Edmund Campion - A Life

Product Description

The story of St. Edmund Campion takes place during the time of the English Reformation and the establishment of the Anglican Church in England. As a young man, Campion was a celebrated scholar at St. John's College in Oxford, England. He was well known for his intelligence and oration and became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. He originally became a deacon in the Anglican Church, but his soul was sympathetic to the Roman Catholic Church.

He could have had a life of fame and comfort among the elite of England, however, at the age of 29 he left England, converted to Catholicism and joined the Jesuits. He was ordained a priest at the age of 38.

Returning to England undercover, Campion traveled around England ministering to the persecuted Catholics. It was while secretly offering Mass that his presence was betrayed by a spy and he was arrested. Tortured and subjected to a fabricated trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to a gruesome death. His martyrdom served to bring many souls back the the Catholic Church and was the inspiration for many new vocations.

Evelyn Waugh presents his biography of St. Edmund Campion, the Elizabethan poet, scholar and gentleman who became the haunted, trapped and murdered priest as “a simple, perfectly true story of heroism and holiness.” The story is written with a novelist's eye and with all the elegance and feeling of a master of English prose. From the years of success as an Oxford scholar, to entry into the newly founded Society of Jesus and a professorship in Prague, Campion's life was an inexorable progress towards the doomed mission to England. There followed pursuit, betrayal, a spirited defense of loyalty to the Queen, and a horrifying martyr’s death at Tyburn.