A copy of a famous tract written by a prominent Reformation martyr is being returned to the place it was printed after 434 years.
In 1581 St Edmund Campion, a Jesuit and one of the 40 martyrs of England and Wales, brought his printing press to Stonor Park, in Henley, south Oxfordshire, and printed 400 copies of Decem Rationes (Ten Reasons).
The pamphlet sets out theological arguments against the validity of the Church of England and its publication led to the arrest, torture and eventual execution of Campion on 1 December of that year.
The printing of the tracts also led to a raid of Stonor – a recusant home lived in by the same Stonor family for 800 years – and the printing press was removed and probably destroyed.
Now, however, a copy of Decem Rationes, believed to be one of just five in the world, is returning to Stonor on a long-term loan and is on display to visitors for the first time.
The loan has been made by the trustees of the diocese of Portsmouth – the pamphlet has been in the diocese at the church of St Peter’s and St Stephen’s in Winchester.
Lord Camoys, whose ancestors gave shelter to Campion and who still lives at Stonor, said the return was “truly extraordinary and a reason for remembering the remarkable courage of our ancestors”.
He explained that it is unclear how the tract ended up in Winchester, although the Bodleian Library at Oxford University had certified the pamphlet’s authenticity.
St Edmund Campion was a brilliant student who became a Catholic and then joined the Society of Jesus in Rome – he and his colleagues were well known to Elizabeth I and her network of spies. After copies of Decem Rationes were placed in the University Church, Oxford, Campion was arrested at Lyford Grange, 12 miles from Stonor.
Meanwhile, a major refurbishment of the thirteenth-century chapel at Stonor has recently been completed, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and other grant-making trusts.
The chapel is one of three places of Catholic worship to have remained in use throughout the Reformation and until today.
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