Sacred Treasures: Christian heritage centre, Stonyhurst16 For extra news go towww.thecatholicuniverse.com

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St Edmund’srope binds usto the memoryof his sacrificeAt Stonyhurst there’s a rope. Among allthe treasures of the college this receivesthe most honour. Housed in a reliquary,it is placed on the altar on the greatfeast days. The pupil who carries itthere, amid the candles and theincense, on his feast day on 1stDecember, will never forget theexperience.

A simple rope, some five hundredyears old. The rope that bound StEdmund Campion to the hurdle onwhich he was dragged to execution. Arope smuggled away from the butcheryand worn by Fr Robert Persons, thefounder of the college who escaped themartyrdom of his companion, roundhis waist for the rest of his life.

What’s the point of a rope? Is itmerely a cultural artefact collectedamid the gore? Or does it hold a greatermeaning?

As the new Christian Heritage Centrerises at Stonyhurst these are questionsworth asking.

Museums must have some relevanceor the exhibits are merely dry as dust.That simple rope holds a message asimportant to us today as it was when itplayed its part in Campion’s sacrifice.

As Westminster Cathedral, Stonyhurstand many other buildings are floodlitred on 22nd November – RedWednesday – and Christianscommemorate the killing of today’smodern martyrs, there is a direct link toCampion and others who have died fortheir faith.

Campion epitomises the heroism ofrecusant England.

Fr Clement Tigar, who championedthe cause of the Forty Martyrs, wrote:‘In June 1580, when Campion landed on

The Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst creates access to unique Catholiccollections – items which draw on this country’s Christian story. This registeredcharity is currently creating accommodation for scholars, retreatants and those

wishing to deepen their Christian Faith. Theodore House will be followed by a Visitors’ Centre which will enable parish-es, schools and the general public to have even greater access to these amazingcollections. To find out more go to www.christianheritagecentre.com or contact

info@christianheritagecentre.com

these shores in disguise, he broughtwith him the spirit of chivalry indefence of the ancient Faith. By hisholiness of life, his unquenchable goodhumour, his charm of manner, hisburning eloquence, he put new heart,new courage, new enthusiasm, into thepersecuted, dejected Catholics ofEngland.’

It hadn’t always been so. Campionwas a scholarship boy and learned earlyto please the establishment. He waschosen to speak before Queen Mary onher visit to the City and later, as astudent at Oxford, to debate beforeQueen Elizabeth. He was described as“one of the diamonds of England”.Great men offered him patronage. Inthe turmoil of the Reformation thispromised safety. His friend, TobieMatthew, urged him to embrace theopportunities. Campion acceptedordination as an Anglican deacon andbarred himself from the sacraments fortwelve years.

His conscience troubled him.Matthew, who told him not to bother,went on to become the Anglican Bishopof Durham and Archbishop of York. AsEvelyn Waugh says in his classicbiography of Campion: ‘Tobie Matthewdied full of honours in 1628, there butfor the Grace of God went EdmundCampion.’

He escaped overseas and wasreconciled at Douai. He walked to Rometo join the Jesuits. He was assigned as aschool master to the college at Prague.He might never have seen Englandagain. A life in community andacademia beckoned.

The call to the English mission cameas a surprise. Campion answered itdespite his fear that he had not the“constitutional courage”. He enteredthe country disguised as a jewel

merchant and with Persons and othersbegan the reorganisation of thescattered and dispirited Catholics. Hetravelled across the country betweensafe houses, confessing, offering theMass, putting new spirit into thoseworn down by fines and imprisonment.“The harvest is wonderful…I cannotlong escape the hands of the heretics;the enemy have so many eyes…I am inapparel to myself very ridiculous…”

With Persons he set up a secretprinting press to circulate his ‘TenReasons’ for being a Catholic and his‘Brag’ a justification of his mission anda challenge to the authorities. ‘Andtouching our Society, be it known to youthat we have made a league—all theJesuits in the world…cheerfully to carrythe cross you shall lay upon us, andnever to despair your recovery, while wehave a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, orto be racked with your torments, orconsumed with your prisons. Theexpense is reckoned, the enterprise isbegun; it is of God; it cannot bewithstood. So the faith was planted: soit must be restored.’

Their circulation and popularitymade his capture inevitable.

In the summer of 1581 he rode out ofLondon, pausing at Tyburn to prayunder the gallows. “Because”, saysPersons, “he used to say that he wouldhave his combat there.” He stopped atthe Catholic house of Lyford Grange tosay Mass, but there was a priest hunterin the congregation. The Gospel of theday was prophetic, ‘Jerusalem,Jerusalem, thou that killest theprophets.’

Captured, he was bound to his horsewith the sign ‘Campion, seditiousJesuit’ pinned to his hat. Hedisappeared into the Tower for fourmonths of interrogation and torture.Rumours flew, he had recanted,accepted a bishopric, betrayed hishosts. When he emerged, brought todebate with the Anglican divines, it wasthe same gentle, eloquent Campionwho confounded his adversaries.Except, at his trial, he couldn’t lift hisright arm to take the oath because ofthe racking.

Condemned to death by perjuredwitnesses and a packed jury, Campionspoke for all Catholics: “In condemningus, you condemn all your own

ancestors, all our ancient bishops andkings, all that was once the glory ofEngland; the island of saints, and themost devoted child of the See of Peter.”

He was dragged to execution on 1stDecember, his feast day. He greeted thecrowd “God save you all, and make youall good Catholics.” His final words wereto pray for the Queen; that “we may atlast be friends in heaven, when allinjuries shall be forgotten”.

So to the rope. We all face the samechoice, whether to conform or stand forthe truth. Today, we will probably not becalled to a physical martyrdom. Insteadwe face the hostility of secularism, oflicence masquerading as liberty and themarginalisation of spirit and faith.That's as much a threat as anything themartyrs faced. Meeting it demands theconstant courage and faithfulness thatCampion inspires.

That’s what the rope means.

Christopher Graffius

StonyhurstCollege lit up forRed Wednesday insolidarity withthose persecutedfor their faith,above, with, farright a 1581illustration of StEdmundCampion and hisexecution. Rightis a picture of theCampion Rope,which tied him tothe hurdle and isnow owned by theBritish Provinceof the Society ofJesus. Below left isa stained glassimage of StEdmund inStonyhurstSodality Chapel

‘Hope, greatest and ever-present to the Dead,Hope is the Host which I behold;Here, be assembled here, I pray;Here celebrate God, and for the afflicted seek peace.’

An extract from Anima. Theoriginal copy of Anima, which

Edmund Campion composed inLatin in 1581 as he was

returning to the mission field inEngland – and to certain death

– is held in the Collections at theChristian Heritage Centre.