university of Glasgow, in the room of Robert Boyd, a learned man who had been removed from his office in consequence of his firm adherence to the cause of presbytery. His successor appears to have been more favourably inclined to episcopacy; nor is it improbable that this circumstance may have had a strong tendency to diminish the cordiality of his reception in his native city. The following passage in Baillie's epistle dedicatory to Robert Blair, reflects some light on his sentiments respecting the controversies which then agitated the church. "I confess, after you, to my exceeding great griefe and losse, were taken away from my head, and I came to be set at the feet of other masters, especially Mr Cameron and Mr Struthers, my very singular friends, and excellent divines as our nation has bred, I was gained by them to some parts of conformity, which, if the Lords mercy had not prevented, might have led me, as many my betters, to have run on in all the errors and defections of these bad times: but thanks to his glorious name, who held me by the hand, and stopped me at the beginning and first entry of that unlucky course; who before I had put my hand to any subscription, or was engaged in any promise, or had practised any least ceremony in my flock, did call me to a retreat." Here he likewise taught divinity with great reputation, but he resigned his office in less than twelve months. Vernay, a Frenchman, who soon after the author's death translated one of his tracts into English, has given the subsequent

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1 Mark Duncan, M. D. principal of the college, was at the same time professor of metaphysics and mathematics, and a practising physician. We learn from an incidental notice of Scaliger that he was born in the west of Scotland. (Prima Sagittaria, p. 33.) He is the author of a treatise on logic, which is mentioned with high approbation by Burgesius in the preface to his Institutiones Logicae. The first edition is entitled "Institutiones Logicae libri quinque." Salmasii, 1612, 8vo. The third edition bears this title: "Institutiones Logicae libri quinque, in usum Academiae Salmasiensis tertium editi, ut erant ab auctore recogniti." Salmasii, 1643, 8vo. Prefixed is a Latin poem by his son Mark Duncan, who was afterwards well known by the name of M. de Cerizarte. Tomasinii has classed the father among the distinguished literary characters of the age. (Parnassus Euganeus, p. 3.) Menage mentions a French book on the Devils of Loudun, written by Duncan, a celebrated physician of Saumur. (Dictionnaire, tom. ii. p. 257.) The book to which he alludes is apparently an anonymous and very rare tract, published under the following title: "Discours de la Possession des Religieuses Vraiment de Loudun." 1634, 8vo. This tract, which consists of sixty-four pages, is written with talent and dexterity. The conclusion at which the author arrives is such as might be expected from the nature of the case, and disposes of the pretended possession of the Nuns of Loudun among all other phantoms, had attended the sisters who were supposed to be possessed with devils. "La premiere fois que le sieur de la Merle Superieure, et le sieur de Poilier, et l'exorciste ayans aduit le diable Greuil, qu'on disoit estre dans le corps de la Mere Superieure, de dire le nom du Sieur Duncan, medecin de Saumur, la dict Superieure ayez son Greuil se troupeau deux fois." P. 23.

2 See Dr McRea's Life of Melville, vol. ii. p. 444.

3 Middleton's Appendix to the History of the Church of Scotland, p. 22. Lond. 1677, fol. Banbury Miscellany, vol. i. 296. Edinb. 1827, 4to.

4 Baillie's Historical Vindication of the Government of the Church of Scotland. Lond. 1646, 4to. account of his return to Scotland. "During his natural life, his reputation was great in France, and so great, that all the Jesuits there did seek, and at last obtained to have him banished, nor was there any other cause thereof then his great learning, the Jesuits in their conferences being not able to withstand him. Quoniam cumulare non licet, nunc invides. He had his refuge here, where by the special care of that great favourer of learning K. James (of blessed memory) he was provided for in Scotland, his native country; but so great was his harty love to France, that by the effectual mediation of those honourable ambassadors then in France, he got that envious sentence reversed, which being done he immediately conveighed himselfe to Montauban, to bee professor there, where he ended his days, to the great losse of Gods church, and that university." Calderwood has however assigned another reason for his quitting Glasgow: "Cameron was so disliked by the people, that he was forced to quite his place soon afterwards."

On returning to France, he fixed his residence at Saumur, where he was only permitted to read private lectures; and after an interval of a year, he was appointed professor of divinity in the university of Montauban, whither he removed about the close of the year 1624. The country was still torn by civil and religious dissensions; and as Cameron maintained the doctrine of passive obedience, he excited the indignation of the more strenuous adherents of his own party. Nor was the expression of this indignation confined to mere reproaches; one individual treated him with such outrageous violence, that his life was exposed to jeopardy. Indisposed in body, and afflicted in mind, he sought for relief by a change of scene, and withdrew to the neighbouring town of Moissac: but what he thus sought was not to be found; he speedily returned to Montauban, and there in the space of a few days terminated his earthly career. He died in the year 1625, when he had only attained the age of about forty-six, and left a widow and several children to bewail his loss. His first wife, Susan Bernard of Tomines on the Garonne, he had married in 1611, and by her had a son and four daughters; but the son and eldest daughter died before their father. The son was born at London on the 10th of May 1622, and died at Saumur in the month of July 1624. His mother had died of consumption in the preceding March; and after the decent interval of a year, Cameron married at Montauban a second wife named Susan Thomas, with whom he only lived a few months, and who had no child. The maintenance of his surviving family was undertaken by the protestant churches of France, in which he left an illustrious name.

With respect to his person, he was of the middle size, somewhat inclining to a spare habit, sound but not robust in his constitution. His hair was yellow, his eyes were brilliant, and the expression of his countenance was lively and pleasant. He appeared to be always immersed in deep meditation, and was somewhat negligent in his apparel; Cameron and careless in his gait; but in his manners he was very agreeable, and although he was not without a considerable share of irritability, his anger was easily appeased, and he was very ready to acknowledge his own faults. One writer, of doubtful authority, has represented him as a person of consummate vanity, as a tedious preacher, and an endless talker; but this account is evidently to be received with a considerable degree of caution; and his distinguished pupil Cappel has exhibited his character in a most favourable light. According to his impression, he was a man of eminent integrity and piety, open, candid, and incapable of guile; faithful to his friends, and not spiteful to his enemies; of so liberal a turn of mind, that his generosity made some approach to profusion.

Cameron died before he had reached what may be considered as the prime of a literary life; and too many of his years had been spent at a distance from that tranquillity which is so essential to the pursuits of literature. He was fond of study, but not of writing, and yet he wrote with great facility; he required to be incited by his friends, or roused by his adversaries. The most considerable of his works he did not himself commit to the press; they were published by the friendly care of others, from such copies as had been taken by his pupils. He composed many Latin poems which have not been preserved, and, in the opinion of Cappel, they possessed uncommon merit. An ample collection of his theological works has however been transmitted to our times, and he occupies a conspicuous place among the learned writers of the seventeenth century.

Sir Thomas Urquhart has extolled Cameron in his usual style. "There was another Scottish man, named Cameron, who within these few years was so renowned for learning over all the provinces of France, that, besides his being esteemed for the faculties of the mind the ablest man in all that country, he was commonly designed (because of his universal reading) by the title of the walking Librarian; by which he being no less known than by his own name, he therefore took occasion to set forth an excellent book in Latine, and that in folio, intituled Bibliotheca movens, which afterwards was translated into the English language." This book, we strongly suspect, must be placed on the same shelf with some others which appear to have belonged exclusively to the knight of Cromarty's library. In the opinion of Dempster, Cameron wanted nothing to make him a great man but the profession of the catholic faith; and he has been extolled by various other authors, of higher authority in matters of theology. Milton, in his Tetrachordon, mentions Cameron as "a late writer, much applauded, an ingenious writer, and in high esteem." His Myrotheicum Evangelicum has received no slight commendation from a writer who cannot be suspected of partiality to his sect. In this work, says Simon, he discovers an intimate acquaintance with the

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1 Calderwood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland, p. 300. 2 See Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, tom. i. p. 743. 3 Cappel, in his Iesu Jo. Cameronis, has drawn this interesting picture. "Corporis fuit neque humilis neque procero, sed mediocris, gracilis et macilentis magis quam obeso, neque valido aut robusto, sed tamen sane; vultu aperto et renidente, facie ingenua, oculis vividiis et amicis, capillo flavo, inceps, habito et cultu corporis, quia totus pene semper erat cogitabundus et meditabundus, paulo ne- neglecto. Moribus erat suavisissimus, non morosus et austerus, sed neque remissus et effusus, verum ad gravitatem et lentitatem simul compositus, quidem et facile, praesertim in notis et familiares, irritabilis, sed qui facile etiam iam depesseret, atque ullo culpam et errorrem agnoscere. Vir pictate et probitate spectabilis, integerrimus, candidus, apertus, fisci, fraudis, dolosque malo plane nescius, a pessimum et maximo alienissimus, imo vero pecuniae miris et pro fortunae sine conditione nimis contemptor, et in ero- gando super modum facilis, ne profusum dicam. Amici fides, inimici non iniquos fuit. Gloriae et fortunae semolos habuit, quibus tamen minime infensus fuit, imo nullus fuit cui bene non cupiverit, et bene facere pro data occasione paratus non fuerit. Doctrine sine non minus quam et liberalis largitor, volentes a se discere nihil celabat, quin facile quicquid sin- gulare aut reconditum habuit, illis communicabit." 4 Urquhart's Discovery of a most exquisite Jewel, p. 182. Lond. 1652, 8vo. 5 Dempsteri Hist. Ecclesiast. Gentis Scotorum, p. 173. principles of criticism, and an exact knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages. These qualifications have enabled him to exhibit a learned elucidation of the literal and grammatical sense of many passages in the sacred books which he professes to illustrate.

Soon after the death of Cameron, his friends published his "Praelectiones in selectiora Loca Novi Testamenti," Salmarii, 1626-8, 3 tom. 4to. The editor was his learned pupil Louis Cappel, professor of Hebrew, and afterwards of divinity, in the university of Saumur; to whom we are likewise indebted for an interesting sketch of the author's life and character. A collection of his theological works appeared under the title of "Joannis Cameronis, Scotobritanni, Theologi excimii, ra susquae, sive Opera partim ab auctore ipso edita, partim post ejus obitum vulgata, partim nusquam hactenus publicata, vel e Gallico idiomate nunc primum in Latinam linguam translati: in unum collecta, et variis indicibus instructa." Geneva, 1642, fol.

Cappel's Icon Joh. Cameronis is here reprinted. The writer of the preface to the volume was Frederic Spanheim, at that time professor of divinity in the university of Geneva. The author of the anonymous "Epistolae docti Viri ad Amicum," refuted by Cameron, was Episcopius, a learned follower of Arminius. Cappel had published another work of his predecessor, which is not included in this collection. "Myrothecium Evangelicum, in quo aliquot Loca Novi Testamenti explicantur: una cum Spicilegio Ludovici Cappelli de eodem argumento, cumque 2 Diatribis in Matth. xv. 5 de Voto Jephite." Geneva, 1632, 4to.

Another edition appeared under the subsequent title: "Myrothecium Evangelicum: hoc est, Novi Testamenti Loca quamplurima ab eo, post aliorum labores, apte et commodè vel illustrata, vel explicata, vel vindicata. Quibus additæ sunt Alexandri Mori Notæ in Novum Fodum, jam ante editæ, et Dissertatio in Mat. c. 24. v. 28. hactenus inedita: nec-non ejusdem A. Mori Axiomata Theologica, quæ nunc primum in lucem producent. Editio novissima; locorum indicibus locupletata." Salmarii, 1677, 4to.

Two of Cameron's French tracts were at an early period translated into English. "An Examination of those plausible Appearances which seem most to commend the Romanish Church, and to prejudice the Reformed: discovering them to be but mere shifts, purposely invented to hinder an exact triall of doctrine by the Scriptures. By Mr John Cameron. Englishe'd out of French," Oxford, 1626, 4to. "A Tract of the sovereignne Iudge of Controversies in matters of Religion. By John Cameron, Minister of the Word of God, and Divinity Professor in the Academie of Montauban. Translated into English by John Vernevil, M.A." Oxford, 1628, 4to. The translator of the first tract subscribes his dedication with the initials W. P. Vernevil's dedication is dated "from the publicke Library in Oxford."

The name of this distinguished person furnished a denomination to a party of Calvinists in France, who asserted that the will of a man is only determined by the practical judgment of the mind; that the cause of men's doing good or evil proceeds from the knowledge which God infuses into them; and that God does not move the will physically, but only morally, by virtue of its dependence on the judgment of the mind. This peculiar doctrine of grace and free will was adopted by Amyraut, Cappel, Bochart, Daillé, and others of the more learned among the reformed ministers, who judged Calvin's doctrines on these points too harsh. The Cameronites are a sort of mitigated Calvinists, and approach to the opinion of the Arminians. They are also called Universalists, as holding the universality of Christ's death; and sometimes Amyraldists. The rigid adherents to the synod of Dort accused them of Pelagianism, and even of Manicheism; and the controversy between the parties was carried on with a zeal and subtlety scarcely conceivable; yet the whole question between them was only, whether the will of man is determined by the immediate action of God upon it, or by the intervention of a knowledge which God impresses on the mind. The synod of Dort had defined that God not only illuminates the understanding, but gives motion to the will by making an internal change therein; whereas Cameron only admitted the illumination by which the mind is morally moved, and explained the sentiment of the synod of Dort so as to make the two opinions consistent.