Chapter II: MODERN CONFESSIONS OF FAITH.--The second great creed-making epoch of (1)

Church history opens in the 16th century with the Confession of Augsburg. The famous theses which Luther nailed to the door of the church at Wittenberg in 1517 cannot be called a confession, but they expressed a protest which could not rest there. Some reconstruction of popular beliefs was needed by many consciences. There is a striking contrast between the crudeness of much and widely accepted medieval theology and the decrees of the council of Trent. Even from the Roman Catholic standpoint such a need was felt. Luther himself had a gift of words which through his catechisms made the reformed theology popular in Germany. In 1530 it became necessary to define his position against both Romanists and Zwinglians.

Augsburg confession.

1. _The Confession of Augsburg_ was drawn up by Melanchthon, revised by Luther, and presented to the emperor Charles V. at the diet of Augsburg. Some 21 of its articles dealt with doctrine, 7 with ecclesiastical abuses. It expounded in terse and significant teaching the doctrine (1) of God, (2) of original sin, (3) of the Son of God, (4) of justification..., (21) of the worship of saints. The abuses which it was maintained had been corrected by Lutheranism were discussed in articles (1) on Communion in both kinds, (2) on the marriage of clergy, (3) on the Mass, &c. (see AUGSBURG, CONFESSION OF).

The main difference between these, the first of a long series of articles of religion and the ancient creeds, lies in the fact that they are manifestoes embodying creeds and answering more than one purpose. This is the reason of their frequent failure to convey any sense of proportion in the expression of truth. The disciplinary question of clerical marriage is not of the same primary importance as the doctrinal questions involved in the restoration of the cup to the laity, or discussed in the subsequent article on the mass. As has been well said by a learned Baptist theologian, Dr Green: "It was by a true divine instinct that the early theologians made Christ Himself, in His divine-human personality, their centre of the creeds."[15] The fundamental questions of Christianity, exhibited in the Apostles' Creed, should be marked off as standing on a higher plane than others. In this respect catechisms of modern times, from Luther's down to the recent Evangelical catechism of the Free Churches, and including from their respective points of view both the catechism of the Church of England and the catechism of the council of Trent, are markedly superior to articles and synodical decrees. The failure of the latter was really inevitable. In the 16th century a spirit of universal questioning was rife, and it is this utter unsettlement of opinion which is reflected in the discussions of doubts on matters only remotely connected with "the faith once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). Moreover, fresh complications arose from the confusion in which the question of the duties and rights of the civil power was entangled. In an age when the foundations of the system on which society had rested for centuries were seriously shaken, such subjects as the right of the magistrate to interfere with the belief of the individual, and the limits of his authority over conscience, naturally assumed a prominence hitherto unknown.[16]

2. _Other Lutheran Formularies._--For the purpose of classification it will be convenient to discuss Lutheran, Zwinglian and Calvinistic confessions separately.

Lutheran.

An elaborate _Apology_ for the confession of Augsburg was drawn up by Melanchthon in reply to Roman Catholic criticisms. This, together with the confession, the articles of Schmalkalden, drawn up by Luther in 1536, Luther's catechisms, and the Formula of Concord which was an attempt to settle doctrinal divisions promulgated in 1580, sum up what is called "the confessional theology of Lutheranism." Of less influence in the subsequent history of Lutheranism, but of interest as used by Archbishop Parker in the preparation of the Elizabethan articles of 1563, is the confession of Wurttemberg. It was presented to the council of Trent by the ambassador of the state of Wurttemberg in 1552. Its thirty-five articles contain a moderate statement of Lutheran teaching.

Zwinglian and Calvinist.

3. _Zwinglian and Calvinistic Confessions._--The confession of the Four Cities, Strassburg, Constance, Memmingen and London, was drawn up by M. Bucer and was presented to Charles V. at Augsburg in 1530. These cities were inclined to follow Zwingli in his sacramental teaching which was more fully expressed in the Confession of Basel (1534) and the First Helvetic Confession (1536). Calvin's views were expressed in the Gallican Confession, containing forty articles, which was drawn up in 1559, and was presented both to Francis II. of France and to Charles IX. On the same lines the Belgian Confession of 1561, written by Guido de Bres in French, and translated into Dutch was widely accepted in the Netherlands and confirmed by the synod of Dort (1619). The second Helvetic Confession was the work of Bullinger, published at the request of the Elector Palatine Frederick III. in 1566, and was held in repute in Switzerland, Poland and France as well as the Palatinate. It was sanctioned in Scotland and was well received in England.

These confessions teach the root idea of Calvin's theology, the immeasurable awfulness of God, His eternity, and the immutability of His decrees. Such strict Calvinism was the strength also of the Westminster Confession (see below), but was soon weakened in Germany. This same Elector Frederick invited two young divines, Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, to prepare the afterwards celebrated Heidelberg catechism, which in 1563 superseded Calvin's catechism in the Palatinate. While Calvin began sternly with the question: "What is the chief end of human life?" Ans.: "That men may know God by whom they were created,"--the Heidelberg catechism has: "What is thy only comfort in life and death?" Ans.: "That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ." This catechism has been called the charter of the German Reformed Church. It contains three divisions dealing with (1) man's sin, misery, redemption, (2) the Trinity, (3) thankfulness, under which is included all practical Christian life lived in gratitude for mercies received.

Articles of religion.

4. _English Articles of Religion._--The ten articles of 1536 were drawn up by Convocation at the bidding of Henry VIII. "to stablysh Christian Quietnes and Unitie." They exhibit a traditional character, a compromise between the old and the new learning. Thus the doctrine of the Real Presence is asserted, but no mention is made of Transubstantiation. Medieval ceremonies are described as useful but without power to remit sins. Two years later, after negotiations with the Lutheran princes, a conference on theological matters was held at Lambeth with Lutheran envoys. Thirteen articles were drawn up, which, though never published (they were found among Cranmer's papers at the beginning of the 19th century), had some influence on the forty-two articles. Some of them were taken from the confession of Augsburg, but the sections on Baptism, the Eucharist and penance, show that the English theologians desired to lay more emphasis on the character of sacraments as channels of grace. The Statute of the Six Articles (1539), "the whip with six strings," was the outcome of the retrograde policy which distinguished the latter years of Henry VIII.

With the accession of Edward VI. liturgical reforms were set on foot before an attempt was made to systematize doctrinal teaching. But as early as 1549 Cranmer had in hand "Articles of Religion" to which he required all preachers and lecturers to subscribe. In 1552 they were revised by other bishops and were laid before the council and the royal chaplains. They were then published as "Articles agreed on by the bishops and other learned men in the Synod of London." But there is considerable doubt whether they really received the sanction of Convocation (Gibson, p. 15). They were not devised as a complete scheme of doctrine, but only as a guide in dealing with current errors of (i.) the Medievalists and (ii.) the Anabaptists. Under (i.) they condemned the doctrine of the school authors on congruous merit (Art. xii.), the doctrine of grace _ex opere operato_ (xxvi.). Transubstantiation (xxix.). Under (ii.) they laid stress on the fundamental articles of the faith (Art. i.-iv.), affirmed the Three Creeds (vii.), since many Anabaptists held Arian and Socinian opinions which were rife in Switzerland, Italy and Poland, condemning also their views on original sin (viii.), community of goods (xxxvii.), and on other subjects in articles which do not mention them by name.

The revision undertaken in 1563 by Archbishop Parker, aided by Edm. Guest, bishop of Rochester, shows "an attempt to give greater completeness to the formulary," and to make clearer the Catholic position of the Church of England. For the clause (Art. xxviii.) which denied the Real Presence was substituted one by Guest with the desire "not to deny the reality of the presence of the Body of Christ in the Supper, but only the grossness and sensibleness in the receiving thereof." At the same time the substitution of "Romish doctrine" for "doctrine of School authors" (Art. xxii.) marks an effort to define the line of the Church of England sharply against current Roman teaching. The revision was passed by Convocation and again revised in 1571, when the queen had been excommunicated by papal bull, and an act was passed ordering all clergy to subscribe to them. They have remained unchanged ever since, though the terms of subscription have been modified.

An attempt was made to add nine articles of a strong Calvinistic tone, which were drawn up by Dr Whitaker, regius professor of divinity at Cambridge, and submitted to Archbishop Whitgift. They were rejected both by Queen Elizabeth, and, after the Hampton Court Conference petitioned about them, by King James I.

The first Scottish confession dates from 1560. It is a memorial of the intellectual power and enthusiasm of John Knox. It exhibits the leading features of the Reformed theology, but "disclaims Divine authority for any fixed form of church government or worship." It also asks that "if anyone shall note in this our confession any articles or sentence repugnant of God's Holy Word, that it would please him of his gentleness and for Christian charity's sake, to admonish of the same in writing," promising that if the teaching cannot be proved, to reform it. Between this and the Westminster Confession must be noted the first Baptist confession, published in Amsterdam in 1611. It shows the influence of Arminian theology against Calvinism, which was vigorously upheld in the _Quin-particular_ formula, put forward by the synod of Dort in 1619 to uphold the five points of Calvinism, after heated discussion, in which English delegates took part, of the problems of divine omniscience and human free-will.

Westminster Confession.

5. _The Westminster Confession_ (1648), with its two catechisms, is perhaps the ablest of the reformed confessions from the standpoint of Calvinism. Its keynote is sovereignty. "The Decrees of God are His eternal Purpose according to the Counsel of His Will, whereby for His Own Glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." Man's part is to accept them with submission. As the Anglican divines soon ceased to attend the assembly, and the Independents were few in number, it was the work of Presbyterians only, the Scottish members carrying their proposal to make it an independent document and not a mere revision of the Thirty-nine Articles. After discussions lasting for two years it was debated in parliament, finished on the 22nd of March 1648, and was adopted by the Scottish parliament in the following year. It is the only confession which has been imposed by authority of parliament on the whole of the United Kingdom. This lasted in England for ten years. In Scotland its influence has continued to the present day, contributing not a little to mould the high qualities of religious insight and courage and perseverance which have honourably distinguished Scottish Presbyterians all the world over. This was the last great effort in constructive theology of the Reformation period. When Cromwell before his death in 1658 allowed a conference to prepare a new confession of faith for the whole commonwealth, the Westminster Confession was accepted as a whole with an added statement on church order and discipline. We must note, however, that the Baptist divines who were excluded from the Westminster Assembly issued a declaration of their principles under the title, "A Confession of Faith of seven Congregations or Churches in London which are commonly but unjustly called Anabaptists, for the Vindication of the Truth and Information of the Ignorant."

Two other declarations may be quoted to show how necessary such confessions are even to religious societies which refuse to be bound by them. In 1675 Robert Barclay published an "Apology for the Society of Friends," in which he declared what they held concerning revelation, scripture, the fall, redemption, the inward light, freedom of conscience.

In 1833 the Congregational Union published a Declaration or Confession of Faith, Church Order and Discipline. It was prepared by Dr George Redford of Worcester, and was presented, not as a scholastic or critical confession of faith, but merely such a statement as any intelligent member of the body might offer as containing its leading principles. It deals with the Bible as the final appeal in controversy, the doctrines of God, man, sin, the Incarnation, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, "both the Son of man and the Son of God," the work of the Holy Spirit, justification by faith, the perpetual obligation of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, final judgment, the law of Christian fellowship. The same principles have been lucidly stated in the Evangelical Free Church catechism.

Greek church.

6. _Confessions in the Eastern Orthodox Church._--The Eastern Church has no general doctrinal tests beyond the Nicene Creed, but from time to time synods have approved expositions of the faith such as the Athanasian Creed (without the words "And the Son"), and the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church. This was the work of Petrus Mogilas, metropolitan of Kiev, and other theologians. It was written in 1640 in Russian, was translated into Greek, and approved by the council of Jassy and the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. It was affirmed by the council of Jerusalem in 1672, which also affirmed the Confession of Dositheus, patriarch of Jerusalem. Both of these confessions were drawn up to confute the teaching of a remarkable man who had been patriarch of Constantinople, Cyril Lucar. He was a student of Western theology, a correspondent of Archbishop Laud, and had travelled in Germany and Switzerland. In 1629 he published a confession in which he attempted to incorporate ideas of the reformers while preserving the leading ideas of Eastern traditional theology. The controversy chiefly turned on the question of the necessity of episcopacy. Dositheus taught that the existence of bishops is as necessary to the Church as "breath to a man and the sun to the world." Christ is the universal and perpetual Head of the Church, but he exercises his rule by means of "the holy Fathers," that is, the bishops whom the Holy Ghost has appointed to be in charge of local churches.

Mention may also be made of the longer catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Church compiled by Philaret, metropolitan of Moscow, revised and adopted by the Russian Holy Synod in 1839. The Church is defined as "a divinely-instituted community of men, united by the orthodox faith, the law of God, the hierarchy and the sacraments."

Roman Catholic.

7. _Roman Catholic Formularies._--For our present purpose the distinctive features of Roman Catholicism may be said to be summed up in the decrees of the council of Trent and the creed of Pope Pius IV. The council sat at intervals from 1545-1563, but there was a marked divergence between the opinions advocated by prominent members of the council and its final decrees. Cardinal Pole had to leave the council because he advocated the doctrine of justification by faith. Even at the later sessions the cardinal of Lorraine with the French prelates supported the German representatives in requests for the cup for the laity, the permission of the marriage of priests, and the revision of the breviary. Finally the decisions of the council were promulgated in a declaration of XII. articles, usually called the Creed of Pius IV., which reaffirmed the Nicene Creed, and dealt with the preservation of the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions, the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures "according to the sense which our Holy Mother Church has held," the seven sacraments, the offering of the mass, transubstantiation, purgatory, the veneration of saints, relics, images, the efficacy of indulgences, the supremacy of the Roman Church and of the bishop of Rome as vicar of Christ. To this summary of doctrine should be added the dogmas of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin declared in 1854, and of papal infallibility decreed by the Vatican council of 1870.

_Conclusion._--In this survey of Christian confessions it has been impossible to do more than barely name many which deserve discussion. This is a subject which has grown in importance and is likely to grow further. The very intensity of that phase of modern thought which declaims fervently against all creeds, and would maintain what George Eliot called "the right of the individual to general haziness," is likely to draw all Christian thinkers nearer to one another in sympathy through acceptance of the Apostles' Creed as the common basis of Christian thought. In the words of Hilary of Poitiers, "Faith gathers strength through opposition."

The question at once arises. Can the simple historic faith be maintained without adding theological interpretations, those arid wastes of dogma in which the springs of faith and reverence run dry? The answer is No. We cannot ask to be as if through nineteen centuries no one had ever asked a question about the relation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Father and the Holy Spirit. If we could come back to the Bible and use biblical terms only, as Cyril of Jerusalem wished in his early days, we know from experience that the old errors would reappear in the form of new questions, and that we should have to pass through the dreary wilderness of controversy from implicit to explicit dogma, from "I believe that Jesus is the Lord" to the confession that the Only Begotten Son is "of one substance with the Father." In the words of Hilary again:

"Faithful souls would be contented with the word of God which bids us:
'Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Ghost.' But also we are drawn by the faults of
our heretical opponents to do things unlawful, to scale heights
inaccessible, to speak out what is unspeakable, to presume where we
ought not. And whereas it is by faith alone that we should worship the
Father and reverence the Son, and be filled with the Spirit, we are
now obliged to strain our weak human language in the utterance of
things beyond its scope; forced into this evil procedure by the evil
procedure of our foes. Hence what should be matter of silent religious
meditation must now needs be imperilled by exposition in words."

The province of reverent theology is to aid accurate thinking by the use of metaphysical or psychological terms. Its definitions are no more an end in themselves than an analysis of good drinking water, which by itself leaves us thirsty but encourages us to drink. So the Nicene Creed is the analysis of the river of the water of life of which the Sermon on the Mount is a description, flowing on from age to age, freely offered to the thirsty souls of men.

This justification of the ancient creeds carries with it the justification of later confessions so far as they answered questions which would be fatal to religion if they were not answered. As Principal Stewart puts it very clearly: "The answer given is based on the philosophy or science of the period. It does not necessarily form part of the religion itself, but is the best which with the materials at its command, in its own defence and in its love for truth, the religion (and its advocates) can give. But the answers may be superseded by better answers, or they may be rendered unnecessary because the questions are no longer asked. Thus the Calvinism of the 16th and 17th centuries elaborated answers to questions, which if no attempt had been made to answer them, would have perplexed earnest souls and condemned the system; but many parts of the system are now obsolete, because the conditions which suggested the questions which they sought to answer no longer exist or have no longer any interest or importance."

LITERATURE.--See J. Pearson, _Exposition of the Creed_ (new ed.,
1849); A. E. Burn, _Introduction to the Creeds_ (1899), and _The
Athanasian Creed_ in vol. iv. of _Texts and Studies_ (1896); H. B.
Swete, _The Apostles' Creed_ (1899); F. Kattenbusch, _Das apostolische
Symbol_ (1894-1900); C. A. Heurtley, _Harmonia Symbolica_ (1858): C.
P. Caspari, _Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der
Glaubensregel_ (Christiania, 1866); and _Alte und neue Quellen_
(1879). T. Zahn, _Das apostolische Symbolum_ (1893); C. A. Swainson,
_The Nicene and Apostles' Creed_ (1875); G. D. W. Ommanney, _The
Athanasian Creed_ (1897); B. F. Westcott, _The Historic Faith_ (1882);
J. Jayne, _The Athanasian Creed_ (1905); J. A. Robinson, _The
Athanasian Creed_ (1905); E. C. S. Gibson, _The Three Creeds_ (1908);
F. J. A. Hort, _Two Dissertations_ (1876); D. Waterland, _Crit. Hist._
edited by E. King (Oxford, 1870); F. Loofs and A. Harnack articles in
Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopadie_ ("Athanasianum" and
"Konstantino-politanisches Symbol") (1896), &c.; K. Kunstle,
_Antipriscilliana_ (Freiburg i. B., 1905); A. Stewart, _Croall
Lectures_ (in the press); S. G. Green, _The Christian Creed_ (1898);
P. Hall, _Harmony of Protestant Confessions_ (London, 1842); F.
Kattenbusch, _Confessionskunde_ (Freiburg i. B., 1890); Winex's
_Confessions of Christendom_ (Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1865); A.
Seeberg, _Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit_ (Leipzig, 1903); F.
Wiegand, _Die Stellung des apostolischen Symbols_ (Leipzig, 1899); H.
Goodwin, _The Foundations of the Creed_ (London, 1889); T. H. Bindley,
_The Oecumenical Documents of the Faith_ (London, 1906); J. Kunze,
_Das nicanisch-konstantinopolitanische Symbol_; S. Baeumer, _Das
apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis_ (Mainz, 1893); B. Doxholt, _Das
Taufsymbol. der alten Kirche_ (Paderborn, 1898); L. Hahn, _Bibliothek
der Symbole u. Glaubensregeln_ (Breslau, 1897); A. C. McGiffert, _The
Apostles' Creed_ (Edinburgh, 1902); and F. Loofs, _Symbolik_ (Leipzig,
1902). (A. E. B.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Jevons, _Introd. to the History of Religion_, p. 394.

[2] _Sacred Books of the East_, xxxi.

[3] _Personality, Human and Divine_ (cheap edition), p. 36.

[4] Ib. p. 38.

[5] _Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit_, p. 85. Zahn's reasoned
argument stands in contrast to the blind reliance on tradition shown
by Macdonald, _The Symbol of the Apostles_, and the fanciful
reconstruction of the primitive creed by Baeumer, Harnack or Seeberg.

[6] McGiffert, on the other hand, argues that the Roman Creed was
composed to meet the errors of Marcion, p. 58 ff. He omits, however,
to mention this, which is Zahn's strongest argument.

[7] It is probable that "one" has dropped out of the first clause.
Zahn acutely suggests that it was omitted in the time of Zephyrinus
to counteract Monarchian teaching such as the formula: "believe in
one God, Jesus Christ."

[8] _Anecdota Maredsolana_, iii. iii. p. 199.

[9] Dorholt has shown that Petavius (d. 1652) was the first to remark
that the so-called Constantinopolitan form was quoted by Epiphanius
before the Council met, but was not able to explain the fact.

[10] Burn, "Note on the Old Latin text," _Journal of Theol. Studies._

[11] e.g. Cod. Escurial J.c. 12, _saec._ x. xi. In Cod. Matritensis,
p. 21 (1872), _saec._ x. xi., and Cod. Matritensis 10041 (begun in
the year A.D. 948), the words are omitted under the heading council of
Constantinople but inserted under the heading council of Toledo, in
the former MS., above the line and in a later hand, which shows
conclusively how the interpolation crept in.

[12] The first person who doubted the authorship seems to have been
Joachim Camerarius, 1551, who was so fiercely attacked in consequence
that he omitted the passage from his Latin edition. _Zeitschrift fur
K.G._ x. (1889), p. 497.

[13] In response to an invitation issued by the archbishop of
Canterbury, acting on a resolution of the Lambeth Conference of 1908,
a committee of eminent scholars met in April and May 1909 for the
purpose of preparing a new translation. Their report, issued on the
18th of October, stated that they had "endeavoured to represent the
Latin original more exactly in a large number of cases." The general
effect of the new version is to make the creed more comprehensible,
e.g. by the substitution of "infinite" and "reasoning" for such
archaisms as "incomprehensible" and "reasonable." The sense of the
damnatory clauses has, however, not been weakened. [Ed.]

[14] Illingworth, _Personality, Human and Divine_, p. 40.

[15] _The Christian Creed and the Creeds of Christendom_, p. 181.

[16] Gibson, _The Thirty-nine Articles_, p. 2.

CREEK (Mid. Eng. _crike_ or _creke_, common to many N. European languages), a small inlet on a low coast, an inlet in a river formed by the mouth of a small stream, a shallow narrow harbour for small vessels. In America and Australia especially there are many long streams which can be everywhere forded and sometimes dry up, and are navigable only at their tidal estuaries, mere brooks in width which are of great economic importance. They form complete river-systems, and are the only supply of surface water over many thousand square miles. They are at some seasons a mere chain of "water-holes," but occasionally they are strongly flooded. Since exploration began at the coast and advanced inland, it is probable that the explorers, advancing up the narrow inlets or "creeks," used the same word for the streams which flowed into these as they followed their courses upward into the country. The early settlers would use the same word for that portion of the stream which flowed through their own land, and in Australia particularly the word has the same local meaning as brook in England. On a map the whole system is called a river, e.g. the river Wakefield in South Australia gives its name to Port Wakefield, but the stream is always locally called "the creek."

CREEK or MUSKOGEE (MUSCOGEE) INDIANS (Algonquin _maskoki_, "creeks," in reference to the many creeks and rivulets running through their country), a confederacy of North American Indians, who formerly occupied most of Alabama and Georgia. The confederacy seems to have been in existence in 1540, and then included the Muskogee, the ruling tribe, whose language was generally spoken, the Alabama, the Hichiti, Koasati and others of the Muskogean stock, with the Yuchi and the Natchez, a large number of Shawano and the Seminoles of Florida as a branch. The Creeks were agriculturists living in villages of log houses. They were brave fighters, but during the 18th century only had one struggle, of little importance, with the settlers. The Creek War of 1813-14 was, however, serious. The confederacy was completely defeated in three hard-fought battles, and the peace treaty which followed involved the cession to the United States government of most of the Creek country. In the Civil War the Creeks were divided in their allegiance and suffered heavily in the campaigns. The so-called Creek nation is now settled in Oklahoma, but independent government virtually ceased in 1906. In 1904 they numbered some 16,000, some two-thirds being of pure or mixed Creek blood.

CREETOWN, a seaport of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 991. It is situated near the head of Wigtown Bay, 18 m. W. of Castle Douglas, but 23-1/2 m. by the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Railway. The granite quarries in the vicinity constitute the leading industry, the stone for the Liverpool docks and other public works having been obtained from them. The village dates from 1785, and it became a burgh of barony in 1792. Sir Walter Scott laid part of the scene of _Guy Mannering_ in this neighbourhood. Dr Thomas Brown, the metaphysician (1778-1820), was a native of the parish (Kirkmabreck) in which Creetown lies.

CREEVEY, THOMAS (1768-1838), English politician, son of William Creevey, a Liverpool merchant, was born in that city in March 1768. He went to Queen's College, Cambridge, and graduated as seventh wrangler in 1789. The same year he became a student at the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1794. In 1802 he entered parliament through the duke of Norfolk's nomination as member for Thetford, and married a widow with six children, Mrs Ord, who had a life interest in a comfortable income. Creevey was a Whig and a follower of Fox, and his active intellect and social qualities procured him a considerable intimacy with the leaders of this political circle. In 1806, when the brief "All the Talents" ministry was formed, he was given the office of secretary to the Board of Control; in 1830, when next his party came into power, Creevey, who had lost his seat in parliament, was appointed by Lord Grey treasurer of the ordnance; and subsequently Lord Melbourne made him treasurer of Greenwich hospital. After 1818, when his wife died, he had very slender means of his own, but he was popular with his friends and was well looked after by them; Greville, writing of him in 1829, remarks that "old Creevey is a living proof that a man may be perfectly happy and exceedingly poor. I think he is the only man I know in society who possesses nothing." He died in February 1838. He is remembered through the _Creevey Papers_, published in 1903 under the editorship of Sir Herbert Maxwell, which, consisting partly of Creevey's own journals and partly of correspondence, give a lively and valuable picture of the political and social life of the late Georgian era, and are characterized by an almost Pepysian outspokenness. They are a useful addition and correction to the _Croker Papers_, written from a Tory point of view. For thirty-six years Creevey had kept a "copious diary," and had preserved a vast miscellaneous correspondence with such people as Lord Brougham, and his step-daughter, Elizabeth Ord, had assisted him, by keeping his letters to her, in compiling material avowedly for a collection of Creevey Papers in the future. At his death it was found that he had left his mistress, with whom he had lived for four years, his sole executrix and legatee, and Greville notes in his _Memoirs_ the anxiety of Brougham and others to get the papers into their hands and suppress them. The diary, mentioned above, did not survive, perhaps through Brougham's success, and the papers from which Sir Herbert Maxwell made his selection came into his hands from Mrs Blackett Ord, whose husband was the grandson of Creevey's eldest step-daughter.

CREFELD, or KREFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the left side of and 3 m. distant from the Rhine, 32 m. N.W. from Cologne, and 15 m. N.W. from Dusseldorf, with which it is connected by a light electric railway. Pop. (1875) 62,905; (1905) 110,410. The town is one of the finest in the Rhine provinces, being well and regularly built, and possessing several handsome squares and attractive public gardens. A striking point about the inner town is that it forms a large rectangle, enclosed by four wide boulevards or "walls." This feature, rare in German towns, is due to the fact that Crefeld was always an "open place," and that therefore the circular form of a fortress town could be dispensed with. It has six Roman Catholic and four Evangelical churches (of which the Gothic Friedenskirche with a lofty spire, and the modern church of St Joseph, in the Romanesque style, are alone worth special mention); there are also a Mennonite and an Old Catholic church. The town hall, decorated with frescoes by P. Janssen (b. 1844), and the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum are the most noteworthy secular buildings. In the promenades are monuments to Moltke, Bismarck and Karl Wilhelm, the composer of the _Wacht am Rhein_. Among the schools and scientific institutions of the town the most important is the higher grade technical school for the study of the textile industries, which is attended by students from all parts of the world. Connected with this are subsidiary schools, notably one for dyeing and finishing.

Crefeld is the most important seat of the silk and velvet manufactures in Germany, and in this industry the larger part of the population of town and neighbourhood is employed. There are upwards of 12,000 silk power-looms in operation, and the value of the annual output in this branch alone is estimated at L3,000,000. A special feature is the manufacture of silk for covering umbrellas; while of its velvet manufacture that of velvet ribbon is the chief. The other industries of the town, notably dyeing, stuff-printing and stamping, are very considerable, and there are also engineering and machine shops, chemical, cellulose, soap, and other factories, breweries, distilleries and tanneries. The surrounding fertile district is almost entirely laid out in market gardens. Crefeld is an important railway centre, and has direct communication with Cologne, Rheydt, Munchen-Gladbach and Holland (via Zevenaar).

Crefeld is first mentioned in records of the 12th century. From the emperor Charles IV. it received market rights in 1361 and the status of a town in 1373. It belonged to the counts of Mors, and was annexed to Prussia, with the countship, in 1702. It remained a place of little importance until the 17th century, when religious persecution drove to it a number of Calvinists and Separatists from Julich and Berg (followed later by Mennonites), who introduced the manufacture of linen. The number of such immigrants still further increased in the 18th century, when, the silk industry having been introduced from Holland, the town rapidly developed. The French occupation in 1795 and the resulting restriction of trade weighed for a while heavily upon the new industry; but with the termination of the war and the re-establishment of Prussian rule the old prosperity returned.

CREIGHTON, MANDELL (1843-1901), English historian and bishop of London, was born at Carlisle on the 5th of July 1843, being the eldest son of Robert Creighton, a well-to-do upholsterer of that city. He was educated at Durham grammar school and at Merton College, Oxford, where he was elected to a postmastership in 1862. He obtained a first-class in _literae humaniores_, and a second in law and modern history in 1866. In the same year he became tutor and fellow of Merton. He was ordained deacon, on his fellowship, in 1870, and priest in 1873; in 1872 he had married Louise, daughter of Robert von Glehn, a London merchant (herself a writer of several successful books of history). Meanwhile he had published several small historical works; but his college and university duties left little time for writing, and in 1875 he accepted the vicarage of Embleton, a parish on the coast of Northumberland, near Dunstanburgh, with an ancient and beautiful church and a fortified parsonage house, and within reach of the fine library in Bamburgh Keep. Here he remained for nearly ten years, acquiring that experience of parochial work which afterwards stood him in good stead, taking private pupils, studying and writing, as well as taking an active part in diocesan business. Here too he planned and wrote the first two volumes of his chief historical work, the _History of the Papacy_; and it was in part this which led to his being elected in 1884 to the newly-founded Dixie professorship of ecclesiastical history at Cambridge, where he went into residence early in 1885. At Cambridge his influence at once made itself felt, especially in the reorganization of the historical school. His lectures and conversation classes were extraordinarily good, possessing as he did the rare gift of kindling the enthusiasm without curbing the individuality of his pupils. In 1886 he combined with other leading historians to found the _English Historical Review_, of which he was editor for five years. Meanwhile the vacations were spent at Worcester, where he had been nominated a canon residentiary in 1885. In 1891 he was made canon of Windsor; but he never went into residence, being appointed in the same year to the see of Peterborough. He threw himself with characteristic energy into his new work, visiting, preaching and lecturing in every part of his diocese. He also found time to preach and lecture elsewhere, and to deliver remarkable speeches at social functions; he worked hard with Archbishop Benson on the Parish Councils Bill (1894); he became the first president of the Church Historical Society (1894), and continued in that office till his death; he took part in the Laud Commemoration (1895); he represented the English Church at the coronation of the tsar (1896). He even found time for academical work, delivering the Hulsean lectures (1893-1894) and the Rede lecture (1894) at Cambridge, and the Romanes lecture at Oxford (1896).

In 1897, on the translation of Dr Temple to Canterbury, Bishop Creighton was transferred to London. During Dr Temple's episcopate ritual irregularities of all kinds had grown up, which left a very difficult task to his successor, more especially in view of the growing public agitation on the subject, of which he had to bear the brunt. As was only natural, his studied fairness did not satisfy partisans on either side; and his efforts towards conciliation laid him open to much misunderstanding. His administration, none the less, did much to preserve peace. He strained every nerve to induce his clergy to accept his ruling on the questions of the reservation of the Sacrament and of the ceremonial use of incense in accordance with the archbishop's judgment in the Lincoln case; but when, during his last illness, a prosecutor brought proceedings against the clergy of five recalcitrant churches, the bishop, on the advice of his archdeacons, interposed his veto. One other effort on behalf of peace may be mentioned. In accordance with a vote of the diocesan conference, the bishop arranged the "Round Table Conference" between representative members of various parties, held at Fulham in October 1900, on "the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist and its expression in ritual," and a report of its proceedings was published with a preface by him. The true work of his episcopate was, however, positive, not negative. He was an excellent administrator; and his wide knowledge, broad sympathies, and sound common sense, though they placed him outside the point of view common to most of his clergy, made him an invaluable guide in correcting their too often indiscreet zeal. He fully realized the special position of the English Church in Christendom, and firmly maintained its essential teaching. Yet he was no narrow Anglican. His love for the English Church never blinded him to its faults, and no man was less insular than he. As he was a historian before he became a bishop, so it was his historical sense which determined his general attitude as a bishop. It was this, together with a certain native taste for ecclesiastical pomp, which made him--while condemning the unhistorical extravagances of the ultra-ritualists--himself a ritualist. He was the first bishop of London, since the Reformation, to "pontificate" in a mitre as well as the cope, and though no man could have been less essentially "sacerdotal" he was always careful of correct ceremonial usage. His interests and his sympathies, however, extended far beyond the limits of the church. He took a foremost part in almost every good work in his diocese, social or educational, political or religious; while he found time also to cultivate friendly relations with thinking men and women of all schools, and to help all and sundry who came to him for advice and assistance. It was this multiplicity of activities and interests that proved fatal to him. By degrees the work, and especially the routine work, began to tell on him. He fell seriously ill in the late summer of 1900, and died on the 14th of January 1901. He was buried in St Paul's cathedral, where a statue surmounts his tomb.

He was a man of striking presence and distinguished by a fine courtesy of manner. His irrepressible and often daring humour, together with his frank distaste for much conventional religious phraseology, was a stumbling-block to some pious people. But beneath it all lay a deep seriousness of purpose and a firm faith in what to him were the fundamental truths of religion.

Bishop Creighton's principal published works are: _History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation_ (5 vols., 1882-1897, new ed.); _History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome_ (6 vols., 1897); _The Early Renaissance in England_ (1895); _Cardinal Wolsey_ (1895); _Life of Simon de Montfort_ (1876, new ed. 1895); _Queen Elizabeth_ (1896). He also edited the series of _Epochs of English History_, for which he wrote "The Age of Elizabeth" (13th ed., 1897); _Historical Lectures and Addresses by Mandell Creighton, &c._, edited by Mrs Creighton, were published in 1903.

See _Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, &c._, by his wife (2
vols., 1904); and the article "Creighton and Stubbs" in _Church
Quarterly Review_ for Oct. 1905.

CREIL, a town of northern France, in the department of Oise, 32 m. N. of Paris on the Northern railway, on which it is an important junction. Pop. (1906) 9234. The town is situated on the Oise, on which it has a busy port. The manufacture of machinery, heavy iron goods and nails, and copper and iron founding, are important industries, and there are important metallurgical and engineering works at Montataire, about 2 m. distant; bricks and tiles and glass are also manufactured, and the Northern railway has workshops here. The church (12th to 15th centuries) is in the Gothic style. There are some traces of a castle in which Charles VI. resided during the period of his madness. Creil played a part of some importance in the wars of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

CRELL (or KRELL), NICHOLAS (c. 1551-1601), chancellor of the elector of Saxony, was born at Leipzig, and educated at the university of his native town. About 1580 he entered the service of Christian, the eldest son of Augustus I., elector of Saxony, and when Christian succeeded his father as elector in 1586, became his most influential counsellor. Crell's religious views were Calvinistic or Crypto-Calvinistic, and both before and after his appointment as chancellor in 1589 he sought to substitute his own form of faith for the Lutheranism which was the accepted religion of electoral Saxony. Calvinists were appointed to many important ecclesiastical and educational offices; a translation of the Bible with Calvinistic annotations was brought out; and other measures were taken by Crell to attain his end. In foreign politics, also, he sought to change the traditional policy of Saxony, acting in unison with John Casimir, administrator of the Rhenish Palatinate, and promising assistance to Henry IV. of France. These proceedings, coupled with the jealousy felt at Crell's high position and autocratic conduct, made the chancellor very unpopular, and when the elector died in October 1591 he was deprived of his offices and thrown into prison by order of Frederick William, duke of Saxe-Altenburg, the regent for the young elector Christian II. His trial was delayed until 1595, and then, owing partly to the interference of the imperial court of justice (_Reichskammergericht_), dragged on for six years. At length it was referred by the emperor Rudolph II. to a court of appeal at Prague, and sentence of death was passed. This was carried out at Dresden on the 9th of October 1601.

See A. V. Richard, _Der kurfurstliche sachsische Kanzler Dr Nicolaus
Krell_ (Frankfort, 1860); B. Bohnenstadt, _Das Prozessverfahren gegen
den kursachsischen Kanzler Dr Nikolaus Krell_ (Halle, 1901); F.
Brandes, _Der Kanzler Krell, ein Opfer des Orthodoxismus_ (Leipzig,
1873); and E. L. T. Henke, _Caspar Peucer und Nicolaus Krell_
(Marburg, 1865).

CREMA, a town and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Cremona, 26 m. N.E. by rail from the town of Cremona. Pop. (1901) town, 8027; commune, 9609. It is situated on the right bank of the Serio, 240 ft. above sea-level, in the centre of a rich agricultural district. The cathedral has a fine Lombard Gothic facade of the second half of the 14th century; the campanile belongs to the same period; the rest of the church has been restored in the baroque style. The clock tower opposite dates from the period of Venetian dominion in the 16th and 17th centuries. The castle, which was one of the strongest in Italy, was demolished in 1809. The church of S. Maria, 3/4 m. E. of the town, was begun in 1490 by Giov. Batt. Battaggio; it is in the form of a Greek cross, with a central dome, and the exterior is a fine specimen of polychrome Lombard work (E. Gussalli in _Rassegna d' arte_, 1905, p. 17).

The date of the foundation of Crema is uncertain. In the 10th century it appears to have been the principal place of the territory known as Isola Fulcheria. In the 12th century it was allied with Milan and attacked by Cremona, but was taken and sacked by Barbarossa in 1160. It was rebuilt in 1185. It fell under the Visconti in 1338, and joined the Lombard republic in 1447; but was taken by the Venetians in 1449, and, except from 1509 to 1529, remained under their dominion until 1797.

CREMATION (Lat. _cremare_, to burn), the burning of human corpses. This method of disposal of the dead may be said to have been the general practice of the ancient world, with the important exceptions of Egypt, where bodies were embalmed, Judaea, where they were buried in sepulchres, and China, where they were buried in the earth. In Greece, for instance, so well ascertained was the law that only suicides, unteethed children, and persons struck by lightning were denied the right to be burned. At Rome, one of the XII. Tables said, "Hominem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito, neve urito"; and in fact, from the close of the republic to the end of the 4th Christian century, burning on the pyre or rogus was the general rule.[1] Whether in any of these cases cremation was adopted or rejected for sanitary or for superstitious reasons, it is difficult to say. Embalming would probably not succeed in climates less warm and dry than the Egyptian. The scarcity of fuel might also be a consideration. The Chinese are influenced by the doctrine of Feng-Shui, or incomprehensible wind water; they must have a properly placed grave in their own land, and with this view their corpses are sent home from long distances abroad. Even the Jews used cremation in the vale of Tophet when a plague came; and the modern Jews of Berlin and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews at Mile End cemetery were among the first to welcome the lately revived process. Probably also, some nations had religious objections to the pollution of the sacred principle of fire, and therefore practised exposure, suspension, throwing into the sea, cave-burial, desiccation or envelopment.[2] Some at least of these methods must obviously have been suggested simply by the readiest means at hand. Cremation is still practised over a great part of Asia and America, but not always in the same form. Thus, the ashes may be stored in urns, or buried in the earth, or thrown to the wind, or (as among the Digger Indians) smeared with gum on the heads of the mourners. In one case the three processes of embalming, burning and burying are gone through; and in another, if a member of the tribe die at a great distance from home, some of his money and clothes are nevertheless burned by the family. As food, weapons, &c., are sometimes buried with the body, so they are sometimes burned with the body, the whole ashes being collected.[3] The Siamese have a singular institution, according to which, before burning, the embalmed body lies in a temple for a period determined by the rank of the dead man,--the king for six months, and so downwards. If the poor relatives cannot afford fuel and the other necessary preparations, they bury the body, but exhume it for burning when an opportunity occurs.

There can be little doubt that the practice of cremation in modern Europe was at first stopped, and has since been prevented in great measure, by the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body; partly also by the notion that the Christian's body was redeemed and purified.[4] Some clergymen, however, as the late Mr Haweis in his _Ashes to Ashes, a Cremation Prelude_ (London, 1874), have been prominent in favour of cremation. The objection of the clergy was disposed of by the philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury when he asked, "What would in such a case become of the blessed martyrs?" The very general practice of burying bodies in the precincts of a church in order that the dead might take benefit from the prayers of persons resorting to the church, and the religious ceremony which precedes both European burials and Asiatic cremations, have given the question a religious aspect. It is, however, in the ultimate resort, really a sanitary one. The disgusting results of pit-burial made cemeteries necessary. But cemeteries are equally liable to overcrowding, and are often nearer to inhabited houses than the old churchyards. It is possible, no doubt, to make a cemetery safe approximately by selecting a soil which is dry, close and porous, by careful drainage, and by rigid enforcement of the rules prescribing a certain depth (8 to 10 ft.) and a certain superficies (4 yds.) for graves. But a great mass of sanitary objections may be brought against even recent cemeteries in various countries. A dense clay, the best soil for preventing the levitation of gas, is the worst for the process of decomposition. The danger is strikingly illustrated in the careful planting of trees and shrubs to absorb the carbonic acid. Vault-burial in metallic coffins, even when sawdust charcoal is used, is still more dangerous than ordinary burial. It must also be remembered that the cemetery system can only be temporary. The soil is gradually filled with bones; houses crowd round; the law itself permits the reopening of graves at the expiry of fourteen years. We shall not, indeed, as Browne says, "be knaved out of our graves to have our skulls made drinking bowls and our bones turned into pipes!" But on this ground of sentiment cremation would certainly prevent any interruption of that "sweet sleep and calm rest" which the old prayer that the earth might lie lightly has associated with the grave. And in the meantime we should escape the horror of putrefaction and of the "small cold worm that fretteth the enshrouded form."

In Europe Christian burial was long associated entirely with the ordinary practice of committing the corpse to the grave. But in the middle of the 19th century many distinguished physicians and chemists, especially in Italy, began prominently to advocate cremation. In 1874, a congress called to consider the matter at Milan resolved to petition the Chamber of Deputies for a clause in the new sanitary code, permitting cremation under the supervision of the syndics of the commune. In Switzerland Dr Vegmann Ercolani was the champion of the cause (see his _Cremation the most Rational Method of Disposing of the Dead_, 4th ed., Zurich, 1874). So long ago as 1797 cremation was seriously discussed by the French Assembly under the Directory, and the events of the Franco-Prussian War again brought the subject under the notice of the medical press and the sanitary authorities. The military experiments at Sedan, Chalons and Metz, of burying large numbers of bodies with quicklime, or pitch and straw, were not successful, but very dangerous. The matter was considered by the municipal council of Paris in connexion with the new cemetery at Mery-sur-Oise; and the prefect of the Seine in 1874 sent a circular asking information to all the cremation societies in Europe. In Britain the subject had slumbered for two centuries, since in 1658 Sir Thomas Browne published his quaint _Hydriotaphia, or Urn-burial_, which was mainly founded on the _De funere Romanorum_ of the learned Kirchmannus. In 1817 Dr J. Jamieson gave a sketch of the "Origin of Cremation" (_Proc. Royal Soc. Edin._, 1817), and for many years prior to 1874 Dr Lord, medical officer of health for Hampstead, continued to urge the practical necessity for the introduction of the system.