John Craig ( – 12 December 1600) was a Reformer, and colleague of John Knox. Originally a Dominican, he became a Church of Scotland minister with significant extra responsibilities and played an influential part in the Scottish Reformation.
Craig was educated at the St. Andrews, and, going afterwards to England, became tutor in the family of Lord Dacre. He entered the order of Dominican Friars at Bologna, where he was appointed Master of Novices and of which he served as rector for several years. His role gave him access to read the Papally-censored works of John Calvin and on reading The Institutes, Craig accepted their teachings. For this he was condemned by the Inquisition and sentenced to be burned for heresy in August, 1559 but escaped from jail at Rome. Returning, via Vienna, to Edinburgh, in 1561, he joined the Reforming party, and was appointed minister of the Canongate that year. In 1562 he became a colleague of John Knox in St Giles, where he worked for nine years.
Craig proclaimed the banns of marriage between Queen Mary and Bothwell, which, however, he declared scandalous. Craig was elected Moderator of the General Assembly for the third time, in 1581. He assisted in compiling the second book of Discipline signed by King James VI, and subsequently censured His Majesty for not dealing justly with his people. An author and hymnwriter, he compiled a very popular catechism known as "Craig's Catechism". Craig died in old age being around 88 years old.
Early life (1512-1537) John Craig was born about 1512. His father was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, as was the father of John Spottiswood. Craig studied philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and may have witnessed the burnings of Patrick Hamilton and Henry Forrest. After graduating he served as tutor to the children of Lord Dacre for two years in the north of England.
He returned to Scotland and entered the Dominican Order at their priory in St Andrews. Being cleared of a suspicion of heresy, probably after several months detention, he left, in 1537, around aged 23, for England. He had hoped to study at Cambridge with the help of Lord Dacre but was disappointed and then travelled to Rome via France.
Life in Italy (1537-1560)
Through the influence of Cardinal Pole, Craig obtained a position instructing novices at the Dominican house in Bologna. Hewat says: "There must have been something arresting about this young monk, for it was on the recommendation of one so great and influential as Cardinal Pole that he was admitted to a place among the Dominicans in the city of Bologna, where he soon became Master of the Novices." It has been suggested that John Craig had theological leanings towards the Spirituali. Spottiswoode relates: "Afterwards when they perceived his diligence and dexterity in businesses, he was employed in all their affairs throughout Italy, and sent on commission to Chios, an isle situated in the Ionic Sea, to redress things that were amiss amongst those of their order". Craig became rector or head official of the Dominican College which had links with the 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. Craig himself was thus sent to Rome charged as a heretic. Sentenced to be burned on 19 August 1559, 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.
The stories of Craig's confinement and the dog There are two accounts, in Row and one in Spottiswoode, of Craig's activities between his arrest and his preaching in Vienna where he is next found. Kerr speculates that Craig may have met the reformer John Row of Perth, the father of his namesake, the historian, in Italy, although Row's history is largely based on the writings of his father-in-law David Ferguson.
John Howie in the Scots Worthies tells about the dog: "During his travels abroad he was frequently delivered out of very great dangers, by the kind interposition of a gracious Providence: an instance of which we have while he was in Italy. Being obliged to flee out of that country, on account of his regard for the Reformation, in order to avoid being apprehended, he was obliged to lurk in obscure places in the day-time, and travel over night. By this means any little money he had was soon exhausted, and being in the extremity of want, a dog brought a purse to him with some gold in it, by which he was supported until he escaped the danger of being taken." John Hamilton argued "...a black dog gave to him by the way a purse of gold. The colour of the dog may declare whether it was sent by a good spirit or not; for the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ in the likeness of a white dove."
Robert Lippe dismisses these stories saying: "Row adds some additional particulars regarding this imprisonment, such as his being confined in a deep and gloomy vault, where the prisoners had to stand twice a day up to their waists in water by the admission of the tide. These and other additions to Craig's imprisonment and escape, may be safely dismissed as mythical accretions, as we know there are no tides in the Mediterranean, and consequently none at Rome. We need not repeat his providential deliverance, escape, and journey to Vienna, and his reception by the Imperial House there — with all the startling attending circumstances — events which read more like a chapter of a thrilling romance than a plain and sober narrative of an actual life."
Kerr responded about the water: "Craig was kept imprisoned for upwards of nine months. Row's Coronis is shown to over-step geography in stating that he was confined within "a base prison or pit, into which the River Tiber flowed at every tide, so that the prisoners stood in water sometimes almost to their middle". This has been rebutted on the grounds that the Mediterranean is practically tideless. However, as devastating floods are not uncommon in Italy, the situation described was far from impossible. He further argues concerning the dog: "Craig himself frequently referred to this adventure. "He often repeated it to many in good standing", are Spottiswoode's words. Catholic opponents knew of it and repeated that it only proved that he had been in league with the Devil! But long before John Hamilton, able Catholic apologist questioned the story's authenticity in his Facile Tractise (1600) it was alluded to in the satirical verse of Nicol Burne." Later he says: "In sneering at Craig, Hamilton furnished gratuitously corroborative facts about him. This direct reference to his adventures, show that these were already well-known to friend and foe alike, and that by neither were they held in doubt. It is of interest to note that Hamilton's references have more in common with Row's account than Spottiswoode's."
Other writers have identified Palazzo di Ripetta near Porto di Ripetta and Ponte Cavour as a possible site for Craig's confinement.
From Italy to Scotland (1560-1561)
Craig made his way to Vienna, where as a Dominican, he preached before emperor Maximilian II, and soon became a favourite at court but his surrender was demanded by the new pope Pius IV. The Emperor gave him letters of safe conduct to England where he fled in 1560. John Willock, later one of the "six Johns" of the Scots Confession, was known to have been in London in the summer of 1560 and a meeting has been suggested, Kerr calling it "more than likely". Craig returned to Scotland in 1561 where he preached (in Latin) in the Magdalen Chapel in the Cowgate of Edinburgh.
Parish ministry In Edinburgh (1561-1571) John Craig became minister of the Canongate in 1561, making him Mary, Queen of Scots's royal chaplain at Holyrood House in Edinburgh. In April 1562, John Knox requested that Craig might become his colleague in St Giles' Cathedral, and this was carried out, according to the Fasti, in 1563. The council wrote: "The Council understanding the tedious and heavy labours sustained by their minister, John Knox, in preaching thrice in the week, and twice on the Sunday, ordains unanimously to solicit and persuade Master John Craig, presently minister of the Canongate, to accept upon him the half charge of the preaching in the said Kirk of Edinburgh, for such good deed as they can agree upon."
There seems to have been a problem with Craig's salary but Kerr asserts: "Stipend problems apart, it is quite clear...that Craig was one of the ministers of St. Giles’ as from the summer of 1562." Knox and Craig seem to have supported one another's ministries. Kerr says: "It was through Craig being at St. Gile's that Knox had greater freedom of movement to prosecute his missionary work than he otherwise would have had." The pastoral work was divided in two and both preachers undertook tours to strengthen their cause in other parts of the country: Knox in Nithsdale, Galloway and Kyle in autumn 1562, and Craig in Jedburgh the following year. They were later able to leave Edinburgh simultaneously for example in 1564 when Craig went back to the Merse churches for a month while Knox engaged in similar work north of the Forth. The two men supported each other in public life too. Knox was pleased by Craig's outspokeness against the nobility and called him "that worthy servant of God", approving is his public rebuke of courtiers. Craig supported Knox in the General Assembly too. In the debate about church and state relations, around the topic of the Queen's Mass, as Knox argued for denying the queen the Mass, with Craig providing supporting arguments on resisting rulers, whereas John Winram and John Douglas would have allowed her to celebrate it.
Craig presented a personal petition to the General Assembly of June, 1566. He desired that "John Cairns who had read prayers and exhorted four years and more in Edinburgh, and had well profited, might be joined with him in the Kirk of Edinburgh, in respect he was alone." The Assembly ordered the church of Edinburgh, with the assistance of John Spottiswood, to consider the matter. Apparently the crave was not granted for, Cairns's name appears in Town Council Minutes for many years afterwards as simply that of "reader". He is first mentioned in these Minutes as minister (and so thereafter) on 13 November 1584, and in that of 15 July 1586, as "ane of the ordinar ministers of this burgh . . This independent action on Craig's part, might be construed as being disloyal to Knox still absent from Edinburgh but, at this time, Craig, besides his General Assembly work, was in sole charge at St. Giles’ and urgently in need of ordained assistance.
In Montrose (1571-1573) In 1571 he was sent by the assembly to Montrose "for the illuminating the north, and when he had remained two years thence to Aberdeen to illuminate those dark places in Mar, Buchan, and Aberdeen, and to teach the youth of the college there." John Durie, who was also a minister at St Giles, followed Craig as minister of Montrose.
In Aberdeen (1573-1579) Craig moved to Aberdeen on 6 August 1573, where he remained six years, where he was named Superintendent of Mar and Buchan. It was at Aberdeen that Craig wrote and used his A Shorte Summe of the Whole Catechisme.
At Aberdeen Craig passed six years of incessant activity. He was appointed commissioner for visiting the province of Aberdeen in