A European movement
In an earlier post, we've seen how Newman linked the Oxford movement with Romanticism. Here, he places it in the context of a Europe-wide movement:
The reaction [...] is not confined to England. This is a fresh fact, and it does not require much proof. Look at the state of Germany, where the old Rationalism of the last century is succeeded by Pantheism, by the modified Lutheranism of Neander and Leo, or by a return to Romanism. Look to Holland, where an attempt is now making to revive Calvinism on its strictest and most exclusive principles. Look to Denmark, where, to say the least, men seem to be sighing in secret for something deeper and firmer than the creed in which they have been brought up. {304} Look at the Church of Rome itself, everywhere, in which discipline and zeal have succeeded to a long indifference. Consider that at the present moment, in the three great literary countries of Europe—Germany, France, and England—translations of the Fathers, in series, are now in course of publication, by a simultaneous and apparently independent movement in each place. Consider that the Germans are beginning to study the schoolmen.[...]
All these are signs of change, not in this or that individual, but in the public mind. The reading public is coming under the influence of notions and convictions very different from those which have been fashionable of late. It exemplifies the march of the whole of educated Europe. The phenomenon, which has long been preparing in this country, is a European movement.
Nevertheless, it's a human phenomenon, so the Oxford movement as such, has its own character:
[...]certain accidental causes, such as the tendencies of the age, the national character, the character of the persons more especially engaged in the work, and the like, may be giving a tone and a bias to the rising Church spirit itself, and that of a nature to adhere to it even throughout its future progress.
http://www.newmanreader.org/works/essays/volume1/prospects.html
[Roger]
The reaction [...] is not confined to England. This is a fresh fact, and it does not require much proof. Look at the state of Germany, where the old Rationalism of the last century is succeeded by Pantheism, by the modified Lutheranism of Neander and Leo, or by a return to Romanism. Look to Holland, where an attempt is now making to revive Calvinism on its strictest and most exclusive principles. Look to Denmark, where, to say the least, men seem to be sighing in secret for something deeper and firmer than the creed in which they have been brought up. {304} Look at the Church of Rome itself, everywhere, in which discipline and zeal have succeeded to a long indifference. Consider that at the present moment, in the three great literary countries of Europe—Germany, France, and England—translations of the Fathers, in series, are now in course of publication, by a simultaneous and apparently independent movement in each place. Consider that the Germans are beginning to study the schoolmen.[...]
All these are signs of change, not in this or that individual, but in the public mind. The reading public is coming under the influence of notions and convictions very different from those which have been fashionable of late. It exemplifies the march of the whole of educated Europe. The phenomenon, which has long been preparing in this country, is a European movement.
Nevertheless, it's a human phenomenon, so the Oxford movement as such, has its own character:
[...]certain accidental causes, such as the tendencies of the age, the national character, the character of the persons more especially engaged in the work, and the like, may be giving a tone and a bias to the rising Church spirit itself, and that of a nature to adhere to it even throughout its future progress.
http://www.newmanreader.org/works/essays/volume1/prospects.html
[Roger]