Hugh Cressey

or Cressy son of Hugh Cressey a Counsellour of Lincolns Inn, by (Margerie) his wife, dau. of Dr. Tho. D’oylie a Physitian of London, was born in a market Town in Yorksh. called Wakefield, (descended from an antient and gentile family of his name living sometimes at Holme near Hodsack in Nottinghamshire) and being educated in Grammar learning in his native country, was, at 14 years of age, sent to the University of Oxon. in Lent term an. 1619, but for want of a vigilant Tutor, he lost much time, yet having good natural parts, did, in the fourth year after his coming to the Univ. take the degree of Bach. of Arts, and in 1625 being a candidate for a Fellowship of Merton Coll. he was elected Probationer, and the year after was made true and perpetual Fellow: So that what time and learning he before had lost, was, by a strict and severe discipline then and there observed, recovered and advanced. After he had taken the degree of M. of Arts and had entred into holy Orders, he became Chaplain to Thom. Lord Wentworth while he was President of the North, and afterwards when he was Earl of Strafford; but what he obtained from that most noble Lord while he enjoyed that honourable employment I know not. In 1638 he went in the quality of a Chaplain, as I conceive, with his most honoured Lord Lucius Viscount Falkland when he went into Ireland, and in the year after returned into England, but had nothing then and there conser’d upon him. In the latter end of 1642 he became, by the favour and interest of the said Viscount (then one of the Secretaries of State) Canon of Windsore, in the room of Dr. Gilb. Primerose deceased, but was never installed in that Dignity; and much about the same time had the Deanery of Laighlen in Ireland confer’d upon him: In which year all things being in a confusion, he received no profits from either Dignity. So that being destitute of a comfortable subsistance, especially in the next year when he lost his most beloved Lord Falkland at Newbury fight, he travelled as a Tutor with Charles Berkley Esq. (afterwards Earl of Falmouth) an. 1644, and upon a foresight that the Church of England would terminate through the endeavours of the peevish and restless Presbyterians, he began to think of setling himself in the Church of Rome. At length, after mature consideration, he renounced his religion and made a publick recantation at Rome of his errours and heresie (as they are there called) before the Inquisition, an. 1646. Which being so done, he returned to Paris, and there published his Motives that induced him to change his religion, not that he was so considerable, a person that all the World should take notice of it, but that he might ((a))((a)) Pref. to his Exomologesis. give some proof both of the mature advice and also reasonableness of his change. A certain ((b))((b)) Edw. E. of Clar. in his book entit. Animadversions on a book entit. Fanaticisme fanatically imputed, &c. author tells us that it was not devotion, but necessity, and want of a subsistence which drove him first out of the Church of England, and then into a Monastery: And ((c))((c)) The author of Legenda Lignea, with an answer to the Moderator, chap. 36. another that he became a Roman Catholick, and was insnared to that new choice by the hopes and promise of being to be admitted an idle Drone or Monk in the Charterhouse at Paris, where he might live as warmly, as lapt all over in Lambskins, and like a Bee in a plentiful hive fed with the purest amber honey, &c. But how such a bait should allure him, no man that understands the rules of that order can easily imagine it so to be, considering that the Monks thereof spend most of their time, whether early or late, in prayer, in fasting, loneness and abstinence from all flesh whatsoever, &c. Of this I am sure that when he wrot and published his Motives, his mind became so humble, that it was his eager desire to be a Monk of the English Coll. of Carthusians at Neiuport in Flanders, a poor place God wot, and very slenderly endowed, as the Prior thereof, Peter Bilcliff a Yorkshire man born, did once tell me. But so it was, that he being diswaded from that Order, because he could never be in a capacity, or Master of so much time as, to vindicate himself or the Roman Catholick Church by writing, he took upon him the habit of the Benedictine Order, as I shall anon tell you. As soon as his Motives called Exomologesis were made publick, he sent a copy into England to his dear friend Dr. Henry Hammond, who in a kind letter return’d him thanks for the book, and without the least exception against the stile, gave ((d))((d)) Ser. Cressy in his Epistle Apologet. to a person of honour, &c. Sect. 5. p. 47. this judgment of it, that an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 did privily run through the whole contexture of the book. He did not interpret wherein the fallacy consisted, but added, we are friends, and I do not purpose to be your Antagonist. At the end of the letter, he kindly invited him into England, assuring him that he should be provided of a convenient place to dwell in, and a sufficient subsistence to live comfortably; and withal, that not any one should molest him about his religion and conscience. Our author Cressey had reason to believe that the said invitation was an effect of a cordial friendship, and he was also inform’d that he was well enabled to make good his promise, as having the disposal of great charities, and being a very charitable man himself. Yet rendring such thanks as gratitude required of him, he told him that he could not accept of so very kind an offer, being engaged almost by vow to leave all pretensions to the World, and to embrace poverty for his portion. Besides also, such a friend as this, he had many more, several near his Majesty; among whom, one especially there was of the highest rank, to whom formerly, upon the rebellion in Ireland, he being destitute of a present subsistance, he did acknowledge all gratitude due, for by his care alone, he was provided of a condition both honorable and comfortable. So that if he had lost all other friends, he had reason to assure himself he would have freely contributed, rather than extremity of want should have forced him to quit the world. But to return; while he continued at Paris, Henrietta Maria the Queen of England was very civil to him, and being about to leave that place, she assign’d him an hundred crowns to furnish him in his journey towards a Monastery. Afterwards, upon an invitation, he went to Doway, took upon him the habit of the Benedictine order in the Coll, of the English Monks of that Order there: And being setled, he changed his name from Hugh Paulin, (which he received at the Font in Wakefield Church) to Serenus de, Cressy, lived according to their discipline for 7 years or more, and afterwards became one of the Mission in England. At length upon the Kings Marriage with Catherine the Infanta of Portugal, he became one of her Servants and mostly lived in Somerset house in the Strand, within the liberty of Westminster, &c. One of his ((e))((e)) Dan. Whitby in his Pref. to A reply to what S.C. hath returned to Dr. Pierces Sermon. Lond. 1664. Adversaries tell us, that Cressy was an author grave and sober, whose reason was very keen and sharp, one that he was the Coripheus of the Roman party: which is true, but I must take leave here to tell the reader, that while he continued in Oxon he was accounted a quick and accurate Disputant, a man of a good nature, manners and natural parts, and when in Orders, no inconsiderable preacher. But after he had spent di [•] ers years in a religious order, and was returned into England, his former acquaintance found great alterations in him as to parts and vivacity, and he seemed to some to be possest with strange notions, and to others, a reserved Person and little better than a Melancholick. Which mutation arose, not perhaps known to him, upon his solely giving himself up to religion, the refinedness of his soul, and the avoiding of all matters relating to humane and profane learning, as vanities. His works are these,

Exomologesis: or, a faithful narration of the occasions and motives of his conversion to Catholick unity. Paris 1647. and 53. in oct. In the last edition is an Appendix, in which are cleared certain misconstructions of his Exomologesis, published by J. P. author of the Preface to the Lord Falklands Discourse of infallibility. This Exomologesis was the golden calf which the English Papists fell down to and worshipped. They brag’d that book to be unanswerable, and to have ((*))((*)) The Christian Moderator. Lond. 1652. sec. edit. pen’d by John Austen sometimes of Cambr. given a total overthrow to the Chillingworthians, and book and tenents of Lucius Lord Falkland.

Sancta Sophia: or, directions for the prayer of contemplation, &c. extracted out of more than XL treatises, written by the late rev. Father Aug. Baker a Monk of the English congregation of the holy Order of S. Benedict. Doway 1657. in 2. vol. in a large oct.

Certain patterns of devout exercises of immediate acts and affections of the will—Printed with S. Sophia.

Roman-Catholick doctrines, no novelties: or, an answer to Dr. Pierces Court Sermon, miscalled The primitive rule of reformation.—Print. 1663. in oct.

A non est inventus, returned to Mr. Edw. Bagshaw’s enquiry, and vainly boasted discovery of weakness in the grounds of the Churches infallibility—Pr. 1662. oct.

Letter written to an English Gent, 16. July 1662, wherein Bishop Morley is concern’d—Printed among some of the said Bishops treatises—Lond. 1683. qu.

The Church History of Britanny from the beginning of Christianity to the Norman conquest, &c.—Printed at Roan in Normandy 1668. fol. ’Tis mostly taken from (1) Annales Ecclesiae Britannicae. Printed at Leodes 1663 in 4. vol: written by Mich. Alford alias Griffith a Jesuit. (2) The first and 2 vol. of Monast. Anglic. Printed at Lond. 1655. and 1661. fol. (3) The Decem Scriptores Hist. Anglicanae. Printed there also in 1652. fol. and the collection in Ms. (contained in several folios) made from several antient Mss. relating to English antiquities, (chiefly in the Cottonian Library) by Aug. Baker before mention’d. Many severe censures have been given by learned men of the author Cressy for publishing many Miracles and Monkish stories in the said Ch. Hist. of Britanny, particularly by that great Master of the English language, Edward, somtimes Earl of Clarendon, who knew him well in the University to be much averse to such matters, as also the author of Reflexions upon the devotions of the Rom. Church, &c. Lond. 1674. oct. Yet let this be said of him, that forasmuch that he doth mostly quote his authors for, and leaves, what he says, to the judgment of the Readers, he is to be excused, and in the mean time to be commended for his grave and good stile, proper for an Ecclesiastical Historian. After it was published, he went forward with a second volume, which was to conclude about the time of the dissolution of Monasteries made by K. Hen. 8; but before he had finished 300 years after the Norman Conquest he died.

Answer to part of Dr. Stillingfleets book, entit. Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome.—Printed 1672. in oct.

Fanaticisme fanatically imputed to the Cath. Church by Dr. Stillingfleet, and the imputation refuted and retorted &c.—Printed 1672. oct.

Epistle Apologetical to a Person of honour, touching his vindication of Dr. Stillingfleet—Print. 1674. oct. The Person of honour was Edw. E. of Clarendon.

Reflections on the Oath of Supremacy—This I have not yet seen. He also published Sixteen revelations of divine love, shewed to a devout servant of our Lord, called mother Juliana an Anchorete of Norwych, who lived in the days of K. Ed. 3. Printed 1670. oct. and dedic. by Cressy to the Lady Mary Blount of Sodington, Widow of Sir George Blount; and also changed from old into modern, English, more compendiously, a book written before the change of religion, entit. An abridgment of the book called the cloud of unknowing, and of the counsel referring to the same. This is not printed but in Ms. and was shewed to me by Fath. Wilfrid R a Benedictine Monk. See more in Maur. Chawney in vol. 1. p. 160. At length Mr. Cressey having lived to about the age of man, he surrendred up his last breath at East Greensted in Sussex, in the house of Rich. Caryl Esq. on the tenth day of Aug. (S. Laurence day) in the year sixteen hundred seventy and four,1674. and was buried in the Church there, as I have been informed by the Superior of his order on this side of the river Trent in England, named Gregory Mallet alias John Jackson, who dying in the Sheldonian Family on the 10. Sept. 1681, was buried in the Chancel of the Church of Long Compton in Warwickshire.