The Jesuit Challenge!

Fr. Diego Laynez, S.J. removed to Brescia early in 1544, where the doctrines of Luther and Calvin were in great favour. He preached, and was admired as usual; but an apostate monk, whose name we must regret not to know, announced that he had arguments against purgatory so conclusive, that Laynez must be silenced by them, if not convinced.

Laynez challenged him to a public contest. In those days such disputes, the chief intellectual amusements of an age when books were still rare, were greatly enjoyed. Numbers thronged to hear the discussion, which was opened by the monk, who went through all his arguments without interruption ; Laynez listening with downcast eyes, in perfect patience, till his antagonist had exhausted his subject.

Then, with the accuracy of a prodigious memory, Laynez went through the objections in the order in which they had been stated, taking up each point, and refuting the Lutheran's view so fully and clearly, that an extraordinary result followed. For not only did the audience pronounce for Laynez, but the monk owned himself vanquished, returned to the faith of the Church, and became a warm friend of Laynez from that time.

Link (here) to the portion of the book entitled, Ignatius Loyola and the early Jesuits.