the privy council who wished to put him to death now resolved to exhibit him as a traitor. On 31 Oct. he was for the third time placed upon the rack, and tortured more cruelly than ever, but not a single incriminating word could be extorted from him. It was then proposed to indict him for having on a certain day in Oxfordshire traitorously pretended to have power to absolve her majesty's subjects from their allegiance, and endeavoured to attach them to the obedience of the pope and the religion of the Roman church. It was seen, however, that this would be too plainly a religious prosecution. A plot was therefore forged, and a new indictment drawn up in which it was pretended that Campion, Allen, Morton, Parsons, and thirteen priests and others then in custody, had conspired together at Rome and Rheims to raise a sedition in the realm and dethrone the queen. On this charge Campion, Sherwin, and five others were arraigned at Westminster Hall on 14 Nov. When Campion was called upon, according to custom, to hold up his hand in pleading, his arms were so cruelly wounded by the rack that he could not do so without assistance. The trial was held on the 20th. The principal witnesses for the crown were George Eliot and three hired witnesses named Munday, Sledd, and Caddy, who pretended to have observed the meetings of the conspirators at Rome; but their testimony was so weak, and the answers of Campion were so admirable, that when the jury retired it was generally believed that the verdict must be one of acquittal. However, the prisoners were all found guilty. Hallam says that ‘the prosecution was as unfairly conducted, and supported by as slender evidence, as any, perhaps, that can be found in our books’ (Constitutional Hist. i. 146).
The lord chief justice Wray, addressing the prisoners, asked them what they could say why they should not die. Campion answered: ‘It is not our death that ever we feared. But we knew that we were not lords of own lives, and therefore for want of answer would not be guilty of our own deaths. The only thing that we have now to say is that if our religion do make us traitors we are worthy to be condemned; but otherwise are and have been true subjects as ever the queen had. In condemning us you condemn all your own ancestors—all the ancient priests, bishops, and kings—all that was once the glory of England, the island of saints and the most devoted child of the see of Peter. For what have we taught, however you may qualify it with the odious name of treason, that they did not uniformly teach? To be condemned with these old lights—not of England only, but of the world—by their degenerate descendants is both gladness and glory to us. God lives; posterity will live; their judgment is not so liable to corruption as that of those who are now going to sentence us to death.’ The prisoners were sentenced to be drawn, hanged, and quartered. Then Campion broke forth in a loud hymn of praise, ‘Te Deum laudamus,’ and Sherwin and others took up the song, ‘Hæc est dies quam fecit Dominus; exultemus et lætemur in illâ,’ and the rest expressed their contentment and joy, some in one phrase of scripture, some in another; whereby the multitudes in the hall were visibly astonished and affected. The few days that intervened between conviction and death were passed by the prisoners in fasting and other mortifications. The execution was appointed for 1 Dec. 1581. Campion, Sherwin, and Briant were to suffer together at Tyburn. At the place of execution Campion was subjected to a great deal of questioning respecting his alleged treason. Somebody asked him to pray for the queen. While he was doing so the cart was drawn away.
‘All writers,’ observes Wood, ‘whether protestant or popish, say that he was a man of admirable parts, an eloquent orator, a subtle philosopher and disputant, and an exact preacher, whether in English or Latin tongue, of a sweet disposition, and a well-polished man. A certain writer (Dr. Thomas Fuller) saith, he was of a sweet nature, constantly carrying about him the charms of a plausible behaviour, of a fluent tongue, and good parts. And another (Richard Stanihurst), who was his most beloved friend, saith that he was upright in conscience, deep in judgment, and ripe in eloquence’ (Athenæ Oxon,, ed. Bliss, i. 475).
A minute bibliographical account of his works and of the numerous replies to them is given in the appendix to ‘Edmund Campion. A biography. By Richard Simpson’ (London, 1867, 8vo), an admirable and exhaustive work. The most ample and correct edition of the ‘Decem Rationes, et alia opuscula ejus selecta’ was published by P. Silvester Petra-Sancta at Antwerp, 1631, 12mo, pp. 460. Of the ‘History of Ireland,’ written in 1569, a manuscript copy, dated 1571, was given by Henry, duke of Norfolk, in 1678, to the library of the College of Arms, London. This work was first printed by Richard Stanihurst in Holinshed's ‘Chronicles,’ 1587; then by Sir James Ware in his ‘History of Ireland,’ 1633.
Campion's portrait has been engraved.
[Life by Richard Simpson; and the authorities quoted above.]
