Mandell Creighton

Mandell Creighton

Mandell Creighton /mndl kratn/ (5 July 1843 14 January 1901) was an English historian and a prelate of the Church of England. A scholar of the Renaissance papacy, Creighton was the first occupant of the Dixie Chair of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge, a professorship that was established around the time that the study of history was emerging as an independent academic discipline. He was also the first editor of the English Historical Review, the oldest English language academic journal in the field of history. Creighton had a second career as a clergyman in the Church of England. He served as a parish priest in Embleton, Northumberland, and later, successively, as Bishop of Peterborough and Bishop of London. His moderation, worldliness, and vigour drew praise from Queen Victoria and notice from politicians. It was widely thought at the time that Creighton would have become the Archbishop of Canterbury had his death, at age 57, not intervened. Creighton's historical work received mixed reviews. He was praised for scrupulous even-handedness, but criticised for not taking a stand against historical excesses. For his part, he was firm in asserting that public figures be judged for their public acts, not private ones. His preference for the concrete to the abstract diffused through his writings on the Church of England as well. He believed that the church was uniquely shaped by its particular English circumstances, and advocated that it reflect the views and wishes of the English people. Creighton was married to author and future women's suffrage activist Louise Creighton, and together the couple had seven children. The Creightons were greatly interested in the education of children and, between the two of them, wrote nearly two dozen school history primers. A man of complex intelligence and exceptional vigour, Mandell Creighton was emblematic of the Victorian era, both in his strengths and in his failings.

C Creighton Mandell's Books:

[Hilaire Belloc]