The OXFORD MOVEMENT

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THE OXFORD MOVEMENT

by The Rev Dr Edmund A.S. Jayaraj

On July 14, 1833, the holy priest Keble delivered a spirited sermon before the King’s judges at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Oxford University warning dangers to the English Church through popery and Protestantism. The Reformers (Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer) he said had not wholly recovered the ancient catholic faith of the English Church grounded in Scriptures and the Fathers. The Oxford Movement was born. Keble was joined by three fellow Oxford Fellows, Pusey, Froude and Newman later a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. They were inspired by the works of the two famous non-juror bishops, William Law (A Call To A Serious And Devout Life) and Jeremy Taylor (Holy Living And Holy Dying).

The Movement was led by priests and laity. The bishops, the vast majority being worldly, were indifferent and even hostile, letting loose mob violence on the leaders or failing to call the police to quell being state officials. Newman’s house was ransacked and he was pushed to Rome. Some of the prominent lay men and women were Prime Minister Gladstone, Wilberforce, Dr Samuel Johnson, Thomas Arnold, Florence Nightingale and the poet Christina Rosetti.

The founding clerics were intellectual giants, ascetics and men of personal holiness. Hence they were very credible. They and their followers, both priests and the laity, the people of God left their marks in the English Church’s theology and mission, ceremonial, architecture, prose, poetry and music.

Theology and Mission: 

The Movement emphasized the Atonement, Baptismal regeneration, the Real Presence in the Eucharist and the Power of the Keys in the Priesthood.

Atonement meant Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross was a completed work for all; a not for a select few. It is an unrepeatable sacrifice. As the Prayer Book teaches Christ once offered a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. They rejected the then Romanism of the Sacrifices of the Masses. They also rejected Calvin’s theory of predestination of a select few.

Baptismal Re-generation meant a new birth, a birth from above, being born by water and the spirit. It is as if a dead battery is come alive by sacramental power. Grace is infused and man is now capable of advancing from grace to grace.

In the Eucharist, Christ is really present in the appearance of bread and wine. Pusey said, “Righteous art Thou, O Lord, and all Thy words are truth. Thou hast said, ‘This is My Body.’ ‘This is My Blood.’ Hast Thou said, and shalt not thou do it? As Thou hast said, so we believe.” The Movement was careful not to confuse the Real Presence of Romanism. When a member, (W.J.E. Bennett) wrote the expression “visible Presence” and faced prosecution Dr. Pusey told him to change the statement from, “visible presence…and of adoring and teaching myself, and teach the people to adore, Christ present in the Sacrament.” to, “ who myself adore, and teach the people to adore, Christ present in the Sacrament under the form of Bread and Wine, believing that under the veil is the sacred Body and Blood of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

The Movement declared the power of the priests to hear Private Confession and to Absolve sins and its efficacy was embedded in the Prayer Book. Private Confessions never died in England. The Movement helped restore and spread the practice.

Newman, later Cardinal, in his most famous Tract #90 defended The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion of the Prayer Book as grounded in Scripture. “They were not aimed at the Council of Trent”, he argued, ‘they are rooted in the Bible.’ Newman had read the Articles in the original Latin as they appeared in the Statute.

The Movement understood the importance of preaching. They delivered powerful sermons that were ‘simple, plain and direct.’ The Evangelicals preached in the past. “Jesus died for you, Jesus died for you.” The Movement put the emphasis on the present, the here and now. They pounded, ‘Jesus is Alive. He lives. He is your Master and Teacher. He will save you now.’

The Movement practiced self-discipline, self-mortification, simple living and rejection of all ‘shams and pretence and unreality in religion, it made men distrust their feelings.’

In response to the Great Commission of our Lord, the Movement went all over the world. They founded churches, monasteries and convents. They also founded educational institutions and hospitals.

Architecture Architectural greatness manifested in great churches and cathedrals built in the Gothic style. Sir Christopher Wren designed the great St Paul’s Cathedral in London. They encouraged religious frescos, paintings and stained glasses.

Ceremonial 

The Movement restored the use of vestments and ceremonials of the English Church. First they moved the Altar from the North to the East and placed a crucifix and two lighted candles. They also placed a cushion for the Book on the gospel side. The frontals came next. Through liturgical books and Christian Calendars they ushered in different colors for vestments and for church seasons. The use of alb, chasuble and cope made their way. Dressed in cassocks and surplices, the choir processed from the vestry to the high altar, under a processional cross. They bowed at the altar.

Music 

A large number of hymns were either composed or set to music with four part harmony by the Movement. The names of John Mason Neale and John B. Dykes are well known. Famous Hymns are, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’, ‘The King of Love my Shepherd is’, ‘And now O Father mindful of the love’, (this hymn expounds the theology of the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Movement) and ‘Lead Kindly Light’ (Cardinal Newman wrote this when he was still a member of the Church of England). These hymns are sung the world over, across denominations and languages. These hymns were all sung at the Church of the Holy Comforter, Poughkeepsie on October 17, 2010 to celebrate its 150 years of founding by the Oxford Movement of the City of Poughkeepsie in 1860.

The music books, “Hymns, Ancient and Modern” and the “English Hymnal” used throughout the Anglican Communion are testimonies to the contribution of the Movement toward church music.

Literature 

Because of persecutions, members of the Movement often incorporated their religious principles and ideas in prose and poems. Dr Samuel Johnson adorned his English prose with themes of the Movement. In poetry Christina Rossetti incorporated the catholic theology of the English Church.

Social Justice Judge Wilberforce, whose family was actively involved with the Movement, freed all slaves entering England with a stroke of his pen.

Ecumenical Relations

 Members worked hard and succeeded in fostering close union with the Greek and Russian Churches.

Though not successful with Rome, they inspired Roman Catholic writers with intellectual honesty to re-examine the Roman Catholic position vis a vis Anglican Orders which Pope Leo XIII had declared invalid and to cast doubts in the validity of the papal encyclical, Apostolicae Curiae. The Movement studied this document and found serious factual, liturgical and theological mistakes that would, if accepted, would ipso facto render all Roman Catholic Orders themselves invalid for the same reasons that document gave against Anglican Orders.

The Roman Pontiff questioned the form and intention of English Ordination of bishops. The Movement pointed out that the same English form was also used in Roman Churches in some places. If the English form was defective then so also the Roman form.

As to the English Ordination lacking in intention, the Movement rejected this claim as laughable. The Ordinal for the English Ordinations clearly stated in its Preface that the ceremony was for making bishops; it was not for baptism, confirmation, marriage etc.

Thus they demolished both the Roman arguments against English Orders. If any Order was invalid it was the Roman Order because the Roman Church had deviated from the earliest form by adding innovations in the ceremonies while the English Church went back to the ancient and catholic usages. Thus they have provided the Vatican several loop-holes in the Apostolicae Curiae for its suppression. Alternatively, that Church continues to be ridiculed by scholars, Roman Catholic included of intellectual dishonesty. <><

References: S.L. Ollard: A Short History of the Oxford Movement, Marvin R O’Connell: The Oxford Conspirators