Introduction

Meredith Hanmer was a middle-ranking divine of the Church of England. His carefully crafted pamphlet against the Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion, The Great Bragge and Challenge of Mr Champion, published in 1581, made him one of the most prominent anti-Catholic polemicists. Hanmer’s profession, his position in the Church, and career trajectory make him a fascinating link between several different groups of the Elizabethan society. Hanmer is, in fact, a paradoxical figure who seems to have become a representative of the Elizabethan Church, involved in the defence of the settlement and with the reformation of the people, almost despite himself. Arguing for the relatedness of Irish and Welsh, translating the early sources of Christianity, anchoring the origins of the English Church in Christian antiquity and demonstrating the errors of Roman Catholicism and Islam, Hanmer historical, antiquarian and polemical discourses met the demands of the establishment to legitimate and defend the Elizabethan Church.