Edmund
Campion’s father was a bookseller in London. The future martyr was born
around 1540, and at the age of fifteen was given a scholarship to St.
John’s College, Oxford, where he was known for his intelligence and his
sweet, yet fiery, disposition. Gifted with oratory, he was chosen to
lead a public debate before Queen Elizabeth, and readily won her
goodwill and patronage as well as that of the powerful William Cecil and
the Earl of Leicester.
He had taken the oath of royal supremacy
and was persuaded to receive the diaconate from the Anglican Church. But
he had harbored doubts about the same Church, and his conscience
disturbed, he left the country for Ireland in 1569 where he wrote a
history of that country.
By 1571, he was a suspected person in
England. Reconciled to the Catholic Church in France, he was received
into the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1573. As there was not as yet an
English Province, he was assigned to the Austrian Province and entered
the novitiate in Brunn, Moravia. For six years the young Englishman
taught Rhetoric and Philosophy at the Jesuit College in Prague. He was
ordained to the priesthood in 1578.
In 1580 he was chosen to
accompany Fr. Robert Persons on a mission to England. As superior, Fr.
Persons was to counterbalance Campion’s fervor and impetuosity.
Surprised to be selected for this endeavor, Edmund expressed the fear
that he lacked constitutional courage.
Campion arrived in England
disguised as a jewel merchant and went right to work. In Lancashire he
preached almost daily with conspicuous success. Pursued by spies and
several times almost apprehended, he managed not only to make many
converts, but also to write his “Ten Reasons” in which he challenged
Protestants to openly debate religion with him. This treatise was
printed in secret and widely distributed, causing quite a commotion.
Campion
was betrayed while saying Mass at a house in Norfolk and was captured
with two other priests in a hideout above the gateway. During his
imprisonment in the Tower of London, Edmund was labeled, “Campion, the
seditious Jesuit,” a title which did not deter the Queen herself from
attempting to dissuade him from his convictions.
Twice, before
his trial, he was racked. Notwithstanding his torments, Campion led his
own defense as well as that of his companions. His fortitude and courage
so touched the heart of Phillip Howard, the Earl of Arundel – another
of the Queen’s favorites – that this nobleman made a full conversion and
later received the crown of martyrdom. Prior to his sentence of death
being read, Campion boldly addressed the court with this final
challenge:
“In condemning us, you condemn all your own
ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings; all that was once the
glory of England — the island of saints, and the most devoted child of
the See of Peter.”
On December 1, a wet, muddy day, Frs.
Campion, Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Briant were taken to the scaffold
at Tyburn and there were executed with the usual barbarities. As he was
being hung, drawn and quartered, some of Campion’s blood splattered on
one of those present at his execution. The onlooker's name was Henry
Walpole. He too became a Jesuit and was canonized with Campion as one of
the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales in 1970.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
St. Edmund Campion and Companions
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