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P r o f i l e
EDMUND CAMPION
By TODD M. AGIALORO
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 9
 September 1994 
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SHORTLY after dawn on July 18, 1581, the cry went
out: "I have found the traitors!" With a crowbar the false
wall at the head of the stairs was torn away, revealing the huddled
figures of Edmund Campion and two companions, three priests lately
returned to their native England to minister to those resisting the
oppression from the new English Church. Their discovery set them upon
the path to martyrdom.
Edmund Campion was born on January 25, 1540 into an England of religious and social upheaval. Protestantism had usurped the Catholic Church
as the spiritual authority; the dissolution of monasteries and the
suppression of Catholic beliefs and believers intensified as land-hungry
nobles and men of power continued, in the name of the young, sickly
Edward VI, the transformation begun by Henry VIII.
Campion was 13 and the most promising scholar at Christ's Hospital
school in London when he was chosen to read an address to Mary Tudor upon her arrival in London as queen in 1553. Campion received a scholarship
to Oxford at age 15, and, by the time Elizabeth rose to power ("restoring"
Protestantism as the national religion) upon Mary's death in 1558,
he was already a junior fellow.
At Oxford Campion's erudition, charisma, and charm gained him noteriety;
his students even imitated his mannerisms and style of dress. Queen
Elizabeth visited in 1566 and for her entertainment was treated to
academic displays. Campion, the star of the show, single-handedly
debated four other scholars and so impressed the queen that she promised
the patronage of her advisor (and one of the principal architects
of the Reformation in England) William Cecil, who referred to Campion
as the "diamond of England."
It was the hope of the crown that Campion would become a defender
of the new faith which, though favored by the temporal power, lacked
learned apologists. Yet even as he was ordained to the Anglican diaconate,
he was being swayed toward Rome, influenced in great part by older
friends with Catholic sympathies. In 1569 he journeyed to Dublin,
where he composed his History of Ireland. At this point Campion
was at the summit of his powers. He could have risen to the highest
levels of fame had he stayed his course. But this was not to be. By
the time Campion left Ireland, he knew he could not remain a Protestant.
Campion's Catholic leanings were well-publicized, and he found the
atmosphere hostile upon his return to England in 1571. He went abroad
to Douay in France, where he was reconciled with the Church and decided
to enter the Society of Jesus. He made a pilgrimmage to Rome and journeyed
to Prague, where he lived and taught for six years and in 1578 was
ordained a Jesuit priest.
In 1580 he was called by superiors to join fellow Jesuit Robert Parsons
in leading a mission to England. He accepted the assignment joyfully,
but everyone was aware of the dangers. The night before his departure
from Prague, one of the Jesuit fathers wrote over Campion's door,
"P. Edmundus Campianus, Martyr."
Campion crossed the English Channel as "Mr. Edmunds," a
jewel dealer. His mission was nearly a short one: At Dover a search
was underway for Gabriel Allen, another English Catholic expatriate
who was rumored to be returning to England to visit family. Apparently
Allen's decription fit Campion also, and he was detained by the mayor
of Dover, who planned to send Campion to London. Inexplicably, while
waiting for horses for the journey, the mayor changed his mind, and
sent "Mr. Edmunds" on his way.
Upon reaching London, Campion composed his "Challenge to the
Privy Council," a statement of his mission and an invitation
to engage in theological debate (see "Classic Apologetics"
in this issue). Copies spread quickly, and several replies to the
"Challenge" were published by Protestant writers, who attached
to it a derogatory title, "Campion's Brag," by which it
is best known today.
The power and sincerity of the "Brag" is accompanied by
a degree of naivet<\i>: Campion's statement of purpose was of no value
during his later trial for treason, and the challenge to debate, repeated
later in his apologetic work Decem Rationes, was as much an
invitation to capture. And his capture seemed almost inevitable: Elizabeth
had spies everywhere searching for priests, the most sought-after
of whom being her former "diamond of England."
Campion and his companions traveled stealthily through the English
countryside in the early summer of 1581, relying on old, landed Catholic
families as hosts. They said Mass, heard confession, performed baptisms
and marriages, and preached words of encouragement to a people who
represented the last generation to confess the faith of a Catholic
England.
There were close calls. Many homes had hiding places for priests-- some even had secret chapels and confessionals--and the Jesuits
had to rely on these more than once. Campion took extraordinary risks,
never able to turn down a request to preach or administer the sacraments,
and more than once he escaped detection while in a public setting.
His fortune changed while visiting the home of Francis Yate in Lyford
Grange, which was west of London. Yate was a Catholic imprisoned for
his faith who had repeatedly asked for one of the Jesuit fathers to
tend to the spiritual needs of his household. Though it was out of
the way and the queen's searchers were reportedly in hot pursuit,
Campion was unable to resist the request.
He traveled to Lyford, heard confessions, preached well into the night,
and departed without difficulty after saying Mass at dawn. Some nuns
visiting the home shortly thereafter were upset to hear they had just
missed Campion, and so riders were dispatched to pursuade him to return,
which he did. Word of his return reached George Eliot, born and regarded
as Catholic but in fact a turncoat in the pay of the queen; he had
a general commission to hunt down and arrest priests. Eliot arrived
at Lyford with David Jenkins, another searcher, and attended a Mass.
He was greatly outnumbered by the Catholics, and, fearing resistance,
made no move to arrest Campion. He departed abruptly to fetch the
local magistrate and a small militia and returned to the Yate property
during dinner. News of the approaching party reached the house, and
Campion and his two priestly companions were safely squirreled away
in a narrow cell prepared especially for that purpose, with food and
drink for three days.
Later Eliot and Jenkins both claimed to have discovered the priests,
offering the same story: A strip of light breaking through a gap in
the wall leading to the hiding place was the giveaway--both men
took credit for noticing it, and each reported being the one to break
through the wall. No doubt each sought the credit for capturing the
infamous Campion, for no priest was more beloved by the Catholics
nor more despised by the crown.
Campion was taken to the Tower and tortured. Several times he was
forced to engage in debates, without benefit of notes or references
and still weak and disoriented from his rackings and beatings. He
acquited himself admirably, all things considered: a testament to
his unparalled rhetorical skills.
His trial was a farce. Witnesses were bribed, false evidence produced;
in truth, the outcome had been determined since his arrival. Campion
was eloquent and persuasive to the last, dominating the entire procedure
with the force of his logic and his knowledge of the Scripture and
law, but in vain. He and his priestly and lay companions were convicted
of treason on November 14 and were sentenced to death. His address
to the court upon sentencing invoked the Catholic England for which
he had fought, the Catholic England which was about to die: "In
condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors--all the ancient
priests, bishops and kings--all that was once the glory of England."
On December 1, 1581 the prophecy hanging over his door in Prague was
fulfilled: Campion was hanged, drawn, and quartered. The poet Henry
Walpole was there, and during the quartering some blood from Campion's
entrails splashed on his coat. Walpole was profoundly changed. He
went overseas, took orders, and 13 years later met his own martyrdom
on English soil. Campion was beatified by Leo XIII in 1886.
Todd M. Aglialoro is the editorial assistant for This Rock.
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