Langton

Langton, STEPHEN, famous in the history of the liberties of England, was born about 1150, but where is uncertain, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Devonshire all claiming him. He received his education in the university of Paris, where he was the fellow-student and friend of the future Pope Innocent III.; he rose to the office of chancellor of the university. Innocent after his elevation gave Langton a post in his household, and afterwards made him a cardinal (1206). On occasion of the disputed election to the see of Canterbury in 1205-7 Langton was recommended by the pope to those electors who had come to Rome on the appeal, and, having been elected, was consecrated by Innocent himself at Viterbo, June 27, 1207. His appointment was resisted by King John (q.v.); and for six years Langton was kept out of the see, only being admitted when John made terms with Innocent in 1213. In the conflict of John with his barons Langton was a warm partisan of the latter, and his name is the first of the subscribing witnesses of Magna Charta. And, although the pope excommunicated the barons, Langton refused to publish the excommunication, and was in consequence suspended from his func- tions by the pope in 1215. But after the accession of Henry III. he was reinstated (1218) in his see, and from that time chiefly occupied himself with church reforms till his death, which took place July 9, 1228. See Dr Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. ii. (1861).