John Keble's Assize Sermon opens the Oxford Movement

Background. The Oxford Movement emerged from high-church members of the Church of England seeking to reinstate older Christian traditions in liturgy and theology. The immediate impetus was a perceived attack by the Whig administration on established churches. The Irish Church Temporalities Bill of 1833 proposed merging dioceses and eliminating vestry assessments, which was viewed as a grievance during the Tithe War.

The Assize Sermon. John Keble, an Anglican priest and poet, delivered his famous Assize Sermon on 'National Apostasy' on 14 July 1833. In this sermon, he denied the authority of the British Parliament to abolish dioceses in Ireland. This act is considered to have given the first impulse to the Oxford Movement, also known as the Tractarian movement.

Legacy and Reception. The sermon's impact was significant enough that Keble is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 14 July, the anniversary of the Assize Sermon. The movement strengthened the Catholic tradition within the Church, stressing the importance of the visible Church and its sacraments, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism.