[5] On the other hand, his friendship with Edmund Campion suggests that like many of the Anglo-Irish gentry he retained a certain sympathy with the Roman Catholic faith.
In 1570 he recommended to Parliament, in a speech which he delivered at the prorogation, a system of national education for Ireland, proposing the establishment of grammar schools throughout the country.
Stanyhurst's educational policy was not accepted by the government, although Sir Henry Sidney, to whom he was close, strongly supported it.
Edmund Campion, who acted as tutor to his son Richard, was also a good friend, and acknowledged assistance from Stanihurst in writing his history of Ireland.
On one occasion Stanihurst, despite outwardly professing the Protestant faith, saved Campion from arrest on the charge of being a Jesuit by sending him to the home of the Barnewall family of Turvey House, who were staunch Catholics.