Thomas Pierce and Daniel Whitby. 8. ‘The Church History of Brittany, or England, from the beginning of Christianity to the Norman Conquest’ [Rouen], 1668, fol. This volume only brought the history down to about 1350. It was taken mostly from the ‘Annales Ecclesiæ Britannicæ’ of the jesuit Michael Alford [q. v.], the first two vols. of Dugdale's ‘Monasticon,’ the ‘Decem Scriptores Hist. Anglicanæ,’ and Father Augustine Baker's manuscript collections. Cressy has been severely censured, particularly by Lord Clarendon, for relating many miracles and monkish legends in this work, but Wood defends him on the ground that he quotes his authorities and leaves the statements to the judgment of his readers, while he is ‘to be commended for his grave and good stile, proper for an ecclesiastical historian.’ 9. ‘Second Part of the Church History of Brittany, from the Conquest downwards,’ manuscript formerly in the Benedictine monastery at Douay. For many years it was lost, but it was discovered at Douay in 1856 (Gillow, i. 596; Catholic Magazine and Review, ii. 123). It was never published, on account of some nice controversies between the see of Rome and some of our English kings, which, it was thought, might give offence (Dodd, Church Hist. iii. 308). 10. ‘First Question: Why are you a Catholick? The Answer follows. Second Question: But why are you a Protestant? An Answer attempted in vain. By S. C.,’ Lond. 1672, 1686, 4to. 11. ‘Fanaticism fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet, and the Imputation refuted and retorted,’ 1672, 8vo; also printed in ‘A Collection of several Treatises in answer to Dr. Stillingfleet,’ 1672, 8vo. 12. ‘An Answer to part of Dr. Stillingfleet's book, intitul'd, Idolatry practis'd in the Church of Rome,’ 1674, 8vo. 13. ‘An Epistle Apologetical of S. C. to a Person of Honour, touching his Vindication of Dr. Stillingfleet,’ 1674, 8vo. The ‘person of honour’ was the Earl of Clarendon, who had been an intimate friend of Cressy at Oxford. 14. ‘Reflexions on the Oath of Allegiance.’ 15. An oration in praise of Henry Briggs, who published ‘Arithmetica Logarithmica,’ Lond. 1624, fol.
He also edited Father Augustine Baker's ‘Sancta Sophia,’ 2 vols. Douay 1657; Walter Hilton's ‘Scale of Perfection,’ Lond. 1659; Mother Juliana's ‘Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love,’ 1670; and left in manuscript an abridgment of Maurice Chauncey's ‘Cloud of Unknowing.’
[Authorities cited above; also Biog. Brit. (Kippis); Catholic Mag. and Review (Birmingham, 1832), ii. 121; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 307; Jones's Popery Tracts, 132, 157, 222, 223, 224, 242, 462; Ware's Writers of Ireland (Harris), 356; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1011, Fasti, i. 277, 411, 419, 451, ii. 236; Wood's Life (Bliss), pp. lxv, lxix, lxx, lxxv.]
CRESSY, ROBERT (fl. 1450?), Carmelite, was a student at Oxford, where he distinguished himself as a theologian. He wrote a book of 'Homiliæ.' These are the only facts about him given by Leland in his 'Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis,' the manuscript of which, however, speaks also of a work written by Cressy treating of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin; but this statement is deleted. Bishop Bale, who refers to Leland as his only authority, adds a variety of particulars. He asserts that Cressy, whose christian name he gives as 'John,' belonged to the Carmelite house at Boston in Lincolnshire, that he returned thither after he had completed his studies at Oxford, became head of his monastery, was buried at Boston, and that he flourished about 1450. Bale has been followed by Pits and Tanner, but neither indicates any other source than Leland; and it is at least curious that the notice in Leland's manuscript immediately preceding that of Cressya, and on the same page relates to a Carmelite of Boston, named William Surfluctus (or Surflete), who flourished about 1466 so that it is perhaps allowable to hazard the conjecture that Bale's eye accidentally strayed to the wrong entry, and transferred to Cressy what really belongs to Surflete. This, however will not account for the change in the christian names.
Leland's Collectanea, iv. 348 (MS., Bodleian Libr.), printed as Comm. de Scriptt. Brit. dlxxxix. p. 482; Bale's Scriptt. Brit. Cat. xii. 81, pt. ii. p. 97; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, § 837, pp. 642 et seq.; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p.288.]
CRESTADORO, ANDREA (1808–1879), bibliographer, was born in 1808 at Genoa and educated at the public school of that place. An industrious student as a boy, he proceeded to the university of Turin, where he graduated Ph.D., and soon after was appointed professor of natural philosophy. Here he published a ‘Saggio d' instituzioni sulla facoltà della parola’ and a small treatise on savings banks in advocacy of their extension to Italy. He also translated a portion of Bancroft's 'History of America.' Throughout his life he was fond of mechanical experiments, and in 1849 he came to England in order to push his inventions. In 1852, when resident in Salford, he patented 'certain improvements in impulsoria.' He took out other patents in 1852, 1862, 1868, and 1873. None of these came into practical use. One of them relates to aerial
