ERSKINE, JOHN, of Dun (15o9-1591), Scottish reformer, the son of Sir John Erskine, laird of Dun, was born in 15o9, and was educated at King's College, Aberdeen. At the age of twenty one Erskine was the cause—probably by accident—of a priest's death, and was forced to go abroad, where he came under the in fluence of the new learning. It was through his agency that Greek was first taught in Scotland by Petrus de Marsiliers at Montrose. Erskine was a close friend of George Wishart, the reformer, from whose fate he was saved by his wealth and influence, and of John Knox, whose advice openly to discountenance the mass was given in the lodgings of the laird of Dun. Erskine frequently acted as mediator both between the catholic and reforming parties, and among the reformers themselves. In 156o he was appointed— though a layman—superintendent of the reformed church of Scot land for Angus and Mearns, and in 1572 he gave his assent to the modified episcopacy proposed by Morton at the Leith con vention. He was more than once elected moderator of the gen eral assembly (first in 1564), and he was amongst those who in 1578 drew up the Second Book of Discipline. From 1579 he was a member of the king's council. He died in See the "Dun Papers" in the Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. iv. (1849), and the article in the Dict. Nat. Biog.