Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/278

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JAMES CRAIG, M.A.—JOHN CRAIG.


St Albans, and, by her acts of beneficence, has proved herself not unworthy of the great fortune which she has acquired. Mr Coutts' death took place at his house in Piccadilly, February 24th, 1822, about the ninetieth year of his age.

CRAIG, James, M.A., was born at Gifford in East Lothian, in 1682, and educated in the university of Edinburgh. He was first minister at Yester, in his native county, then at Haddington, and finally at Edinburgh, where he was very popular as a preacher. While in the first of these situations, he wrote a volume of "Divine poems," which have gone through two editions, and enjoyed at one time a considerable reputation. In 1732, when settled in Edinburgh, he published " Sermons" in three volumes, 8vo, chiefly on the principal heads of Christianity. He died at Edinburgh in 1744, aged sixty two.

CRAIG, John, an eminent preacher of the Reformation, was born about the year 1512, and had the misfortune to lose his father next year at the battle of Flodden. Notwithstanding the hardships to which this subjected him, he obtained a good education, and removing into England, became tutor to the children of lord Dacre. Wars arising soon after between England and Scotland, he returned to his native country, and became a monk of the Dominican order. Having given some grounds for a suspicion of heresy, he was cast into prison, but having cleared himself, he was restored to liberty, and returning to England, endeavoured by the influence of lord Dacre to procure a place at Cambridge, in which he was disappointed. He then travelled to France, and thence to Rome, where he was in such favour with cardinal Pole, that he obtained a place among the Dominicans of Bologna, and was appointed to instruct the novices of the cloister. Being advanced to the rectorate, in consequence of his merit, he had access to the library, where happening to read Calvin's Institutes, he became a convert to the Protestant doctrines. A conscientious regard to the text in which Christ forbids his disciples to deny him before men, induced Craig to make no secret of this change in his sentiments, and he was consequently sent to Rome, thrown into a prison, tried and condemned to be burnt, from which fate he was only saved by an accident. Pope Paul IV. having died the day before his intended execution, the people rose tumultuously, dragged the statue of his late holiness through the streets, and, breaking open all the prisons, set the prisoners at liberty. Craig immediately left the city ; and, as he was walking through the suburbs, he met a company of banditti. One of these men, taking him aside, asked if he had ever been in Bologna. On his answering in the affirmative, the man inquired if he recollected, as he was one day walking there in the fields with some young noblemen, having administered relief to a poor maimed soldier, who asked him for alms. Craig replied that he had no recollection of such an event; but in this case the obliged party had the better memory : the bandit told him that he could never forget the kindness he had received on that occasion, which he would now beg to repay by administering to the present necessities of his benefactor. In short, this man gave Craig a sufficient sum to carry him to Bologna.

The fugitive soon found reason to fear that some of his former acquaintances at this place might denounce him to the inquisition, and accordingly he slipped away as privately as possible to Milan, avoiding all the principal roads, for fear of meeting any enemy. One day, when his money and strength were alike exhausted by the journey, he came to a desert place, where, throwing himself down upon the ground, he almost resigned all hope of life. At this moment, a dog came fawning up to him with a bag of money in its mouth, which it laid down at his feet. The forlorn traveller instantly recognised this as "a special token of God's favour," and picking up fresh energy, proceeded on his way till