He was born at Carlisle, the eldest son of Robert Creighton, a well-to-do upholsterer. 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 Castle. Here he remained for nearly ten years, acquiring experience of parochial work which later stood him in good stead, taking private pupils, studying and writing, and 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 the University of 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 Frederick 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, and he had to bear the brunt of public disapproval. His efforts towards conciliation laid him open to much misunderstanding. His administration nonetheless did much to preserve peace. He tried hard to persuade 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, used 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.
Creighton was an excellent administrator. He understood the special position of the Church of England, and firmly maintained its essential teaching. Yet he was no narrow Anglican, and was not blinded to the Church's faults. As he was a historian before he became a bishop, it was his historical sense which determined his general attitude as a bishop. This, together with a taste for ecclesiastical ceremony, made him--while condemning the extravagances of the ultraritualists--a ritualist. He was the first Bishop of London since the Reformation to "pontificate" in a mitre as well as the cope, and was always careful of correct ceremonial usage. His interests and extended far beyond the church. He was involved in almost every good work in his diocese, social or educational, political or religious. It was this multiplicity of activities and interests that caused the overwork which led to his falling seriously ill in the late summer of 1900. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, where a statue surmounts his tomb.
Bishop Creighton's principal published works are:
See Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, etc., by his wife (2 vols, 1904); and the article "Creighton and Stubbs" in Church Quarterly Review for Oct. 1905.
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.