HUGH CRESSY (PAULINUS SERENUS). — English Benedictine theologian, b. at Thorpe-Salvin (Yorkshire) c. 1605; d. at East Grinstead (Sussex) 10 Aug. 1674. He came to Oxford in 1619 and was fellow of Merton College in 1627. After receiving Anglican orders he was chaplain first to Lord Wentworth, then to Lord Falkland, and visited Ireland in 1638. With Charles Berkeley, later Lord Falmouth, he travelled on the Continent and became a Catholic at Rome in 1646, publishing subsequently at Paris (1647), where he received further instruction from Henry Holden, doctor of the Sorbonne, *Exomologesis*, in which he set forth the reasons for his conversion. In the monastery of St Gregory at Douai he became a Benedictine (1649), taking the name of Serenus. In 1660 he was sent to London as chaplain to Catherine of Braganza, the Catholic consort of King Charles II, and from 1669 to East Grinstead as chaplain to the Caryl family.
He published: *Church History of Brittany or England, from the Beginning of Christianity to the Norman Conquest* (Rouen 1668); the second part, *From the Conquest Downwards*, was discovered in manuscript at Douai in 1856. He also published, under various titles, the writings of English medieval mystics (W. Hilton, *The Cloud of Unknowing*) and *Sancta Sophia* of the Venerable A. Baker; *Certain Patterns of Devout Exercises* (Douai 1657); *Roman Catholic Doctrines no Novelties* (London 1663); *A Non Est Inventus* (ibid. 1662) and various pamphlets of apologetics and controversy. Of particular note are his refutations of the anti-Catholic writings of Dr Stillingfeet (1672-74). Cressy’s writings are learned, inspired by fervour and zeal. In controversy he was courteous, though always striking home.
Enrico E. G. Rope