An extract from the new book ‘The Life and
Times of William Byrd: A Local History’ now available. The image is from the ceiling of the English Martyrs' Chapel in Westminster Cathedral, London.
In the early 1580s men who had been trained abroad
as Jesuit priests were entering England as missionaries. One of the most
high-profile was Edmund Campion, originally ordained in the Church of England. The
other was Father Robert Persons (or Parsons) who we encountered earlier. These
“two Jesuits strengthened the resolve of many lay Catholics to refuse
conformity” through the printing and circulation of books by using “a roving
press”. The authorities seized
many copies. Campion travels the country and is welcomed, in his own words, “to hear
their confessions … [say] Mass, I preach; they hear with exceeding greediness
and often receive the sacrament”. But this is a dangerous
course of action. From 1581, celebrating mass was punishable by death.
A network of spies engaged by the authorities
would secretly join invited congregations at recusant country houses. Campion made
an ill-judged return visit to Lyford Grange in Berkshire two days following his
first visit. It was there that George Eliot, a professional priest-hunter,
heard Campion preach on the text ‘Jerusalem thou killest the prophets’. Jerusalem
then, as in the later setting of William Blake’s poem and ‘Last Night at The
Proms’ song, was reference to England: ‘England thou killest the prophets’ was
an incendiary speech. Later that day the house was surrounded, and the
following morning intruders discovered Campion hiding in the ‘priest’s hole’.
John Stow’s ‘Annals of England’ was published
in 1605. He records the recent events: “1581. Campion and others executed. The first of
December, Edmond Campion Jesuit, Ralfe Sherwine, and Alexander Brian seminarie
priests, were drawne from the Tower of London to Tiborne, and there hanged
bowelled & quartered.”
Edmund Campion, born 25th January
1540, was the same age as Byrd and as a boy had connections with St Paul’s
Cathedral where Byrd’s brothers also sang. They grew up together: “A boyhood
friendship between them might explain the intensity of Byrd’s musical reaction
to Campion’s martyrdom”.
Roy Hattersley reveals “Among the silent Catholics, who
were emboldened by the execution of Edmund Campion, was the wife of William
Byrd, the composer and organist in the Elizabethan Chapel Royal. She, at least
according to folklore, was in the crowd that witnessed his disembowelling, and
dipped her handkerchief in the martyr’s blood”. This is a souvenir or,
more appropriately, a relic of the occasion.
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