“ Bishop Challoner was the author of numerous controversial and devotional works, which have been frequently reprinted and translated into various languages. He compiled the Garden of the Soul (1740?) , which continues to be the most popular manual of devotion among English-speaking Roman Catholics, and he revised an edition of the Douai version of the Scriptures (1749–1750) , correcting the language and orthography, which in many places had become obsolete. ”

“ After the death of his father, who was a rigid Dissenter, his mother, left in poverty, lived with some Roman Catholic families. Thus it came about that he was brought up as a Roman Catholic, chiefly at the seat of Mr Holman at Warkworth, Northamptonshire, where the Rev. John Gother, a celebrated controversialist, officiated as chaplain. In 1704 he was sent to 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 1730 he was sent on the English mission and stationed in London. ”