CHAMPNEY, Anthony. - Controversialist, born in England in 1569 (?), died there in 1643 (?). He completed his theological studies in Rome and served as vice-rector of the English College in Douai from 1619 to 1625, taking a very active part in the religious struggles of his homeland.
A vast polemical output, both published and unpublished, survives from him: *An Answer to a letter of a Jesuit Gentleman* (s.l. 1601); *A Manual of Controversies* (Paris 1614); *Mr. Pilkington his Parallela Disparalled* (St-Omer 1620); etc. He holds great importance in the history of theology for having been the first theologian to discuss and deny the validity of Anglican ordinations in the work *A Treatise of the Vocation of Bishop* (Douai 1616), of which a Latin edition exists: *De vocatione ministrorum tractatus* (Paris 1618), with some additions.