CRAIG, JOHN (1512?-260o), Scottish reformer, the son of Craig of Craigston, Aberdeenshire, was educated at St. Andrews and became a Dominican. He came under suspicion of heresy, and made his way in 1536 to England and then to Italy, where by the influence of Cardinal Pole, he became master of the novices in the Dominican convent at Bologna. His heretical tendencies were revived by the reading of Calvin's Institutes. He was condemned to be burnt, but escaped during the riot which broke out on the death of Paul IV. (Aug. 18, 1559), when the prison of the Inqui sition was burst open. Returning to Scotland in 156o he was ordained (1561) minister of Holyrood, and in 1562 became Knox's colleague in the High Church. At first he refused to publish the banns of marriage between Mary and Bothwell, but yielded in the end. He helped to draw up the National Covenant in 158o and prepared (1581) the "King's Confession" which became the basis of the Covenant of 1638. He died on Dec. 12, 1600.
See T. G. Law, Preface to John Craig's Catechism (1885) ; Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae (1915, ed. J. Warwick, 1921) .