512 



CRANTARA CRAVAT. 



ance, and sentenced to be degraded and deprived of 

 office. After this, flattering promises were made, 

 which induced him to sign a recantation of his 

 alleged errors, and become, in fact, a Catholic con- 

 vert. The triumph of his enemies was now com- 

 plete, and nothing was wanting but the sacrifice of 

 their abused and degraded victim. Oxford was the 

 scene of his execution ; but, to make the tragedy 

 more impressive, he was placed on a scaffold in St 

 Mary's church, the day he was to suffer, there to 

 listen to a declaration of his faults and heresies, his 

 extorted penitence, and the necessity of his expiating, 

 by his death, errors which Heaven alone could 

 pardon, but which were of an enormity too por- 

 tentous to be passed over by an earthly tribunal. 

 Those who planned this proceeding accomplished 

 but half their object. Instead of confessing the 

 justness of his sentence, and submitting to it in 

 silence, or imploring mercy, he calmly acknowledged 

 that the fear of death had made iiim belie his con- 

 science; and declared that nothing could afford 

 him consolation but the prospect of extenuating his 

 guilt by encountering, as a Protestant penitent, with 

 firmness and resignation, the fiery torments which 

 awaited him. He was immediately hurried to the 

 stake, where he behaved with the resolution of a 

 martyr, keeping his right hand, with which he had 

 signed his recantation, extended in the flames, that 

 it might be consumed before the rest of his body, 

 exclaiming, from time to time, " That unworthy 

 hand." He was executed, March 21, 1555 6. 



The fate of Cranmer has shed a false lustre over 

 his character, and procured him the reputation of a 

 Protestant martyr, while he was, in reality, the vic- 

 tim of party malice and personal revenge. Suc- 

 cessively a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Zuinglian, a 

 defender of transnbstantiation, and then a persecutor 

 of those who believed that doctrine, the soundness, 

 if not the sincerity of his faith, may fairly be quc?- 

 tioned. Even the purity of his motives as a re- 

 former, is rendered somewhat doubtful, by the fact 

 of his having obtained, on very advantageous terms, 

 numerous grants of estates which had belonged to 

 suppressed monasteries. His private character, 

 however, was amiable; and, whatever may have 

 been his principles, no doubt can exist as to the 

 eminence of his talents. His continued favour with 

 the capricious Henry is a decisive proof of his 

 mental superiority. He steadily pursued his grand 

 object, the independence of the English church, to 

 the establishment of which he contributed far more 

 than any other individual. 



CRANTARA ; the cross which formed the rally- 

 ing symbol in the Highlands of Scotland on any 

 sudden emergency. It was called in Gaelic, crean 

 tarigh, " the cross of shame ;" because, says Sir 

 Walter Scott, in his note on the passage of the Lady 

 of the Lake (canto 3), in which he has made such a 

 fine use of it, disobedience to what the symbol im- 

 plied, inferred infamy. 



" When flits this cross from man to man, 

 Vich Alpine's summons to his clan, 

 Bunt be the ear that fails to heed ! 

 Palsied the foot that shuns to speed ! 

 May ravens tear the careless eyes, 

 Wolves make the coward heart their prize ! 

 As sinks the blood- stream in the earth, 

 So may his heart's blood drench his hearth ! 

 As dies in hissing gore the spark, 

 Quench thoti his light, Destruction dark ! 

 And be the grace to him denied 

 Bought by this sign to all besides !" 



The Highlanders appear to have borrowed it from 

 the ancient Scandinavians, of the use of it among 

 whom, for rousing the people to arms, Olaus 

 Magnus- gives a particular account. As late as the 

 insurrection in 1745, the crantara, or fiery cross, 



was circulated in Scotland, and, on one occasion, it 

 l>aM-d through the district of Breadalbane, a tract 

 of thirty-two miles, in three hours. After Charles 

 Kdward liad marched into England, two of the king's 

 frigates threatened the coast with a descent. The 

 crantara was sent through the district of Appine by 

 Alexander Stuart of Invernahyle (who related the 

 circumstance to Sir Walter Scott), and, in a lew 

 hours, a sufficient force was collected to render the 

 attempt of the English hopeless. 



CRAPE; a light, transparent stuff, like gauze, 

 made of raw silk, gummed and twisted on the mill, 

 woven without crossing, and much used in mourn- 

 ing. Crapes are either craped (i. e., crisped) or 

 smooth. The silk destined for the first is more 

 twisted than that for the second, it being the greater 

 or less degree of twisting, especially of the warp, 

 which produces the crisping given to it, when taken 

 out of the loom, steeped in clear water, and rubbed 

 with a piece of wax for the purpose. Crapes are 

 all dyed raw. This stuff came originally from 

 Bologna ; but, till of late years, Lyons is said to 

 have had the chief manufacture of it. It is now 

 manufactured in various parts of Great Britain. The 

 crape brought from China is of a more substantial 

 fabric. 



CRAPELET ; father and son ; two printers. The 

 father, Charles, born at Bounnont, November 13, 

 1762, established his printing-office in 1789, and diet! 

 October 19, 1809. He might be called the French 

 Baskerville. Like this printer, lie endeavoured to 

 unite the greatest simplicity with elegance, to deli- 

 ver the art of printing from the heterogeneous orna- 

 ments with which it was so overloaded, particularly 

 in France, and from which even Didot could not en- 

 tirely free himself; but he surpassed his model in 

 the form of his types and the regularity of his work. 

 His editions are no less correct than neat and beau- 

 tiful. He has also been successful in printing on 

 parchment, and has shown his skill by producing an 

 impression in gold (thirteen copies of Audebert's 

 Oiseaux dort-s, Paris, 1802, two vols., folio). A.G. 

 Crapelet has extended his father's business, and has 

 excelled Iiim in elegance. His Lafontaine (1814), 

 Montesquieu (1816), Rousseau and Voltaire (both 

 1819), are monuments of his taste ; and the large 

 vellum-paper copies are truly splendid works. The 

 words " De rimprimerie de Crapelet " are a great 

 recommendation. Renouard has had all the editions 

 published at his expense printed by Crapelet, who, 

 in 1800, employed twenty-two presses. 



CRASSUS. Two Romans of this name are here 

 to be mentioned. 1. Lucius Licinius Crassus, who 

 was made consul A. U. C. 658 (B. C. 96), and pass- 

 ed for the greatest orator of his time. He was dis- 

 tinguished for talent, presence of mind, and integrity. 

 2. M. Licinius Crassus, surnauied Dives (the rich), 

 so called, like many of his family, on account of his 

 vast riches. He possessed a fortune equal to 

 1,125,000. He once gave an entertainment to 

 the whole people, in which 10,000 tables were set, 

 and, besides this, distributed corn enough to last 

 each family three months. In the years of Rome 

 683 and 698, he was colleague of Poinpey, in the 

 consulship, and, in 688, censor. As he was one of 

 the most influential men in Rome, and very ambi- 

 tious, his friendship was sought by Cassar, who form- 

 ed, with him and Pompey, the famous triumvirate. 

 He perished with a great part of his army, in an 

 expedition against the Parthians, undertaken from 

 motives of avarice and ambition, B. C. 53. 



CRATER. See Volcano. 



CRAVAT; an unhealthy, uncomfortable, unbe- 

 coming article of European dress. The ancients 

 were unacquainted with this ridiculous and injurious 



