How did being Catholic ever become a crime? For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church was present in England. From the early Middle Ages towns and villages were full of churches and chapels, glorious cathedrals stood in towns where Bishops resided, and there were hundreds of monasteries throughout the country. Up to the 1520s everyone was Catholic until King Henry changed the law and put himself at the head of the church.
St Edmund Campion was a successful Oxford scholar who then turned away from worldly desires to become a Catholic priest. He was spied upon by a false Catholic, who then betrayed him, after which he was imprisoned and tortured. Campion’s faith was more important to him than his life, and so he was martyred along with two other priests who stayed loyal to the ancient faith.
500 years ago, the Catholic faith was forcibly taken from the people. Catholics were persecuted, suppressed and murdered. It was not until three hundred years later that it became legal again to practice the Catholic faith.
Could something similar happen again? Today, too, our basic freedoms are in danger of being taken away. Do we want to be caught in digital enslavement for the coming centuries? If we don’t stand up for freedom, this may and will happen. As one can learn from history, it wouldn’t be the first time that an entire society was forced to give up its freedom and to take on an imposed change.
Diamond Of England – St. Edmund Campion – 40 Martyrs of England and Wales:
The ‘Diamond Of England’, St. Edmund Campion, was one of the most influential personalities in Oxford during Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
Watch the full episode here: https://www.shalomworld.org/episode/st-edmund-campion-diamond-of-england (Shalom World/YT)
See also:
- Campion’s Ten Reasons
- Great Britain’s Martyrs – Part II – Margaret Clitherow
- Great Britain’s Martyrs – Part I – The Carthusian Monks