Between theological debate and political subversion: Meredith Hanmer's confutation of Edmund Campion's Letter to the Privy Council

Abstract

Edmund Campion's Letter to the Privy Council contributed to turn the 1580 Jesuit mission to England into a public challenge to the Elizabethan government. Yet it can be argued that the challenge was fundamentally theological and not meant to undermine either the authority or the legitimacy of the regime. By focusing on the Anglican confutation printed in 1581 by Dr Meredith Hanmer, this essay will discuss the context of the dispute and analyse how the text carved the image of the mission as an act of political subversion. Interestingly, moreover, while it popularised the Letter as a «brag and challenge», Hanmer's confutation was the first work to ever circulate it in print.