Richard Challoner (29 September 1691 – 12 January 1781) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of the London District during the greater part of the 18th century, and as Titular Bishop of Doberus. In 1738, he published a revision of the Douay–Rheims Bible.

Early life

Richard Challoner was born in Lewes, Sussex, on 29 September 1691. His father, also Richard Challoner, was married by licence granted on 17 January, either 1690 or 1691, to Grace (née Willard) at Ringmer, Sussex, on 10 February. After the death of his father, who was a Presbyterian winecooper (wine-barrel maker), his mother, now reduced to poverty, became housekeeper to the Catholic Gage family, at Firle, Sussex. It is not known for sure whether she was originally a Roman Catholic, or whether she subsequently became one under the influence of a Catholic household and surroundings.

In any case, thus it came about that Richard was brought up as a Catholic,

Education and academic career in France

In 1705 young Richard was sent to the English College at Douai (France) In this regard, he was an untiring worker, and spent much time in the poorest quarters of the town and in the prisons. Challoner avoided the houses of the rich, preferred to live and work among the poor of London, and in his spare hours gave himself to study and writing, which ultimately enabled him to produce several works of instruction and controversy. dated from 1728. The controversial treatises which he published in rapid succession from London attracted much attention, particularly his Catholic Christian Instructed (1737), which was prefaced by a witty reply to Conyers Middleton's Letter from Rome, showing an Exact Conformity between Popery and Paganism. Challoner was the author over the years of numerous controversial and devotional works, which have been frequently reprinted and translated into various languages. till the end of the reign of Charles II (2 vols. 1741, frequently reprinted). As an administrator he provided for his people a suitable prayer and meditation book, as well as convenient editions of the scriptures, the Imitation of Christ, and the catechism of Christian doctrine.

Challoner's more important work would appear over the years 1749–1752. An edition of the New Testament appeared in 1749, and another, together with the first edition of the Old Testament, in 1750. Between the two editions of the New Testament there are few differences, but the next edition, published in 1752, had important changes both in text and notes, the variations numbering over two thousand.

Besides the works mentioned above, and a good number of tracts, other writings, whose titles convey the atmosphere of an era, include:

  • Think Well On't, or, Reflections on the great truths of the Christian Religion : for every day in the month : and The thirty days' prayer (1801)
  • Grounds of Catholic Doctrine (1732);
  • Unerring Authority of the Catholic Church (1732); Short History of the Protestant Religion (1733);
  • A Roman Catholick's Reasons why He cannot Conform (1734); The Touchstone of the New Religion (1734);
  • The Young Gentleman Instructed in the Grounds of the Christian Religion (1735);
  • A Specimen of the Spirit of the Dissenting Teachers (1736); The Catholic Christian Instructed (1737);
  • The Ground of the Old Religion (1742);
  • A Letter to a Friend concerning the Infallibility of the Church (1743);
  • A Papist Misrepresented and Represented, abridged from Gother; Remarks on Two Letters against Popery (1751);
  • Instructions for the Jubilee (1751);
  • The Wonders of God in the Wilderness: Lives of the Fathers of the Desert (1755);
  • The Life of St Teresa, abridged from Woodhead (1757);
  • Manual of Prayers (1758);
  • A Caveat against the Methodists (1760);
  • The City of God of the New Testament (1760);
  • The Morality of the Bible (1762);
  • Devotion of Catholics to the Blessed Virgin (1764);
  • Rules of Life for a Christian (1766),
  • The Lord's prayer and the Angelic salutation (1781).

Later career

In 1753 Pope Benedict XIV put an end to the long disputes that had been carried on between the secular clergy and the regular clergy, in the last stages of which Challoner took a leading part. There were several points at issue, but the matter was brought to a head over the contention put forward by the regulars, that they did not need the approbation of the vicars apostolic to hear confessions. The bishops opposed this and, after a struggle lasting for several years, obtained a final settlement of this and other questions, a settlement, in the main, satisfactory to the bishops.

The Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School in Stepney was founded by the Sisters of Mercy for him.

Challoner Choir of Westminster Cathedral is named after him.

The Challoner Club, founded originally in 1949 and refounded in 2025, is named after him.

Sources

Footnotes

References

  • Anstruther, Godfrey (1977). Seminary Priests, 1716–1800, Vol. IV. OP.: Great Wakering: Mayhew McCrimmon, pp. 59–61
  • Aveling, J. C. H. (1976). The Handle and the Axe: The Catholic Recusants in England from Reformation to Emancipation. London: Blond & Briggs
  • Bossy, John (1975). The English Catholic Community 1570–1850. London: Darton, Longman & Todd
  • Burton, Edwin H. (1909). The Life and Times of Bishop Challoner, Vol. II. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
  • Duffy, Eamon (1981). "Richard Challoner 1691–1781: A Memoir." In: Eamon Duffy (ed.), Challoner and his Church: A Catholic Bishop in Georgian England. London: Darton, Longman & Todd, pp. 1–26, (along with the other essays of the volume)
  • Gillow, Joseph (1999). Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, Vol. I, pp. 452–458, Ganesha Publishing facsimile edition (for a complete list of Challoner's writings)
  • Newman, John Henry Cardinal (1859). "The Text of the Rheims and Douay Version of Holy Scripture," The Rambler, Vol. I, pp. 145–169.
  • Ward, Bernard (1909). The Dawn of the Catholic Revival in England, Vol. II. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
  • Online edition of the Douay-Rheims-Challoner version of the Bible at Project Gutenberg
  • Online edition of the Garden of the Soul
  • Challoner's Douay Bible Revisions
  • History of the Douay Bible