Cameron (Camero), John

CAMERON (CAMERO), JOHN: Scottish theologian; b. at Glasgow c. 1579; d. at Montauban, France, 1625. He studied at Glasgow and began to give lessons in Greek there at the age of twenty. In 1600 he went to Bordeaux and was soon appointed professor of the humanities at Bergerac. From 1601 to 1603 he was professor of divinity at Sédan. Then he returned to Bordeaux and received a scholarship enabling him to complete his theological studies. He became tutor in the family of Calignon and went with his pupils to Paris, Geneva, and Heidelberg. At the university of the last-named place on Apr. 4, 1608, he supported in a public discussion theses de triplici Dei cum homine 368fœdere. Later in the same year he became a minister at Bordeaux and had great success as a preacher. When the Protestants were driven from the town after eight years he took refuge at Tonneins. He was appointed professor at the Academy of Saumur in 1618. In 1620 he participated in a discussion at Orléans with Tilenus, formerly professor at Sédan, and controverted his Arminian propositions. In 1622 James I. of England called him to London and appointed him principal and professor of theology at Glasgow. But the jealousy of many of his colleagues forced him to leave his native town and in 1623 he returned to Saumur. The following year the king authorized him to teach at Montauban. He arrived there at a time when there was violent contention on the question of obedience to the king and took sides with the party of passive obedience. On May 15, 1625, he was injured in a public tumult and died in consequence a few months later. His works are: Discours apologéique pour ceux de la religion réformée (Bergerac, 1614); Traité auquel sont examinés les préjugés de ceux de l’Église romaine contre la religion réformée (La Rochelle, 1616; Eng. transl., Oxford, 1624); Theses de gratia et libero arbitrio (Saumur, 1618); Amica collatio de gratiæ et humanæ voluntatis concursu in vocatione (Leyden, 1621); Defensio sententiæ de gratia et libero arbitrio (Saumur, 1624); and Prælectiones (3 vols., 1626–28).

G. Bonet-Maury.

Bibliography: Sources for a life are: the memoir by Cappel prefixed to Cameron's Opera, Geneva, 1642; Robert Baillie, Letters and Journals, passim, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1775. Consult also: D. Irving, Scottish Writers, i. 333–346, London, 1850; R. Chambers, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotchmen, i. 273–275. Edinburgh, 1868; DNB, viii. 295–296.