Tracts for the Times
Ninety pamphlets issued from Oxford between 1833 and 1841 by the leaders of the Oxford Movement. The first of them rests the authority of the English clergy on succession from the apostles.
The first tracts, dated September 1833, were leaflets of a few pages. John Henry Newman says that he began them on his own initiative and was their editor and chief author. Tract 1, his work, asks the clergy on what they will rest their authority if the state deserts the church, and answers: on their apostolical descent.
Tract 90, also by Newman and dated on the feast of the Conversion of St Paul (25 January) 1841, examines the Thirty-nine Articles one group at a time and argues that they can be signed by those who hold the faith of the early church. It was censured by the heads of the Oxford colleges, and the series ended with it. The tracts are the movement’s own statement of what it taught. See the Oxford Movement.
Cited in
- 14 July 1833, firm date