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 or head official of perhaps the oldest university. Ironically, since Dominicans were charged with suppressing ideas judged to be heretical, Craig here had access to the library of the Inquisition holding forbidden books like John Calvin's Institutes and came through his analysis to adopt some of Calvin's views.[4] Craig himself was thus sent to Rome charged as a heretic. Sentenced to be burned on 19 August 1559,[5] 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.[6]

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 was appointed Mary, Queen of Scots's royal chaplain of Holyrood House in Edinburgh.[7] In 1563 he was joint minister with John Knox of St. Giles's.[2]

In 1571 he became 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.

In January 1581 he critcised James Stewart, Earl of Arran by preaching on the subject of false accusations. Arran had accused Regent Morton of involvement in the murder of Lord Darnley, and he threatened Craig with a dagger.[8]

He 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".[9]

On 21 July 1588 Craig officiated at the wedding of Henrietta Stewart and the Earl of Huntly at Holyroodhouse. Before the wedding the couple were made to declare their Protestant faith, without which he would not declare the banns.[10]

In August 1595 the English diplomat George Nicholson wrote that Craig was "old and now almost past teaching."[11]

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

Bibliography
  • T. G. Law's Pref. to Craig's 'Catechism (1885)
  • Bain's Cal. Scottish State Papers
  • Reg. P. C. Scotl.
  • Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot.
  • Knox's, Calderwood's and Grub's Eccles. Histories;
  • McCrie's Life of Melville;
  • Hay Fleming's Mary, Queen of Scots;
  • Bannatyne's Memorials.[13]
  • Knox's History of the Reformation
  • Calderwood's History of the Kirk
  • Richard Bannatyne's Memorials
  • Craig's Catechism, reprinted with a valuable introduction by Mr. T. Graves Law, librarian of the Signet Library, 1885[14]
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References
  1. "Craig, John". Penny Cyclopaedia. 8. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. p. 134.
  2. Julian, John. Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907
  3. "Significant Scots", Electric Scotland
  4. Law 1904, p. 280-81..
  5. Law 1904, p. 281..
  6. Setton, Kenneth M. (1984). The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571. Volume IV: The Sixteenth Century. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. p. 718. ISBN 0871691140.
  7. Law 1904, p. 286. Repr. Kyle McDanell, ed., Knox's Colleague: The Life and Times of John Craig (Charleston, SC: Kyle McDanell, 2014), 35..
  8. William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1574-1581, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 577.
  9. 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..
  10. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1915), pp. 583, 587.
  11. Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 679.
  12. Spottiswoode, John. "The Advenures of John Craig", English Prose, Vol. II, (Henry Craik, ed.), 1916
  13. Chisholm 1911, p. 361.
  14. Mackay 1887, p. 447.

Sources
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