[1] Macrobius says it was disused in the reign of the younger
Theodosius (Gibbon v. 411).
[2] The Colchians, says Sir Thos. Browne, made their graves in the
air, i.e. on trees.
[3] In the case of a great man there was often a burnt offering of
animals and even of slaves (see Caesar, _De bell. Gall._ iv.).
[4] A temple of the Holy Ghost (see Tertullian, _De anima_, c. 51,
cited in Muller, _Lex. des Kirchenrechts_, s.v. "Begrabniss").
[5] This was the first society formed in Europe for the promotion of
cremation.
[6] For a full account of these, see _Modern Cremation: Its History
and Practice to the Present Date_, by Sir H. Thompson, Bart.,
F.R.C.S., &c. (4th ed., Smith, Elder, Waterloo Place, 1901).
[7] _The Times_, 27th March 1885.
[8] _Reports on Death Certification_ (1893), Eyre & Spottiswoode,
London (373,472).
[9] _Statutory Rules and Orders_, 1903, No. 286, Eyre & Spottiswoode.
[10] _A Special Inquiry into the Practice of Interment in Towns_, by
Edwin Chadwick (London, 1843), is replete with evidence, and should
be read by those who desire to pursue the inquiry further.
CREMER, JAKOBUS JAN (1837-1880), Dutch novelist, born at Arnhem in
September 1837, started life as a painter, but soon exchanged the brush
for the pen. The great success of his first novelettes (_Betuwsche
Novellen_ and _Overbetuwsche Novellen_), published about 1855--reprinted
many times since, and translated into German and French--showed Cremer
the wisdom of his new departure. These short stories of Dutch provincial
life are written in the quaint dialect of the Betuwe, the large flat
Gelderland island, formed by the Rhine, the name recalling the presumed
earliest inhabitants, the Batavi. Cremer is strongest in his delineation
of character. His picturesque humour, coming out, perhaps, most forcibly
in his numerous readings of the Betuwe novelettes, soon procured him the
name of the "Dutch Fritz Reuter." In his later novels Cremer abandons
both the language and the slight love-stories of the Betuwe, depicting
the Dutch life of other centres in the national tongue. The principal
are: _Anna Rooze_ (1867), _Dokter Helmond en zijn Vrouw_ (1870), _Hanna
de Freule_ (1873), _Daniel Sils_, &c. Cremer was less successful as a
playwright, and his two comedies, _Peasant and Nobleman_ and _Emma
Bertholt_, did not enhance his fame; nor did a volume of poems,
published in 1873. He died at the Hague in June 1880. His collected
novels have appeared at Leiden. An English novel, founded by Albert
Vandam upon _Anna Rooze_, considered by many his best work, was
published in London (1877, 3 vols.) under the title of _An Everyday
Heroine_.
CREMERA (mod. _Fosso della Valchetta_), a small stream in Etruria which
falls into the Tiber about 6 m. N. of Rome. The identification with the
Fosso della Valchetta is fixed as correct by the account in Livy ii. 49,
which shows that the Saxa Rubra were not far off, and this we know to be
the Roman name of the post station of Prima Porta, about 7 m. from Rome
on the Via Flaminia. It is famous for the defeat of the three hundred
Fabii, who had established a fortified post on its banks.
CREMIEUX, ISAAC MOISE [known as ADOLPHE] (1796-1880), French statesman,
was born at Nimes, of a rich Jewish family. He began life as an advocate
in his native town. After the revolution of 1830 he came to Paris,
formed connexions with numerous political personages, even with King
Louis Philippe, and became a brilliant defender of Liberal ideas in the
law courts and in the press,--witness his _Eloge funebre_ of the bishop
Gregoire (1830), his _Memoire_ for the political rehabilitation of
Marshal Ney (1833), and his plea for the accused of April (1835).
Elected deputy in 1842, he was one of the leaders in the campaign
against the Guizot ministry, and his eloquence contributed greatly to
the success of his party. On the 24th of February 1848 he was chosen by
the Republicans as a member of the provisional government, and as
minister of justice he secured the decrees abolishing the death penalty
for political offences, and making the office of judge immovable. When
the conflict between the Republicans and Socialists broke out he
resigned office, but continued to sit in the constituent assembly. At
first he supported Louis Napoleon, but when he discovered the prince's
imperial ambitions he broke with him. Arrested and imprisoned on the 2nd
of December 1851, he remained in private life until November 1869, when
he was elected as a Republican deputy by Paris. On the 4th of September
1870 he was again chosen member of the government of national defence,
and resumed the ministry of justice. He then formed part of the
Delegation of Tours, but took no part in the completion of the
organization of defence. He resigned with his colleagues on the 14th of
February 1871. Eight months later he was elected deputy, then life
senator in 1875. He died on the 10th of February 1880. Cremieux did much
to better the condition of the Jews. He was president of the Universal
Israelite Alliance, and while in the government of the national defence
he secured the franchise for the Jews in Algeria. This famous _Decret
Cremieux_ was the origin of the anti-Semitic movement in Algiers.
Cremieux published a _Recueil_ of his political cases (1869), and the
_Actes de la delegation de Tours et de Bordeaux_ (2 vols., 1871).
CREMONA, LUIGI (1830-1903), Italian mathematician, was born at Pavia on
the 7th of December 1830. In 1848, when Milan and Venice rose against
Austria, Cremona, then only a lad of seventeen, joined the ranks of the
Italian volunteers, and remained with them, fighting on behalf of his
country's freedom, till, in 1849, the capitulation of Venice put an end
to the hopeless campaign. He then returned to Pavia, where he pursued
his studies at the university under Francesco Brioschi, and determined
to seek a career as teacher of mathematics. His first appointment was as
elementary mathematical master at the gymnasium and lyceum of Cremona,
and he afterwards obtained a similar post at Milan. In 1860 he was
appointed to the professorship of higher geometry at the university of
Bologna, and in 1866 to that of higher geometry and graphical statics at
the higher technical college of Milan. In this same year he competed for
the Steiner prize of the Berlin Academy, with a treatise entitled
"Memoria sulle superficie de terzo ordine," and shared the award with J.
C. F. Sturm. Two years later the same prize was conferred on him without
competition. In 1873 he was called to Rome to organize the college of
engineering, and was also appointed professor of higher mathematics at
the university. Cremona's reputation had now become European, and in
1879 he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Society. In the
same year he was made a senator of the kingdom of Italy. He died on the
10th of June 1903.
As early as 1856 Cremona had begun to contribute to the _Annali di
scienze matematiche e fisiche_, and to the _Annali di matematica_, of
which he became afterwards joint editor. Papers by him have appeared in
the mathematical journals of Italy, France, Germany and England, and he
has published several important works, many of which have been
translated into other languages. His manual on _Graphical Statics_ and
his _Elements of Projective Geometry_ (translated by C. Leudesdorf),
have been published in English by the Clarendon Press. His life was
devoted to the study of higher geometry and reforming the more advanced
mathematical teaching of Italy. His reputation mainly rests on his
_Introduzione ad una teoria geometrica delle curve piane_, which
proclaims him as a follower of the Steinerian or synthetical school of
geometricians. He notably enriched our knowledge of curves and surfaces.
CREMONA, a city and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, the capital of the
province of Cremona, situated on the N. bank of the Po, 155 ft. above
sea-level, 60 m. by rail S.E. of Milan. Pop. (1901) town, 31,655;
commune, 39,344. It is oval in shape, and retains its medieval
fortifications. The line of the streets is as a rule irregular, but the
town as a whole is not very picturesque.
The finest building is the cathedral, in the Lombard Romanesque style,
begun in 1107 and consecrated in 1190. The wheel window of the main
facade dates from 1274. The transepts, added in the 13th and 14th
centuries (before 1370), have picturesque brick facades, with fine
terra-cotta ornamentation. The great Torrazzo, a tower 397 ft. high,
which stands by the cathedral, and is connected with it by a series of
galleries, dates from 1267-1291. It is square below, with an octagonal
summit of a slightly later period. The main facade of the cathedral was
largely altered in 1491, to which date the statues upon it belong; the
portico in front was added in 1497. The building would be much improved
by isolation, which it is hoped may be effected. The interior is fine,
and is covered with frescoes by Cremonese masters of the 16th century
(Boccaccio Boccaccino, Romanino, Pordenone, the Campi, &c.), which are
not of first-rate importance. The choir has fine stalls of 1489-1490,
upon one of which there is a view of the facade of the cathedral before
its alteration in 1491. The treasury contains a richly worked silver
crucifix 9 ft. high, of 1478, the base of which was added in 1774-1775.
It contains 408 statues and busts altogether, the central three of which
belong to an earlier cross of 1231. Adjacent to the cathedral is the
octagonal baptistery of 1167, 92 ft. in height and 75 ft. in external
diameter, also in the Lombard Romanesque style. The so-called Campo
Santo, close to the baptistery, contains a mosaic pavement with
emblematic figures belonging probably to the 8th and 9th centuries, and
running under the cathedral. Of the other churches, S. Michele has a
simple and good Lombard Romanesque 13th-century facade, and a plain
interior of the 10th century; and S. Agata a good campanile in the
former style. Many of them contain paintings by the later Cremonese
masters, especially Galeazzo Campi (d. 1536) and his sons Giulio and
Antonio. The latter are especially well represented in S. Sigismondo, 1-1/2
m. outside the town to the E. On the side of the Piazza del Comune
opposite to the cathedral are two 13th-century Gothic palaces in brick,
the Palazzo Comunale and the former Palazzo dei Giureconsulti, now the
seat of the commissioners for the water regulation of the district.
Another palace of the same period is now occupied by the Archivio
Notarile. The modern Palazzo Ponzoni contains a museum and a technical
institute. In front of it is a statue of the composer Amilcare
Ponchielli, who was a native of Cremona. The Palazzo Fodri, now the
Monte di Pieta, has a beautiful 15th-century frieze of terra-cotta
bas-reliefs, as have some other palaces in private hands.
Cremona was founded by the Romans in 218 B.C. (the same year as
Placentia) as an outpost against the Gallic tribes. It was strengthened
in 190 B.C. by the sending of 6000 new settlers and soon became one of
the most flourishing towns of upper Italy. It probably acquired
municipal rights in 90 B.C., but Augustus, owing to the fact that it did
not support him, assigned a part of its territory to his veterans in 41
B.C., and henceforth it is once more called _colonia_. It remained
prosperous (we may note that Virgil came here to school from Mantua)
until it was taken and destroyed by the troops of Vespasian after the
second battle of Betriacum (Bedriacum) in A.D. 69; the temple of Mefitis
alone being left standing (see Tacitus, _Hist._ iii. 15 seq.). One of
the bronze plates which decorated the exterior of the war-chest of the
_legio III. Macedonica_, one of the legions which had been defeated at
Betriacum, has been found near Cremona itself (F. Barnabei in _Notiz.
scavi_, 1887, p. 210). Vespasian ordered its immediate reconstruction,
but it never recovered its former prosperity, though its position on the
N. bank of the Po, at the meeting-point of roads from Placentia, Mantua
(the Via Postumia in both cases), Brixellum (where the roads from
Cremona and Mantua to Parma met and crossed the river), Laus Pompeia and
Brixia, still gave it considerable importance. It was destroyed once
more by the Lombards under Agilulf in A.D. 605, and rebuilt in 615, and
was ruled by dukes; but in the 9th century the bishops of Cremona began
to acquire considerable temporal power. Landulf, a German to whom the
see was granted by Henry II., was driven out in 1022, and his palace
destroyed, but other Germans were invested with the see afterwards. The
commune of Cremona is first mentioned in a document of 1098, recording
its investiture by the countess Matilda with the territory known as
Isola Fulcheria. It had to sustain many wars with its neighbours in
order to maintain itself in its new possessions. In the war of the
Lombard League against Barbarossa, Cremona, after having shared in the
destruction of Crema in 1160 and Milan in 1162, finally joined the
league, but took no part in the battle of Legnano, and thus procured
itself the odium of both sides. In the Guelph and Ghibelline struggles
Cremona took the latter side, and defeated Parma decisively in 1250. It
was during this period that Cremona erected its finest buildings. There
was, however, a Guelph reaction in 1264; the city was taken and sacked
by Henry VII. in 1311, and was a prey to struggles between the two
parties, until Galeazzo Visconti took possession of it in 1322. In 1406
it fell under the sway of Cabrino Fondulo, who received with great
festivities both the emperor Sigismund and Pope John XXIII., the latter
on his way to the council at Constance; he, however, handed it over to
Filippo Maria Visconti in 1419. In 1499 it was occupied by Venetians,
but in 1512 it came under Massimiliano Sforza. In 1535, like the rest of
Lombardy, it fell under Spanish domination, and was compelled to
furnish large money contributions. The population fell to 10,000 in
1668. The surprise of the French garrison on the 2nd of February 1702,
by the Imperialists under Prince Eugene, was a celebrated incident of
the War of the Spanish Succession. The Imperialists were driven from
Cremona after a sharp struggle, but captured Marshal Villeroi, the
French commander. Hence the celebrated verse:
"Francais, rendons grace a Bellone;
Notre bonheur est sans egal;
Nous avons conserve Cremonee,
Et perdu notre general."
In the 18th century the prosperity of Cremona revived. In the Italian
republic it was the capital of the department of the upper Po. Like the
rest of Lombardy it fell under Austria in 1814, and became Italian in
1859.