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Tracts for the Times

The Tracts for the Times were a series of 90 theological publications, varying in length from a few pages to book-length, produced by members of the English Oxford Movement, an Anglo-Catholic revival group, from 1833 to 1841. There were about a dozen authors, including Oxford Movement leaders John Keble, John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey, with Newman taking the initiative in the series, and making the largest contribution. With the wide distribution associated with the tract form, and a price in pennies, the Tracts succeeded in drawing attention to the views of the Oxford Movement on points of doctrine, but also to its overall approach, to the extent that Tractarian became a synonym for supporter of the movement.

Background

On 14 July 1833, Keble preached at St Mary's an assize sermon on "National Apostasy", which Newman afterwards regarded as the inauguration of the Oxford Movement. In the words of Richard William Church, it was "Keble who inspired, Froude who gave the impetus, and Newman who took up the work"; but the first organisation of it was due to Hugh James Rose, editor of the British Magazine, who has been styled "the Cambridge originator of the Oxford Movement". Rose met Oxford Movement figures on a visit to Oxford looking for magazine contributors, and it was in his rectory house at Hadleigh, Suffolk, that a meeting of High Church clergy was held over 25–26 July (Newman was not present, but Hurrell Froude, Arthur Philip Perceval, and William Palmer had gone to visit Rose),[1] at which it was resolved to fight for "the apostolical succession and the integrity of the Prayer Book."

Publication

Many of the tracts were labelled, indicating their intended audience: Ad Clerum (to the clergy), Ad Populum (to the people), or Ad Scholas (to scholars). The first 20 tracts appeared in 1833, with 30 more in 1834. After that the pace slowed, but the later contributions were more substantive on doctrinal matters. Initially these publications were anonymous, pseudonymous, or reprints from theologians of previous centuries. The authorship details of the tracts were recovered by later scholars of the Oxford Movement, with some tentative accounts of drafting. Through Francis Rivington, the tracts were published by the Rivington house in London, and were simultaneously published by J H Parker in Oxford.[2]

Opposition

The Tracts also provoked a secondary literature from opponents. Significant replies came from evangelicals, including that of William Goode in Tract XC Historically Refuted (1845) and Isaac Taylor.[3] The term "Tractarian" applied to followers of Keble, Pusey and Newman (the Oxford Movement) was used by 1839, in sermons by Christopher Benson.[4]

The series was brought to an end by the intervention of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford, not unsympathetic to the Tractarians,[5] after the appearance of Newman's Tract 90, which suggested a heterodox reading of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, and caused controversy in the University.

Literature

William Palmer in 1843 published A Narrative of Events Connected with the Publication of the Tracts for the Times, dedicated to Bagot.[6] In the Preface he is concerned with arguing against the point of view that the Tracts were an attempt to introduce Roman Catholic beliefs; to place the Tracts in the context set up by the 1833 formation of the Association of Friends of the Church (set up by Hugh James Rose, Hurrell Froude and Palmer himself) that was the initial step in the Oxford Movement; and to distance his views from the editorial line of the British Critic. This work then provoked a major statement of his position by William George Ward.[7]

Table of the Tracts

Further publications

Two other ambitious projects of the Oxford Movement as a whole were conceived and launched in the same period: the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology that gave extensive republication to the works of the Caroline Divines and others who were cited in the Tracts; and the Library of the Fathers. Isaac Williams with William John Copeland edited Plain Sermons by Contributors to the Tracts for the Times, in ten volumes, appearing from 1839 to 1848.[31]

Notes

  1. ^ "Rose, Hugh James" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. ^ "Rivington, Francis" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  3. ^ Peter Toon, Evangelical Theology 1833–1856: A response to Tractarianism (1979), p. 119.
  4. ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Benson, Christopher" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  5. ^ "Bagot, Richard" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  6. ^ Internet Archive
  7. ^ The ideal of a Christian Church considered in comparison with existing practice, containing A defence of certain articles in the British critic, in reply to remarks on them in Mr. Palmer's Narrative (1844); online at archive.org.
  8. ^ a b Donald S. Armentrout, Robert Boak Slocum, An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: a user-friendly reference for Episcopalians (2005), p. 523.
  9. ^ John Henry Newman. "Modern History Sourcebook : Tracts for the Times 1 : Thoughts on the Ministerial Commission, 1833". Fordham.edu. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  10. ^ "Tract 3: Thoughts respectfully addressed to the Clergy on alterations in the Liturgy (Newman)". people.bath.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 27 August 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  11. ^ Keble, John. "Modern History Sourcebook : Tracts for the Times 4 : Adherence to the Apostolical Succession the safest course. On Alterations in the Prayer-book, 1833". Fordham.edu. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  12. ^ "Tracts for the Times - Tract 6". Newman Reader. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  13. ^ "Tracts for the Times - Tract 7". Newman Reader. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  14. ^ "Tracts for the Times - Tract 8". Newman Reader. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  15. ^ "Title". Anglicanhistory.org. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  16. ^ "Menzies, Alfred (1834–1835) (CCEd Person ID 82269)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  17. ^ "A history of the family of Holland of Mobberley and Knutsford in the country of Chester". Archive.org. 21 July 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  18. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 160, p. 561
  19. ^ a b Benjamin J. King (7 May 2009). Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers: Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth-Century England. Oxford University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-19-954813-2. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  20. ^ "Via Media 2 - Retractation". Newman Reader. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  21. ^ a b "Pusey, Edward Bouverie" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  22. ^ Sheridan Gilley, Newman and His Age (2003), p. 148.
  23. ^ "Tracts for the Times - Tract 74". Newman Reader. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  24. ^ "The Historic Episcopate and Apostolic Succession, by Edwin Harwood (1887)". Anglicanhistory.org. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  25. ^ Withey, Donald. "Williams, Robert (1811–1890)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51390. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  26. ^ "Modern History Sourcebook : The Tracts for the Times, 1833-1841". Fordham.edu. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  27. ^ "Tracts for the Times - Tract 76". Newman Reader. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  28. ^ a b Cobb, Peter G. "Pusey, Edward Bouverie". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22910. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  29. ^ W. J. Mander, Alan P. F. Sell, The Dictionary of Nineteenth-century British Philosophers (2002) vol. 2 p. 932.
  30. ^ "Monk, James Henry" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  31. ^ a b "Williams, Isaac" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  32. ^ "Hughes, John (HHS699J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  33. ^ "WORDS: BIOG: Hughes, John [1682–1710]". Words.fromoldbooks.org. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  34. ^ The Reverend Doctor Ephraim Radner. "The Discrepancies of Two Ages : Thoughts on Keble's "Mysticism of the Fathers"" (PDF). Anglicanhistory.org. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  35. ^ "A letter to a friend, on the Tract for the times, no. 89 : Maitland, Samuel Roffey, 1792-1866". Archive.org. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  36. ^ "Griffiths, John (1806-1885)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

References

External links