In 1828 the Test and Corporation Acts were repealed, and Roman Catholics and Nonconformists gained permission to sit in Parliament. This triggered a strong reaction from several conservative leaders of the Anglican church at Oxford, notably John Henry Newman, vicar of St Mary’s, the University Church; John Keble, editor of the Christian Year; and Edward B. Pusey, regius professor of Hebrew at Oriel College. This group believed that the Church of England was the true descendant of the ancient Catholic Church and that Anglican bishops were in the line of authority given by Christ to the apostles. These views were propagated very successfully by means of a series of theses which they called Tracts for the Times (hence the name Tractarians’). The general emphasis of this movement was upon the glory of the past and the place of tradition in the church.
The Oxford, or Tractarian, Movement created a storm of controversy in that, while on the one hand they resisted liberal trends in the Church of England and reawakened public interest in the Christian heritage of the English nation, on the other they seemed to overlook the accomplishments of the Reformation and to be reintroducing the doctrines and practices of the medieval church. Newman eventually left the Church of England and became a Roman Catholic cardinal, As noted in the introduction to Victorian London, the Oxford Movement inspired the reconstruction of many church interiors. In this they reflected, to the Victorian mind, a more adequate picture of earlier Christian traditions. They played a major part in saving St Paul’s Cathedral from neglect and disrepair, restoring its former glory, and brought to London the Oratory of St Philip Neri and its impressive church, known as Brompton Oratory.