ABSTRACT
In Rome, Edmund Campion taking full advantage of the 'sacraments of penance and Eucharist, dayly prayer and chiefely the visiting of most holy churches', received the answer he had been promised. He applied to join the Society of Jesus, which already had missions in Bavaria, Austria, Italy, Spain, India, Japan and Brazil, but none in England. Campion probably sailed from Bristol, in which case he may have passed Painswick, where Bishop Cheyney had his residence. The ride from Oxford to Bristol could have taken only three or four days, so Campion would have taken the opportunity to discuss his position with his bishop and mentor. Campion's conception of history is clear, since he ends with a parliament, and with the two speeches of the Lord Deputy and the Speaker advocating reform. Campion's faith in disputation is not shaken by the fact that the aims were not achieved, as the Deputy argued, 'at the first daie'.
