known as “Tractarianism” because its views were published in ninety religious pamphlets called Tracts for the Times (1833-1841), the Oxford Movement was launched in the early 1830s by Anglican clergymen at Oxford University. The primary objective of the movement was to bring spiritual renewal to the Church of England by reviving certain Roman Catholic doctrines and rituals that Anglicans had dropped during the struggles of the Protestant Reformation.
The chief architects of the movement included the clergymen John Keble (1792-1866), John Henry Newman (1801-1890), and Edward Pusey (1800-1882). Keble achieved renown in 1827 with the publication of The Christian Year, a book of devotional poems fitted to the holy days mentioned in the Book of Common Prayer. This well-received publication-which was republished in more than 150 editions during the next half century-helped him to acquire a professorship of poetry at Oxford University in 1831. In 1833, responding to a controversial attempt by the British government to suppress ten redundant bishoprics in Ireland, Keble preached an explosive sermon, On the National Apostasy, decrying the power of Parliament over the Church. Calling for an autonomous, holy, and catholic (universal) Church, Keble insisted that the Church was a divine society with heavenly authority, not a plaything of politicians.
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