10 October 1584 A.D. The Imprisoned Abbot of Westminster, John Feckenham, Dies. He was arrested and imprisoned on 22 May 1560.
10
October 1584 A.D. The
Imprisoned Abbot of Westminster, John Feckenham, Dies. He was arrested and imprisoned on 22 May
1560.
English
abbot, was born at Feckenham, Worcestershire, of ancestors who, by their wills,
seem to have been substantial yeomen. The family name was Howman, but,
according to the English custom, Feckenham,
on monastic profession, changed it for the territorial name by which he is
always known.
Castelli, Jorge H. “John Feckenham (Abbot of Westminster).”
Tudor Place. N.d. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/JohnFeckenham.htm .
Accessed Apr 23, 2014.
John FECKENHAM
(Abbot of Westminster)
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Born:
ABT 1518, Feckenham, Worcestershire, England
Died:
1584, Wisbeach Castle
Buried:
10 Oct 1584, Parish Church, Wisbeach
He was
sent at an early age to the claustral school at Evesham and thence, in his
eighteenth year, to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, as a Benedictine student. After
taking his degree in arts, he returned to the abbey, where he was professed by Abbot Clement Lichfield about 1530;
but he was at the university again in 1537. Returning to Evesham he was there
when the abbey was surrendered to King Henry VIII (27 Jan 1540); and then,
with a pension, he once more went back to Oxford, but soon after became
chaplain to Bishop Bell of Worcester
and then served Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London in that same capacity
from 1543 to 1549. In 1544 Bonner gave him the living of
Solihull; and Feckenham established a reputation as a preacher and a disputant
of keen intellect but unvarying charity.
Feckenham's sympathies were Roman Catholic, and his
fortunes varied under the successive Tudor monarchs. Henry VIII pensioned Feckenham. When the King died, Feckenham
preached strong sermons against the new religious practices creeping into
England. He considered them heretical. In the reign of Edward VI, about 1549, Cranmer sent him to the Tower of
London, and while there he was borrowed out of prison to take part in seven
public disputations against Hooper,
Jewel and others.
Released
by Queen Mary, 5 Sep 1553, he returned
to Bonner and became prebendary of
St Pauls, rector of Finchley, then of Greenford Magna, chaplain and confessor
to the Queen, and dean of St Pauls,
10 Mar 1554.
He took
part, with much charity and mildness, in the Oxford disputes against Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley; but he had no liking
for the fierce bigotry and bloody measures then in force against Protestants. Feckenham used all his influence with Mary to procure pardon of the faults or mitigation of
the punishment for poor Protestants, and he was sent by the Queen to prepare Lady Jane Grey for death. He tried to convert Lady Jane and was present at her execution. Lady Jane appreciated his kindness to her, and hoped he
would be shown mercy because of it, but said, "The faith of the church
must be tried by God's word, and not God's word by the church; and the same
goes for my faith". After Wyatt's rebellion, when Elizabeth was sent to the Tower, 18 Mar 1554, Feckenham interceded for her life and
liberty, even at the cost of displeasing the Queen. Some of Mary's counselor's argued for Elizabeth's death. It was thanks to Feckenham's pleas that
she and others were spared.
During Mary's reign, Feckenham
helped established St. John's College and Trinity College Oxford. The royal
abbey of Westminster having been restored to its primitive use, Feckenham was
appointed abbot, and the old life began again within its hallowed walls on the
21 Nov 1556. The abbey school was reopened and the shrine of St Edward
restored.
He
preached Mary's funeral sermon, taking
his text from Ecclesiates, saying the dead are happier than either the living
or those as yet unborn.
On the
accession of Elizabeth, Feckenham
consistently opposed all the legislation for changes in religion, and, when the
hour of trial came, he refused the oath of supremacy, rejecting also Elizabeth's offer to remain with his monks at Westminster
if he would conform to the new laws. The abbey was dissolved, and within a year
Feckenham was sent by Archbishop Parker to the Tower on 20 May
1560, according to Jewel, for
having obstinately refused attendance on public worship and everywhere
declaiming and railing against that religion which we now profess (Parker
Society, first series, p. 79). Henceforth, except for some brief periods when
he was a prisoner at large, Feckenham
spent the rest of his life in confinement either in some recognized prison, or
in the more distasteful and equally rigorous keeping of the bishops of Winchester and Ely. After fourteen years confinement, he was released on bail and
lived in Holborn, where his benevolence was shown by all manner of works of
charity.
He set
up a public aqueduct in Holborn, and a hospice for the poor at Bath; he
distributed every day to the sick the milk of twelve cows, took care of
orphans, and encouraged manly sports on Sundays among the youth of London by
giving prizes. In 1577 he was committed to the care of Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, with strict rules for
his treatment; and the Bishop could find no fault with him except that he was
a gentle person but in the popish religion too, too obstinate. In 1580 he was
removed to Wisbeach Castle, and there exercised such an influence of charity
and peace among his fellow-prisoners that was remembered when, in after years,
the notorious Wisbeach Stirs broke out under the Jesuit Weston. Even here Feckenham
found a means of doing public good; at his own cost he repaired the road and
set up a market cross in the town. After twenty four years of suffering for his
conscience he died in prison and was buried in an unknown grave in the parish
church at Wisbeach on the 10 Oct 1584.
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