16 July
1581 A.D. Edmund Campion, English
Jesuit, Captured
Graves, Dan. “Edmund
Campion, a Diamond of England, Betrayed.”
Christianity.com. Apr 2007.
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/edmund-campion-a-diamond-of-england-betrayed-11630030.html.
Accessed 16 Jul 2014.
Although the political wind was
blowing the other way, Campion clung to the Roman Catholic faith in which he
had been raised. Unwilling to renounce the Pope for the sake of enjoying power
in England, he escaped his homeland and took vows as a Jesuit. Posted at first
to Prague, he later was recalled to Rome. There he was ordered to infiltrate
England and minister to English Catholics. As Christopher Buckley and James
MacGuire portray it in a stage play, Campion replies with horror, "I'm to
return to England." A priest with him says, "Edmund, you've got to do
something. It's a death warrant."
Although knowing this to be
true, Campion, nonetheless, remained faithful to his Jesuit vows and obediently
returned to England. In preparation for his inevitable capture and death he
wrote his "Challenge to the Privy Council," otherwise known as
"Campion's Brag." In this he insisted that his reasons for returning
to his homeland were not political. "My charge is of free cost to preach
the Gospel, to minister the sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reform
sinners, to confute errors; in brief, to cry alarm spiritual against foul vice
and proud ignorance, wherewith many [of] my dear countrymen are abused."
Campion's courage and brilliance
(combined with genuine holiness) restored heart to the Catholics to whom he
ministered. For a year he eluded his pursuers, escaping from home to home. In
the end he was betrayed.
Through past friendship with a
cook, a government agent, pretending to be a devout Catholic, obtained entrance
into a house where Campion was giving mass. The agent got word to the local
authorities. The house was surrounded on this day, July 16, 1581, and the next
afternoon, after many hours of searching "...David Jenkins, by God's great
goodness, espied a certain secret place, which he quickly found to be hollow;
and with a pin of iron which he had in his hand...he forthwith did break a hole
into the said place: where then presently he perceived the said priests lying
close together upon a bed...where they had meat and drink sufficient to have
relieved them three or four days together."
Campion was racked, offered
bribes and tortured. Because he refused to recant, he was hanged, drawn, and
quartered at Tyburn. At his sentencing he said, "In condemning us you
condemn all your own ancestors--all the ancient priests, bishops, and
kings--all that was once the glory of England." He might have added,
"and of Europe." This brilliant "diamond of England"
suffered a brave martyrdom for his faith.
Bibliography:
1. Buckley, Christopher and MacGuire. Campion. (Screenplay with chronology
and Campion's Brag).
2. "Campion, St. Edmund." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.
Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
3. Carey, John, ed. Eyewitness to History. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University, 1988.
4. Guiney, L.I. "Campion, St. Edmund." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
5. "True Report of the Disputation or rather private Conference had in
the Tower of London with Ed, Campion Jesuite, the last of August, 1581..."
Pastwords
#18. Staunton, Virginia: Christian Heritage Library.
6. Waugh, Evelyn. Edmund Campion. London: Longmans, 1961.
7. Various encyclopedia and internet articles.
Last updated April,
2007.
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