Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/404

 open recantation of protestantism, completed his course of scholastic theology, was ordained sub-deacon, and eventually was promoted to the degree of B.D. (Diaries of the English College, Douay, 10). After the lapse of little more than a year he resolved to go on foot to Rome as a pilgrim, and to become a jesuit. He arrived there in the autumn of 1572, a few days before the death of St. Francis Borgia, third general of the Society of Jesus. A successor to the saint was not chosen till April 1573, and meanwhile Campion had to wait. He was the first postulant admitted by the new general, Father Mercurianus, and soon afterwards he was sent to Prague in Bohemia and Brünn in Moravia to pass his novitiate. In 1578 he was ordained deacon and priest by the archbishop of Prague.

After considerable hesitation the Society of Jesus, at the instance of Dr. Allen, determined to take part in the English mission. Campion and Parsons were the two jesuits first chosen for this perilous undertaking, and various indulgences and faculties were granted to them by the pope. The band of missionaries that assembled in Rome comprised Dr. Goldwell, bishop of St. Asaph, several secular priests, a few laymen, the two jesuits Campion and Parsons, and a lay brother of the society named Ralph Emerson. To assist them in their labours a catholic association had been organised in England by George Gilbert, a young man of property, who had been converted by Father Parsons in Rome in 1579. At Rheims Dr. Goldwell was taken ill, and he was afterwards recalled by the pope. It was at this city that the rest of the party broke up, to find their way across to England by different routes. Campion, Parsons, and Emerson were to go by way of St. Omer, Calais, and Dover. Parsons crossed first, disguised as a captain returning from the Low Countries, and reached London without trouble. Campion and Emerson followed. They were arrested on landing at Dover (25 June 1580), and taken before the mayor, but they were dismissed after a short detention, and the next day were welcomed by the association in London, where Gilbert and the rest clothed and armed Campion like a gentleman and furnished him with a horse.

His preaching in the secret assemblies of catholics produced such an effect that the faithful and the wavering soon rushed to him in crowds. The government were informed of what was going on, and made every effort to entrap him. Several priests were captured and many catholics were thrown into prison. The danger of remaining in London soon became too pressing to be disregarded; and so, after a council had been held, the priests who were still at liberty went away to different parts of the kingdom.

At this period the catholics of England had been gradually divided into two bands: the temporisers or schismatics who kept the faith but frequented the churches, and the avowed catholics who braved fine and imprisonment and refused to go to church. The jesuits were sent to bid the former class to separate themselves from the communion of the protestants and to forbear going to their churches. They came to separate what the queen wanted to unite, and accordingly she issued her proclamations warning the people against them as enemies of herself and of church and state. The pursuit was much hotter after Campion than after any of his brethren. Once when the pursuivants came upon him suddenly at the house of a gentleman in Lancashire, a maid-servant, to make them think he was merely one of the retainers, affected to be angry with him and pushed him into a pond. All this while he was engaged in writing his book against the protestants known as the ‘Decem Rationes.’ It was finished about Easter 1581, and sent to London for the approval of Parsons, who had a private printing-press. A number of copies were got ready for the commencement at Oxford in June; and when the audience assembled in St. Mary's Church, they found the benches strewn with the books. The title-page of the treatise bore the imprint of Douay, but the government were not long in ascertaining, by the examination of experts, that the work had been done in England.

Campion had come to London while his book was passing through the press to superintend the correction of the sheets, but the danger was now so imminent that Parsons ordered him away into Norfolk in company with Brother Ralph Emerson. The two fathers rode out of the city together at daylight on 12 July, and after an affectionate farewell parted company, the one going to the north and the other back into the town.

Through the treachery of George Eliot, formerly steward to Mr. Roper in Kent, and latterly a servant of the widow of Sir William Petre, Campion and two other priests were captured in a gentleman's house at Lyford in Berkshire (17 July 1581). Seven laymen were arrested at the same time. Campion and his companions were brought to London and committed to the Tower, making their entry into the city through a hooting mob, Campion leading the procession with his elbows tied behind him, his hands tied in front, his feet fastened under his horse's belly, and a