He left England in his childhood; entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Rome on 17 November 1564; and was ordained priest at Olmütz in Moravia in 1572.
He was seized on landing at Dover in September 1580, was taken before the privy council, and was subsequently committed to the Marshalsea prison and cruelly tortured there.
It was alleged by the government that he and Henry Orton, a lay gentleman, gave answers different from those made by the other priests to the questions put to them about the deposing power of the holy see.
The government published these replies in 'A Particular Declaration or Testimony of the undutiful and traitorous afiection borne against her Majestie by Edmund Campian, Jesuite, and other condemned priests,' 1582.
At length Queen Elizabeth was prevailed upon to restore him to liberty, and on 21 January 1684-5 he was sent into exile with Father Jasper Haywood and others, twenty-one in all.