Saint Edmund Campion

Saint Edmund Campion , 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.

Bibliography: See biography by E. Waugh (3d ed. 1961).

Campion, Saint Edmund (1540–81) English Jesuit priest and martyr. He was ordained deacon in the Church of England (1569), but became a Roman Catholic (1571) and later a Jesuit missionary. In 1581, he published the pamphlet Decem Rationes, defending the Roman Catholic position against Protestantism. He was charged with treason and executed. His feast day is December 1.

Campion, Edmund (1540–81). Jesuit martyr. Son of a London bookseller, Campion studied at Oxford, where he was ordained deacon (1568) despite catholic inclinations. Conscience prevailing, he was received at Douai (1573). Part of the Jesuits' 1580 mission to English catholics and carefully non‐political, Campion's ‘sweetness of disposition’ and eloquent preaching alerted the authorities, especially after Decem rationes, denouncing Anglicanism, appeared at St Mary's, Oxford. Captured and taken to the Tower, his refusal to recant led to torture. Trumped‐up charges of conspiracy to overthrow the queen brought hanging at Tyburn.