lasted for several years. Mr. Simpson has included an outline of
this controversy in his _Life of Campion_, and to it I may refer
my readers, having nothing substantial to add to his account.

6. CRITICISM.

It would not be necessary for me to say more about its success,
except that to us nowadays, the _Rationes_ will not seem at all
so remarkable as it did to our ancestors. Religious controversy,
in itself, does not much interest us moderns; and those who will
read Latin merely to enjoy the style are very few. But in the
sixteenth century, as Sir Arthur Helps truly says, men found in
the thrill of controversy the interest they now take in novels.
At that time, too, of all literary charms, that of good Latin
prose was by far the most popular, and the language was still the
"lingua franca" of the learned all the world over. Once we get so
far as to appreciate that both subject and style were in its
favour, the popularity of the volume will seem natural enough,
for it is bright, pointed, strong, full of matter, bold,
eloquent, convincing.

Without attempting anything like a complete account of the
reception of the book by the public, I may mention as the most
obvious proof of its popularity, that more strenuous endeavours
were made (so far as I can discover) to answer it than were made
in the case of any other assault upon the Elizabethan religious
settlement. Lord Burghley himself, the chief minister of the
Crown, called upon the Bishop of London, perhaps the most forward
man then on the episcopal bench, to use all endeavours to ensure
the publication of a sufficient answer. Finally they appointed