The Oxford (Tractarian) Movement in the Context of Protestant-Catholic Conflict in Early Victorian England

Abstract

The article deals with the role of the Oxford movement in the development of conflict between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Early Victorian England. The Oxford (Tractarian) movement and some of its leaders, especially J. H. Newman, denied the Protestant character of the Church of England. This denial gave a new dimension to the conflict. The analysis of events, connected with the so called ««papal aggression» - the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England (1850) - shows that the mobilizing potential of anticatholicism was quite limited, notwithstanding the widespread idea that the Tractarians were «secret agents» of Rome.