The life of Stephen Langton is an example of
how, in the Middle Ages, a man could rise from comparative obscurity to the
height of success and fame. This has always been possible in the church,
but generally, at this time, the highest ecclesiastics were chosen from among
the nobility.
Not much is known of Langton’s
parentage, save that he was the son of one Henry de Langton, the lord of a small
manor of that name in Lincolnshire. There is nothing to indicate he was
highly connected, but his family had sufficient income to send him to study at
the University of Paris. The date of his birth is not known, but it must
have been about 1165.
In the twelfth or thirteenth centuries,
the University of Paris was at its height. It has been estimated there
were 20,000 to 30,000 students there, an incredible figure until one compares it
with the estimate for other universities, Bologna for example, and Oxford had
15,000 students in 1224 - the city was larger than London, which had about
25,000 inhabitants. When one considers England had a population of not
over 3,000,000, the proportion of students is amazing. But we have also to
realize that boys from twelve years on, as well as old men went to the
University. They traveled from all over Europe; all branches of learning,
as then understood, were taught, so it was a high school as well as college.
True to its name , it was Universal.
Discipline was a serious problem for
such a large number. All students were considered Clerics (hence the gown
used to this day) and came under the cannon, i.e. church law, which
differed from the secular in having its own courts and being more lenient, or
rather, enlightened. There was a great deal of rivalry between the
nationalities represented. There was hazing, fights between the students
and the citizens, and insubordination. There were poor boys who worked
their way through, and rich boys preparing for the law and high offices in the
church.
Besides the universities there were
schools attached to the abbeys, churches and other religious institutions.
Today we may think that medieval learning was restricted to useless studies
emphasizing metaphysics, classical studies and theology, but it would be unwise
to make conclusions without investigating what actually was taught. It is
enough to re-iterate the university must have had a terrific reputation to
attract such numbers of students.
Not only the universities amaze us but
the great number of cathedrals, churches and abbeys being erected in the
thirteenth century. In the short biographies of the barons one should
notice how many of these barons , or their families, founded priories, giving
them land and revenues, much as rich men today give money to colleges and other
foundations for the benefit of their souls. The extent of church property
was a constant source of envy to the sovereign. It belonged not so much to
the nation as to the empire which was Rome. The old saying “All roads
lead to Rome” was true of the ramified organization called “The Church.”
The wealth of the church, added to its superstitious hold over the masses of the
people made it almost as powerful as the state.
Pope Innocent III, Lothario de Conti di
Segni, declared that God had made Peter his representative on earth, and the
Pope was his successor, therefore it was God ordained that the Pope rule the
earth - no authority was equal to his. While the church since then has
made compromises to and concessions from this principle, postponing, so to
speak, the era when the church as a secular organization may dominate the world,
has never abandoned it.
Innocent III has been called one of the
greatest Popes, because he did much to reform the discipline and organization of
the church; but he was one of the most unscrupulous, as we learned from his
quarrel with King John. He (very naturally if one accepts his dogma)
interfered in national affairs and urged Philip of France to invade England.
His greatness really lay in the attention he paid to learning, to reform in the
abbeys and monasteries, and in the founding of hospitals.
Stephen Langton lived in Paris for
twenty-five years, studying, then lecturing on theology, until he gained such a
reputation for learning, that, in 1206, Pope Innocent called him to Rome and
made him cardinal priest of St. Chrysogonus. Here also he taught
theology. Roger of Wendover said “the Roman court did not have his equal
for learning and moral excellence.” No wonder that he became known as the most
illustrious churchman of English birth.
In the year 1205 the astute and
universally respected Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury died, leaving the
primacy of the church of England vacant. After a year’s deliberation ,
Innocent III appointed Stephen Langton to the vacancy. Rightly, he thought
this would be accepted in England; wrongly he thought Langton would be
subservient to Rome. But King John had already decided upon his own
appointee, John Grey, Bishop of Norwich. By custom it was the sovereign of
England, and not the Pope, who had the authority in this, the most important
ecclesiastical office in the land, for the archbishop was a lay baron as well as
an ecclesiastical lord, holding immense territory and wielding jurisdiction over
all the property of the church.
In the chapter on King John we have
already discussed the quarrel which ensued between the King and the Pope,
leading to the Interdict of 1208.
During this time Langton remained in
France, whither all the higher ecclesiastics of England had fled. He acted
with superb sagacity - one might call it humility combined with courage.
He was devoid of personal ambition, prudent enough to abide his chance, yet not
inactive. He worked to bring about a reconciliation between John and the
Pope, and save the people of England from the hardship of the Interdict.
Not until Innocent went so far as to depose John as King (the theory was that a
King was King only when consecrated by the representative of God on earth) was
there any sign of armistice. John finally capitulated, not because of
threats from the Pope, but because of the force Philip of France had gathered to
invade the country, and which John wished to avert. Then resulted John’s
submission to the papal legate, his surrender to the realm of England as a fief
of the Holy See, and Langton’s return to England July 30, 1213. John and
Langton embraced dramatically with feigned joy in Winchester Cathedral.
From this time on Stephen Langton
became not only by decree, but in fact the spiritual leader of the English
nation. At a council held in Westminster August 25, 1213, in the presence
of the highest churchmen and lay barons, he proclaimed a mutual
security agreement for the preservation of English laws, the precursor by two
years of Magna Charta, and at another council
In these attempts to revive the ancient
laws of England, which he must have studied, Stephen Langton is credited with
much of the Magna Charta. There was no one so learned as he, although
there were the chief justiciar of England, Hubert de Burgh and other justices -
Saher de Quincey - Roger Bigod - and the most influential man of all, William
Marshall, who must have contributed.
Stephen Langton worked incessantly for
the cause of justice, no on what side he had to stand. Thus he opposed
King John when that monarch endeavored to force his barons and their retainers
to invade Poitou in France; thus he opposed also the legate of the Pope,
Nicholas of Tusculum, when that prelate tried to fill vacancies in abbeys and
bishoprics with foreigners and papal puppets. At Runnemede he remained on
the King’s side, not as his partisan, but as the advocate of his subjects.
As we all know, subsequent to June 15,
1215, John by misrepresentations, appealed to the Pope to absolve him from his
agreement at Runnemede. And now we come to the real nature of the papal
court.
Innocent sided this time with John.
As John had submitted himself two years before, he was now the Pope’s liegeman.
They were united in defense of this common principle - the infallibility of
authority - a dictatorship. Stephen was commanded by the Pope to denounce
publicly the barons and all other so-called “disturbers” who had wrested the
Charta from King John.
Stephen refused; he was himself as were
all the barons , excommunicated ! Then he went directly to Rome to
expostulate, and to present the truth. By a stroke of fortune Innocent
died, the same year as John - 1216.
The accession of the boy King Henry III
made and end to the trouble. Stephen returned to England. On July 7,
1220, he presided over one of the most splendid ceremonies ever performed in
England, the translation of the relics of St. Thomas a Becket in the
Cathedral of Canterbury - an event which made Canterbury a place of pilgrimage.
The final eight years of his life were
devoted to the upholding of peace in England, defending its laws, maintaining an
independent church, and in establishing an ordered freedom throughout the land.
The famous “Constitutions of Langton” have been called the Magna Charta of
the church of England, thereby paving the way for the final break with Rome
under Henry VIII, three hundred years later.
Stephen Langton is regarded by scholars
as the most original commentator of the scriptures next to Bede. He was
also an historical writer - he wrote a life of Richard I - and composed poetry,
which has been lost. He died July 9, 1228.
Langton, we may conclude, did not agree
with the papal theory of absolution in temporal affairs, and probably, if we
interpret his character aright, not in spiritual affairs either. He seems
to have been truly learned, humble in the realization that the search for wisdom
is never-ending, that no human has the right of domination. Probably, when
he described to the clause, No, 39, in Magna Charta “No freeman shall be
------- in any way destroyed,” he meant no man of any status. But that,
he knew, would have to be interpreted late. He was of kindred spirit with
William Marshall and Hubert de Burgh - these three were the three and only great
men, at Runnemede.