89 Facts About Mandell Creighton

Mandell Creighton was a British historian, Anglican priest and bishop.

The son of a successful carpenter in north-west England, Creighton studied at the University of Oxford, focusing his scholarship on the Renaissance Papacy, and then became a don in 1866.

Mandell Creighton was appointed the first occupant of the Dixie Chair of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge in 1884.

Mandell Creighton served as a parish priest in Embleton, Northumberland, and later, successively, as a canon residentiary of Worcester Cathedral, Bishop of Peterborough and Bishop of London.

Mandell Creighton was praised for scrupulous even-handedness, but criticised for not taking a stand against historical excesses.

Mandell Creighton was firm in asserting that public figures should be judged for their public acts, not private ones.

Mandell Creighton believed that the Church of England was uniquely shaped by its particular English circumstances, and he saw it as the soul of the nation.

Mandell Creighton was married to the author and future women's suffrage activist Louise Mandell Creighton, and the couple had seven children.

Mandell Creighton was born on 5 July 1843 in the border country city of Carlisle, Cumberland ; he was the eldest child of Sarah and Robert Creighton.

Mandell Creighton's mother was a daughter of Thomas Mandell, a yeoman farmer from Bolton, Cumberland.

In 1850, when Mandell was seven Sarah Creighton died unexpectedly.

Robert, who never remarried and seldom spoke of his wife again, raised the children with help from his unmarried sister, who came to live with the family; Mandell Creighton recalled her as a kind mother-substitute to the children.

In February 1858 the 15-year-old Mandell Creighton left Carlisle to become a boarder at Durham.

Mandell Creighton was severely short-sighted; he had double vision, which forced him to read with one eye closed, until a London oculist prescribed glasses to correct the fault.

Mandell Creighton applied next to Merton College, Oxford, for a classical postmastership.

The application was successful and Mandell Creighton arrived in Oxford in October 1862.

Mandell Creighton continued to take a keen interest in Durham School, and once walked there from Oxford to hear speeches at a school function.

Mandell Creighton lived economically in college attic rooms for most of his time at Merton.

Mandell Creighton was not one such, and his poor eyesight prevented him from playing cricket and football, but he was able to join the college rowing team.

Mandell Creighton recalled, "I used to take a train and go somewhere, and walk through the villages, see the churches, study the architecture, and speculate on the conditions of life which must have been the outcome of these surroundings".

Mandell Creighton was becoming politically aware, embracing a moderate liberalism.

Mandell Creighton joined the Oxford Union, and although he seldom spoke in debates there he was elected Union president in 1867.

Academically, Mandell Creighton's goal was an honours degree in literae humaniores, the study of Greek and Roman classical literature, philosophy, and ancient history.

Mandell Creighton had not allowed himself enough time to read all the relevant literature and achieved only a second class degree.

At Merton, Mandell Creighton became a tutor in Modern History, which Kirby describes as "a relatively new subject which few were then prepared to teach".

Mandell Creighton was popular with undergraduates and was looked upon as someone who would exercise the necessary leadership.

Mandell Creighton was given more responsibilities, which brought promotions and salary increases.

Mandell Creighton had no interest in the new natural sciences and was not moved to read Darwin, regarding his writings as too speculative.

Mandell Creighton fell in love with Italy, its scenery, its culture, and its people.

Mandell Creighton was an admirer of Walter Pater and the aesthetic movement.

Mandell Creighton was now leading a life that was far removed from that of his frugal student days.

Mandell Creighton was the youngest daughter of a London merchant, Robert von Glehn, a naturalised British citizen who was originally from Reval in the Russian Governorate of Estonia.

Mandell Creighton undertook to teach his fiancee Italian; she helped him improve his German.

On Christmas Eve the college passed a special statute enabling four fellows, including Mandell Creighton, to hold office after marrying.

Von Glehn and Mandell Creighton were married on 8 January 1872 in her home town of Sydenham, Kent.

Mandell Creighton wanted to give more time to writing history than his college duties allowed.

Mandell Creighton was ordained priest in 1873, and the following year an opportunity arose of a rural living in a remote parish in coastal Northumberland to which Merton held the right of appointment.

When, in late 1874, the college formally offered him the position of vicar of the parish of Embleton, Mandell Creighton accepted and the family moved there in December.

Mandell Creighton's own family was growing: four more children were born during the Embleton years, and all were home schooled, mostly by Louise.

Mandell Creighton, who took great interest in the parish schools, served as examiner for other schools in the region, and began to formulate some ideas on the education of children.

Mandell Creighton was elected to local government bodies such as the Board of Guardians, which administered the poor laws in the region, and to the local sanitary authority.

In 1884 Mandell Creighton was invited to apply for the newly created professorship of ecclesiastical history, the Dixie chair, at the University of Cambridge and a concurrent fellowship at Emmanuel College.

Mandell Creighton's application was successful, and on 9 November 1884 Creighton preached his last sermon at Embleton church.

Louise Mandell Creighton recalled that his parishioners found it difficult to express their feelings openly; she recorded one woman as saying, "Well, if you ain't done no good, you've done no harm", which coming from a Northumbrian he took as high praise.

Mandell Creighton had already corresponded with Acton and now met him in person, as he did other Cambridge notables, such as Robertson Smith, the Hebrew and Arabic scholar, and Alfred Marshall, the economist.

Mandell Creighton contributed to changes in the historical tripos, contributing from his arrival to changes in the historical tripos and its examination, providing candidates with more choice and more open-ended questions.

Mandell Creighton lectured twice a week at the university, preparing extensively, but lecturing without notes.

Mandell Creighton lectured more informally to undergraduates at Emmanuel College once a week.

Mandell Creighton supported Cambridge's two new women's colleges, Girton Newnham, and taught informal weekly classes at Newnham.

Mandell Creighton was given to undertaking any work he was asked to do.

Crowder writes that Mandell Creighton had no illusions about the work editing the journal would entail: "he accepted out of duty, before any editorial policy had been framed, quite apart from his goal of promoting interest in the discipline and improving research".

Mandell Creighton fitted this into his academic schedule: he and his household lived in the cathedral close there during university vacations.

Mandell Creighton contributed to the cathedral's intellectual and liturgical life, giving lectures and bringing visiting scholars to lecture to the clergy of the diocese.

Mandell Creighton did not overlook the grim side of city life.

Mandell Creighton joined the Worcester Diocesan Penitentiary Association and was moved by the plight of prison inmates.

That college marked its 250th anniversary in November 1886 and Mandell Creighton, accompanied by Louise, attended the celebrations, representing Emmanuel.

Mandell Creighton invited Acton to review the two volumes for the English Historical Review.

Acton's review was largely hostile, implying that Mandell Creighton's methods were not those of a "scrupulous and self-respecting writer", and commenting adversely about "the economy of evidence, and the severity with which the raw material is repressed".

Acton's strictures led Mandell Creighton to reconsider his own position and become slightly more judgmental.

In December 1890 Mandell Creighton received a letter from Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, asking whether he would be willing to exchange the canonry of Worcester for the canonry of Windsor, which had become vacant.

Mandell Creighton was chosen partly because his love for ritual had created an impression among others that he had a high-church outlook.

The Peterborough diocese had many high churchmen, and it was felt that Mandell Creighton would be a good fit.

Mandell Creighton was quite broad church in terms of doctrine and belief ; his moderate views would later make him popular with Queen Victoria.

Mandell Creighton always keeps in view the hope of spreading his own opinions, but he endeavours to do so by producing conviction.

Mandell Creighton met it in the manner he had employed in Embleton: he proceeded to visit every corner.

Mandell Creighton became determined to better understand the working classes of his diocese.

Mandell Creighton wrote an open letter to his clergy, impressed them with the gravity of the situation, and urged them to work impartially to facilitate communication between the opposing sides.

Mandell Creighton had found little time to devote to its writing, and critics generally expressed disappointment in the outcome.

In June 1896 Mandell Creighton represented the Church of England at the coronation of Czar Nicholas II in Moscow, deputising for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward White Benson, who was ill, as was Randall Davidson, the Bishop of Winchester, who as Prelate of the Order of the Garter would have been the official stand-in.

Mandell Creighton was not then, any more than he had ever been, eager for ecclesiastical advancement, which he felt had been thrust upon him and disrupted his academic career.

Mandell Creighton was enthroned as Bishop of London on 30 January 1897.

In March 1897 Mandell Creighton addressed the House of Lords in support of the bill, which was eventually passed by both Houses of Parliament.

Mandell Creighton felt strongly that all religious instruction should be denominational.

An evangelical agitator, John Kensit, had protested that Mandell Creighton himself had on occasion worn a cope and mitre.

Kensit called for Mandell Creighton to take a firmer public stance against high-church rituals, such as the use of candles and incense.

Mandell Creighton made trips to Windsor Castle and Sandringham to conduct services for Queen Victoria.

Mandell Creighton was appointed to the Privy Council; he became a trustee of the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and many other organisations, and succeeded Frederic Leighton as president of the committee commissioning the Survey of London which documented the capital's principal buildings and public art.

Mandell Creighton's health became a cause for concern to his family and friends.

Mandell Creighton loved pageantry, creating speculation that he had high-church views.

Mandell Creighton seldom refused offers of additional responsibility, confessing more than once to both an abiding fatalism about being saddled with more responsibility and guilt about shirking it.

Today, Mandell Creighton is better known as a historian than as a cleric.

Mandell Creighton's work is seen as part of his own era in British historiography.

Mandell Creighton is considered to be one of the first British historians with a distinctly European outlook.

Mandell Creighton saw himself as someone interested in actions, in contrast to Acton, whom he considered to be interested in ideas.

Mandell Creighton saw the Church of England not as an abstract entity existing independently in space and time, but as rooted in England, its people, and their history.

Similarly, Mandell Creighton saw the living church as an embodiment of the contemporary yearnings of the English people.

Mandell Creighton was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1897.

Mandell Creighton was a corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and of the American Society of Church History, and a fellow of the.

In 1907 Louise Mandell Creighton raised funds to found Bishop Mandell Creighton House, serving the area around Fulham and Hammersmith, tackling problems caused by social isolation and disadvantage.