"Spectaculum Facti Sumus Deo, Angelis Et Hominibus"

The English Jesuit priest Edmund Campion was executed in London in December 1581. Standing on the scaffold with the noose round his neck, he began to speak: "Spectaculum facti sumus Deo, angelis et hominibus".

These are the words of St Paul, Englished thus: "We are made a spectacle unto God, unto his angels and unto men, verified this day in me, who am here a spectacle unto my Lord God, a spectacle unto his angels and unto you men..." At this point he was cut short.

Nowadays, sporting events are almost the only occasions when we can enjoy physical endurance as a spectacle. In the days of public executions, the repertoire was wider. When the Catholic Campion was condemned for plotting against Queen Elizabeth, his hanging, drawing and quartering was a show – justice being seen to be done. But more than that, as Campion's speech makes clear, it was a show in which both the authorities and the victim had an interest. From one point of view, here was a heretic-traitor, receiving his due and horrible destruction. From the other, here was a martyr, bearing witness to the end. The spectacle of punishment and the spectacle of enduring faith are one.

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