From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 1st - St. Edmund Campion   
      
   Saint Edmund Campion, known as the "Pope's Champion," was born in London c.   
   1540, son of a bookseller. He was raised a Catholic and was educated at   
   Christ's   
   Hospital at the expense of the Grocers' Guild. At 15, he received a   
   scholarship   
   to Saint John's College (Oxford), newly founded by Sir Thomas White. He was   
   appointed a junior fellow when only 17, and gained the reputation of a great   
   orator.   
      
   He was chosen to speak at the reburial of Lady Amy Dudley (Robsart), at the   
   funeral of Sir Thomas White, and he was chosen by the university to give the   
   welcoming speech to Queen Elizabeth I when she visited Oxford in 1566. His   
   brilliance attracted the attention of such leading personages as the Earl of   
   Leicester, Robert Cecil, and even Queen Elizabeth. He took the Oath of   
   Supremacy   
   acknowledging Elizabeth head of the Church in England and became an Anglican   
   deacon in 1564.   
      
   Doubts about Protestantism increasingly beset him, and at the end of his   
   term as   
   junior proctor of the university in 1569, he went to Dublin, Ireland, where   
   he   
   helped to found a university (later Trinity College). While there, he wrote   
   a   
   short history of Ireland and dedicated it to Leicester. Further study during   
   his   
   time in Ireland convinced him he had been in error, and he returned to   
   Catholicism.   
      
   Forced to flee the persecution unleashed on Catholics by the excommunication   
   of   
   Elizabeth by Pope Pius V, he returned to England in disguise in 1571 and was   
   present at the trial of Blessed John Storey in Westminster Hall. He quickly   
   departed for Douai, the English college in France, but was stopped because   
   he   
   had no passport. He bribed the officials with his luggage and some money.   
      
   At Douai Saint Edmund studied theology and was ordained a subdeacon before   
   he   
   went to Rome in 1573 to join the Jesuits. As there was no English province   
   at   
   the time, he was sent to Brno, Bohemia, the following year for his   
   novitiate. He   
   taught at the college in Prague and in 1578 was ordained there.   
      
   Dr. Allen (later cardinal) convinced Pope Gregory XIII to send Jesuits to   
   England, and in 1579, Campion and Fr. Robert Persons were the first Jesuits   
   chosen for the English mission. Campion set out for Rome in 1580, visited   
   Saint   
   Charles Borromeo in Milan, and landed at Dover disguised as a jewel   
   merchant.   
      
   The Jesuits were not well received by English Catholics who feared they   
   would   
   cause trouble. In London Edmund ministered to Catholic prisoners and wrote a   
   challenge to the Privy Council, which was prematurely published-his famous   
   Brag   
   (which he had written to present his case if he was captured).   
      
   The Brag described his mission as one "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." The publication also made   
   him   
   the infamous object of one of the most intensive manhunts in English   
   history.   
      
   As soon as their arrival was uncovered, Campion left London for Berkshire,   
   then   
   Oxfordshire, and Northhamptonshire, where he made converts. After meeting   
   Persons in London, where persecutions had heightened, he went to Lancashire,   
   where he preached almost daily and very successfully. Always one step ahead   
   of   
   spies, but barely escaping capture on several occasions.   
      
   It seems to have given Edmund Campion some amusement when, disguised as Mr.   
   Edmundes, he tumbled into a Shakespearean tavern scene: with a tankard on   
   the   
   table before him and his rapier across his knees he sat bewitching the whole   
   company with his sparkling humor and his charm-which his fellow Catholics   
   never   
   tired of praising and his enemies could never curse sufficiently. The   
   "seditious   
   Jesuit" charmed all with whom he came into contact. More often than not   
   these   
   casual encounters in roadside inns ended in one or another of his hearers   
   resolving at all costs to continue his acquaintance with Mr. Edmundes-and   
   then   
   Mr. Edmundes led the conversation round to religious questions and finally   
   spoke   
   of 'the King,' Christ. Campion's words, when he speaks of Christ, ring with   
   a   
   note of chivalry; he is like a knight praising his heroic King.   
      
   During this time he wrote a Latin treatise, Decem rationes, which listed ten   
   reasons why he had challenged the most learned Protestants to discuss   
   theology   
   with him. The treatise was secretly printed on a press at the house of Dame   
   Cecilia Stonor in Berkshire. On June 27, 1581, 400 copies of the publication   
   were found distributed on the benches at Saint Mary's University Church at   
   Oxford. It raised a great sensation and attempts to capture him intensified.   
      
   He decided to retire to Norfolk. On the way he stayed at the house of Mrs.   
   Yate   
   at Lyford, and people gathered there to hear him preach. A traitor was among   
   them. Campion was betrayed by a man named Eliot, who had just received   
   communion   
   from Campion's hands, all the while appearing pious and devout, and within   
   12   
   hours the house was searched three times-Campion and two other priests were   
   found hiding above a gateway.   
      
   He was taken to the Tower of London, bound, and labeled "Campion, the   
   seditious   
   Jesuit." After he spent three days in the "little ease," the earls of   
   Bedford   
   and Leiscester tried to bribe him into recanting, without success. Other   
   attempts failed as well, and he was racked.   
      
   While still weak from torture, he was confronted by Protestant dignitaries   
   four   
   times. He answered them eloquently. He was racked again, this time so   
   painfully   
   that when he was asked the following day how he felt, he responded, "Not   
   ill,   
   because not at all."   
      
   On November 14, he was indicted in Westminster Hall with Ralph Sherwin,   
   Thomas   
   Cottam, Luke Kirby, and others (including Fathers Hanse, Lacy, Kirkman), on   
   the   
   trumped up charge of having plotted to raise a rebellion in England and   
   formed a   
   conspiracy against the life of Queen Elizabeth I. Most of these priests have   
   never seen one another until they met in court. But false witnesses, who   
   were a   
   special feature of the time, came forward as usual. When asked to plead the   
   charge, Campion was too weak to move his arms; one of his companions kissed   
   his   
   hand and held it up for him.   
      
   Edmund defended himself and the others brilliantly, protesting their loyalty   
   to   
   the queen, blasting the evidence, raising doubts about the witnesses, and   
   establishing clearly that their only crime was their faith. Although the   
   packed   
   jury found them guilty, it took them an hour to come to that decision. The   
   priests and others were condemned to death for having "seduced the Queen's   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)