LANG'TON, STEPHEN ( ?-1228). Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207 to 1228. Langton was undoubtedly an Englishman, but. he received the chief part of his education in Paris. After Inno cent 111. became Pope, he summoned, Langton to Rome and made him a cardinal. In 1205 there was a disputed election to the See of Canterbury, and the whole matter was taken on appeal to Rome. Innocent compelled the sixteen monks of Christ Church, who represented the cathedral chapter at Rome, to elect Stephen Langton, and the Pope consecrated him at Viterbo on June 17, 1207. His appointment, nevertheless, was re sisted by King John. who threatened to outlaw any one who would dare to acknowledge Stephen as Archbishop. For six years Langton was ex cluded from the see. to which he was only ad mitted in 1213. (See JOHN.) The reconciliation of 1213 was but temporary. In the conflict of John with his barons, Langton was a warm par tisan of the latter; and it was he who, at the Council of Saint Albans in 1215, produced the old charter of liberties of Henry I., upon which
the Magna Charta was based, of which latter document he was the first of the subscribing wit nesses. When the Pope. acting on the representa tion of John, and espousing his cause as that of a vassal of the Holy See, excommunicated the barons, Langton refused to publish the excom munication, and was in consequence suspended from his functions. in 1215. He was restored, probably in the following year; and after the accession of Henry Ill, he was reinstated (1218) in the See of Canterbury. from which time he occupied himself with attempts at reform, both in Church and State, till his death, which took place July 9, 1228. Langton was a learned and able writer. but most of his writings are lost. and the chief trace which he has left in sacred literature is the division of the Bible into chap ters. Consult : Hook, Li/Ts of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. ii. (London. 1862) ; Stubbs. Constitutional History, vol. i. (6th ed., Oxford. 1897).