§16. Neale; The Mozleys. XII. The Oxford Movement. Vol. 12. The Romantic Revival. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XII. The Romantic Revival.

XII. The Oxford Movement.

§ 16. Neale; The Mozleys.

Not far apart from them, yet still somewhat in isolation, was the striking figure of John Mason Neale, not an Oxford but a Cambridge man. He was antiquary, historian, poet, novelist, priest; and in none of these activities can he be forgotten. He was as facile as he was learned. He poured forth book after book of amazing erudition on almost every conceivable subject of theological and historical interest. As a translator of Latin and Greek hymns no Englishman has surpassed him. But, above all things, he loved “a story” and he could tell it—as such an historical novel as Theodora Phranza, which tells the fall of Christian Constantinople, evidences—with the best of them. While his knowledge was diffused, that of James Bowling Mozley was intense and concentrated. Master of a stern and somewhat arid style, which still could rise into eloquence and passion, he exercised a profound influence on the generation which succeeded him. He was the foe of shallow thinking and shallow writing. Many of the idols of the market-place, past or present, from Martin Luther to Thomas Carlyle, suffered his swashing blows. His brother Thomas had abilities of a more popular cast: he was, for a while, editor of The British Critic: for many years he was a leader writer for The Times, and he represented that paper at Rome during the time of the council 1869–70, when his letters, unsympathetic though Roman catholics have complained that they are, presented a most vivid and remarkable picture of a great historical episode. In his old age, he wrote Reminiscences of the days of struggle, which are entertaining, but not always accurate. “If a story cannot stand on two legs,” said Newman, whose sister he had married, “Tom supplies a third.” From him comes a touching tribute to the self-effacing labours of Charles Marriott, like himself a fellow of Oriel, who was the helper of every one, great and small, who belonged to the movement, and its great stay in scholarship, as editing with Keble and Pusey The Oxford Library of the Fathers.

Outside Oxford, the same interests which had awakened the ecclesiastical learning and catholic orthodoxy of the university were represented in many writers who were affected, in greater or less degree, by the principles of the tractarians.