Early in the 20th century, there was vigorous debate over whether candoluminescence is required to explain the behavior of Welsbach gas mantles or limelight. One counterargument was that since thorium oxide (for example) has much lower emissivity in the near infrared region than the shorter wavelength parts of the visible spectrum, it should not be strongly cooled by infrared radiation, and thus a thorium-oxide mantle can get closer to the flame temperature than can a blackbody material. The higher temperature would then lead to higher emission levels in the visible portion of the spectrum, without invoking candoluminescence as an explanation. 
Another argument was that the oxides in the mantle might be actively absorbing the combustion products and thus being selectively raised to combustion-product temperatures. Some more recent authors seem to have concluded that neither Welsbach mantles nor limelight involve candoluminescence (e.g. Mason), but Ivey, in an extensive review of 254 sources, concluded that catalysis of free-radical recombination does enhance the emission of Welsbach mantles, such that they are candoluminescent.