CRESWELL
4S7
CRETIN
" Arbor virtutum, a MS. preserved at Ugbrooke, Devon-
shirp"; "The Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection" by
A\':illiT Hilton, ed. Cressy (LoiKlon, l().5i)); "Sancta
Sii|iliia" Ijy Von. Fr. Aui;. Maker, ed. Cressy (iJoiiai,
l(i.")7); "('ertain PatteriiM of Devout Exercises"
(I)(i\iai, 1657); " Roman Catholic Doctrines no Novel-
tics" 01)3.3); "A Non Est Inventus" (London, 1662);
"A Letter to an English Gcntlein.an concerning
Bishop Morley" (London, 1662); "Sixteen Revela-
tions of Divine Love", from an ancient copy (1670);
"Fanaticism Fanaticallv Imputed to the Catholic
Church by Dr. Stillingflect" ( l(i72); "First Question:
\\ liy Are You a Catholic?" etc. ( London, 1672); "An
.Answer to Part of Dr. StiUingtieet'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 LTnknowing' by Maurice Chauncey"
(MS.).
Wood, Athenas Oxon., ed. Bliss rT.m.lon, l><.xrCi TTT, 1011;
5NOW. Necrology of the Etialixli /' ' > i !.n, 1SS3),
56; Allanson, Biographies oj I ■ /. MS. at
\mpIeforth Abbey, York); Doi-i , ' ' , , .'/, , l;ni.ssels, 1738), VII, 307; Weldon, Chr^iwl,:,,,,.,! A./,, ., /,,,,/. Cang. 0. .S. B. (Stanbrook Abbey, Worcesler, ISSIJ, JW, :iypeu. d. 10; 3lLLOW, Bibt. Diet. Eng. Cath., s. v.
G. E. Hind.
Oreswell, Joseph (wre Arthur), controvensialist, b. 1.5.57 of Yorkshire stock in London; d. about 1623. His widowed mother married William Lacey, who, after her death, was ordained priest and martyred (22 .\ugust, 1582) at Y'ork. Creswell joined the Society of Jesus in Rome 11 Oct., 1583, having previously studied at Reims and at the Roman Col- lege. Having been rector (1589-1592) after Father Persons of the English College, Rome, he also suc- ceeded Persons as vice-prefect for English Jesuit interests in Spain. Creswell's character and conduct in connexion with his difficulties over the seminaries of Seville and Valladolid, and his controversy about Bem'dictine vocations have been severely criticized (ef. Camm, Life of Ven. John Roberts, and Pollen, Tlie Month, London, Sept.-Oct., 1899). Father Cres- well had considerable intercourse with Sir Charles Cornwallis, the English resident at Madrid, till the Powder Plot, when Creswell was smnmoned to Rome. Sent to Belgium in 1614, he was at St-Omer in 1620, and in 1621 was made rector of Ghent. His chief works are: A Latin treatise, "De Vita Beata"; "Ex- em|)lar Literarum ad Cecilium (sive Burleigh)", 1592, under the pseudonym "John Perne", against Eliza- bet li's proclamation of 29 Nov., 1591; "Vida y Martyrio del P. Henrique Valpolo," (Madrid, 1596); treatise against James First's (1610) proclamation (4ti), St-Oraer, 1611); "Meditations upon the Rosary" (St-Omer, 1620); translation into Spanish, un.lir the name " Peter Manrique", of Father William Baihc's "Prei)aration for administering Penance and the I'jicharist" (Milan, 1614); translation into Eng- lish and Spanish, under initials N. T. of Salvian's "(>uis dives salvus?" (St-Omer, 1618); "Relacion de Inglaterra", Ms X, 14, National Library, Madrid; memoir for Philip III of Spain on affairs of the So- ciety; "Responsio ad calumni.as," Stonyhurst Li- brary; Letters, Vatican Archives (Lettore di parti- colai-i, I, 1).
Foley, Rrcorrln. VI and VII; Olivf.h. CoUrclanea S. J.; Douay Diarieft, p. xrlx; Butler, Memoirs, II, 224; Sommkrvogkl, Bitliolhtque, II, 1G56. Cooper in Diet. Nal. Biog., XIII, 73. P.\TRicK Ryan.
Crete. See Candia.
j Cretin, Joseph, first Bishop of St. Paul, Minne- [aota, U. S. A., b., at Montluel, department of Ain, France, 19 December, 1799; d. at St. Paul, Minne- sota. 22 February, 1857. He maile his preparatory Stu<Jies in the petits seminaires of Meximieux f.\in) and L'.\rgentiere (Rhone), his studies of philo.sophy at Alix (Rhone), and of theology in the Seminary of
Saint-Sulpice, Paris. He was ordained priest 20
December, 1823, and soon aiterwards was appointed
vicar in the parish of I'^erney, once the home of Vol-
taire, and eventually became; its parish priest. He
built there a new and beautiful church with funds
largely gathered by himself on a tour through
France, founded a college for boys, and revivetl the
Catholic Faith among his parishioners, many of
whom had Ijeeome indifferent towards it, owing to
the surviving influence of "the philosopher" and the
close proximity of the Protestant cantons of Switzer-
land. But Cretin longed for a larger field of ac-
tivity; at one tune he thought earnestly of going as
a missionary to China. His perplexities in that re-
gard were solved by the advent of Bishop Loras,
first Bishop of Dubuque, Iowa, who arrived in
France in 1838 in quest of priests for his Western
diocese. Cretin was one of the few who volunteered,
and on 16 August, 1838, he secretly left his parish,
embarked at Le Havre with Bishop Loras, and
landed in New Y'ork in October of the same year.
The winter of 18.38-.39 was spent in St. Louis, Mis-
souri, and on his arrival at Dubuque, 18 April, 1839,
he was at once appointed vicar-general of the new
diocese. For over eleven years he exercised his
priestly ministry in these new and unopened regions,
dividing his time chiefly between Dubuque, Iowa,
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and the Winnebago
Indians in the neighbourhood of Fort Atkinson,
Winneshiek Co., Iowa. Only once, in 1847, did he
absent himself, when he made a journey to Europe
in the interest of his missions. In 1850, St. Paul,
Minnesota, became the seat of a new diocese. Cretin
was appointed its first bishop, and went to France,
to be consecrated, 26 January, 1851, at Belley by
Bishop Dovie, who had ordained him to the priest-
hood.
After having obtained some donations and several ecclesiastics for his new diocese, he returned to America and arrived in St. Paul 2 July, 1851. The same evening he made his first appearance in the log chapel of St. Paul, his first cathedral, and gave the first episcopal blessing to his flock. Within less than five months a large brick building was completed, which served as a school, a residence, a:id a second cathedral. Another structure, begun in 1855, was finished after his death, and serves as the cathedral of .St. Paul. In 1853 a hospital was built; during the same year, and again in 1856, he bought land for cemetery pur- poses. For the instruction of the children he intro- duced, in 1851, a community of the Sisters of St. Josejih, and in 18.55 the Brothers of the Holy Family. He also planned the erection of a seminary, and always eagerly fostered vocations for the priest- hood, keeping at his residence seminarians in their last period of preparation. He supported likewise the cause of temperance not only by jiersonal ex- ample, but also by organizing in January, 1852, the Catholic Temperance .Society of St. Paul, the first of its kind in Minnesota. Another work to which he applied himself was that of Catholic colonization. With an eye to the future he endea\oured to pro- vide for the growth of his dioecse by bringing Catholic immigrants from Eurojiean countries to the fertile plains of Minnesota. Withal he did not neglect his ministerial and p.astoral office. He was often alone in St. Paul without the help of a priest, and at times travelled through the vast extent of his diocese be- stowing on his people the consolations of religion. Bishop Cretin's memory is held in esteem and ven- eration, especially by the old .settlers of St. Paul.
Most of the material for Bi-shop Crf'-tin's life is still unpub- lished. The above details are from letters wTiften by him and otiier documents in possession of the St. Paul Catholic Histo- rical Society. A few documents and references on the subject are found in Ada el Dicta (St. Paul, 1907), I. No. 1; The Dio- cese of SI. Paul (St. Paul. 1900; Ravoux, Mhnnires (St. Paul, 1S92); De Cailly, Memoirs of Bishop Loras (New York, 1897): O'GoHMAN, History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United
