Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/289

mission into Evesham monastery; after taking the vows he became known as John of Feckenham. When about eighteen he entered Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College), Oxford, a seminary belonging to the Benedictine order, having a special apartment for the Evesham monks. He took the degree of bachelor of divinity on 11 June 1539, and then returned to his monastery to teach the novitiate. Shortly afterwards the abbey of Evesham was dissolved (17 Nov. 1539), Feckenham signing his name with the other brethren to the deed of surrender, each receiving an annual penaion of 10l. in compensation. For a time Feckanham retired to the university. For ten years about this period he was rector of Solihull, Warwickshire. According to Dugdale's, `Warwickshire' (ed. 1656, p. 690)he was not instituted till 1544, although his predecessor, Thomas Blennerhasset, ceased to be rector five years before, and a manuscript account of Feckenham's benefactions to the parish, dated 1548, in his own handwriting, implies that at that date he had been rector for ten years. (This manuscript still survives in Solihull parish library.) Feckenham was for some years domestic chaplain to Dr. Bell, bishop of Worcester, receiving on Bell's resignation (1543) the same post in the household of Bonner, bishop of London, where, says Fuller, he `crossed the proverb, like master like man, the master being cruel, the chaplain kind to such as in judgment dissented from him' (Church History, bk. ix. p. 178). On Bonner's deprivation (1549), the chaplain, having incurred Archbishop Cranmer's displeasure, was sent to the Tower, and was suspended from his benefice at Solihull, although he was not deprived of it. He was still in the Tower in 1551, when he was `borrowed' by Sir Philip Hoby to represent, with Watson and Young, the Roman catholic party in some conferences hold on the sacrament, in the houses of Sir William Cecil, Sir John Cheke, and others. Feckenham was afterwards allowed to take part in a series of conferences in his native county, beginning at Pershore and ending in Worcester Cathedral (where it is said Bishop Jewel was his opponent); in all he greatly distinguished himself, especially in a disputation with Bishop Hooper. He was then remanded to the Tower, whence on Mary's accession he was released, and took his former place in Bonner's household, being shortly promoted to the post of private chaplain and confessor to the queen. In January (1554) Bonner made him prebendary of Kentish Town (a stall in St. Paul's Cathedral), and in March he received the deanery of St. Paul's, holding also first (20 June) the rectory of Finchley, and then that of Greenford Magna (23Sept.) On becoming dean he finally resigned his connection with Solihull. His reputation as a preacher was now very great, and throughout Mary's reign he was much employed to preach against the reformed religion, crowds of distinguished people flocking every Sunday to hear his 'goodly sermons' from St. Paul's Cross and in the city churches (Machyn, Diary). During the Marian persecution Feckenham was constantly employed to plead with obdurate heretics, and, being a 'pitiful-minded' man, he often sought to save the lives of those he could not convert, rescuing twenty-eight at one time from the stake. Among the leading protestants befriended by him were the Earl of Bedford, and Ambrose and Robert Dudley, afterwards earls of Warwick and Leicester. Four days before Lady Jane Grey's execution Feckenham was sent by Mary to attempt her conversion, but he found it impossible to shake her constancy, and finally, it is said, acknowledged himself fitter to be her disciple than her master, she drawing up at his request a brief sum of her faith, giving his arguments and her own in the form of a dialogue, which was afterwards published. On the scaffold he took leave of her with the words that he was sorry for her, for he was sure they two would never meet. After having in vain attempted Ridley's conversion, Feckenham took part, as one of the representatives of convocation, in the disputation held at Oxford (13 April 1554) with Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. Two years afterwards he had the triumph of persuading Sir John Cheke [q.v.], then in prison under sentence of death, to renounce the protestant religion. In May (1556)Feckenham took his D.D, degree at Oxford. In the autumn Mary re-founded the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, Westminster (7 Sept. 1556), and Feckenham received the uniquepost of mitred abbot of that great foundation. Cardinal Pole, the pope's legate, had some trouble in turning out the dean (Weston) and prebendaries, who refused to sign the deed of surrender, but Weston was finally compensated by the deanery of Windsor, and the canons by pensions. Even then fresh difficulties arose in forming the monastery, as only fourteen monks, unmarried, unpreferred to curse, and unaltered in their opinions, could be discovered in London. On 21 Nov. the new abbot was installed, and consecrated on 30 Nov. by the legate, before a large assembly of bishops and nobles, all the old ceremonies being revived for the last time. By the pope's authority Pole drew up new rules for the monastery; the office of abbot was only to be tenable for three years, no congé d'élire was to be held