John Keble
Oxford scholar who turned to pastoral work in the country and wrote The Christian Year. His assize sermon of 14 July 1833 on national apostasy was taken by Newman as the start of the Oxford Movement.
John Henry Newman calls Keble the “true and primary author” of the movement of 1833 (Newman, Apologia ch. 1, pp. 17–18). He says that Keble had won the highest honours of the university as a boy and had then turned to pastoral work in the country, and that his Christian Year appeared in 1827 (Newman, Apologia ch. 1, pp. 17–18).
On 14 July 1833 Keble preached the assize sermon at St Mary’s, Oxford, published as National Apostasy (Newman, Apologia ch. 1, p. 35) (Keble, National Apostasy heading). It asks whether a nation that throws off the restraint of the church’s rules does not deserve to be called apostate (Keble, National Apostasy part 1). See the Oxford Movement. He died at Bournemouth in March 1866 (Liddon, Life of Pusey vol. 4, ch. 5).
In the timeline
- 14 July 1833, firm dateThe Oxford Movement
John Keble’s sermon on national apostasy and the Tracts for the Times call the Church of England back to its claim to be a catholic church with bishops in succession from the apostles. After Tract 90 is censured, Newman becomes a Roman Catholic.
Primary sources
Apologia pro Vita Sua
- Newman, Apologia ch. 1, pp. 17–18newmanreader.org
- Newman, Apologia ch. 1, p. 35newmanreader.org
National Apostasy
- Keble, National Apostasy headinganglicanhistory.org
- Keble, National Apostasy part 1anglicanhistory.org
Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey
- Liddon, Life of Pusey vol. 4, ch. 5anglicanhistory.org