Christopher Feake
Encyclopedia
Christopher Feake was an English Independent minister and Fifth-monarchy man. He was imprisoned for maligning Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 in his preaching. He is a leading example of someone sharing both Leveller views and the millenarian approach of the Fifth Monarchists. His violence was exclusively verbal, but he wrote against the Quakers.

Life

He began public life as an independent minister in London. His earlier history is unknown. About 1643 he was lecturing at All Hallows the Great, with Henry Jessey
Henry Jessey
Henry Jessey or Jacie was one of many English Dissenters. He was a founding member of the Puritan religious sect, the Jacobites. Jessey was considered a Hebrew and a rabbinical scholar.-Life:...

 and Robert Bragg. Thomas Edwards
Thomas Edwards (Heresiographer)
Thomas Edwards was an English Puritan clergyman. He was a very influential preacher in London of the 1640s, and also one of the most ferocious polemical writers of the time, arguing from a conservative Presbyterian point of view against the Independents.-Life:He graduated M.A. from Queens'...

 reports that in 1645 he was a preacher in London without settled charge. At St. Peter's, Cornhill, St. Mary's Woolchurch, and elsewhere as he could, he discoursed in favour of close communion and gathered churches, and against tithes and the Westminster Assembly
Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. It also included representatives of religious leaders from Scotland...

.

In January 1646 he obtained the sequestered vicarage of All Saints, Hertford. Here he did not observe the order of public worship prescribed by the Directory of Public Worship
Directory of Public Worship
The Directory for Public Worship was a manual of directions for worship approved by an ordinance of Parliament early in 1645 to replace the Book of Common Prayer .-Origins:The movement against the Book of Common...

; he discarded psalm-singing and the use of the Lord's Prayer, and refrained from baptising infants. In his preaching he predicted the downfall of all governments, on the ground of their enmity to Christ; that of Holland was doomed for tolerating Arminianism
Arminianism
Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...

. When articles were exhibited against Feake by a justice of the peace at the Hertford
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...

 assizes
Assizes
Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to::;in common law countries :::*assizes , an obsolete judicial inquest...

, followers invaded the court, and the judge dismissed the case.

In 1649, on the sequestration of William Jenkyn
William Jenkyn
William Jenkyn was an English clergyman, imprisoned during the Interregnum for his part in the ‘presbyterian plot’ of Christopher Love, ejected minister in 1662, and imprisoned at the end of his life for nonconformity.-Life:...

, Feake received the vicarage of Christ Church, Newgate, and one of the lectureships at St. Anne's, Blackfriars. On 28 April 1650 he preached at Mercers' Chapel, before Thomas Foote
Thomas Foote
Sir Thomas Foote, 1st Baronet was a wealthy grocer of London.In 1646 he was made a Sheriff of London and in 1649 elected Lord Mayor of London. He represented London in the First and Second Protectorate Parliaments....

 who was Lord Mayor, a Fifth-monarchy sermon which was published. Soon after this he gathered or joined a Baptist church meeting at Blackfriars, and subsequently in Warwick Lane.

In October 1651 he was the leader of a radical group breaking away from Cromwell and the army leadership, who thought personal interests were getting the upper hand. The launch of the Fifth Monarchist political movement, led by Feake and John Simpson, occurred in December 1651. Feake's preaching became more and more virulent in its attacks on the existing government. In November 1653 he said that Barebone's Parliament was no improvement on the Rump Parliament
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....

. He then spoke of Cromwell (18 December 1653) as "the most dissembling and perjured villain in the world."

For this kind of language he was brought before the council of state
English Council of State
The English Council of State, later also known as the Protector's Privy Council, was first appointed by the Rump Parliament on 14 February 1649 after the execution of King Charles I....

, deprived of his preferment, and committed to Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...

. He appears to have been liberated in 1655, but was soon brought again before the council, and having been examined by Cromwell, was sent back to Windsor. Cromwell did not put him on trial, on the grounds that the sentence would have been death. In the summer of 1656 he still nominally a prisoner, living in London under a type of house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...

. He seems to have been set at full liberty on Cromwell's death, and in 1660 he disappears from view. At the time of his arrest (1653) he had a wife and eight children.

Works

Feake's publications included:
  • The Genealogy of Christianity, &c. 1650, (sermon on Acts xi. 26, mentioned above; it is dedicated to the Lord Mayor).
  • 'Recommendatory Epistle,' prefixed to 'The Little Horns Doom,' &c. 1651, by Mary Carr, afterwards Rande, a millenarian.
  • Advertisement to the Reader,' signed by Feake and others, prefixed to 'A Faithful Discovery,' &c. 1653, 4to; 2nd edit. 1655, 4to (a work against the Yorkshire quakers by John Pomroy, Joseph Kellet, and Paul Glissen).
  • 'The New Nonconformist,' &c. 1654. 4to (written from Windsor Castle).
  • 'The Oppressed Close Prisoner in Windsor Castle,' &c. 1655.
  • Address 'to the Reader' prefixed to 'Mr. Tillinghast's Eight last Sermons.' &c. 1656; this also is written from his 'watchtower;' he mentions that it was his second imprisonment. John Tillinghast
    John Tillinghast
    John Tillinghast was an English clergyman and Fifth-monarchy man. He is known for his confrontation with Oliver Cromwell, and millenarian writings.-Life:...

    , who died early in 1655, was minister of a congregational church at Trunch, Norfolk, and a Fifth-monarchy man).
  • Address 'to the Readers' on church government, prefixed to 'The Prophets Malachy and Isaiah prophesying to the Saints,' &c. 1656. (mentions his house arrest).
  • 'The Time of the End,' &c. 1657, by John Canne
    John Canne
    -Life:The London separatist congregation of John Hubbard, who had moved with them to Ireland around 1621, on Hubbard’s death came back to London and chose Canne as minister. After a year or two he went to Amsterdam, and there became the successor of Henry Ainsworth as pastor of the congregation of...

    , preface by Feake.
  • 'A Beam of Light,' &c. 1659, (pamphlet dealing with recent political history).


Feake is mentioned in The Declaration of Prophetick Proposals, touching Mr. Feak, &c. 1653 [i.e. February 1654], by Arise Evans
Arise Evans
-Personal history:Evans was born about 1607 in Llangelynin parish and was apprenticed to a tailor at Wrexham. While living in Wales he had seen visions and prophetic dreams which were accentuated when he went to London in 1629. In London he made vain efforts to warn King Charles I of perceived...

. A tract entitled Proh Tempora! Proh Mores! 1654, by 'J. N., a Mechanick,' refers to a publication called Mr. Christopher Feakes Exhortations, and mentions that although Feake 'derides psalmsinging' he 'makes new songs.' A publication entitled A Word for All: or the Rump's Funerall Sermon, held forth by Mr. Feak to a Conventicle of Fanatiques at Bedlam, &c. 1660, is a lampoon on Feake.
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