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 In 1853, on the initiative of the Anglican minister Frederick Meyrick, the Anglo-Continental Society was created in England with the aim of making the principles of the Church of England known to Catholic Europe through the publication and dissemination of Anglican theological books and treatises. By showing the existence of what was presented as a non-papist Catholicism, according to the Society the internal reform of the European national Churches would be favored. From the beginning Italy was the main and most important field of activity of the Anglo-Continental Society. The organization came into contact with many exponents of the Italian liberal clergy and, at least until 1866, cultivated the illusion that Bettino Ricasoli could favor a religious reform of Italy, having as a model the Church of England. After 1870, the Anglo-Continental Society closely followed the developments of the Old Catholic movement in Italy and between 1881 and 1903 promoted the birth and development of Enrico Campello's National Catholic Church of Italy