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 undertake to maintain him at their common charges ‘to the study of learning.’ He was sent first to some London grammar school, and afterwards to Christ's Hospital. He always ‘bore away the game in all contentions of learning proposed by the schools of London,’ among which there appears to have been, at that period, a common concursus, as if they had formed a university. His ‘championship’ was acknowledged, and when Queen Mary, on her solemn entry into London, had to pass by St. Paul's School, Campion, as the representative of London scholarship, was brought from Newgate Street to make the requisite harangue. When Sir Thomas White founded St. John's College, Oxford, the Grocers' Company arranged with him to admit Campion as a scholar, ‘which he did most willingly, after he was informed of his towardliness and virtue.’ The company gave him an exhibition for his maintenance at the university. In 1557, when St. John's College was increased, Campion became junior fellow, for the founder had conceived a special affection for him. He was admitted to the degree of B.A. on 20 Nov. 1561 (, Register of the Univ. of Oxford, i. 244). So greatly admired was he at Oxford for his grace of eloquence that young men imitated not only his phrases but his gait, and revered him as a second Cicero. He was chosen to deliver the oration at the reinterment at Oxford of Amy Robsart, the murdered wife of Robert Dudley, afterwards earl of Leicester, and the funeral discourse on Sir Thomas White, the founder of St. John's College, Oxford, and of Merchant Taylors' School, London (, Records, vii. 112).

The change of religion effected soon after the accession of Queen Elizabeth was not immediately felt at Oxford, and no oath was required of Campion till he graduated as M.A. Wood relates that he ‘took the degree of master of arts in 1564, and was junior of the act celebrated on the 19 of Feb. the same year; at which time speaking one or more admirable orations, to the envy of his contemporaries, caused one of them [Tobie Mathew], who was afterwards an archbishop, to say that, rather than he would omit an opportunity to show his parts, and “dominare in una atque altera conciuncula,” did take the oath against the pope's supremacy, and against his conscience’ (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 473). The precise date of his inception as M.A. is 19 Feb. 1564–5 (, Register of the Univ. of Oxford, i. 144). Father Parsons says that Campion ‘was always a sound catholic in his heart, and utterly condemned all the form and substance of the queen and council's new religion; and yet the sugared words of the great folks, especially of the queen, joined with pregnant hopes of speedy and great preferments, so enticed him that he knew not which way to turn.’

In 1566 Queen Elizabeth visited Oxford, and Campion welcomed her in the name of the university. He was also respondent in a Latin disputation held before her majesty. The queen expressed her admiration of Campion's eloquence, and commended him particularly to Dudley, who willingly undertook to patronise the scholar. For four years from this time the Earl of Leicester showed him no little kindness, and Cecil also took great interest in him. Campion did not reside at Oxford long enough to take his doctor's degree, but he was made junior proctor (1568), and he supplicated for the degree of B.D. on 23 March 1568–9 (, Register, i. 244). The problem of his life now was how he could remain in the established church and yet hold all the catholic doctrines. Edward Cheyney, bishop of Gloucester [q. v.], who had retained a good deal of the old faith, sympathised with Campion's aspirations and perplexities. Campion yielded to the bishop's persuasions and suffered himself to be ordained deacon, but almost immediately afterwards ‘he took a remorse of conscience and detestation of mind.’ On the termination of his proctorial office he left Oxford (1 Aug. 1569) and proceeded to Ireland. A project was then afoot for restoring the old Dublin University founded by Pope John XXI, but for some years extinct. The chief mover in this restoration was the recorder of Dublin and speaker of the House of Commons, James Stanihurst, the father of one of Campion's most distinguished pupils. In his house Campion remained for some time, leading a kind of monastic life, and waiting for the opening of the new university. The scheme fell through, however, and the chief cause of its failure was the secret hostility of the government to Stanihurst and the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, who were most actively concerned in it, and to Campion, who was to have the principal share in its direction. Campion was distrusted as a papist and orders were given for his arrest, but for two or three months he eluded the pursuit of the pursuivants, lurking in the houses of his friends, and working at a ‘History of Ireland,’ which is hardly so much a serious history as a pamphlet written to prove that education is the only means of taming the Irish. At last he escaped to England, disguised as a lacquey, and reached London in time to witness the trial of Dr. Storey, who was executed in June 1571. What he heard at this trial made him resolve to repair to the English college at Douay, where he made an