Campion, Edmund, Saint, 1540-1581; Christian martyrs -- Great Britain -- Biography; Jesuits -- England
INTERRUPTED sea-voyages were his fate. This time, half-way across the
Channel, his ship was hailed by a Government frigate, _The Hare_, which
demanded to be shown the ship’s sailing papers, and the passports
of her passengers. Campion had none. Moreover, as his religion was
suspected, the dutiful Protestant frigate, homeward bound, promptly
swallowed him, bag and baggage. His generous friends in Ireland had
forced upon him money for his needs, and the captain who now kidnapped
him found it convenient to keep the money, but kind-heartedly let his
prisoner lose himself in the streets of Dover. Other friends quickly
made the losses good. On Campion’s second attempt to reach Calais
all went well. He did not lack his secular epitaph, so to speak,
at Court. It was not then a legal crime, though it soon became so,
for a Catholic Englishman to leave the country fast being made into
a hell for him. The mighty Cecil treated this expatriation as quite
voluntary. “And it is a very great pity,” he chose to say, looking into
Richard Stanihurst’s gratified eyes, “for Master Campion was one of the
diamonds of England.”
The date of Campion’s reconciliation to the Church is unknown. It seems
unlikely to have taken place in Ireland. He may have been absolved
from his schism in London, or else as soon as he had reached Douay.
There was a busy trade in wool still flourishing at that time between
Flanders and England, and in the thrifty, kindly towns of the exporting
country refugees formed a considerable part of the population. Douay,
properly speaking, Douai, was called “Doway” by its foster-children.
The creation of its English Seminary was a master-stroke of Dr. William
Allen, Canon of York, afterwards Cardinal, once of Oriel College,
Oxford, and Principal of St. Mary Hall. Indeed, “Oxford may be said
to have founded Douay.” Allen was aided by many men of mark, notably
by his old tutor, Morgan Phillipps, and by the latter’s bequeathed
funds; also by the Flemish Abbots and layfolk. Campion seems to have
been the eighteenth arrival in the newly established house of young,
prayerful, enthusiastic men. He found there as Professor of Hebrew,
his beloved Gregory Martin, and a learned colleague, Richard Bristow,
late Fellow of Exeter College, the first of the Seminarian priests
to be ordained: two props and pillars of the foundation. There also
was Thomas Stapleton, late Fellow of New College, the most able
Catholic controversialist of the age. Five of the twenty English
students enrolled in 1571, joined the Society of Jesus. The College,
destined to speedy and splendid development, was affiliated to the
Douay University, established some eight years before it by Spanish
munificence and a Papal Bull. Here, then, Edmund Campion came into his
soul’s haven, “out of the swing of the sea.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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