He received his early education at Christ's Hospital school and, at the age of 13, was chosen to make the complimentary speech when Queen Mary visited the city in August 1553.

[1][2]: p30  William Chester, a governor of Christ's Hospital, took a special interest in him, and sponsored him as a scholar to St John's College, Oxford,[3] where he became junior fellow in 1557[4] and took the required Oath of Supremacy, probably on the occasion of his B.A.

[6] Religious difficulties then arose but despite holding Catholic doctrines, at the persuasion of Richard Cheyney, Bishop of Gloucester, he received Holy Orders in 1564 as a deacon in the Anglican Church.

Among the latter was Thomas Pounde in the Marshalsea, where a meeting was held to discuss means of counteracting rumours circulated by the Privy Council to the effect that Campion's mission was political and treasonous.

This pamphlet, in Latin, was printed in a clandestine press at Stonor Park, Henley, and 400 copies were found on the benches of St Mary's, Oxford, at the Commencement, on 27 June 1581.

On his way to Norfolk, he stopped at Lyford Grange, the house of Francis Yate, then in Berkshire, where he preached on 14 July and the following day, by popular request.

[16] Here, he was captured by a spy named George Eliot and taken to London with his arms pinioned and bearing on his hat a paper with the inscription "Campion, the Seditious Jesuit".

[6] Imprisoned for four days in the Tower of London in a tiny cell called "Little Ease",[17] Campion was then taken out and questioned by three Privy Councillors—Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Bromley, Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household Sir Christopher Hatton and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester—on matters including whether he acknowledged Queen Elizabeth to be the true Queen of England.

Although still suffering from the effects of his torture, and allowed neither time nor books for preparation, he reportedly conducted himself so easily and readily that "even the spectators in the court looked for an acquittal".

[2]: p.33 He was arraigned and indicted on 14 November 1581[21] with several others at Westminster on a charge of having conspired, in Rome and Reims, to raise a sedition in the realm and dethrone the Queen.

He answered the verdict: In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England—the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter.Lord Chief Justice Wray read the sentence: "You must go to the place from whence you came, there to remain until ye shall be drawn through the open city of London upon hurdles to the place of execution, and there be hanged and let down alive, and your privy parts cut off, and your entrails taken out and burnt in your sight; then your heads to be cut off and your bodies divided into four parts, to be disposed of at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

After spending his last days in prayer he was dragged with two fellow priests, Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Briant, to Tyburn where the three were hanged, drawn and quartered on 1 December 1581.

The actual ropes used in his execution are now kept in glass display tubes at Stonyhurst College[25] in Lancashire; each year they are placed on the altar of St Peter's Church for Mass to celebrate Campion's feast day—which is always a holiday for the school.