Oxford

Oxford Movement

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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.

Growing discontent with the papacy

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The fourteenth century saw renewed discontent against the papacy. William of Occam, an English Schoolman, attacked the papacy as the ultimate authority in religion and demanded that people rely on the Scriptures instead. In England, John Wycliffe called into question leading doctrines of Catholicism. He was a graduate of Oxford University who later became a teacher at the school. Since he held that the Bible rather than the pope was the ultimate authority in all spiritual matters he made an English translation from the Latin Vulgate in the common vernacular. Not many copies were made but a number of them survived, despite the determined efforts of the Catholic Church to destroy them. He sent out companies of russet-gowned priests who accepted his leadership to preach his ideas throughout the cities and the countryside. His followers were known as Lollards. Wycliffe has been called the last of the Schoolmen and the “morning star of the Reformation.”

Impact: Wycliffe’s Bible must be counted among the many causes behind the Reformation in England.

HE IS GONE, A CLOUD OF LIGHT

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He is gone—a cloud of light
Has received Him from our sight;
High in Heav’n, where eye of men
Follows not, nor angels’ ken;
Through the veils of time and space,
Passed into the holiest place;
All the toil, the sorrow done,
All the battle fought and won.

He is gone—and we remain
In this world of sin and pain:
In the void which He has left
On this earth, of Him bereft.
We have still His work to do,
We can still His path pursue;
Seek Him both in friend and foe,
In ourselves His image show.

He is gone—but we once more
Shall behold Him as before;
In the heaven of heavens the same,
As on earth He went and came;
In the many mansions there,
Place for us He will prepare;
In that world unseen, unknown,
He and we shall yet be one.

He is gone—but not in vain,
Wait until He comes again:
He is risen, He is not here,
Far above this earthly sphere;
Evermore in heart and mind
There our peace in Him we find:
To our own eternal Friend,
Thitherward let us ascend.

About the writer: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was born in Cheshire, England in 1815. He graduated from Oxford in 1837 and entered the ministry of the Church of England. In 1855 he was appointed Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford. In 1864 he became Dean of Westminster. That same year he married Lady Augusta Bruce, a personal friend and attendant of Queen Victoria. He was the author of about a dozen hymns and of several translations. He was also a noted historian and biographer. He died in 1881.

Key Verse: It was not long after he said this that he was taken up into the sky while they were watching, and he disappeared into a cloud. –Acts 1:9

NEW EVERY MORNING IS THE LOVE

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New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If, on our daily course, our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

Seek we no more; content with these,
Let present rapture, comfort, ease—
As heaven shall bid them, come and go:
The secret this of rest below.

Only, O Lord, in Thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.

About the writer: John Keble was born in 1792 and graduated from Oxford in 1810. He was ordained in 1815. In 1827 he published his well-known volume, The Christian Year; ninety-six editions of which appeared before his death. A sermon preached by him on “National Apostasy” is regarded as the origin of the tractarian movement in 1833. He wrote eight of the “Tracts for the Times.” He was the author of several volumes of hymns including A Metrical Version of the Psalms, 1839, and Lyra Innocentium, 1846. He died in 1866.

Key Verses: The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. –Lamentations 3:22, 23

THE HOLY ANTHEM

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Alleluia! Alleluia!
Let the holy anthem rise,
And the choirs of heaven chant it
In the temple of the skies;
Let the mountains skip with gladness
And the joyful valleys ring,
With Hosannas in the highest
To our Savior and our King.

Alleluia! Alleluia!
Like the sun from out the wave,
He has risen up in triumph
From the darkness of the grave,
He’s the splendor of the nations,
He’s the lamp of endless day;
He’s the very Lord of glory
Who is risen up today.

Alleluia! Alleluia!
Blessed Jesus make us rise,
From the life of this corruption
To the life that never dies.
May Your glory be our portion,
When the days of time are past,
And the dead shall be awakened
By the trumpet’s mighty blast.

About the writer: Edward Caswell was the translator of many popular hymns. He was born in Hampshire, England in 1814 and graduated from Oxford in 1836. He became a deacon in the Church of England but resigned his ecclesiastical position in 1846 to join the Roman Catholic Church. He became a priest in the Congregation of the Oratory where he remained until his death in 1878. His biographer says: “His life was marked by earnest devotion to his clerical duties and a loving interest in the poor and the sick.”

Key Verse: He isn’t here! He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. –Matthew 28:6