TRACTA`RIANISH, a remarkable and important movement in the English church during the second quarter of the present century, which consisted in an endeavor to revive and bring into prominence the principles of antiquity, catholicity, and authority recog nized in some portions of the Anglican formularies, in contrast to the Protestant senti ments long and widely prevailing. The name is derived from a series of papers entitled Tracts for the Times, published at Oxford during the years 1833-41, hence called the " Oxford Tracts." The causes of this remarkable reaction it would be difficult to ascertain. The agitation of the question of Roman Cotholic emancipation led, in some cases, to the study of Catholic theology, with a view to determine the real grounds of difference between the Roman and Anglican churches; and the religious and aesthetic tone of Wordsworth's poetry, still more developed in Keble's Christian Year (published in 1828), may have disposed some minds to sentiments to which it was akin. The lectures of bishop Lloyd, when regius professor of divinity at Oxford about 1823, on the prayer-book and the council of Trent, are considered to have led the way to the teaching of the Rads. But the immediate origin of the movement appears to have been the alarm aroused for the interests of the English church on the occasion of the suppression by the reform government of some of the Irish sees, and threatened aliena tion of Irish church property. It is said about that time a meeting of clergymen took place at Hadley, in Suffolk, at which measures were concerted for opposing the alleged latitudinarian tendencies of the day, and restoring the high-church theology of the Anglican divines of the 17th.century. The chief promoters of the movement were the rev. John Keble (q.v.), author of the Christian Year, and formerly professor of poetry at Oxford; rev. J. H. Newman (q.v.) and R. H. Froude, fellows of Oriel; the rev. E. B. Pusey (q.v.), regius professor of Hebrew, and canon of Christ church; rev. Isaac Williams, fellow of Trinity, author of the Cathedral and other Poems; rev. Hugh Rose of Cambridge; and others. The Tracts were issued anonymously, and, together with articles in the British Critic by the same writers, produced a great effect, especially among the clergy. Protestant principles were openly discountenanced, and tenets closely resembling those of the church of Rome were bodily put forward. The doc trines of apostolical succession, priestly absolution, baptismal regeneration, the real presence, the authority of the church, and the value of tradition, which had long lain hid in the language of the prayer-book, were widely revived and taught, and caused much alarm in some quarters; though it must be admitted that those principles had always been held by a pOrtion of the English clergy, and claimed to be only 21. fair exponent of the teaching of the church. The study of the Fathers and old divines, of church history and ancient liturgies, was greatly revived in the universities and among the clergy, and a host of publications inculcating with more or less extravagance the same views issued from the press. The movement proceeded, notwithstanding the
general opposition of the authorities, till it culminated in the publication, by the rev. J. H. Newman, of the Tract No. 90, which was designed to show that much Roman doc trine might be held consistently with subscription to the thirty-nine articles. This being held to favor a " non-natural " interpretation, was received with general condem nation, and led to the termination of the series, to the resignation by Mr. Newman of the vicarage of St. Mary's, Oxford, and subsequently to his secession, in 1845, to the church of Rome. In this step he was followed by many of his friends and associates, though the other leaders of the movement have continued in the English church. With Mr. Newman's secession the Tractarian movement terminated; but its effect remains in several visible results: 1. The first of these may be said to be the revival and strengthen ing of the high-church party, which still maintains to a great extent the principles advocated in the Tracts; and though checked by some judicial decisions, such as the Gorham (q.v.) judgment, in the endeavor to acquire exclusive power, has gained great and perhaps increasing. influence in the church. 2. Side by side with the revival of Catholic doctrines there has been a great development of ritual. The tractarian move ment was early marked by the introduction of various alterations in the mode of performing divine service, such as the use of the surplice instead of the gown, intoning the prayers and tinging the responses, the elevation of the communion table into an altar, the substitution of low open benches for high pews—all of which, though claim ing to be a restoration of ancient usage, having the authority of the law, were regarded with alarm as approximating to the church of Rome (see RITUALISM). 3. Another effect of the tractarian movement was the remarkable impulse given to the building and restoration of churches, and the revival of Gothic architecture, which has been mani fested in all parts of Englalid, and given a character to the ecclesiastical buildings of the present century which will mark them for ages to come. 4. The tractarian movement has undoubtedly been the cause of the secession of many English clergy and laity, some of them men of considerable ability and distinction, to the church of Rome, which has greatly increased the strength and influence of that communion in the country, and caused great scandal to Protestants. Lastly, the movement may, however, be admitted to have produced a great increase of learning, piety, and devotedness among the clergy, and the establishment of colleges, sisterhoods, and other religious and charitable insti tutions.