Edmund Campion influenced English literature as much by his death as by his literary output. Although he produced only two works of English prose, on two widely divergent subjects, each in its way illuminates major concerns of late sixteenth-century England. The use of his History of Ireland in Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577) provides an example of Elizabethan historiography, reveals England's concern with Ireland, furnishes a source for Edmund Spenser's View of the Present State of Ireland (1596), and distinguishes Campion as master of clear, graceful English prose. "To the Right Honourable Lords of Her Majesty's Privy Council" (1581)--better known as Campion's Challenge or Campion's Brag--polarized public thinking and solidified government policy pertaining to the relationship between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. The author's execution in 1581 generated both prose and poetry on both sides of the controversy.

Edmund Campion was born...