ABSTRACT
The first attempt at reaction came from the Church. It was the Church which, identified with the State and inextricably bound up with the ruling class, best symbolized the old one and indivisible order which covered the whole surface of society. And it was against the Church that was directed the first revolt of the repressed individual, of the individual conscience bent on asserting its relations with the Creator. From the second half of the eighteenth century the contending sects and the spirit of doubt and negation which invaded educated society worked continual havoc in the Church. The agitation against latitudinarianism in religion promoted by the Oxford movement had hardly calmed down when another campaign was started against "political infidelity," to combat the destruction of the old political creed which knit classes and individuals together. Disraeli, who was then at the threshold of his career, placed himself at the head of this movement.
