Anti-Catholic Conspiracy Theories and the Opposition to the Oxford Movement Public
Nichols, Adam (Spring 2025)
Abstract
The endurance of anti-Catholic conspiracy theories exemplifies the continuing sociopolitical and cultural resonance of conspiracism. One particularly elucidatory case study that documents how anti-Catholic conspiracy theories function can be found in the opposition to the Oxford Movement in nineteenth century Britain. This thesis documents how anti-Catholic conspiracy theories emerged from being only a marginal presence in the early opposition to the Oxford Movement to becoming a core feature of later opposition efforts. It further argues that the rise of ultra-Protestantism in England and Scotland during the mid-to-late Victorian era was the most important catalyst of this transformation. Ultra-Protestantism’s vehement anti-Catholicism and distinctive proclivity for conspiratorial thinking coalesced in its prolific diffusion of anti-Catholic conspiracy theories. Consequently, as ultra-Protestants became the most vocal antagonists of the Oxford Movement, they did so while wielding anti-Catholic conspiracy theories as a principal polemical strategy. When a second wave of opposition to the Oxford Movement erupted in the 1890s amidst the ecclesiastical and political controversy of the Great Church Crisis, it thus did so with anti-Catholic conspiracism as its galvanizing concern. The most significant moment of this event was the publication of Walter Walsh’s 1897 monograph The Secret History of the Oxford Movement. Walsh’s work both exemplified the pervasive ultra-Protestant anti-Catholic conspiracism that precipitated it and embodied the culmination of this oeuvre as its most impactful permutation. By locating Walsh within his ultra-Protestant background, this thesis shows how The Secret History draws upon an extensive milieu of ultra-Protestant anti-Catholic conspiracism. The success of Walsh’s book thus catapulted the distinctive conspiratorial polemic of ultra-Protestantism to a place of unprecedented prominence at the end of the nineteenth century. Its enormous influence therefore underlines the endurance of a politically potent popular anti-Catholicism often overlooked in the historiography of British anti-Catholicism. Within this tradition, ultra-Protestantism profoundly transformed the opposition to the Oxford Movement by amplifying the stature of anti-Catholic conspiracism across Britain’s sociopolitical landscape.
Table of Contents
Chapter One – The Early Opposition to the Oxford Movement
Doctrinal Objections to the Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement and the Identity of the Church of England
Questions Regarding the Intentions of the Oxford Movement
Chapter Two – The Context of Anti-Catholic Conspiracy Theories: Ritualism, British Anti-Catholicism, and Anti-Jesuitism
Ritualism
Anti-Catholicism in the Mid-Victorian Era
Jesuit Conspiracy Theories
Chapter Three – Ultra Protestantism, Walter Walsh, and the Ascendance of Anti-Catholic Conspiracy Theories in the Opposition to the Oxford Movement41
Ultra-Protestantism and Anti-Catholic Conspiracy Theories
Walter Walsh and The Secret History of the Oxford Movement
The Great Church Crisis and the Impact of Anti-Catholic Conspiracy Theories
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