Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/100

  made by William Parry, who was executed for treason in 1584, and who said that when he consulted Crichton as to whether it was lawful to kill the queen he received an answer distinctly and strongly in the negative. After an examination on the subject Crichton wrote a letter to Secretary Walsingham, which was published by the queen's order. On being released he engaged in a conspiracy of catholics to raise a rebellion in England (1586). His ‘Reasons to show the easiness of the enterprise’ are printed by Strype (Annals, iii. 414, from Cotton. MS. Julius F. vi. 53; cf. Cotton MS. Galba C. x. f. 339 b). He arrived in Paris from London in May 1587.

With the advice of his councillors of state James sent Father Gordon and Crichton secretly to Rome in 1592 for the purpose of arranging with the pope the means of restoring the catholic religion in Scotland. Writing to Father Thomas Owens long afterwards, he says:—‘Our Kyng had so great feare of ye nombre of Catholiks, and ye puissance of Pope and Spaine, yt he offered libertie of Conscience, and sent me to Rome to deal for ye Popes favor and making of a Scottish Cardinal; as I did shaw ye Kyngs letters to F. Parsons’ (, Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 538). He also went to Spain, where he saw the king in the Escorial. Gordon accomplished the mission according to his instructions, and returned to Scotland with Crichton and the pope's legate, George Sampiretti. James afterwards changed his mind and resolved that the laws against catholics should be enforced (Acts of Parliament of Scotland, iv. 57, 59, 126–8). Eventually Crichton was compelled to leave Scotland (1595); he passed across to Flanders, and devoted all his energy to the foundation of the Scottish seminary at Douay (, Narratives of Scottish Catholics, pp. 222–6). He was living at Paris in 1615, and in a letter dated 14 July in that year he says: ‘Verum est ætatem me non gravare multum, quamvis anni abundant’ (, Jesuit Collections, p. 18). The date of his death has not been ascertained.

He is the author of:
 * 1) A letter to Sir Francis Walsingham concerning Parry's application to him, with this case of conscience, ‘Whether it were lawful to kill the queen,’ dated 20 Feb. 1584–5. Reprinted in Holinshed's ‘Chronicle,’ and in Morris's ‘Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,’ series ii. 81, and translated into Italian in Bartoli, ‘Dell' istoria della compagnia di Giesu: l'Inghilterra,’ lib. iv. cap. x. p. 291.
 * 2) ‘De Missione Scotica puncta quædam notanda historiæ societatis servientia,’ manuscript in the archives of the Society of Jesus.
 * 3) ‘An Apology.’ This work, which was published in Flanders, is referred to in ‘A Discoverye of the Errors committed and Inivryes done to his Ma: off Scotlande and Nobilitye off the same realme, and Iohn Cecyll Pryest and D. off diuinitye, by a malitious Mythologie titled an Apologie, and compiled by William Criton Pryest and professed Iesuite, whose habits and behauioure, whose cote and conditions are as sutable, as Esav his handes, and Iacob his voice’ [1599].



CRIDIODUNUS, FRIDERICUS (d. 838), is the name given by Bale to St. Frederick, bishop of Utrecht, who is said by William of Malmesbury to have been the nephew and the disciple of St. Boniface. As Boniface was believed to have been born at Crediton, Bale assumed that this would be the birthplace also of his nephew Frederick, and therefore bestowed on the latter the surname Cridiodunus (from Cridiandún or Cridian-tún, the older spelling of Crediton). The statement that Frederick was related to Boniface rests solely on the authority of Malmesbury. According to the early continental hagiologists he was born at Sexberum in Friesland, and was of a noble Frisian family. The compilers of the ‘Acta Sanctorum’ point out that Frederick cannot have been Boniface's disciple, in the literal sense of having received his personal instructions, because the former died in 838, thus surviving his alleged teacher by eighty-three years. But they find it difficult to set aside the positive assertion of an honest and careful writer like Malmesbury, and in order to reconcile the authorities they have recourse to the conjecture that Frederick was really the nephew of Boniface, and was born of English parents in Friesland. There can, however, be little doubt that Malmesbury was mistaken. He confesses that he derived the story of Frederick, not from a written source, but from oral communication. Now, in the ‘Life of St. Frederick’ by Oetbert (written in the tenth century) it is stated that when a boy he was committed by his mother to the care of Ricfrid, bishop of Utrecht. It seems almost certain that Malmesbury mistook this name for Winfrid, the original name of Boniface, and therefore identified Frederick's teacher with his own distinguished countryman. (Ap-