CHALLONER, RICHARD (1691-1781), English Roman Catholic prelate, was born at Lewes, Sussex, on Sept. 29, 1691, and educated at the English college at Douai, where he was ordained a priest in 1716, took his degrees in divinity, and was appointed professor in that faculty. In 173o he was sent to London. The controversial treatises which he published in rapid succession attracted much attention, particularly his Catholic Christian Instructed (1737), with its witty reply to Dr. Conyers Middleton's Letters front Rome, showing an Exact Conformity between Popery and Paganism. In 1741 Challoner was raised to the episcopal dignity at Hammersmith and nominated coadjutor with right of succession to Bishop Benjamin Petre, vicar-apostolic of the London district, whom he succeeded in 1758. He died on Jan. 12, 1781. Bishop Challoner was the author of numerous controversial and devotional works, including the Garden of the Soul (1740?), one of the most popular manuals of devotion. He re-edited the Douai Bible (1749-175o), correcting the obsolete language and orthography. Of his historical works the most valu able is his Memoirs of Missionary Priests and other Catholicks of both Sexes who suffered Death or Imprisonment in England on account of their Religion, from the year 1577 till the end of the reign of Charles II. (1741, latest ed., 1924) intended as an anti dote to Foxes martyrology. He also published anonymously, in 1745 Britannia Sancta, or lives of the British saints, now super seded by that of Alban Butler.
See E. H. Burton, Life and Times of Bishop Challoner (1909).