A Jesuit Challenge: Edmund Campion’s Debates at the Tower of London in 1581 (review)

A Jesuit Challenge: Edmund Campion's Debates at the Tower of London in 1581. By James V. Holleran. (New York: Fordham University Press. 1999. Pp. xiii, 249. $35.00.)

The mission of the Society of Jesus to England began humbly but auspiciously with the separate arrival at Dover of three Jesuits in disguise in June of 1580. Edmund Campion, Robert Persons, and Ralph Emerson came to rejuvenate the Catholic faith in their homeland. In order to counteract the government's claims that the Catholic mission was essentially political rather than religious in nature, and to prevent other false charges, Campion wrote a personal statement or "Challenge," highlighting the true nature of the mission. It also included an invitation to several public debates concerning the religious controversies of the day and soon became known as Campion's "Brag."

During his year on the mission, Campion's writings (especially his Rationes decem), preaching, and zeal endeared him to English Catholics, but also made him perhaps the most hunted man in the country. In July, 1581, he was captured in a "priest hole," and then imprisoned and tortured. Before putting him on trial, the government wished to discredit him; therefore, it arranged for a series of disputations in the Tower with leading Anglican divines. The only official account of these debates was based on transcripts of government notaries, which were officially approved and published in 1583, with the goal of dispelling the notion that Campion had won the debates.

Unbeknown to the authorities, however, some Catholics were present at the debates, recorded the conversations, and disseminated their accounts. These manuscripts have now been gathered and published in A Jesuit Challenge: Edmund Campion's Debates at the Tower of London in 1581. The compiler, James V. Holleran, provides an extensive introduction, discussing the broad historical and religious background, the role of the Catholic mission--and of Campion in particular--and the important issues of the debates themselves. Although some of the background historiography is a bit dated, the discussion is detailed and often quite insightful.

The heart of the book is the Catholic manuscripts of the debates, which provide a necessary corrective and balance to the official, pro-Protestant accounts. The first debate (conducted by Alexander Nowell and William Day) focused on the Bible and differences concerning the canon, and on the central theological issue of salvation and whether or not one was justified by faith alone. Interestingly, the subsequent debates were held in a more private setting, with a smaller audience, and different Protestant disputants, suggesting that Campion may well have bested his first opponents. The second debate (with William Fulke and Roger Goade) dealt largely with issues of ecclesiology, such as the nature of the Church Militant and whether or not the Church could err.

The third debate focused on one of the major controversies between Catholics and Protestants: the essence of the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, along with the accompanying issues of transubstantiation and the nature of the Mass. In the fourth and final debate, Campion's interlocutors were two Puritan divines, John Walker and William Charke, who were somewhat intemperate in their demeanor, and Holleran makes the intriguing suggestion that the Elizabethan government may have been trying to discredit both groups of their religious adversaries--Catholics and Puritans. In any event, the last debate was similar to the first in subject matter and ranged over the issues of the canon, scripture and tradition, and whether faith alone justified.

In all of these disputations, Campion had no advance notice, was allowed only a Bible as a reference, and could only respond to issues pre-arranged by his opponents. As Holleran concludes, this process was more of "a relentless interrogation" than "an open debate" of theological issues, as the government tried to portray it (p. 71). The book includes several very helpful appendices, among which...