Clan2000 Cave kids Rev Hugh Paulinus Serenus Cressy

Cressey Named English Notables

Rev Hugh Paulinus Serenus Cressy1605

Rev Hugh Paulinus Serenus Cressy B.A. M.A. D.D. was a son of Sir Hugh, born in 1605 at Thorp Salvin in Yorkshire, England. At 14 he went to Oxford College where he graduated, B.A. In 1623. In 1625 he was elected a probationer of Merton College and in 1626 was made a true and perpetual fellow of that society. Whilst at Oxford, Cressey was known to be a quick and accurate disputant, a man of good manners, nature and refined ness of soul.

After having commenced M.A. in 1629 and taken holy orders he officiated as Chaplain to Sir Thomas Lord Wentworth while that nobleman was president of the council of York, and later Lord Deputy of Ireland and Earl of Strafford. In 1635 he was installed in Christ Church, Dublin, Ireland.

He returned to England in 1642 and was awarded a canonry in the collegiate church of Windsor, which he received in 1642, this he was never able to enjoy, owing to the disturbed state of the country. The following year (1643) his patron, Lord Falkland, was killed at Newbury. He wrote, 'Church History of Brittany or England, from the Beginning of Christianity to the Norman Conquest'. 'From the Conquest Downwards', was discovered at Douai in 1856.

His other works are:

Appendix to 'Exomologesis' (Paris, 1647);

'Arbor virtutum, a MS. preserved at Ugbrooke, Devonshire';

'The Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection' by Walter Hilton, ed. Cressy (London, 1659);

'Sancta Sophia' by Ven. Fr. Aug. Baker, ed. Cressy (Douai, 1657);

'Certain Patterns of Devout Exercises' (Douai, 1657); 'Roman Catholic Doctrines no Novelties' (1633);

'A Non Est Inventus' (London, 1662); 'A Letter to an English Gentleman concerning Bishop Morley' (London, 1662);

'Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love', from an ancient copy (1670);

'Fanaticism Fanatically Imputed to the Catholic Church by Dr. Stillingfleet' (1672);

'First Question: Why Are You a Catholic?' etc. (London, 1672);

'An Answer to Part of Dr. Stillingfleet's Book intitul'd Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome' (1674);

'An Epistle Apologetical of S.C. to a Person of Honour' (1674); An Abridgment of the Book called 'The Cloud of Unknowing' by Maurice Chauncey' (MS).

His scholarly attainments and power as a preacher have given him favour with all the churches of England and his ministry has been honoured by the Protestant and Catholic Churches. After mature consideration and many conferences with D.D.'s he was reconciled to the Roman Church, and made a public recantation at Rome before the inquisition in 1646. He went to Paris to prepare for the Priesthood, and while there he was befriended by Henrietta Maria, Queen of England,(1609-1669), queen consort of Charles I of England, daughter of Henry IV of France. She had married Charles in 1625. Queen Henrietta assigned him a hundred crowns to defray the cost of a journey to a monastery.

He became a Benedictine Monk at St. Gregory's, Douay, August 22, 1649. On the marriage of Charles II with Catherine of Braganza he became one of her Majesty's servants and resided mostly at Somerset House in the Strand. Rev Fr. Cressey died at East Grinstead, Sussex, England, in the house of Richard Caryll, a gentleman of an ancient Catholic family, on 10th August 1674, aged 68. He was buried in the Parish Church.

(Sources and acknowledgements to : University of London Institute of Historical Research and The Thoroton Society)

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