The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 proved to English Protestants that Catholics were capable of unlimited atrocity — confirming their darkest fears that the same could happen in London if the regime faltered.

111:42thinks for a minute that he could possibly be a priest, and so he crosses with no problem at all. Then Campion follows the the a week later, and he's disguised himself as a jeweler from Dublin because, of course, he'd spent time in Dublin, so he's he's familiar with it. and he gets stopped because he resembles William Allen's brother who had been on Sled's list that he'd handed

112:05over to Walssingham. And so he does get apprehended and for reasons that aren't entirely clear, they don't keep him. So he he manages to to carry on from from do and he arrives in London where he rendevous with persons um and persons and Campion for the next few weeks are then touring safe houses across the capital and they're preaching and they're celebrating mass and they're hosting conferences with leading English

112:30Catholics who are overjoyed to have these two very charismatic figures directly from the pope in London. Um, and Campion, you know, he understands, Dominic, where Walssingham and you are coming from. He knows that he is being accused of treason. And so he writes um a formal letter explicitly denying this charge and insisting that he's come only, and I quote, to preach the gospel, to minister the sacraments, to instruct

112:58the simple, to reform sinners, to confute errors. And his instructions to his fellow Catholics are, should I be captured, then send this letter to the privy council so that they can read and see what my motivation is. The problem with this is that it's a brilliantly well-written letter. I mean, everything Campion does is brilliant. And so, Catholics read it and they go, "Oh, this is great. We should share it." And so,

113:25they start copying it. And so, inevitably, it falls into the hands of Walsingham's agents. To English Catholics, this letter is a great rallying cry. They find it very moving and inspirational. But to Walssingham and to the Protestant authorities more generally, this letter is not reassuring in the slightest. It seems a really terrifying provocation. And you can see why. So this is also what um Campion has written. The expense is reckoned. The

113:52enterprise is begun. It is of God. It cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted. So it must be restored. And how do you restore it? You restore it by getting rid of the Protestant Jezebel and planting the Catholic Queen of Scots on the throne. And so unsurprisingly among Protestants, the letter is very soon notorious and they call it Campion's brag. Do you think that's unfair? Do you think I mean he's not

114:18saying anything? Just just reading it. I mean, of course, there's a sort of you might say there's kind of ideological arrogance to it. You know, we're we are >> Jesuit. Yeah, but but I mean >> ideological arrogance is the whole point of being I suppose a kind of you know a part of a religious shock force. >> But um I'm surprised that they're so provoked by it.