Edmund Campion

William Allen’s account says that Campion was born in London, studied at St John’s College in Oxford and was ordained deacon in the English church. Regretting that step, he went to the seminary at Douai and then to Rome, entered the Society of Jesus, spent eight years in Bohemia and was ordained priest at Prague. Allen says that he lived about forty-two years, which is the basis of the birth year given here (Allen, Briefe Historie pp. 5–7).

He landed at Dover in June 1580 (Allen, Briefe Historie p. 8). In a paper addressed to the Privy Council he said that he had come to preach and to minister the sacraments, not to meddle with the state, and asked to dispute with the Protestant divines (Campion, Challenge to the Privy Council articles 1–6). He was arrested on 17 July 1581 (Allen, Briefe Historie p. 10), convicted in November of plotting against the queen (Allen, Briefe Historie pp. 16–19), and executed at Tyburn on 1 December 1581 (Allen, Briefe Historie p. 1). The government’s tract The Execution of Justice says that he “suffered for his Treasons” (Cecil, Execution of Justice p. 19); Allen says that he died “for the Catholike Faith and religion” (Allen, Briefe Historie p. 1). Pope Paul VI canonised him in 1970 (Paul VI, homily of 25 October 1970 heading and the section ‘Possano tutti ottenere la salvezza’). See Regnans in Excelsis and the Execution of Catholic Priests under Elizabeth I.