Background
Serenus de Cressy was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, about 1605.
Serenus de Cressy was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, about 1605.
Serenus de Cressy went to Oxford at the age of fourteen, and in 1626 became a fellow of Merton College.
Having taken orders, Serenus de Cressy rose to the dignity of dean of Leighlin, Ireland, and canon of Windsor. He also acted as chaplain to Lord Wentworth, afterwards the celebrated earl of Strafford. For some time he travelled abroad as tutor to Lord Falmouth, and in 1646, during a visit to Rome, joined the Roman Catholic Church. In the following year he published his Exomologesis (Paris, 1647), or account of his conversion, which was highly valued by Roman Catholics as an answer to William Chillingworth's attacks. Cressy entered the Benedictine Order in T649, and for four years resided at Somerset House as chaplain to Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II.
