:A Jesuit Challenge: Edmund Campion's Debates at the Tower of London in 1581

Abstract

In the year 1581, after four days of debating six leading Anglican divines at the Tower of London, Jesuit Edmund Campion (1540-1581) was put to death because he would not deny his faith. In 1970, the martyred Campion was canonized a saint. A Jesuit Challenge is a book-length edition of previously unpublished Catholic manuscript accounts of those debates. As corrective historical documents, these Catholic manuscripts reveal a quite different picture of Campion and his opponents from that represented in the government's published version, and thus offer us a fuller and more balanced understanding of what actually took place. In addition to their historical value, the Catholic manuscripts also include lively exchanges between Campion and his opponents, and provide humanizing details about them. As personalized documents they capture the dramatic flavor of a series of spirited debates dealing with the major theological issues separating Protestant England from Catholic Rome in Elizabeth's reign. Together with a transcription of the Catholic manuscript accounts, Holleran supplies a general historical introduction to the debates, a detailed description of the manuscripts, brief supplementary commentaries about the debates, and a full set of explanatory notes.