therefore sent back to the Tower (1564). Soon after his return to the Tower Feckenham published a book purporting to contain his answers to Horne's arguments, which the bishop accused him of having written and privately circulated two years before as an answer to the queen's commissioners in case he were called upon to take the oath of supremacy, and containing originally no reference to Horne. A furious controversy ensued, Feckenham appealing to Cecil against the bishop's accusations, while Horne wrote an answer to Feckenham's book, and Harpsfeld replied by a defence of the ex-abbot, written under cover of Slapleton's name, as Harpsfeld, being a prisoner himself, was afraid of being compromised. After a year or two longer in the Tower, Feckenham and his fellow-prisoners were sent to the Marshalsea, where they had `more liberty and air,' and in 1571 Feckenham prayed with Dr. Story the night before his execution and animated him in his faith. While in the Tower Feckenham wrote a small pamphlet (printed by John Hoodly, London, 1570) begging that he and the other prisoners might not be `haled by the arms to church in such violent manner against our wills, there to hear a sermon, not of persuading us, but railing upon us.' In 1574 the leading Roman catholic prisoners were released on bail, and Feckenham went to live in a private house in Holborn, where he built a fountain or aqueduct for the poor. He was all his life noted for his benevolence, and in 1576 he built a hospice for the poor who frequented the mineral waters at Bath (Bath Herald, 9 Nov. 1879). In 1577 Feckenham was committed into free custody with Cox, bishop of Ely, who was requested by the quean to bring the abbot, 'being a man of learning and temper, to acknowledge her supremacy, and come to the church.' The bishop reports his prisoner as `a gentle person, but in popish religion too, too obdurate.' In June 1580 the bishop supplicates Burghley, on account of his age and failing health, to take away from him the responsibility of having the prisoner in his private house, and Feckenham, though still in the bishop's custody, was therefore sent to Wisbech Castle, where seven other Roman catholics were imprisoned, Watson among them. The conferences on religion still continued, and finally a summary of the results obtained was drawn up by the Bishop and Dean of Ely entitled 'A true Note of certain Articles confessed and allowed by Mr. Dr. Feckenham.' This so-called confession has been the foundation of a charge of inconsistency against the abbot. His signature cannot have been obtained without much pressure, since two years earlier Dean Perne writes to Burghley that it was found impossible to induce Feckenham lo sign this same document. In any case the recantation amounts to very little; but the bishop must have been satisfied, for we hear of no more disputations, and Feckenham was suffered to spend the last five years of his life in peace, ministering to the poor and building a cross, till he died in 1585. Putting aside the excessive panegyrics of the Roman catholic and the slanders of a few protestant writers, there is no doubt that the last abbot of Westminster was a striking figure, and worthy to be, as Fuller calls him, `a landmark in history.' In person he was stout and round-faced, of a pleasant countenance; his manners affable, his charity to the poor acknowledged by all, as also his moderation and skill in argument, and his eloquence as a preacher and speaker.
Besides the sermons and orations already mentioned few of Feckenham's works are extant, though he is known to have written `Commentaries on the Psalms,' `Caveat Emptor,' a pamphlet on the `Abbey Lands,' and a treatise on the sacrament against Hooper's views. The book which caused Horne so much annoyance is entitled 'The Declaration of such Scruples and Stays of Conscience touching the Oath of Supremacy as Mr. J. F. by writing did deliver unto the Lord Bishop of Winchester, with his Resolution made thereupon,' &c., Loud. 1565. In the Sloane Collection is a curious manuscript entitled, 'This book of sovereign medicines against the most common and known diseases, both of men and women, was by good proof and long experience collected of Sir. Dr. Feckenham, late abbot of Westminster, and that chiefly for the poor, which hath not at all times the learned physicians at hand.'
