Full Text for The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago (Text)
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mQtnlngtral 6tutll1y
Continuing
LEHRE UND VVEHRE
MAGAZIN FUER EV.-LUTH. HOMlLETlK
THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY
Vol. IV July, 1933 No.7
CONTENTS
Page
The Oxford ltovement a Hundred Years Ago. W. Arndt ••• 481
Wie ist denen zu begegnen, die Wundergaben, besondera
neue OBenbarungen, vorgeben. o. Luebke. • . . • . • .. ••• 497
Objective Justification. Th. EDlelder. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• 507
Kein Modus Agendi vor der Bekehrung. J. T. Mueller •••• , li17
Die Rauptschriften Luthers in chronologischer Reihenfolge &26
Dispositionen ueber die altkirohliche Epistelreihe ....... &28
Miscellanea ........................................ &36
Theological Observer. - Xirchlioh-Zeitgeschichtliches .... 539
Book Review. - Literatur ........................... 5&3
Ein Predlpi- __ nlellt alIein "'''"'''',
aIao da3I er die 8chale untenreUe. wte
sle reehte Obriatea. lO11en ~in. IOndem
auell daneben de Woelten tile',..".. daa
ale die 8chale nlcht aJlI!'eifeD und mit
falecher Lehre ftrfueh... und Irrtum ein·
fuehren. - Lvew.
Eo ist kein DiDI. das die Leate mehr
bei der Klrche behaelt denn die gute
Predigt. - ApoIoSl~, Are. ~.
If the trumpet gift an UIlC!enain 1IOIIIId,
who sball prepare himself to the battle f
1 0.,.. ~,8.
Published for the
Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States
CONCOBD:rA. PUBLISHING HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo.
Concordia
Theological Monthly
VOL. IV JULY, 1933 No.7
The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago.
The Anglican Ohurch and its daughter, the Protestant Episcopal
Ohurch of the United States, are with much enthusiasm observing
this year the centennial of what is known as the Oxford Movement,
or T ractarianism. In many of their congregations undoubtedly the
date selected for commemorative exercises is July 14 ; for Oardinal
Newman, one of the chief promoters of the movement, writes in his
famous Apologia pro Fita Stta: "The following Sunday, July 14,
Mr. Keble preached the assize sermon in the university pulpit. It was
published under the title of 'National Apostasy.' I have ever con-
sidered and kept the day as the start of the religious movement of
1833." (Edition of Longmans, Green & 00., p. 35.) On a grand scale
American Episcopalians will observe the anniversary this fall by hold-
ing what they term "The American Cen.tenary Oongress," which is to
meet in Philadelphia October 22-26. The Bishop of Pennsylvania,
the Right Reverend Fi'ancis M. Taitt, so a correspondent of the
Living Chu?'ch informs us, has been appointed honorary president
by the Oentenary Oommittee, the mayor of Philadelphia will serve
as one of its members, and other prominent men are lending a hand.
As a result we shall hear much of the old Oxford Movement this
summer, and though there is no dearth of books and articles on this
subject, a new review of its beginning, its salient features and
lessons, will not be amiss. In passing I cannot suppress the remark
that old Oxford, far-famed for its beauty and its great university,
has a remarkable way of startling the world every hundred years
with a special religious offering. Two hundred years ago Methodism
was born there through the endeavors of the Wesleys and '\Vhitefield;
one hundred years ago the movement we are proposing to consider
was launched there, and now, after the lapse of another century, we
again have an Oxford Movement on our hands, usually referred to
as Buchmanism.
31
482 The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago.
I.
To understand the Tractarian Movement of 1833, one must be
somewhat aClluainted wi.th religious conditions which at that time
obtained in the Ohurch of England. Perhaps no one has given a more
brilliant description of them than Dean Ohurch in his monograph
The Oxford "Movement 1833-1845, from which I shall quote some
particularly illnminating sentences. This writer, I ought to add, not
only was an Oxford man himself, but as an undergraduate when the
movement set in was personally acquainted with most of its leaders
and, generally speaking, in sympathy with the views they advocated.
"At the end of the first quarter of the ccntury, say about 1825-30,
two characteristic forms of Ohurch of England Ohristianity were
popularly recognized. One inherited the traditions of a learned and
sober Anglicanism, claiming as the authorities for its theology the
great line of English divines from Hooker to Waterland, ... preach-
ing, without passion or excitement, scholal'like, careful, wise, often
vigorously l'easoned discourses on the capital points of faith and
morals ana exhibiting in iIS adherents, who W"Te many and im1l01t meant as a companion of the Book of Common
Prayer, not at all a polemical work and yet breathing in its poetry
a deep protest against Liberalism. His contemporaries and acquain-
tances speak of him as a person of sincere piety and great earnestness.
The assize, or judgment, sermon of his, according to Dean Church,
«was a call to face in the earnest the changed state of things, full of
immediate and pressing danger; to consider how it was to be met
by Christians and churchmen and to watch motives and tempers."
In view of what Parliament was contemplating doing in Ireland, he
pleaded with all whom his voice could reach to (;ome tc the :eese _.2
of the "Apostolic" Church. I shall transcribe a few of his words:
"Surely it will be no unworthy principle if any man is more circum-
spect in his behavior, more watchful and fearful of himself, more
earnest in his petitions for spiritual aid, from a dread of disparaging
the holy name of the English Church in her hour of peril by his
own personal fault and negligence. . .. These cautions [against
neglect of ordinary duties] being duly observed, I do not see how
any person can devote himself too entirely to the cause of the
Apostolic Church in these realms. There may be, as far as he knows,
but a very few to sympathize with him. . .. But if he be con-
sistent, ... he is calmly, soberly, demonstrably, sure that sooner or
later his will be the winning side and that the victory will be com-
plete, universal, eternal." When the sermon was printed and the
foreword had to be drafted, the expected had come to pass - through
amalgamation ten bishoprics Imd been eliminated in Irelal1d, and
Keble, filled with indignation, entitled his sermon, as he now pub-
lished it, "National Apostasy" and accused Parliament of having
usurped the authority of the bishops and of having degraded the
"Apostolic" Church to the status of "one sect among many," while
he at the same time upbraided the whole nation with calm con-
nivance at what had been perpetrated.
His strong language l'eceived particularly heal'ty endorsement
from two friends, who, like him, were Oriel men of Oxford, J. H.
Newman and R. H. Froude. The latter died in 1836; and though his
influence at the beginning of the movement was very considerable,
his ill health and early death kept hin; from attaining the prominence
to which he seemed destined. John Henry Newman (1801-90) is
by far the best-known of all the actors in this drama, and in his
486 The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago.
Apologia, written when in 1864 Char-les Kingsley had attacked his
ver-acity, gave the world a much-admired account of the origin and
progress of the Tractarian Movement. That he was a man of great
learning and of splendid ability is conceded even by his opponents.
\\Then he in 1845 joined the Roman Catholic Ohurch, a step which
was not unexpected by his friends, England was shocked. His case
will always stand in history as a warning to all who think that error
can be guarded against, or vanquished, simply by erudition and in-
tellectual greatness. "His silence and his speech, his plain words and
dark sayings, his irony and sarcasm, his pride and his humility, his
fierceness and his gentleness, his friendships and his antipathies, his
isolation in the midst of devoted fr-iends, his power to attract and
to repel, made him always and to all an enigma of the greatest
interest." (Oornish, Hist01'Y of the Ohurch of England, p. 219 f.)
Since the movement is likewise known as Puseyism, it will strike
the uninformed as str-ange that Pusey has not as yet been mentioned.
The explanation is that he did not participate in the work of Keble,
Froude, and Newman till the end of 1833. When he did join hands
with them, they felt their cause had gained immensely. "It has been
said that to the Oxford Movement Newman gave genius, Pusey
learning, and Keble char-acter-." (Com ish, op. cit., p.216.) He was
professor of Oriental languages at Oxford and was universally re-
spected not only for the vast stores of knowledge which he, by dint
of indefatigable industry, had acquirnd, but for hiR benefactions and
Ohristian sincerity. To conservative scholars all over the world he
has permanently endeared himself by his commentaries on Old Testa-
ment books, especially the one on Daniel, in which he, the attacks of
renowned scholars notwithstanding, firmly adheres to the inspired
character of these writings and brilliantly defends their divine origin.
Newman pays him this remarkable tribute: "Ther-e was henceforth
a man who could be the head and center of the zealous people in every
part of the country who were adopting the new opinions; and not
only so, but there was one who furnished the movement with a front
to the world and gained for it a recognition from other parties in the
university. . .. He was a man of large designs; he had a hopeful,
sanguine mind; he had no fear of others; he was haunted by no
intellectual perplexities." (Apol., p.61.)
At the next step in the development a few more eminent men
identified with the movement come before us, three clergymen, Hugh
Rose, William Palmer, and Arthur Perceval. Rose occupied a prom-
inent position on account of his editorship of the British Magazine
and his close connections with Cambridge University. Dean Ohurch
says of him: ".Ai:, far as could be seen at the time, he was the most
accomplished divine and teacher in the English Church." (Gp. cit.,
p.96.) In his case, too, failing health and an early death (January,
The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago. 487
1839) operated somewhat to make his share in the Oxford Movement
less prominent than that of others. Palmer was an Oxford scholar,
while Perceval was an energetic pastor, who subsequently got out
a catechism called Churchman's ~lvIanual, which at the time created
not a little stir. These three men were entirely in sympathy with
Keble's position and, joined by Froude, met July 25-29, 1833, at the
home of Rose at Hadleigh to decide on some course of action. N ew-
man and Keble, though of course invited, were not present, having
"no confidence in moetings or co=ittees," as Palmer some years
later put it. It was agreed at the conference "that combined action
was desirable as well as the circulation of publications on ecclesiastical
subjects. They did not, however, formulate any specific plan of action
or come to a clear understanding among themselves." (Oornish,
op. cit., p.232.) It was proposed to start an association of "friends
of the Ohurch." The plan soon was tried; but when it was brought
to the attention of larger circles, it did not meet with general favor,
and the results were negligible. A more effective measure, which in-
dircei;ly likewise can be traced back to the Hadleigh meeting, was
an address to the Archbishop of Oanterbury drawn up by Palmer,
which was presented early in 1834 and bore the signatures of seven
thousand clergymen - certainly not a manifestation to be made
light of by anybody. One of the advocates of the address enthusiasti-
cally described it as "the greatest victory that has been achieved since
the Battle of Waterloo." (Oornish, op. cit., p. 236.) The address was
an expression of :firm belief in the divine right of bishops and
a pledge to support the episcopate in whatever efforts it might put
forth to strengthen the Ohurch. A similar address was presented
to the archbishop a few months lator in the name of the laity, dis-
playing the signatures of 230,000 heads of families. Weare told
that these two documents, providing a means of self-assertion to the
conservative spirit still alive in large sections of the Anglican com-
munion, marked the turning-point in the outward situation of the
Ohurch. "There can be little doubt that as regards the external posi-
tion of the Ohurch in the country, this agitation was a success. It
rallied the courage of churchmen and showed that they were stronger
and more resolute than their enemIes thought." (OhUTch, op. cit.,
p.107.) III.
But a still m,6-;:e far-reaching result of the Hadleigh conference
was the public;tl~n of tracts in which the views of the originators of
the Oxfor