CAMERON, John (1579-1623), a learned theologian, was born at Glasgow about 1579, and received his early education in his native city. After having taught Greek in the university for twelve months, he removed to Bordeaux, where he was soon appointed a regent in the College of Bergerac. He did not remain long at Bordeaux, but accepted the offer of a chair of philosophy at Sedan, where he passed two years. He then returned to Bordeaux, and 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, which were 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, iu 1618, was appointed professor of divinity at Saumur, the principal seminary of the French Protestants....
In 1620 the progress of the civil troubles in France obliged Cameron to seek refuge for himself and family in England. 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 Presbyterianism. 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 also taught divinity with great reputation, but he resigned his office in less than a year. Calderwood says that “Cameron was so misliked 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. All his works were published after his death.
His name has furnished a designation to a party of Calvinists in France, who asserted that the will of 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 moderate Calvinists, and approach to the opinion of the Arminians. They are also called Univerealists, as holding the universal reference 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 great zeal ; yet the whole question between them was only, whether the wiU 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 laid down the position that God not only illuminates the understanding, but gives motion to the will by making an internal change therein; whereas Cameron admitted only the illumination by which the mind is morally moved, and attempted to explain the decision of the Synod of Dort so as to make the two opinions consistent.
CAMERON, Richard ( ĭ -1680), the founder of the Cameronians, was born at Falkland, in the county of Fife. The date of his birth is not known. His father, who was a shopkeeper in that town, gave him such an education as the village school afforded; and his success was so great that, while still a youth he was appointed schoolmaster. In this situation he had opportunities of becoming acquainted with some of the more enthusiastic fieldpreachers, who at this time wandered through the country disseminating their doctrines. Persuaded by them he resigned his situation, and shortly after entered the family of Sir Walter Scott of Harden as chaplain and tutor. He did not remain there long, however, for, refusing to acknowledge the Indulgence, he joined the ranks of the nonconforming ministers, and incited the inhabitants of the southern counties of Scotland to protest openly against the new edict. So formidable was the agitation that the Government thought fit to interfere, and pronounced illegal all armed assemblages for religious purposes. Cameron was obliged to take refuge in Holland, - where he resided for some time; but in the spring of 1680 he returned to Scotland, and once more made himself formidable and obnoxious to the Government. Shortly after the defeat of the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge in that year, Cameron was slain in a skirmish at the Aird’s Moss, fighting bravely at the head of the few troops which he had been able to collect, and which formed the nucleus of the renowned regiment in the British army afterwards known by his name.
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