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04 - Blessed Edmund Campion by Louise Imogen Guiney · Blessed Edmund Campion

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four of Blessed Edmund Campion. This is LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information not volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: Maria Fatima. The Silver Blessed Edmund Campion by Louise Immergen
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  Speaker 1: Guinea Cheney, again de Way fifteen seventy one. Interrupted sea
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  Speaker 1: voyages were his fate. This time, half way across the channel.
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  Speaker 1: His ship was hailed by a government frygate, the hare,
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  Speaker 1: which demanded to be shown the ship's sailing papers and
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  Speaker 1: the passports of her passengers. Campion had none moreover, as
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  Speaker 1: his religion was suspected. The dutiful Protestant Frygate, homeward bound,
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  Speaker 1: promptly swallowed him by and baggage. His generous friends in
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  Speaker 1: Ireland had forced upon him money for his needs, and
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  Speaker 1: the captain who now kidnapped him, found it convenient to
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  Speaker 1: keep the money, but kind heartedly let his prisoner lose
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  Speaker 1: himself in the streets of Dover. Other friends quickly made
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  Speaker 1: the loss it good. On Campion's second attempt to reach Calais,
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  Speaker 1: all went well. He did not lack his secular epitaph,
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  Speaker 1: so to speak at court. It was not then a
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  Speaker 1: legal crime, though it soon became so for a Catholic
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  Speaker 1: Englishman to leave the country fast being made into a
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  Speaker 1: hell for him. The Mighty Cecil treated this expatriation as
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  Speaker 1: quite voluntary, and it is a very great pity, he
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  Speaker 1: chose to say, looking into Richard Stannyhurst's gratified eyes. For
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  Speaker 1: Master Campion was one of the diamonds of England. The
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  Speaker 1: date of Campion's reconciliation to the Church is unknown. It
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  Speaker 1: seems unlikely to have taken place in Ireland. He may
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  Speaker 1: have been absolved from his schism in London or else
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  Speaker 1: as soon as he had reached Deway. There was a
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  Speaker 1: busy trade in walls, still flourishing at that time, between
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  Speaker 1: Flanders and England, and in the thrifty, kindly towns of
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  Speaker 1: the exporting country. Refugees formed a considerable part of the
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  Speaker 1: population Dewey. Properly speaking, Deway was called Doway by its
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  Speaker 1: foster children. The creation of its English seminary was a
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  Speaker 1: master stroke of doctor William Allen, Canon of York, afterwards
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  Speaker 1: Cardinal once of Oriel College, Oxford and Principle of Saint
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  Speaker 1: Mary Hall, indeed Oxford Meta bey said to have founded Dowey.
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  Speaker 1: Allen was aided by many men of Mark, notably by
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  Speaker 1: his old tutor, Morgan Phillips, and by the latter's bequeathed funds,
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  Speaker 1: also by the Flemish Abbots and lay folk. Campia seems
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  Speaker 1: to have been the eighteenth arrival in the newly established
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  Speaker 1: house of young, prayerful, enthusiastic men. He found there as
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  Speaker 1: professor of Hebrew, his beloved Gregory Martin, and a learned colleague,
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  Speaker 1: Richard Bristow, late Fellow of Exeter College, the first of
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  Speaker 1: the seminarian priests to be ordained two props and pillars
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  Speaker 1: of the foundation. There also was Thomas Stapleton, late Fellow
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  Speaker 1: of New College, the most able Catholic controversialist of the age.
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  Speaker 1: Five of the twenty English students enrolled in fifteen seventy
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  Speaker 1: one joined the Society of Jesus. The college, destined to
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  Speaker 1: speedy and splendid development, was affiliated to the de Way University,
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  Speaker 1: established so many years before it by Spanish monificence under
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  Speaker 1: Papal bull Here then Edmund Campion came into his soul's
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  Speaker 1: haven out of the swing of the sea. It was
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  Speaker 1: doctor Allen's missionary policy that all his sons, before memory
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  Speaker 1: of them had grown dim at home, should write to
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  Speaker 1: their more undecided friends in England, doing what they could
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  Speaker 1: to win them to the service of Christ in the Church.
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  Speaker 1: Catholic Campion sent a very long document to this end
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  Speaker 1: to his venerated and now aging friend, Bishop Cheney, a
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  Speaker 1: wonderful letter in that live Elizabethan English, which was bold
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  Speaker 1: as surgery itself, yet charged with feeling. Associating his beliefs
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  Speaker 1: with Cheneese. As the writer does, he helps us to
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  Speaker 1: understand his own doctrine no position. While in Oxford and
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  Speaker 1: in Dublin, he failed in both places, writes Father Morris,
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  Speaker 1: for the same reason. The position was a false one,
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  Speaker 1: for it was an effort to serve two masters, and
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  Speaker 1: to live like a Catholic and teach the Catholic religion
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  Speaker 1: outside the pale of the Catholic Church. There is no
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  Speaker 1: end or measure, he now tells Cheney from Dewey to
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  Speaker 1: my thinking of you, and I never think of you
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  Speaker 1: without being horribly ashamed. So often was I with you
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  Speaker 1: at Gloucester, so often in your private chamber, with no
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  Speaker 1: one near us, when I could have done this business,
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  Speaker 1: and I did it not by this business, he means
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  Speaker 1: confessing Catholic truth and urging Cheney to return to it.
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  Speaker 1: And what is worse, I have added flames to the
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  Speaker 1: fever by assenting and assisting. And although you were superior
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  Speaker 1: to me in your counterfeited dignity in wealth, age, and learning,
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  Speaker 1: and though I was not bound to look after the
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  Speaker 1: physi king or dieting of your soul, yet since you
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  Speaker 1: were of so easy and sweet a temper, as in
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  Speaker 1: spite of your gray hairs, to admit me, young, as
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  Speaker 1: I was, to familiar intercourse with you, to say whatever
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  Speaker 1: I chose in all security and secrecy, while you imparted
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  Speaker 1: me your sorrows and all the calumnies of the other
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  Speaker 1: heretics against you. And since, like a father you exhorted
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  Speaker 1: me to walk straight and upright in the royal road,
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  Speaker 1: to follow the steps of the Church, the councils, and
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  Speaker 1: the fathers, and to believe that where there was a
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  Speaker 1: consensus of these there could be no spot of falsehood,
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  Speaker 1: I am very angry with myself that I neglected to
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  Speaker 1: you such a beautiful opportunity of recommending the faith that,
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  Speaker 1: through false modesty or culpable negligence, I did not address
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  Speaker 1: with boldness one who was so near to the Kingdom
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  Speaker 1: of God. But as I have no longer the occasion
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  Speaker 1: that I had of persuading you face to face, it
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  Speaker 1: remains that I should send my words to you to
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  Speaker 1: witness my regard, my care, my anxiety for you, known
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  Speaker 1: to Him to whom I make my daily prayer for
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  Speaker 1: your salvation. Listen, I beseech you, listen to a few words.
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  Speaker 1: You are sixty years old. More or less Cheney was
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  Speaker 1: really sixty eight of uncertain health, of weakened body, the
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  Speaker 1: hatred of Heretics, the pity of Catholics, the talk of
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  Speaker 1: the people, the sorrow of your friends, the joke of
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  Speaker 1: your enemies. Who do you think yourself to be? What
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  Speaker 1: do you expect? What is your life? Wherein lies your hope?
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  Speaker 1: In the heretics hating you so implacably and abusing you
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  Speaker 1: so roundly. Because of all heresiarchs, you are the least crazy,
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  Speaker 1: because you confess the living presence of Christ on the
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  Speaker 1: altar and the freedom of man's will. Because you persecute
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  Speaker 1: no Catholics in your diocese, because you are hospitable to
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  Speaker 1: your townspeople and to good men, because you plunder not
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  Speaker 1: your palace and lands, as your brethren do. Surely these
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  Speaker 1: things will avail much if you return to the bosom
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  Speaker 1: of the church, if you suffer even the smallest persecution
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  Speaker 1: in common with those of the household of faith, or
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  Speaker 1: join your prayers with theirs. But now, whilst you are
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  Speaker 1: a stranger and an enemy, whilst like a base deserter,
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  Speaker 1: you fight under an alien flag, it is in vain
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  Speaker 1: to attempt to cover your crimes with the cloak of virtues.
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  Speaker 1: What is the use of fighting for many articles of
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  Speaker 1: the faith, and to perish for doubting of a few
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  Speaker 1: he believes no one article of the faith who refuses
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  Speaker 1: to believe any single one? In vain do you defend
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  Speaker 1: the religion of Catholics if you hug only that which
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  Speaker 1: you like, and cut off all that seems not right
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  Speaker 1: in your eyes. There is but one plain, known road,
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  Speaker 1: not enclosed by your palings or mine, not by private judgment,
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  Speaker 1: but by the severe laws of humility and obedience. When
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  Speaker 1: you wonder from these you are lost. You must be
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  Speaker 1: altogether within the House of God, within the walls of salvation,
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  Speaker 1: to be sound as safe from all injury. If you
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  Speaker 1: wonder and walk abroad, ever so little if you carelessly
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  Speaker 1: thrust hand or foot out of the ship. If you
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  Speaker 1: stird up ever so small a mutiny in the crew,
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  Speaker 1: you shall be thrust forth. The door is shut, the
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  Speaker 1: ocean roars. You are undone. Do you remember the sober
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  Speaker 1: and solemn answer which you gave me when three years
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  Speaker 1: ago we met in the house of Thomas Dutton at Shireburn,
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  Speaker 1: where we were to dine. We were talking of Saint Cyprian.
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  Speaker 1: I objected to you, in order to discover your real
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  Speaker 1: opinions that Synod of Carthage, which heard about the baptism
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  Speaker 1: of infants. You answered the truly that the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 1: was not promised to warn province, but to the Church.
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  Speaker 1: That the universal Church is represented in the full Council,
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  Speaker 1: and that no doctrine can be pointed out about which
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  Speaker 1: such a council ever, Aird acknowledge your own weapons which
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  Speaker 1: you used against the adversaries of the mystery of the Eucharist.
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  Speaker 1: Here you have the most abstoli men collected at Trent
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  Speaker 1: to contend for the ancient faith of the Fathers. All these,
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  Speaker 1: whilst you live as you are living enathmatize, you hiss,
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  Speaker 1: you out, excommunicate, you abjure you. Campion goes on to
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  Speaker 1: urge upon Cheney an outward adherence to the council, which
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  Speaker 1: had discussed and resolved his own private beliefs. Especially now
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  Speaker 1: you have declared war against your colleagues, Why do you
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  Speaker 1: not make full submission without any exceptions, to the discipline
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  Speaker 1: of these fathers. Once more, consult your own heart, my
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  Speaker 1: poor old friend. Give me back your old beauty and
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  Speaker 1: those excellent gifts which have been hitherto smothered in the
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  Speaker 1: mud of dishonesty. Give yourself to your mother, who begot
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  Speaker 1: you to Christ, nourished you, consecrated. You acknowledge how cruel
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  Speaker 1: and undutiful you have been. Let confession be the salve
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  Speaker 1: of your sin. Be merciful to your soul. Spare my grief.
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  Speaker 1: Your ship is wrecked, your merchandise lost. Nevertheless, seize the
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  Speaker 1: plank of penance, and come, even naked, into the port
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  Speaker 1: of the church. Fear not but that Christ will preserve
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  Speaker 1: you with his hand. Run to meet you, kiss you,
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  Speaker 1: and put on you the white garment. Saints and angels
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  Speaker 1: will sing for joy. Take no thought for your life.
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  Speaker 1: He will take thought for you. Who gives the beasts
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  Speaker 1: their food and feeds the young ravens that call upon him.
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  Speaker 1: If you but made trial of our banishment, if you
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  Speaker 1: but cleared your conscience and came to behold and consider
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  Speaker 1: that the living examples of piety which are shown here
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  Speaker 1: by bishops, priests, friars, masters of colleges, rulers of provinces,
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  Speaker 1: lay people of every age, rank and sex. I believe
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  Speaker 1: that you would give up six hundred Englands for the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity of redeeming the residue of your time by tears
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  Speaker 1: and sorrow. Pardon me, my venerated old friend, for these
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  Speaker 1: just reproaches, and for the heat of my love. Suffer
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  Speaker 1: me to hate that deadly disease. Let me ward off
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  Speaker 1: the imminent danger of so noble a man and so
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  Speaker 1: dear friend, with any those however bitter and now, if
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  Speaker 1: Christ give grace and you do not refuse my hopes
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  Speaker 1: of you are equal to my love, and I love
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  Speaker 1: you as passing excellent in nature, in learning, in gentleness,
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  Speaker 1: in goodness, and as doubly dear to me for your
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  Speaker 1: many kindnesses and courtesies. If you recover your spiritual health,
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  Speaker 1: you make me happy forever. If you slight me, this
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  Speaker 1: letter is my witness, God judge between you and me.
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  Speaker 1: Your blood be on yourself. Farewell from him that most
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  Speaker 1: desires your salvation. One phrasing, this steel web of phrases
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  Speaker 1: from the pen of a red Turician with a heart,
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  Speaker 1: shows that Campion knew of Cheney's sad and now complicated
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  Speaker 1: position in England. The letter was written November one, fifteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy one. A convocation had met in the preceding April
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  Speaker 1: on the heels of the Act of Uniformity to which
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  Speaker 1: Cheney was summoned in Vain. It required the signing of
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  Speaker 1: the thirty nine Articles, and enacted under Archbishop Grindle's leadership.
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  Speaker 1: Many things equally hateful to Cheney, such as displacement and
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  Speaker 1: defacement of altarstones a great symbol this and no mere
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  Speaker 1: act of pillage, the ablition of prayers for the day,
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  Speaker 1: the prohibition even of the sign of the Cross in church.
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  Speaker 1: Cheney excommunicated for his wilful absence, afterwards sued by proxy
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  Speaker 1: for absolution for the sake of averting temporal penalties, but
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  Speaker 1: he had nothing more to do with the higherarchy. Now
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  Speaker 1: you have declared war against your colleagues. Shows that Campion
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  Speaker 1: had heard accurate news of all this, the moment may
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  Speaker 1: have seemed to camp In exactly favorable for such a
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  Speaker 1: strong appeal. One of Cheney's successes, in his see declared
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  Speaker 1: it was certain he died a papist. This was contradicted
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  Speaker 1: by a lesser authority, but yet a good one. If
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  Speaker 1: it were indeed certain, at least Edmund Campion, to whom
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  Speaker 1: the tidings would have been most consoling, never knew of it.
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  Speaker 1: It seems as if Cheney could not have answered that
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  Speaker 1: bugle call of a letter. He is said, however, to
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  Speaker 1: have kept it always, and to have called it his
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  Speaker 1: greatest treasure, how these many cries of the heat of
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  Speaker 1: my love must have haunted his ear. It is hardly
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  Speaker 1: in human nature to value such a document at all,
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  Speaker 1: and there are passages in it more ruthless after the
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  Speaker 1: manner of the time than any we have quoted, unless
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  Speaker 1: for the reflex reason that it does its intended work
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  Speaker 1: in the heart of the receiver. To have valued it
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  Speaker 1: either as a piece of literary cleverness or as a
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  Speaker 1: monument of misdirected concern, would have been equally cynical and clean.
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  Speaker 1: Contrary to Chinese known attitude towards his friend, he did
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  Speaker 1: not live to see Campion written to England, shunning the
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  Speaker 1: bigots and the unprincipled men in power to the last,
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  Speaker 1: and sheltering the Catholic all he could. He shut himself
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  Speaker 1: up at Gloucester, a whole high Church party in himself, wounded,
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  Speaker 1: and at Bay, and there in fifteen seventy nine he
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  Speaker 1: died and was buried in the Glorious Cathedral without a
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  Speaker 1: ne epitaph. The dream of his lifetime, as well as
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  Speaker 1: Edmund Campion's sonship, he had loved and lost. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter four