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CREMATION

ing property of the university approximates two mil- lions and a quarter, exclusive of its buildings, grounds and equipment. The hospital takes care of about 2400 patients a year, of whom more than half are non- Catholics, and one-third absolutely free. John Creighton was honoured by Loo XIII with the order of St. Gregory and later with the title of Count of the Papal Siates. In 1900 ho received the Latare Medal from the University of Notre Dame.

Reminh'icenfx.t of Crciqhton Vnivcrsity; Creighton (biographi- cal sketches of the family) — both pubhshed by the University; Morton, History of Nebraska; Savage and Bell, History of Omaha; Sorensen. History of Omaha; the annu.al Catalogues and other publications of Creighton University and the annual reports of tbe Creighton Memorial Hospital.

M. p. DoWLING.

was made a see and a suffragan of Milan. Among the most noted of its bishops was the zealous Marcan- tonio ZoUi. The diocese has a population of 58,000, with .53 parishes, 65 churches and chapels, 174 secular and 4 regular priests, 1 religious house of men and 7 of women.

Cappellktti, Le chicse d'Jtalia (Venice, 18.57), XII, 241-75; Ann. eccl. (Rome, 1907), 432-33; Barbieri, Compendia crono- logico delta storia di Crema (Crema, 1SS8).

U. Benigni.

Cremation. — I. History. — The custom of burning the bodies of the dead dates back to very early times. The Prc-Canaanites practised it until the introduction of inhumation among them along with the civilization of the Semitic people about 2500 B. c. History re- veals no trace of incineration among the Jewish people, Crelier, Henri-Joseph, Swiss Catholic priest. He- except in extraordinary circumstances of war and pes- brew scholar and Bil)lical exegete; b. at Bure, 16 tilence. It was likewise unknown, in practice at least,

October, ISKJ; d. at Bre.s- sancourt, France, 22.\pril, 1889. From 1845 to 1855 he was professor at the col- lege of Porrentruy (Swit- zerland); later he became chaplain of the Religious of the Sacred Heart at Besan(on, France, and de- vott^d his leisure hours to the study of Sacred Scrip- ture. He was subse- quently appointed pastor of the church of Rebeuve- lier, and Knally of Bres- Bancourt, where he died. He l<'ft many works on Sacred Scripture, some of which have a special value. Among the.se we note: "Lespsaumes traduits lit- t^ralement sin- le texte hebreu avec un commen- taire" (Paris, 1858); " Le livre de Job veng6 des in- terpretations fausses et impies de M. E. Renan" (Paris, 1800) ; " Le Canti-

3ue des cantiques vengS es interpretations fausse-s et impies de .M. E. Renan" (Paris, 1861); ".\I. Renan gticrmvant contre le sur- naturc'l" (Paris, 186.S); "M. E. Renan trahissant le Chri.st par un roman, "

etc. (Paris, 1804). To the "Commentaries on the Bible", published by Lethielleux, he contributed the Acts of the Apostles (188.3), Exodus (1880), Leviticus (iss(i), (ieiiesis (1889).

I.i.visgUE in Vic, Did. de la Bil/h

OF S. Maria Maggiore, Crema

to the Egyptians, Phoeni- cians, Carthaginians; or to the inhabitants of Asia Minor — the Cdrians, Ly- dians, and Phrj'gians. The Babylonians, according to Herodotus, embalmed their dead, and the Persians pun- ished capitally such as at- tempted cremation, special regulations being followed in the purification of fire so desecrated. The Greeks and Romans varied in their practice according to their views of the after life; those who believed in a future existence analogous to the present burieil their dead, even leaving food in the tomb for the nourish- ment and enjoyment of the departed; such as, on the other hand, held the opinion that on the decay of the body life was con- tinued in the shade or image, practised crema- tion, the more expedi- tiously to speed the dead to the land of shadows. But the practice of cremating never entirely superseded what Cicero tells us (De Leg., II, xxii) was the older rite among tlie Roman peo-

R. BUTIN.

pie. Indeed the Cornelian gens, one of the most cul tured in Rome, had, with the single excejition of Sulla, never permitted the burning of their dead. By the fifth century of the Christian Era, owing in great part to the rapid progress of Christianity, the practice of cremation had entirely cea.scd.

The Christians never burned their dead, but fol- Crema, Diocese op (Cremexsis), suffragan to lowed from earliest days the practice of the Semitic Mil.an. Crema is a city of the province of Cremona, race and the personal example of their Divine Founder. Loinbardy, Northern Italy, .situated between the It is reconled that in times of persecution many risked Rivers Adda and the Oglio, in a mar.shy region. It their lives to recover the bodies of martyrs for the was built by inhabitants of various cities of the Insu- holy rites of Christian burial. The pagans, to destroy bres, who fled thither during tlie Lomb.'ird inv;usion of faith in the resurrection of the body, often cast the Italy. Crema fell eventually under Lombard rule corp.ses of martyred Christians into the flames, fondly and shared the vicis.sit tides of that monarchy. Crema believing thus to render impossible the resurrection of was one of the first cities to organize as .1 commune, the body. What Cliristian faith has ever held in this It joined t he Lombard League, and was therefore de- regard is clearly put by the third-century writer Miim- stroyed, first by Frederick Barbaros-sa and later by cius Felix, in his dialogue "Octavius", refuting the the nihabitants of Cremona and Lodi. It afterwarcis assertion that cremation made this resurrection an acknowledged the rule of the Torriani and of the Vis- impossibility: "Nor do we fear, as you suppose, conti of Milan, for a while also that of the Benzoni. .any harm from the (mode of] sepulture, but wo adhere Finally it became subject to the Republic of Venice, to the old, .and better, custom" ("Nee, ut creditis, It belonged to the Diocese of Lodi until 1580, when it ullum damnum sepultura; timemus «cd vctercm et IV — 31