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Edmund Campion, santo
Early years and education (1540–1569)
Born in London on January 24, 1540, Campion received his
early education at Christ's Hospital, and, as the best of the
London scholars, was chosen in their name to make the
complimentary speech when Queen Mary visited the city.
He then attended St John's College, Oxford, becoming a
fellow in 1557 and taking the Oath of Supremacy on the
occasion of his degree in 1564. When Sir Thomas White, the
founder of the college, was buried in 1567, the Latin oration
fell to the lot of Campion. Two years later he welcomed
Queen Elizabeth to the university, and won her lasting
regard. He was selected to lead a public debate in front of
the queen. By the time the Queen had left Oxford, Campion
had earned the patronage of the powerful William Cecil and
also the Earl of Leicester, tipped by some to be future
husband of the young Queen. People were now talking of
Campion in terms of being a future Archbishop of
Canterbury, in the newly established Anglican Church.
Rejecting Anglicanism
Religious difficulties now arose; but at the persuasion of Richard Cheyney, Bishop of Gloucester,
although holding Catholic doctrines, he received deacon's orders in the Anglican Church. Inwardly
"he took a remorse of conscience and detestation of mind." Rumours of his opinions began to
spread and he left Oxford in 1569 and went to Ireland to take part in a proposed establishment of
the University of Dublin.
Ireland (1569–1571)
Campion was appointed tutor to Richard Stanihurst, son of the Speaker of the Irish parliament, and
attended the first session of the House of Commons, which included the prorogation. Campion was
transferred by Stanihurst's arrangement to the house of Patrick Barnewall at Turvey in the Pale,
which he acknowledged saved him from arrest and torture by the Protestant party in Dublin. For
some three months he eluded his pursuers, going by the name "Mr Patrick" and occupying himself
by writing a history of Ireland.
Douai (1571–1573)
In 1571, Campion left Ireland in secret and escaped to Douai in the Low Countries (now France)
where he was reconciled to the Catholic Church and received the Eucharist that he had denied
himself for the last twelve years. He entered the English College founded by William Allen. The
College's intake grew, and a little after Campion's arrival a papal subsidy was granted. Campion
found himself reunited with Oxford friends. He was to teach rhetoric while there and finish studying
for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, granted him by the University of Douai on January 21, 1573.
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Having obtained his degree, Campion left for Rome, travelling on foot and alone in the guise of a
pilgrim. In that same year he entered a novitiate with the Jesuits, and spent some years in Vienna
and Prague.
Mission to England (1580–1581)
In 1580, the Jesuit mission to England began. Campion accompanied Robert Parsons who, as
superior, was intended to counterbalance his own fervour and impetuousness. He had been reluctant
to follow the father general's order to take part in the mission, the members of which were
instructed to avoid the company of boys and women, and to avoid giving the impression of being
legacy hunters. Before embarking, the members of the mission were embarrassed to receive news of
a landing by papal sponsored forces in the Irish province of Munster in support of the Irish rebel
James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald. They also learned that a letter detailing their party and mission had
been intercepted and that they were expected in England. Campion finally entered England in the
guise of a jewel merchant. He arrived in London on June 24, 1580, and at once began to preach. His
presence became known to the authorities, and the diffusion of the challenge he threw down in the
form of a declaration, known as the "Challenge to the Privy Council" to his allies and as "Campion's
Brag" to his enemies, made his position more difficult. He led a hunted life, preaching and
ministering to Catholics in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Lancashire. During this
time he was writing his "Decem Rationes" ("Ten Reasons"), a rhetorical display of reasons against
the Anglican Church. The book was printed in a clandestine press at Stonor Park, Henley, and 400
copies were found on the benches of St Mary's, Oxford, at the Commencement, on June 27, 1581. It
caused great sensation, and the hunt for Campion was stepped up. On his way to Norfolk, he
stopped at Lyford, then in Berkshire, where he preached on July 14 and the following day, by
popular request. Here, he was captured by a spy and taken to London with his arms pinioned and
bearing on his hat a paper with the inscription, "Campion, the Seditious Jesuit." [1]
Trial and execution
Committed to the Tower of London, he was questioned in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who
asked him if he acknowledged her to be the true Queen of England. He replied in the affirmative,
and she offered him wealth and dignities, but on condition of rejecting his Catholic faith, which he
refused to accept. He was kept a long time in prison and reputedly racked twice. Despite the effect
of a false rumour of retraction and a forged confession, his adversaries summoned him to four
public conferences (September 1, 18, 23 and 27, 1581). Although still suffering from his ill
treatment, and allowed neither time nor books for preparation, he reportedly conducted himself so
easily and readily that he won the admiration of most of the audience. Tortured again on October
31, he was indicted at Westminster on a charge of having conspired, along with others, in Rome and
Reims to raise a sedition in the realm and dethrone the Queen.[1] Campion was sentenced to death
as a traitor. He answered: "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." He received the death sentence with the Te Deum laudamus.
After spending his last days in prayer he was led with two companions to Tyburn and hanged,
drawn and quartered on December 1, 1581, aged 41.
Veneration and Feast Day
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Edmund Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on December 9, 1886.[2] Blessed Edmund
Campion was canonized nearly eighty-four years later in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales with a common feast day of October 25. His feast day is celebrated
on December 1, the day of his martyrdom. The actual ropes used in his execution are now kept in
glass display tubes at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire; each year they are placed on the altar of St
Peter's Church for Mass to celebrate Campion's feast day—which is always a holiday for the
school.[3]
References
1 "Campion, Edmund". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
2 Patron Saints Index: "Saint Edmund Campion"
3 T.E. Muir, "Stonyhurst College"
Sources
Richard Simpson, "Edmund Campion," 1867.
Evelyn Waugh, "Edmund Campion" (1935).
De Backer, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jesus. (A complete list of Edmund Campion's works)
(French)
Edmund Campion, A Historie of Ireland, Dublin, 1633. Facsimile ed., 1940, Scholars' Facsimiles &
Reprints, ISBN 9780820111919.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication
now in the public domain. - This article incorporates text from the entry St. Edmund Campion in
Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913, a publication now in the public domain.
[Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Campion " Wikipedia articles
incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica | Articles incorporating text from the
1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference This page was last modified on 4 June 2010 at 23:22.]
English Jesuit and martyr; he was the son and namesake of a Catholic bookseller, and was born in
London, 25 Jan., 1540; executed at Tyburn, 1 Dec., 1581. A city company sent the promising child
to a grammar school and to Christ Church Hospital. When Mary Tudor entered London in state as
queen, he was the schoolboy chosen to give the Latin salutatory to her majesty. Sir Thomas White,
lord mayor, who built and endowed St. John's College at Oxford, accepted Campion as one of his
first scholars, appointed him junior fellow at seventeen, and, dying, gave him his last messages for
his academic family. Campion shone at Oxford in 1560, when he delivered one oration at the
reburial of Amy Robsart, and another at the funeral of the founder of his own college; and for
twelve years he was to be followed and imitated as no man ever was in an English university except
himself and Newman. He took both his degrees, and became a celebrated tutor, and, by 1568, junior
proctor. Queen Elizabeth had visited Oxford two years before; she and Dudley, then chancellor,
won by Campion's bearing, beauty, and wit, bade him ask for what he would. Successes, local
responsibilities, and allurements, his natural ease of disposition, the representations, above all, of
his friend Bishop Cheyney of Gloucester, blinded Campion in regard to his course as a Catholic: he
took the Oath of Supremacy, and deacon's orders according to the new rite. Afterthoughts
developing into scruples, scruples into anguish, he broke off his happy Oxford life when his
proctorship ended, and betook himself to Ireland, to await the reopening of Dublin University, an
ancient papal foundation temporarily extinct. Sir Henry Sidney, the lord deputy, was interested in
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Campion's future as well as in the revival which, however, fell through. With Philip Sidney, then a
boy, Campion was to have a touching interview in 1577.
As too Catholic minded an Anglican, Campion was suspected, and exposed to danger. Hidden in
friendly houses, he composed his treatise called "A History of Ireland" Written from an English
standpoint it gave much offence to the native Irish, and was severely criticized, in the next century,
by Geoffrey Keating In his Irish history of Ireland. Urged to further effort by the zeal of Gregory
Martin, he crossed to England in disguise and under an assumed name, reaching London in time to
witness the trial of one of the earliest Oxonian martyrs, Dr. John Storey. Campion now recognized
his vocation and hastened to the seminary at Douai. Cecil lamented to Richard Stanihurst the
expatriation of "one of the diamonds of England." At Douai Campion remained for his theological
course and its lesser degree, but then set out as a barefoot pilgrim to Rome, arriving there just
before the death of St. Francis Borgia; "for I meant", as he said at his examination, "to enter into
the Society of Jesus, thereof to vow and to be professed". This he accomplished promptly in April
(1573), being the first novice received by Mercurianus, the fourth general. As the English province
was as yet non-existent, he was allotted to that of Bohemia, entering on his noviceship at Prague
and passing his probation year at Brunn in Moravia. Returning to Prague, he taught in the college
and wrote a couple of sacred dramas; and there he was ordained in 1578. Meanwhile, Dr. Allen was
organizing the apostolic work of the English Mission, and rejoiced to secure Fathers Robert Parsons
and Edmund Campion as his first Jesuit helpers. In the garden at Brunn, Campion had had a vision,
in which Our Lady foretold to him his martyrdom. Comrades at Prague were moved to make a
scroll for P. Edmundus Campianus Martyr, and to paint a prophetic garland of roses within his cell.
Parsons and Campion set out from Rome, had many adventures, and called upon St. Charles
Borromeo in Milan, and upon Beza in Geneva. Campion was met in London, and fitly clothed,
armed, and mounted by a devoted young convert friend. His office was chiefly to reclaim Catholics
who were wavering or temporizing under the pressure of governmental tyranny; but his zeal to win
Protestants, his preaching, his whole saintly and soldierly personality, made a general and profound
impression. An alarm was raised and he fled to the North, where he fell again to writing and
produced his famous tract, the "Decem Rationes". He returned to London, only to withdraw again,
this time towards Norfolk. A spy, a former steward of the Roper family, one George Eliot, was hot
upon his track, and ran him and others down at Lyford Grange near Wantage in Berkshire on 17
July, 1581.
Amid scenes of violent excitement, Campion was derisively paraded through the streets of his
native city, bound hand and foot, riding backwards, with a paper stuck in his hat to denote the
"seditious Jesuit". First thrown into Little Ease at the Tower, he was carried privately to the house
of his old patron, the Earl of Leicester; there he encountered the queen herself, and received earnest
proffers of liberty and preferments would he but forsake his papistry. Hopton having tried in vain
the same blandishments, on Campion's return to the Tower, the priest was then examined under
torture, and was reported to have betrayed those who had harboured him. Several arrests were made
on the strength of the lie. He had asked for a public disputation. But when it came off in the Norman
chapel of the Tower, before the Dean of St. Paul's and other divines, Campion had been denied
opportunity to prepare his debate, and had been severely racked. Thus weakened, he stood through
the four long conferences, without chair, table, or notes, and stood undefeated. Philip Howard, Earl
of Arundel, who was looking on in the flush of worldly pride, became thereby inspired to return to
God's service. The privy council, at its wits' end over so purely spiritual a "traitor", hatched a plot to
impeach Campion's loyalty, and called in the hirelings Eliot and Munday as accusers. A ridiculous
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trial ensued in Westminster Hall, 20 Nov., 1581. Campion, pleading not guilty, was quite unable to
hold up his often-wrenched right arm, seeing which, a fellow prisoner, first kissing it, raised it for
him. He made a magnificent defence. But the sentence was death, by hanging, drawing, and
quartering: a sentence received by the martyrs with a joyful shout of Haec dies and Te Deum.
Campion, with Sherwin and Briant, who were on a separate hurdle, was dragged to Tyburn on 1
December. Passing Newgate arch, he lifted himself as best he could to salute the statue of Our Lady
still in situ. On the scaffold, when interrupted and taunted to express his mind concerning the Bull
of Pius V excommunicating Elizabeth, he answered only by a prayer for her, "your Queen and my
Queen". He was a Catholic Englishman with political opinions which were not Allen's, though he
died, as much as ever Felton did, for the primacy of the Holy See. The people loudly lamented his
fate; and another great harvest of conversions began. A wild, generous-hearted youth, Henry
Walpole, standing by, got his white doublet stained with Campion's blood; the incident made him,
too, in time, a Jesuit and a martyr.
Historians of all schools are agreed that the charges against Campion were wholesale sham. They
praise his high intelligence, his beautiful gaiety, his fiery energy, his most chivalrous gentleness. He
had renounced all opportunity for a dazzling career in a world of master men. Every tradition of
Edmund Campion, every remnant of his written words, and not least his unstudied golden letters,
show us that he was nothing less than a man of genius; truly one of the great Elizabethans, but holy
as none other of them all. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 9 December, 1886, and canonized
by Pope Paul VI in 1970. Relics of him are preserved in Rome and Prague, in London, Oxford,
Stonyhurst, and Roehampton. A not very convincing portrait was made soon after his death for the
Gesù in Rome under the supervision of many who had known him. Of this there is a copy in oils at
Stonyhurst, and a brilliantly engraved print in Hazart's "Kerckelycke Historie" (Antwerp, 1669),
Vol. III (Enghelandt, etc.), though not in every copy of that now scarce work.
Notes
CAMPION'S Historie of Ireland was first published by STANIHURST in HOLINSHED,
Chronicles (1587), then in WARE'S book under the same title (1633). and again by the Hibernia
Press (Dublin, 1809); Edmundi Campiani Decem Rationes et alia Opuscula, carefully edited
(Antwerp, 1631); this included Orations, Letters, and the Narratio Divortii Henrici VIII, Regis
Angliae, ab Uzore et ab Ecclesia, first printed by HARPESFIELD. There is no modern ed. or tr.
The standard biography is SIMPSON, Edmund Campion, Jesuit Protomartyr of England (London,
1866; reissued, London, 1907). Accounts of Campion's life, labours, and death are in
CHALLONER, Memoirs of Missionary Priests; FOLEY, Records of the English Province of the
Society of Jesus, and STANTON, Menology of England and Wales.
[L.I. GUINEY]
Retrieved from: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/St._Edmund_Campion
Nato da famiglia cattolica, dovette abiurare alla sua fede e diventare protestante riconoscendo la
Regina capo della Chiesa per poter studiare all‘università di Oxford, dove si distinse come
eccezionale oratore. Ma procedendo negli studi si convinse che la religione anglicana deformava
l‘immagine originaria della Chiesa. Si decise così a partire per l‘esilio in Irlanda, pur di poter
ritornare Cattolico. Ma nonostante camuffato, fu riconosciuto e perseguitato. Ciò nonostante entra
nei Gesuiti nella provincia austriaca di Praga. Di li fu inviato temerariamente proprio nella nativa
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Inghilterra a predicarvi il Cattolicesimo. Entrò nella sua terra pubblicando una audace lettera
intitolata ―sfida‖ rivolta ai Teologi protestanti, che ne rimasero fortemente impressionati.
Utilizzando la recente invenzione della stampa diffuse 400 copie (per allora tantissime!) di un testo
intitolato ―le dieci ragioni per essere cattolico‖. Questo libro lo costrinse nuovamente all‘esilio. Ma
una spia lo fece catturare a Norfolk, per essere imprigionato nella torre di Londra, dove l‘alternarsi
di promesse economiche e di torture al cavalletto non riuscirono a farlo abiurare. Una pubblica
disputa con i Teologi protestanti aumentò il suo prestigio pubblico, fino a che un processo istruito
con testimoni falsi prezzolati lo imputò di congiura contro la Regina. Fu così legato a un cavallo che
lo trascinò come una carrozza correndo per le via di Londra, fino a che si avviò alla ghigliottina
pregando per la salvezza della Regina.
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio Romano: A Londra sempre in Inghilterra, santi Edmondo Campion, Rodolfo
Sherwin e Alessandro Briant, sacerdoti e martiri sotto la regina Elisabetta I, insigni per ingegno e
fortezza nella fede. Sant‘Edmondo, che fin da giovane aveva fatto professione di fede cattolica,
ammesso a Roma nella Compagnia di Gesù e ordinato sacerdote a Praga, tornò in patria, dove, per
essersi adoperato nel confortare gli animi dei fedeli con la sua parola e i suoi scritti, fu ucciso, dopo
molti tormenti, a Tyburn. Insieme a lui subirono gli stessi supplizi i santi Rodolfo e Alessandro, il
secondo dei quali ottenne in carcere di essere ammesso nella Compagnia di Gesù.
Visse nel triste periodo della Riforma Anglicana, sotto il regno della scismatica regina Elisabetta I;
nacque a Londra il 25 gennaio 1540 da agiati genitori, inizialmente cattolici e poi passati al
protestantesimo.
Educato con questi indirizzi, frequentò prestigiose Scuole di Londra, la sua evidente perspicacia
negli studi si evidenziò con alcuni discorsi da lui preparati e tenuti in occasione di importanti
avvenimenti del tempo, come l‘ingresso a Londra della regina Maria Tudor nel 1553, che gli aprì le
porte del collegio universitario di Oxford, i compagni di studio, per le sue qualità, si raccolsero
intorno a lui sotto il nome di ―campionisti‖.
Dovette adattarsi alla situazione religiosa per cui già nel 1564, prestò il giuramento anticattolico
riconoscendo la supremazia religiosa della regina; dovendo in quello stesso anno dedicarsi agli studi
di filosofia aristotelica, di teologia e dei Santi padri, scoprì che l‘anglicanesimo non era altro che
una deformazione dell‘antica fede che aveva resa grande l‘Inghilterra.
Si sentì profondamente a disagio quando il vescovo anglicano di Gloucester, avendolo conosciuto,
desiderò che diventasse suo successore e quindi lo ordinò diacono, ma quella ordinazione turbò
profondamente Edmondo, procurandogli cocenti rimorsi, cosicché abbandonò il servizio religioso
protestante, gli studi e le altre cariche e il 1° agosto 1569 lasciò Oxford per Dublino nell‘Irlanda
cattolica, dove professò apertamente il cattolicesimo.
Sentendosi ricercato dai fedeli alla regina, si rifugiò a Douai in Francia, per entrare in seminario e
completare gli studi teologici. Riconciliato con la Chiesa fu ordinato suddiacono, poi entrò nella
Compagnia di Gesù nel 1573, dove fu accettato e destinato alla provincia austriaca dell‘Ordine.
Insegnò nel Collegio di Praga, fu ordinato sacerdote nel 1578 e si dedicò valentemente alla
predicazione, in questo periodo scrive varie opere letterarie di religione. Nel 1580 viene destinato
alla Missione inglese con sua grande gioia e dopo essere stato ricevuto in udienza dal papa insieme
ad un compagno Roberto Persons, il 18 aprile si avviarono verso questa nuova meta di apostolato.
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Saputo che in Inghilterra erano già informati del loro arrivo, poterono sbarcare solo con
stratagemmi e travestimenti, il 26 giugno si rifugiò a Londra presso amici. Un suo discorso
pronunciato il giorno della festa di s. Pietro, ebbe una grande eco nel regno, la stessa regina
Elisabetta irritata, diede ordine di prendere l‘autore che si teneva nascosto.
Necessariamente dovette lasciare Londra e intraprese il suo ministero in forma itinerante,
spostandosi da un paese all‘altro per le varie Contee del regno. Rilasciò una ‗dichiarazione‘ in cui
spiegava la spiritualità della sua missione, chiedendo di poter avere dei confronti con i lords, con i
professori universitari e con persone esperte di diritto civile ed ecclesiastico. Inoltre dichiarava
l‘intento dei gesuiti a voler tentare tutto per riportare la fede cattolica, anche a costo della loro vita.
Questa ‗dichiarazione‘ divenne pubblica e se da un lato confortò i cattolici, dall‘altro provocò la
reazione degli scismatici e le prigioni si riempirono di persone fedeli a Roma. Il Campion fece di
più, il 29 giugno 1581 sui banchi della chiesa di s. Maria ad Oxford si trovarono 400 copie di un
opuscolo da lui fatto stampare di nascosto, in cui dopo aver esposto le contraddizioni
dell‘anglicanesimo, invitava la regina a ritornare nella Chiesa.
Il 16 luglio tradito da tale Giorgio Eliot, fu preso dopo aver celebrato la s. Messa nella casa della
signora Yate; tre giorni dopo fu condotto alla Torre di Londra, legato all‘incontrario su un cavallo,
con la scritta sulla testa ―Campion il gesuita sedizioso‖, fu processato con la presenza della stessa
regina e inutili furono tutti i tentativi di fargli riconoscere la supremazia reale in religione,
nonostante le torture a cui fu sottoposto e le lusinghiere offerte della regina.
La folla partecipava al processo e veniva colpita favorevolmente dalle sue argomentazioni;
comunque riconosciuto colpevole di essere entrato in Inghilterra di nascosto con finalità sovversive,
fu condannato a morte. Salì il patibolo dell‘impiccagione il 1° dicembre 1581 e già con il cappio al
collo, esternò il suo rispetto alla regina e alla sua autorità affermando ancora una volta davanti ad
una grande folla, di morire nella vera fede cattolica e romana.
Il suo culto fu confermato da papa Leone XIII il 9 dicembre 1886, beatificato da papa Pio XI il 15
dicembre 1929 è stato poi canonizzato insieme ad altri 39 martiri d‘Inghilterra il 25 ottobre 1970 da
papa Paolo VI.
Cfr.: Antonio Borrelli, Sant' Edmondo Campion Martire, gesuita, in Santi Beati e testimoni.