ABSTRACT
Edmund Campion was asked to preach on the feast of St Peter and Paul, 29 June. George Gilbert furnished the missionaries with horses men, money, clothes, books, vestments and 'all other furniture for the church' and, in the guise of a servant, acted as guide to Fr Persons, while Gervase Pierrepoint escorted Campion. Persons's account is clear about the rich harvest of souls the missionaries reaped as 'they confirmed and gained to the Catholic religion very great numbers of all sorts of people', because those in the country, find it easier to remember 'the virtuous life'. Persons, accompanied by Henry Orton, had left London to start his mission in 'a shire nigh adjoyning', at the request of 'certain principal Catholick gentlemen', so had organized Thomas James, to keep a look-out for Campion. Persons says that, 'presently after our departure' from London, the Privy Council published its proclamation of 15 July.
