Cameron, JOHN

Cameron, JOHN, a famous scholar and divine, was born at Glasgow about 1579, and educated at the university of that city. In 1600 he went to the Continent, where his ability and erudition secured for him several appointments at Bergerac, Sedan, Saumur, and other seats of learning. Returning to Britain in 1620, he was two years later appointed principal of the university of Glasgow; but in less than a year he returned to Saumur, and thence to Montauban, where he received a divinity professorship. Here, as at Glasgow, his doctrine of passive obedience made him many enemies, by one of whom he was stabbed in the street; and he died from the effects of the wound in 1625. Sir Thomas Urquhart styles him a 'walking library,' and Milton, 'an ingenious writer in high esteem.' He was considered one of the best scholars of his day; in biblical criticism he was inclined to be perverse; where there was a difficulty he usually chose the opposite view to that held by other divines, especially Beza. His theological opinions were of a somewhat lax character, his eight works, in Latin and French (10 vols. 1616-42), being said to be the foundation of Moses Amyraut's doctrine of universal grace (1634). His followers are sometimes called Cameronites.