The Oxford Movement and the Catholic Tradition

Abstract

The turbulence and reforming zeal which the Great Reform Bill of 1832 seemed to promise was felt in the religious as well as the political world. By virtue of their known cooperation with Dissenters, Evangelicals seemed ill-equipped to defend the ‘Church in danger’ from the threats of a reforming parliament and, given their scant regard for doctrine and heavy reliance on individual judgement, even less prepared to do battle with the forces of Rationalism.