i.e. Dark Chamber), in Optics, a machine or apparatus representing an artificial eye, by which the images of external objects, received through a double convex glass, are exhibited distinctly, and in their native colours, on a white matter placed within the machine, in the focus of the glass. The invention of this instrument is due to Friar Bacon, though by some it has been ascribed to Baptista Porta.

The camera obscura affords very diverting spectacles, by representing images perfectly like their objects, while at the same time it exhibits all their motions. By means of this instrument, a person unacquainted with designing may delineate objects with the greatest accuracy. Its use in photography will be found under that head.

Cameralistics, (German cameral, financial), the science of finance.

Cameralius, Joachim, whose real name was Liebhard, one of the most learned writers of his time, was born at Bamberg in 1500. He translated into Latin Herodotus, Demosthenes, Xenophon, Euclid, Homer, Theocritus, Sophocles, Lucian, Theodoret, Nicephorus, and other Greek writers. He published a Catalogue of the Bishops of the principal Sees; Greek Epistles; Accounts of his Journeys, in Latin verse; a Commentary on Plautus; the Lives of Helius Eobanus Hessus, and Philip Melanchthon, &c. He died at Leipzig in 1574.

Cameralius, Joachim, a learned physician, son of the preceding, was born at Nuremberg in 1534. After having finished his studies in Germany, he visited Italy, where he was greatly esteemed by the learned. At his return he was invited to reside at the courts of several princes; but he was too much devoted to the study of chemistry and botany to accept their offers. He wrote a Hortus Medicus and several other works, and died in 1598.

Camero, the capital of a delegation of the same name in the States of the Church, 40 miles S.S.W of Ancona. It is the seat of an archbishopric, and has a cathedral, several churches and convents, an archiepiscopal palace, and a university. Pop. 4200. The delegation has an area of 320 square miles, and a pop. of 38,415.

Cameringo (German Kammerling), according to Du Cange, originally signified the treasurer of the pope or the emperor. The title is now only used at Rome, where it is applied to the cardinal who governs the ecclesiastical state and administers justice. It is the most important office at the court of Rome, because he who holds it is at the head of the treasury. During a vacation of the papal chair, the cardinal camerlingo publishes edicts, coins money, and exercises every other prerogative of a sovereign prince. He has under him a treasurer-general, auditor-general, and twelve prelates called clerks of the chamber.

Cameron, John, a theologian of great erudition, was born at Glasgow about 1579, and received his early education in his native city. He was employed in teaching the Greek language in the university for twelve months; and then he embarked for France. Arriving at Bordeaux, he recommended himself to the favour and friendship of two Protestant clergymen by his agreeable manners, ingenious disposition, and uncommon skill in the Greek and Latin languages. He spoke Greek with as much fluency and elegance as other persons could speak Latin—a proficiency that 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. Through the recommendation of these clergymen, he was appointed a regent in the College of Bergerac, where it was his province to teach the classical languages; but thence he was speedily withdrawn by the Duke de Bouillon, who appointed him a professor of philosophy at Sedan. Here he acquired new reputation; and the duke next made him an offer of the Greek chair, which however he declined, on the plea that he could not accept it without depriving a friend of his office.

Having continued two years at Sedan, he resigned his professorship, and, after visiting Paris, returned to Bordeaux. In the beginning of 1604, he was nominated one of the students of divinity who were maintained at the expense of the church, and who for the period of four years were at liberty to prosecute their studies in any Protestant seminary. During this period he acted as tutor to the two sons of Calignon, chancellor of Navarre. They spent one year at Paris, and two at Geneva, whence they removed to Heidelberg, where they remained nearly twelve months. In this university, on the 4th of April 1608, he gave a public proof of his ability by maintaining a series of theses, "De triplici Dei cum Homine Foedere," printed among his works. The same year he was recalled to Bordeaux, where he was appointed the colleague of Dr Primrose; and when Gomarus was removed to Leyden, Cameron in 1618 was appointed professor of divinity at Saumur, the principal seminary of the French Protestants. 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.

In 1620, the progress of the civil troubles in France obliged Cameron to seek refuge in England for himself and 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, who had been removed from his office in consequence of his adherence to the cause of presbytery. His successor appears to have been more favourably inclined to episcopacy; a circumstance that may have tended to diminish the cordiality of his reception in his native city. Here he likewise taught divinity with great reputation, but he resigned his office in less than a year. Calderwood says that "Cameron was so disliked by the people that he was forced to quit his place soon afterwards."

He returned to France, and fixed his residence at Saumur; and after an interval of a year he was appointed professor of divinity at Montauban. 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. He withdrew to the neighbouring town of Moissac; but he soon returned to Montauban, and a few days afterwards he died at the age of about forty-six. Cameron left by his first wife several children, whose maintenance was undertaken by the Protestant churches in France.

In his person, Cameron was of the middle size, and somewhat spare; his hair was yellow, his eyes were brilliant, and the expression of his countenance was lively and pleasant.

Soon after the death of Cameron, his friends published his "Praelectiones in selectiora Loca Novi Testamenti." Salmuri, 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 a sketch of the author's life and character. A collection of his theological works appeared under the title of "Joannis Cameronis, Scoi-Britanni, Theologi examini ra σωκράτεια, sive Opera partim ab auctore ipso edita, partim post ejus obitum vulgata, partim nusquam haecemus publicata, vel e Gallico idiomate nunc primum in Latinam linguam translatas: 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, professor of divinity at Geneva. 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 Specielegio Ludovici Capelli de eodem argumento, cumque 2 Diatribis in Matth. xv. 5 de Voto Jephte." Geneva, 1632, 4to. Another edition appeared under the subsequent title: "Myrothecium Evangelicum: hoc est, Novi Testamenti Loca quamplurima ab eo, post aliorum laboris, apte et commodè vel illustrata, vel explicata, vel vindicata. Quibus adjectae sunt Alexandri Mori Notae in Novum Fodum, jam antea editae, et Dissertatio in Mat. c. 24, v. 28. hactenus inedita: nec-non ejusdem A. Mori Axiomata Theologica, quae nunc primum in lucem prodeunt. Editio novissima, locorum indicibus locupletata." Salmuri, 1677, 4to.

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, Daille, 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 Cameron even of Manichaeism; 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.