In about 1820 at Oxford University Thomas Arnold, in an effort to address the problem of declining church attendance, advanced the idea of including in one national Church all Christians except Unitarians and Catholics. Edward B. Pusey, R. H. Froude, and John Henry Newman, on the other hand, believed that the best way to arouse a new interest in the faith was to issue tracts on ecclesiastical subjects. Their proposed association was short-lived, but the Tracts for the Times, which gave the Oxford men the name of Tractarians, proved valuable as a means of instructing the people in the principles of the Church. Newman was the principal writer of the Tracts. He had a clear and simple style that influenced many. Eventually, he abandoned his Calvinistic heritage and embraced Roman Catholicism. His Apologia explained his conviction that “outside the Catholic Church all things tend to atheism.” In an adaptation of the prevalent evolutionary teachings, he tried to justify his adherence to Rome by showing that Catholicism was a development of primitive Christianity. Newman was not the only Protestant scholar who went over to Rome at this time, but he was the most conspicuous. The other members of the Oxford group maintained a middle ground between Catholicism and Protestantism. After Newman’s defection Edward Pusey became the head of the Oxford movement.
Impact: The Oxford movement resulted in a new impetus toward old customs. It gave momentum to a Catholic trend in the Church of England, which made the High Church party a growing force in the religious life and social activity of Great Britain.