Calderwood, David

Calderwood, David, a Scotch divine, was born in 1575, and in 1604 became minister of the parish of Crealing. When James I in 1617 sought to bring the Scottish Church into conformity with the Church of England, Calderwood was strenuous in opposition. Persecution and threats having failed to shake Calderwood, he was imprisoned, and afterward banished. He retired to Holland, where he published A ltare Damascenumis sen ecclesice Anglicance politia, etc. (L. Bat. 1623, best ed. 1708, 4to), in which he enters into a full examination of the principles of the Church of England, its government, ceremonies, and connection with the state. The work made a great impression at the time, and was translated into English under the title of The Altar of Damascus, or the Pattern of the English Hierarchy and Church obtruded upon the Church of Scotland (1621, 12mo). A report having been spread that Calderwood was dead, a man named Patrick Scot published a pretended recantation, with the title "Calderwvood's Recantation, directed to such in Scotland as refuse Conformity to the Ordinances of the Church" (London, 1622). Calderwood, in the mean time, had returned secretly to Scotland, where he lived some years in concealment. He collected the materials for a History of the Kirk of Scotland, which he left in MS., and which has been published by the Woodrow Society (Edinb. 1842 9, 8 vols. 8vo). From the materials of this work Calderwood wrote his True History of the Church of Scotland from the B(g'nning of the Reformation unto the End of the Reign of James VI (1678, fol.). He died about 1650.