John Craig (minister)

John Craig (c. 1512 – 12 December 1600) was a Scottish minister. He was originally a member of the Dominican Order, wherefore he had access to read Papally-censored works of John Calvin and was converted to Protestant doctrine. He later joined forces with John Knox and had a significant part in the Scottish Reformation.[1]

Life

John Craig was born about 1512. His father died at the Battle of Flodden (1513). Craig attended the University of St. Andrews[2] and served as tutor to the children of Lord Dacre for two years.[3]

He returned to Scotland and entered the Dominican Order. Cleared of a suspicion of heresy, he left, in 1537, for England, and then traveled to Rome. Through the influence of Cardinal Pole he obtained a position instructing novices at the Dominican house in Bologna, where he subsequently became rector. There he became acquainted with John Calvin's Institutes. Having adopted Calvin's views, Craig was sent to Rome charged as a heretic. Sentenced to be burned on 19 August 1559,[4] Craig escaped the day before during civil unrest prompted by the death of the unpopular Pope Paul IV on 18 August, upon which crowds broke into the prisons to free his captives.[5]

One of Psalms translated by John Craig ("I.C.") ca. AD 1564, Scottish Psalter

He made his way to Vienna, where as a Dominican, he preached before emperor Maximilian II, and soon became a favourite at court. The Emperor gave him letters of safe conduct to England and Craig returned to Scotland, where he preached at Magdalen's Chapel in Edinburgh. In 1561 he became minister of The Canongate in Edinburgh, in 1561. In 1563 he was joint minister with John Knox of St. Giles's.[2]

In 1571 he became was minister of Montrose, and in 1573 moved to Aberdeen where he was named Superintendent of Mar and Buchan. In 1579 Craig was minister of Holyrood and domestic chaplain to James VI. He was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Craig played a vital role in writing the Second Book of Discipline for the Scottish Church. He also drew up the National Covenant of 1581, and wrote a very popular catechism known as "Craig's Catechism".[1] Craig was moreover a vigorous defender of the presbyterial form of church government in opposition to episcopacy, which brought him into conflict with King James.

King James had personally appointed Craig, "one of the best-gifted in the kingdom" as his Royal Chaplain, so when Craig rebuked him during his captivity so sharply from the pulpit (19 September 1582) for having issued a proclamation offensive to the clergy, "the king wept".[6]

John Craig died on 12 December 1600 at the age of eighty-eight.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "Craig, John". Penny Cyclopaedia. 8. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. p. 134.
  2. 1 2 Julian, John. Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907
  3. ↑ "Significant Scots", Electric Scotland
  4. ↑ Law 1904, p. 281..
  5. ↑ Setton, Kenneth M. (1984). The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571. Volume IV: The Sixteenth Century. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. p. 718. ISBN 0871691140.
  6. ↑ Law 1904, pp. 295, 297. Repr. Kyle McDanell, ed., Knox's Colleague: The Life and Times of John Craig (Charleston, SC: Kyle McDanell, 2014), 49, 53..
  7. ↑ Spottiswoode, John. "The Advenures of John Craig", English Prose, Vol. II, (Henry Craik, ed.), 1916
  • Communion Catechism by John Craig
  • Law, Thomas Graves (1904), "John Craig", in P. Hume Brown, Collected Essays and Reviews of Thomas Graves Law, Edinburgh: T. & A. Constable, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 277–304.
  • McDanell, Kyle, ed. Knox's Colleague: The Life and Times of John Craig. Charleston, SC: Kyle McDanell, 2014. Includes a reprint of Law's biography and catechisms of Craig.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.