Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/529

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CBAYER


4()0


CREAGH


and Pauline was introduceil into the l)rilliant socicly of the Rostoration. In 18W tier fatlicr was given the post of aniba.-^sailor to Riwnc, whi-ic he was acconi- panii'd by his family. It was prolialily in Naples that she nut Auyustus Craven, son of Kcppel Craven antl granilsonof tlieM;ui;nivincof Anspaeh, whoinl830had been appointetl atUieh(5 to the British Legation at Na- ples. Their marriage was celebrated. '2i August, 1S:J4, in the chapel of the Acton Palace, Naples, and a few days afterwards Augustus Craven was received into the Church. In 1836 Sir. and Mrs. Craven returned to England, whence they went successively to Lisbon, Brussels (1S38). and Stuttgart (1843), where Mr. Cravrn held diplomatic appointments. Up to this time .Mrs. Craven's life had been intimately bound up with those of her immediate family, whom the w'orld has come to know an<.l love in the pages of " Le Recit d'une Sceur". She took a keen interest in English politics, and in 1851 wrote a protest against an attack in the House of Commons on conventual life as it was being revived in England.

In 1851 Mr. Craven made an unsuccessful stand for Parliament, which caused him severe financial losses. In 1S53 the Cravens took up their residence at Naples in the Palazzino Chiatamone, or as it came to be called, the Casa Craven, formerly occupied by Mr. Craven's father, who had died in 1851. During the years that followed, this became the centre of the brilliant Neapolitan society depicted in Mrs. Craven's " Le mot de I'^nigme". By 1864 she had arranged the nia.ss of materials for " Le R^cit d'une Sceur", and had begun "Anne Severin". "Le Recit" appeared in January, 1866. In March, 1868, the first part of "Anne Severin " began in " Le Correspondant ", and Lady FuUerton commenced the translation.

The winters of 1868-69 and 1869-70 w-ere spent in Rome, and at the Craven apartments numbers of dis- tinguished people met, among them many of the prel- ates present at the Vatican Council. Mrs. Craven's best known novel, "Fleurange", appeared in 1872 sinuiltaneoasly at Paris in "Le Correspondant" and at .\i-w York in English through the eiforts of Father Herker in "The Catholic World". This work wius crowned by the Academy. It was followed in 1874 by "Le motde I'dnigme". In the same year Mrs. Craven's answer to Gladstone's article in the "Contemporary Review", entitled "Ritualism and Ritual", and his subse()uent pamphlet, appeared in "Le Correspon- dant "on the same day as Cardinal Newman's " Letter to the Duke of Norfolk".

After 1870 Mrs. Craven's life was spent chiefly in Paris, varied by lengthy visits to English friends, and more particularly to Monabri, the beautiful chalet of Princess Sayn Wittgenstein, between Lausanne and Ouchy, where the Empress Augusta was also a frefjuent guest. The life of Natalie Narischkin, on which Mrs. Craven had long been at work, appeared in 1876. Mr. Craven died at Monabri, 4 October, 1884, and was buried at Boury. During the remaining seven years of Mrs. Craven's life she w-as busy with various articles for reviews, but chiefly with her last novel, "Le Valbriant", and the life of her friend. Lady Georgiana Fullerton, published in 1888, and adapted by Father C'oleri<lge in his life. On 5 June, 1890, she was attacked by a species of paralysis, which after ten months, during which she was de- prived of speech, resulted in her death.

Bishop, A Memoir of Mrs. Augustus Craven (2nd ed., Lon- don, 1895); Lee, in Did. Nal, Biog., s. v. in Supplement.

F. M. RtTDGE.

Crayer, Caspar de, Flemish painter, b. at Ant- werp, 1582; d. at Ghent, 1669. He was a pupil of Rapliael van Coxcie, but speedily surpassed his master, and was appointed painter to the Governor of the Ix)W Countries at Brussels, was given a con- siderable pension, and employed in the churches


and public etlifices of that place. He resigned his position, however, and removed to Ghent, where he painted his most celebrated works. Of his picture of the "Centurion and Christ", painted for the refectory of the abbey at Afflighcni. Rubens is said to have declared: "Crayer, nobody will surpass you". He was one of the most eminent Flemish painters, and. althovigh not a man of profound genius, was a perfect draughtsman and an admirable colourist. His compositions are simple, correct, and pleasing, his colouring clear and fresh, comparable only in his own school to that of Van Dyck. In many of his important works he emjiloyed De Vadder and Achtschellinck to paint the landscapes, he himself being resjjonsible for the composition and figures. His chief work is the " Death of the Virgin " in Madrid, and liis principal ])ortrait is that of the Cardinal In- fant Don Ferdinand, brother of the King of Spain, on horseback. There are several of liis paintings at Brussels, three in Ghent, one at Antwerp, and others at Amsterdam, Munich, Nancy, Paris, St. Petersburg, and Rotterdam. His portrait was painted by Van Dyck and engraved by Pontius, and he hunself is said to have been responsible for more than one woodcut.

CoxwM / <- ■; I:. ■' . ' 1 ', ' ' London, 1887); Passavant, las-;.. , ■ J . ni, 1842); KuGLER, i/anrf-

buch.h ';/ I , 11. 18.37): Waagen, //an(/-

bookuj I-!' nn h I'l!/!:' .ij I . .'Mi..[i. 1 s'pO); HoussAYE, L'//is(oi>e de la peinturt' flamaii'lf (Paris, 1848); Crowe and Cavalca- SELLE, Early Flemish Painters (London, 1857).

George Ch.4.rles Williamson.

Creagh, Richard, Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, b. at Limerick early in the sixteenth century; d. in the Tower of London, in 1585. The son of a mer- chant, he followed the same calling in his youth and made many voyages to Spain. A providential escape from shipwreck led him to embrace a religious life, and after some years of study abroad he was ordained priest. Returning to Ireland, he taught school for a time at Limerick. He refused nominations for the Sees of Limerick and Cashel, but the papal nuncio, David Wolfe, determined to conquer his humility, named him for the primacy when it became vacant, and would accept no refusal. Creagh was consecrated at Rome, and in 1564 returned to Ireland as Arch- bishop of Armagh. Shane O'Neill was then the most potent of the Ulster chiefs. From the first he and Creagh disagreed. O'Neill hated England; Creagh preached loyalty to England in the cathedral of Armagh, even in his presence. O'Neill retorted by burning down the cathedral. Creagh then cursed him and refused to absolve him because he had put a priest to death. Shane retaliated by threatening the life of the primate, and by declaring publicly that there was no one on earth he hated so nuich, except the Queen of England, whom he confessed he hated more. In spite of all this, Creagh was arrested and imprisoned l>y the English. Twice he escaped, l)ut he was retaken and in 1567 lodged in the Tower of London, and kept there till his death. From his re- peated examinations before the Engli.sh Privy Coun- cil his enmity to Shane (J'Neill and his unwavering loyalty to England were made plain. But his stead- fastness in the Faith and his great popularity in Ire- land were considered crimes, and in consequence the Council refused to set him free. Not content with this his moral character was as.sailed. The daughter of his jailer was urged to charge him with having assaulted her. The charge was investigated in public court, where the girl retracted, iledaring her accus.a- tion absolutely false. It has been said that Cre.agh was poisoned in prison, and this, whether true or false, was believed at the time of his death. His grand- nephew, Peter Creagh, was Bishop of Cork about 1676. He W'.is imprisoned for two years in conse- quence of the false accusations of Titus Gates, but