Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name

Ten Reasons Proposed to His
Adversaries for

Disputation in the Name of the Faith and Presented to the Illustrious
Members of Our Universities, by Edmund Campion, Translated by J. H.
P.
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Title: Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the
Name of the Faith and Presented to the Illustrious Members of Our
Universities
Author: Edmund Campion
Release Date: August 7, 2004 [eBook #13133]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN
REASONS PROPOSED TO HIS ADVERSARIES FOR
DISPUTATION IN THE NAME OF THE FAITH AND PRESENTED
TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS MEMBERS OF OUR UNIVERSITIES***
E-text prepared by Geoff Horton

TEN REASONS PROPOSED TO HIS ADVERSARIES FOR
DISPUTATION IN THE NAME OF THE FAITH AND PRESENTED
TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS MEMBERS OF OUR UNIVERSITIES BY
EDMUND CAMPION PRIEST OF THE SOCIETY OF THE NAME
OF JESUS Nihil Obstat S. GEORGIUS KIERAN HYLAND, S.T.D,
CENSOR DEPUTATUS Imprimatur + PETRUS EPUS
SOUTHWARC CONTENTS INTRODUCTION RATIONES DECEM

TRANSLATION INTRODUCTION

Though Blessed Edmund Campion's Decem Rationes has passed
through forty-seven editions,[1] printed in all parts of Europe; though it
has awakened the enthusiasm of thousands; though Mark Anthony
Muret, one of the chief Catholic humanists of Campion's age,
pronounced it to be "written by the finger of God," yet it is not an easy
book for men of our generation to appreciate, and this precisely
because it suited a bygone generation so exactly. Before it can be
esteemed at its true value, some knowledge of the circumstances under
which it was written, is indispensable.
1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE Decem Rationes.
The chief point to remember is that the Decem Rationes was the last
and most deliberate free utterance of Campion's ever-memorable
mission. During the few months that mission lasted he succeeded in
staying the full tide of victorious Protestantism, which had hitherto
been irresistible. The ancient Church had gone down before the new
religion, at Elizabeth's accession twenty years before, with an
apparently final fall, and since then the Elizabethan Settlement had
triumphed in every church, in every school and court. The new
generation had been moulded by it; the old order seemed to be utterly
prostrate, defeated and moribund. Nor was it only at home that
Protestantism talked of victory. In every neighbouring land she had
gained or was gaining the upper hand. She had crossed the Border and
subdued Scotland, she held Ireland in an iron grip, she had set up a new
throne in Holland, she had deeply divided France, and had learned how
to paralyze the power of Spain. What could stay her progress?
Then a new figure appeared, a fugitive flying before the law. He was
hunted backwards and forwards across the country, every man's hand
seemed against him. It was impossible to hold out for long against such
immense odds, and he was in fact soon captured, mocked, maligned,
sentenced and executed with contumely. Yet Campion and his handful
of followers had meanwhile succeeded in doing what the whole nation,
when united, had failed to do. He had evoked a spirit of faith and
fervour, against which the violence of Protestantism raged in vain. He
had saved the beaten, shattered fragments of the ancient host, and
animated them with invincible courage; and his work endured in spite

of endless assaults and centuries of persecution. The Decem Rationes is
Campion's harangue to those whom he called upon to follow him in the
heroic struggle.
2. THE MAN AND THE MISSION.
Thus much for the inspiration and general significance of Campion's
work considered as a whole. It will also repay a much more minute
study, and to appreciate it we must enter into further details.
As to the man himself, suffice it to say that he was a Londoner; his
father a publisher; his first school Christ's Hospital; that he was
afterwards a Fellow of St. John's, Oxford, and held at the same time an
exhibition from the Grocer's Company. At Oxford he accepted to some
extent the Elizabethan Settlement of religion, but not sufficiently to
satisfy the Company of Grocers, who eventually withdrew their
exhibition. This was a sign for further inquisitorial proceedings, which
made him leave the University, and retire to Dublin; but he was driven
also thence by the zealots for Protestantism. Eventually he went over to
the English College at Douay, whence he migrated to Rome, entered
the Society of Jesus, and after eight years' training had returned, a priest,
to his native country, forty years old. His strong point was undoubtedly
a singularly