The film features reflections from Fr Nick Austin SJ, Master of Campion Hall, and Fr Kensy Joseph SJ, who cites Campion as a key inspiration for joining the Society of Jesus. Archivists from the British Jesuit Archives, Mary Allen and Dr Lucy Vinten, present a Rope Relic of Edmund Campion—a small piece of the rope that would have tied him to the hurdle on his way to execution—and early copies of Campion’s writings, including his Decem Rationes (“Ten Reasons”), a courageous pamphlet setting out the case for Catholic faith in England.
Edmund Campion (1540–1581) was an Oxford scholar who, after a long interior struggle, left England to become a Jesuit in 1573. Formed in Rome and ordained soon after, he was sent on the first Jesuit mission to England in 1580, travelling in disguise to minister secretly to Catholics living under severe penal laws.
Campion moved from house to house offering the sacraments, preaching, and strengthening recusant communities. He also wrote Decem Rationes, a bold defence of the Catholic faith that circulated covertly at Oxford and made him one of the most sought-after men in Elizabethan England.
In his famous declaration, known as his “Brag,” Campion boldly stated the purpose of his mission: “My charge is, of free cost to preach the Gospel, to minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reform sinners, to confute errors—in brief, to cry alarm spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance, wherewith many of my dear countrymen are abused.”
Campion was captured in 1581, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and repeatedly tortured in an attempt to force a recantation. Despite this, he maintained that his mission was religious, not political, insisting he had come only to serve souls. After a show trial on false charges of treason, he was executed at Tyburn on 1 December 1581.
His courage, fidelity, and pastoral zeal made him one of the most enduring Jesuit martyrs of the English Reformation, remembered today for the compassion and conviction that shaped his short but extraordinary ministry.
For those wishing to explore Campion’s legacy in more depth, our online journal Thinking Faith features some insightful articles here.
