CAMERARIUS, JOACHIM (1534–1598), German botanist and physician, son of the classical scholar of the same name, was born at Nuremberg on the 6th of November 1534. After finishing his studies in Germany he visited Italy, where he graduated as doctor of medicine. On his return he was invited to reside at the courts of several princes, but preferred to settle in his native town of Nuremberg, where he had a botanical garden and formed extensive collections. He wrote a Hortus Medicus (1588) and several other works. He died at Nuremberg on the 11th of October 1598.
CAMERARIUS, RUDOLF JAKOB (1665–1721), German
botanist and physician, was born at Tübingen on the 12th of
February 1665, and became professor of medicine and director
of the botanical gardens at Tübingen in 1687. He died at
Tübingen on the 11th of September 1721. He is chiefly known
for his investigations on the reproductive organs of plants
(De sexu plantarum epistola, 1694).
CAMERINO (anc. Camerinum), a city and episcopal see (since
465, if not sooner; Treia is now combined with it) of the Marches,
Italy, in the province of Macerata, 6 m. S. of the railway
station of Castelraimondo (to which there is an electric tramway)
which is 24 m. W. of Macerata; 2148 ft. above sea-level.
Pop. (1901) of town, 4005; of commune, 12,083. The cathedral
is modern, the older building having fallen in 1799; the church
of S. Venanzio suffered similarly, but preserves a portal of the
15th century. The citadel, perhaps constructed from the plans
of Leonardo da Vinci, dates from 1503. Camerino occupies
the site of the ancient Camerinum, the inhabitants of which
(Camertes Umbri) became allies of the Romans in 310 B.C. (at
the time of the attack on the Etruscans in the Ciminian Forest).
On the other hand, the Καμέρτιοι referred to in the history of
the year 295 B.C. are probably the inhabitants of Clusium.
Later it appears as a dependent autonomous community with
the foedus aequum (Mommsen, Röm. Staatsrecht, iii. 664). Two
cohorts of Camertes fought with distinction under Marius
against the Cimbri. It was much affected by the conspiracy of
Catiline, and is frequently mentioned in the Civil Wars; under
the empire it was a municipium. It belonged to ancient Umbria,
but was on the borders of Picenum. No ancient buildings are
visible, the Roman level lying as much as 30 ft. below the modern.
See P. Savini, Storia delta Città di Camerino (2nd ed., Camerino, 1895); M. Mariani, Intorno agli antichi Camerti Umbri (Camerino, 1900). (T. As.)
CAMERON, JOHN (1579–1623), Scottish 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.
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 Francis
Gomarus was removed to Leiden, Cameron, in 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. Cameron was prepared to accept Episcopacy, and was cordially disliked for his adherence to the doctrine of passive obedience. He resigned his office in less than a year.
He returned to France, and lived at Saumur. 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 Cameron 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 a distinct place in the development of Calvinistic theology in Europe. He and his followers maintained that the will of man is 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 dissented from Calvin’s. The Cameronites (not to be confused with the Scottish sect called Cameronians) are moderate Calvinists, and approach to the opinion of the Arminians. They are also called Universalists, 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 Manichaeism, and the controversy between the parties was carried on with great zeal; yet the whole question between them was only, whether the will 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.
CAMERON, RICHARD (1648?–1680), founder of a Scottish
religious sect of Cameronians, which formed the nucleus of
the regiment of this name in the British army, was born at
Falkland in the county of Fife. He was educated at the village
school, and his success was so great that, while still a youth,
he was appointed schoolmaster. In this situation he became
acquainted with some of the more enthusiastic field-preachers.
Persuaded by them he resigned his post and entered the family
of Sir Walter Scott of Harden as chaplain and tutor. Refusing
to acknowledge the Indulgence, he joined the ranks of the non-conforming
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 pronounced
illegal all armed assemblages for religious purposes. Cameron
took refuge in Holland, where he resided for some time; but
in the autumn of 1679 (probably) he returned to Scotland, and
once more made himself formidable 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, or Airs,
Moss, fighting bravely at the head of the few troops which he
had been able to collect. His prayer before going into battle
became a tradition—“Lord spare the green and take the ripe.”
After the accession of William III. the survivors were amnestied,
and the Cameronian regiment was formed from them.
See Andrew Lang, History of Scotland, vol. iii. (1907); Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (1897), s.v. “Cameronianer”; A. Smellie, Men of the Covenant; Herkless, Richard Cameron; P. Walker, Six Saints of the Covenant.
CAMERON, SIMON (1799–1889), American politician, was
born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 8th of March
1799. Left an orphan at the age of nine, he early entered
journalism, and, in banking and railway enterprises, accumulated
a considerable fortune. He became influential in Pennsylvania
politics, and in 1845–1849 served in the United States Senate,
being elected by a combination of Democratic, Whig and
“American” votes to succeed James Buchanan. In 1854,
having failed to secure the nomination for senator from the
“Know-Nothing” Party, which he had recently joined, he
became a leader of the “People’s Party,” as the Republican
