On 1st December 1581 the English Jesuit priest Edmund Campion was martyred at
Tyburn in London. The story of his life, arrest, trial and execution is one of
compelling actuality, subject of a minor masterpiece written in 1935 by Evelyn
Waugh.
Saint Edmund Campion (kăm´pēən), c.1540–1581, English Jesuit martyr, educated at St. Paul's School and St. John's College, Oxford. As a fellow at Oxford he earned the admiration of his colleagues and his students and the favor of Queen Elizabeth by his brilliance and oratorical ability. He went (1569) to Dublin to help in the proposed restoration of the university there. Although he had reluctantly taken orders as a Protestant, he had open Roman Catholic leanings and fled in disguise (1571) to England and then to the Continent, where he studied at Douai, joined (1573) the Society of Jesus, and was ordained (1578). In 1580 he and another Jesuit, Robert Persons, were sent as Jesuit missionaries to England. Campion's travels were marked by many conversions and did much to guarantee the survival of Roman Catholicism in England. Copies of his secretly printed pamphlet, Decem rationes [10 reasons], against the Protestants, appeared at Oxford in 1581. The long pursuit by the government ended (July, 1581) with the taking of Campion. He was racked three times, but though his body was broken he conducted debates with Protestant theologians brilliantly and won more converts. He defended himself ably against trumped-up charges of sedition but was nevertheless condemned and hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was beatified in 1886. In 1970, Campion and the other English and Welsh martyrs of the Reformation were canonized.
Portion of the E. Waugh book:
On leaving Rome for his fatal mission to England, Campion and his companions had been blessed by none other than St Philip Neri in person, stopping on the way at the shrine of St Charles Borromeo in Milan. On arriving in England, he penned the Decem rationes or Ten Reasons Proposed to his Adversaries for Disputation, prefaced by what later came to be known as Campion's brag. Intended as a demonstration of the Truth of the Catholic religion, it is available in its entirety (in Latin and English) at Project Gutenberg. *(I, conveniently, have it for you at the bottom)
On his arrest, he was committed to the Tower of London and questioned in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who asked him if he acknowledged her to be the true Queen of England. He replied she was, 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 repeatedly tortured. His adversaries summoned him to four public conferences where he was ordered to dispute with Anglican clergy despite his lamentable physical state. The nature of these disputations may be gleaned from the following exchange between Campion and Fulke, an Anglican scholar:
Campion: "If you dare, let me show you Augustine and Chrysostom. If you dare."
Fulke: "Whatever you can bring, I have answered already in writing against others of your side. And yet if you think you can add anything, put it in writing and I will answer it."
Campion: "Provide me with ink and paper and I will write."
Fulke: "I am not to provide you ink and paper."
Campion: "I mean, procure me that I may have liberty to write."
Fulke: "I know not for what cause you are restrained of that liberty, and therefore I will not take upon me to procure it."
Campion: "Sue to the Queen that I may have liberty to oppose. I have been now thrice opposed. It is reason that I should oppose once."
Fulke: "I will not become a suitor for you."
Campion was brought to trial, along with several other priests, for treason, the usual charge brought against Catholic priests. Though there was no evidence that Campion, or those tried with him, had planned or supported any violence against Elizabeth, the charge was rammed through with false witnesses. At his sentencing, he rose and addressed the court and jury:
“In condemning us you condemn all your own ancestors - all the ancient priests, 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. For what have we taught, however you may qualify it with the odious name of treason, that they did not uniformly teach? To be condemned with these lights… by their degenerate descendants, is both gladness and glory to us. God lives; posterity will live; their judgement is not so liable to corruption as that of those who are now going to sentence us to death.”
On 1st December 1581 Edmund Campion was dragged through
the streets of London to be executed at Tyburn by the contemporary method of
hanging, drawing and quartering. This involved being stripped of one's clothing,
taken to the scaffold and hanged for a short period, but only to cause
strangulation and near-death; then being cut down, disembowelled, and normally
emasculated. Those still conscious at this point would have seen their entrails
burnt or boiled before them, before their heart was removed. The body was then
decapitated, signalling an unquestionable death, and quartered (chopped into
four pieces). Each dismembered piece of the body was later displayed
publicly.
Evelyn Waugh: "Campion stands out from even his most gallant and chivalrous contemporaries, from Philip Sidney and Don John of Austria, not... by finer human temper, but by the supernatural grace that was in him. That the gentle scholar, trained all his life for the pulpit and the lecture room, was able at the word of command to step straight into a world of violence, and acquit himself nobly; that the man, capable of the strenuous heroism of that last year and a half, was able, without any complaint, to pursue the somber routine of the pedagogue and contemplate without impatience a lifetime so employed - there lies the mystery which sets Campion’s triumph apart from the ordinary achievements of human strength."
Saint Edmund Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 1st December, the day of his martyrdom.
See biography by E. Waugh (3d ed. 1961).
Portion of the E. Waugh book:
On leaving Rome for his fatal mission to England, Campion and his companions had been blessed by none other than St Philip Neri in person, stopping on the way at the shrine of St Charles Borromeo in Milan. On arriving in England, he penned the Decem rationes or Ten Reasons Proposed to his Adversaries for Disputation, prefaced by what later came to be known as Campion's brag. Intended as a demonstration of the Truth of the Catholic religion, it is available in its entirety (in Latin and English) at Project Gutenberg. *(I, conveniently, have it for you at the bottom)
On his arrest, he was committed to the Tower of London and questioned in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who asked him if he acknowledged her to be the true Queen of England. He replied she was, 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 repeatedly tortured. His adversaries summoned him to four public conferences where he was ordered to dispute with Anglican clergy despite his lamentable physical state. The nature of these disputations may be gleaned from the following exchange between Campion and Fulke, an Anglican scholar:
Campion: "If you dare, let me show you Augustine and Chrysostom. If you dare."
Fulke: "Whatever you can bring, I have answered already in writing against others of your side. And yet if you think you can add anything, put it in writing and I will answer it."
Campion: "Provide me with ink and paper and I will write."
Fulke: "I am not to provide you ink and paper."
Campion: "I mean, procure me that I may have liberty to write."
Fulke: "I know not for what cause you are restrained of that liberty, and therefore I will not take upon me to procure it."
Campion: "Sue to the Queen that I may have liberty to oppose. I have been now thrice opposed. It is reason that I should oppose once."
Fulke: "I will not become a suitor for you."
Campion was brought to trial, along with several other priests, for treason, the usual charge brought against Catholic priests. Though there was no evidence that Campion, or those tried with him, had planned or supported any violence against Elizabeth, the charge was rammed through with false witnesses. At his sentencing, he rose and addressed the court and jury:
“In condemning us you condemn all your own ancestors - all the ancient priests, 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. For what have we taught, however you may qualify it with the odious name of treason, that they did not uniformly teach? To be condemned with these lights… by their degenerate descendants, is both gladness and glory to us. God lives; posterity will live; their judgement is not so liable to corruption as that of those who are now going to sentence us to death.”
On 1st December 1581 Edmund Campion was dragged through
the streets of London to be executed at Tyburn by the contemporary method of
hanging, drawing and quartering. This involved being stripped of one's clothing,
taken to the scaffold and hanged for a short period, but only to cause
strangulation and near-death; then being cut down, disembowelled, and normally
emasculated. Those still conscious at this point would have seen their entrails
burnt or boiled before them, before their heart was removed. The body was then
decapitated, signalling an unquestionable death, and quartered (chopped into
four pieces). Each dismembered piece of the body was later displayed
publicly.Evelyn Waugh: "Campion stands out from even his most gallant and chivalrous contemporaries, from Philip Sidney and Don John of Austria, not... by finer human temper, but by the supernatural grace that was in him. That the gentle scholar, trained all his life for the pulpit and the lecture room, was able at the word of command to step straight into a world of violence, and acquit himself nobly; that the man, capable of the strenuous heroism of that last year and a half, was able, without any complaint, to pursue the somber routine of the pedagogue and contemplate without impatience a lifetime so employed - there lies the mystery which sets Campion’s triumph apart from the ordinary achievements of human strength."
Saint Edmund Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 1st December, the day of his martyrdom.
See biography by E. Waugh (3d ed. 1961).
"CAMPION'S
BRAG"[Note:
The English usage of his time is maintained throughout. There are no
spelling errors.]
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, the Lords of Her Majestie's Privy Council: Whereas I have come out of Germanie and Boëmeland, being sent by my Superiours, and adventured myself into this noble Realm, my deare Countrie, for the glorie of God and benefit of souls, I thought it like enough that, in this busie, watchful, and suspicious worlde, I should either sooner or later be intercepted and stopped of my course.
Wherefore, providing for all events, and uncertaine what may become of me, when God shall haply deliver my body into durance, I supposed it needful to put this writing in a readiness, desiringe your good Lordships to give it yr reading, for to know my cause. This doing, I trust I shall ease you of some labour. For that which otherwise you must have sought for by practice of wit, I do now lay into your hands by plaine confession.
And to ye intent that the whole matter may be conceived in order, and so the better both understood and remembered, I make thereof these ix points or articles, directly, truly, and resolutely opening my full enterprise and purpose.
i. I confesse that I am (albeit unworthie) a priest of ye Catholike Church, and through ye great mercie of God vowed now these viii years into the Religion of the Societie of Jhesus. Hereby I have taken upon me a special kind of warfare under the banner of obedience, and eke resigned all my interest or possibilitie of wealth, honour, pleasure, and other worldlie felicitie.
ii. At the voice of our General Provost----which is to me a warrant from Heaven, and Oracle of Christ----I tooke my voyage from Prage to Rome (where our said General Father is always resident) and from Rome to England, as I might and would have done joyously into any part of Christendome or Heathenesse, had I been thereto assigned.
iii. My charge is, of free cost to preach the Gospel, to minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reforme sinners, to confute errors----in brief, to crie alarme spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance, where- with many my dear Countrymen are abused.
iv. I never had mind, and am strictly forbidden by our Father that sent me, to deal in any respect with matter of State or Policy of this realm, as things which appertain not to my vocation, and from which I do gladly restrain and sequester my thoughts.
v. I do ask, to the glory of God, with all humility, and under your correction, iii sortes of indifferent and quiet audiences: the first before your Honours, wherein I will discourse of religion, so far as it toucheth the common weale and your nobilities: the second, whereof I make more account, before the Doctors and Masters and chosen men of both universities, wherein I undertake to avow the Faith of our Catholike Church by proofs innumerable, Scriptures, Councils, Fathers, History, natural and moral reasons: the third before the lawyers, spiritual and temporal, wherein I will justify the said Faith by the common wisdom of the laws standing yet in force and practice.
vi. I would be loth to speak anything that might sound of any insolent brag or challenge, especially being now as a dead man to this world and willing to put my head under every man's foot, and to kiss the ground they tread upon. Yet have I such a courage in avouching the Majesty of Jhesus my King, and such affiance in His gracious favour, and such assurance in my quarrel, and my evi- dence so impregnable, and because I know perfectly that no one Protestant, nor all the Protestants living, nor any sect of our adversaries (howsoever they face men down in pulpits, and overrule us in their kingdom of grammarians and unlearned ears) can maintain their doctrine in disputation. I am to sue most humbly and instantly for the combat with all and every of them, and the most principal that may be found: protesting that in this trial the better furnished they come, the better welcome they shall be.
vii. Because it hath pleased God to enrich the Queen my Sovereign Ladye with notable gifts of nature, learning, and princely education, I do verily trust that----if her Highness would vouchsafe her royal person and good attention to such a conference as, in the ii part of my fifth article I have motioned, or to a few sermons, which in her or your hearing I am to utter----such manifest and fair light by good method and plain dealing may be cast upon these controversies, that possibly her zeal of truth and love of her people shall incline her noble Grace to disfavour some proceedings hurtful to the Realm, and procure towards us oppressed more equitie.
viii. Moreover I doubt not but you, her Highness' Council, being of such wisdom and discreet in cases most important, when you shall have heard these questions of religion opened faithfully, which many times by our adversaries are huddled up and confounded, will see upon what substantial grounds our Catholike Faith is builded, how feeble that side is which by sway of the time prevaileth against us, and so at last for your own souls, and for many thousand souls that depend upon your government, will discountenance error when it is bewrayed, and hearken to those who would spend the best blood in their bodies for your salvation. Many innocent hands are lifted up to Heaven for you daily by those English students, whose posteritie shall never die, which beyond seas, gathering virtue and sufficient knowledge for the purpose, are determined never to give you over, but either to win you Heaven, or to die upon your pikes.
And touching our Societie, be it known to you that we have made a league----all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practices of England----cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood. So the Faith was planted: so it must be restored.
ix. If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigour, I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in Heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten.
Taken from SAINT EDMUND CAMPION, PRIEST AND MARTYR, Evelyn Waugh, 1937,
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, the Lords of Her Majestie's Privy Council: Whereas I have come out of Germanie and Boëmeland, being sent by my Superiours, and adventured myself into this noble Realm, my deare Countrie, for the glorie of God and benefit of souls, I thought it like enough that, in this busie, watchful, and suspicious worlde, I should either sooner or later be intercepted and stopped of my course.
Wherefore, providing for all events, and uncertaine what may become of me, when God shall haply deliver my body into durance, I supposed it needful to put this writing in a readiness, desiringe your good Lordships to give it yr reading, for to know my cause. This doing, I trust I shall ease you of some labour. For that which otherwise you must have sought for by practice of wit, I do now lay into your hands by plaine confession.
And to ye intent that the whole matter may be conceived in order, and so the better both understood and remembered, I make thereof these ix points or articles, directly, truly, and resolutely opening my full enterprise and purpose.
i. I confesse that I am (albeit unworthie) a priest of ye Catholike Church, and through ye great mercie of God vowed now these viii years into the Religion of the Societie of Jhesus. Hereby I have taken upon me a special kind of warfare under the banner of obedience, and eke resigned all my interest or possibilitie of wealth, honour, pleasure, and other worldlie felicitie.
ii. At the voice of our General Provost----which is to me a warrant from Heaven, and Oracle of Christ----I tooke my voyage from Prage to Rome (where our said General Father is always resident) and from Rome to England, as I might and would have done joyously into any part of Christendome or Heathenesse, had I been thereto assigned.
iii. My charge is, of free cost to preach the Gospel, to minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reforme sinners, to confute errors----in brief, to crie alarme spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance, where- with many my dear Countrymen are abused.
iv. I never had mind, and am strictly forbidden by our Father that sent me, to deal in any respect with matter of State or Policy of this realm, as things which appertain not to my vocation, and from which I do gladly restrain and sequester my thoughts.
v. I do ask, to the glory of God, with all humility, and under your correction, iii sortes of indifferent and quiet audiences: the first before your Honours, wherein I will discourse of religion, so far as it toucheth the common weale and your nobilities: the second, whereof I make more account, before the Doctors and Masters and chosen men of both universities, wherein I undertake to avow the Faith of our Catholike Church by proofs innumerable, Scriptures, Councils, Fathers, History, natural and moral reasons: the third before the lawyers, spiritual and temporal, wherein I will justify the said Faith by the common wisdom of the laws standing yet in force and practice.
vi. I would be loth to speak anything that might sound of any insolent brag or challenge, especially being now as a dead man to this world and willing to put my head under every man's foot, and to kiss the ground they tread upon. Yet have I such a courage in avouching the Majesty of Jhesus my King, and such affiance in His gracious favour, and such assurance in my quarrel, and my evi- dence so impregnable, and because I know perfectly that no one Protestant, nor all the Protestants living, nor any sect of our adversaries (howsoever they face men down in pulpits, and overrule us in their kingdom of grammarians and unlearned ears) can maintain their doctrine in disputation. I am to sue most humbly and instantly for the combat with all and every of them, and the most principal that may be found: protesting that in this trial the better furnished they come, the better welcome they shall be.
vii. Because it hath pleased God to enrich the Queen my Sovereign Ladye with notable gifts of nature, learning, and princely education, I do verily trust that----if her Highness would vouchsafe her royal person and good attention to such a conference as, in the ii part of my fifth article I have motioned, or to a few sermons, which in her or your hearing I am to utter----such manifest and fair light by good method and plain dealing may be cast upon these controversies, that possibly her zeal of truth and love of her people shall incline her noble Grace to disfavour some proceedings hurtful to the Realm, and procure towards us oppressed more equitie.
viii. Moreover I doubt not but you, her Highness' Council, being of such wisdom and discreet in cases most important, when you shall have heard these questions of religion opened faithfully, which many times by our adversaries are huddled up and confounded, will see upon what substantial grounds our Catholike Faith is builded, how feeble that side is which by sway of the time prevaileth against us, and so at last for your own souls, and for many thousand souls that depend upon your government, will discountenance error when it is bewrayed, and hearken to those who would spend the best blood in their bodies for your salvation. Many innocent hands are lifted up to Heaven for you daily by those English students, whose posteritie shall never die, which beyond seas, gathering virtue and sufficient knowledge for the purpose, are determined never to give you over, but either to win you Heaven, or to die upon your pikes.
And touching our Societie, be it known to you that we have made a league----all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practices of England----cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood. So the Faith was planted: so it must be restored.
ix. If these my offers be refused, and my endeavours can take no place, and I, having run thousands of miles to do you good, shall be rewarded with rigour, I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in Heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten.
Taken from SAINT EDMUND CAMPION, PRIEST AND MARTYR, Evelyn Waugh, 1937,
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