Campion's Mission

Extract

When Edmund Campion after long temporizing finally broke from the allurements of his humanist's life at Oxford and retired abroad, Cecil observed of him: ‘It is a very great pity to see so notable a man leave his country, tor he was one of the diamonds of England’. Four years earlier, in 1566, when Queen Elizabeth visited Oxford, her chief minister nad applauded the eloquence and personal charm of the rising reilow of St John's college. On that occasion Campion had delivered orations in the name of the university before Elizabeth, as thirteen years earlier, representing London schoolboys, he had spoken his address to Queen Mary. Approbation, popularity and honour continued to follow him: he was made proctor and public orator, the highest posts compatible with his standing in the university. Then he tore the net which Anglicanism was throwing round him, withdrew to Ireland, was hunted thence because he lived as a Catholic and took refuge in Douai, 1571.