LAN 
fit the year 1207, the monks'of Canterbury having, upon 
S vacancy taking place in that fee, made a double return 
of archbilhop-elect,'and both parties having appealed to the 
pope, and fent agents to Rome to fupport their refpeftive 
claims ; after more than twelve months had been (pent in 
pleadings and inveltigations on the fubjeft, his holinefs 
pronounced a definitive fentence, declaring both elections 
irregular and uncanonical, and both parties incapable of 
being chofen archbilhop of Canterbury. That important 
fee being thus declared vacant, the pope began to unfold 
his fcheme, which it is probable he had formed long be¬ 
fore, of filling it with a creature of his own, without fo 
imich as confulting the king of England. For this pur- 
pofe, he commanded the monks of Canterbury who were 
then at Rome immediately to proceed to the election of 
an archbilhop, and at the fame time commanded them to 
choofe cardinal Stephen Langton. When they objefled, 
that they could not do fo, without the authority of their 
Convent; the pope haftily replied, that his authority lup- 
plied all defeats. And, when foine of them pleaded, that 
they had folemnly fworn, before they left England, that 
they would never acknowledge any perfon for archbilhop 
of Canterbury, but him whole agents they were ; his ho¬ 
linefs abfolved them from the obligation of their oaths, 
and ordered them immediately to obey his commands, un¬ 
der the penalty offthe liigheft cenlures of the church. 
With this they complied ; and Langton was confecrated 
by the pope at Viterbo. When the bull arrived in Eng¬ 
land, which intimated the ele£tion and confecration of 
cardinal Langton, king John was incenfed in the liigheft 
degree, both again It the pope and the monks of Canter¬ 
bury. As thefe lad were within his reach, they quickly 
•experienced the effects of his indignation ; for he fent two 
officers, with a company of armed men, to Canterbury, 
who took poflelfion of the monaftery, banilbed the monks 
out of the kingdom, and feized all their ellates. He all'o 
wrote a fpirited and angry letter to the pope, w'hom he 
accufed of injuftice and prefumption, in railing a ftranger 
£0 the highelt dignity in his kingdom, without his know¬ 
ledge ; and he allured him that, if his holinefs did not im¬ 
mediately repair the injury which he done him, he would 
break off all communication with Rome. The ilfue of 
this bulinefs, and the difgraceful terms to which John 
fubmitted, have been already laid before our readers, in 
the article England, vol. vi. p. 579. 
In the year 1113, cardinal Langton came over to Eng¬ 
land, and took poffeffion of his fee; and, though he owed 
Ins advancement to the papal favour, no looner did he be¬ 
come an Englifh baron, than he appears to have been in- 
fpired with a zealous attachment to the liberties and in¬ 
dependence of his country ; and was highly inftrurnental 
in procuring Magna Cliarta. See the above article p. 580. 
He alfo refilled the tyranny of the papal agents, particularly 
of the pope’s legate, who affumed to himfelf the power of 
regulating all ecclefiaftical affairs in the molt arbitrary man¬ 
ner, without confulting with the primate or any of the clergy. 
In the year 1214, he held a provincial fynod of hisfuffragans 
and clergy at Dunftable, where the moll loud and vehement 
complaints were made againft the legate; and it was agreed 
to fend a deputation, who were to intimate to him, that 
the archbilhop had appealed to the pope againft his pro¬ 
ceedings, and to inhibit him from granting inftitution to 
any more prelates or priefts within the provinceof Canterbu¬ 
ry. Our prelateafiifted at the general councilheld at Rome, 
in the year 12165 and, during his abfence from England, 
king John died. In the year 1222, he held a fynod at 
Oxford, in which a remarkable canon was made, prohi¬ 
biting clergymen from keeping concubines publicly in 
their houfes, or from going to them in other places fo 
openly as to occalion fcandal. In the year 1223, at the 
head of fome of the principal nobility, he demanded an 
audience of king Henry III. who had been declared of 
p.ge by a papal bull, and required the king to confirm the 
great charter of liberties. When one of the councilors 
gnfwered for tire king, that the great charter was extorted 
VOh, XII. Np. 818. 
LAN 153 
by force, and therefore was not binding; the archbi¬ 
lhop replied with indignation and warmth : “ If you 
loved the king, fir, you would not prevent the peace of 
the kingdom.” This refolute language foon convinced the 
king that their demand was not to be refufed ; and he im¬ 
mediately gave orders'for fummoning a parliament. That 
the archbilhop, however, was a friend to the legal prero¬ 
gatives of the crown, and that he was as ready tooppofe a 
rebellious fpirit of infubordination in the barons as kingly 
tyranny, lie manifelted in the following year. The bull 
which declared Henry of age, commanded alfo all the ba¬ 
rons to deliver up the royal caftles which tliey held into 
the king’s hands. This the .earls of Chcfter and Albe¬ 
marle, and feveral others, refufed to do; and, railing forces 
to fupport their reful’al, the nation was threatened with 
another civil war. In this crilis, the prudence and fpirit 
of the archbilhop prevented that evil; who, by threaten¬ 
ing the refractory barons with excommunication, brought 
them to fubnvit. This prelate died in the year 1228. He 
wrote Commentaries upon the greatell part of the books 
of Scripture, and is faid to have been inferior to none of 
liis contemporaries in the knowledge of the Ariftotelian 
dialectics, or in the application of them to the doClrines 
of fcripture. Nothing of his, however, has been printed, 
excepting his hiftoiy of the tranllation of the body of 
Thomas a Becket, at the end of that archbilhop’s letters, 
printed at Bruflels in 1682 ; and his letter to king John, 
which, together with the king’s anfwer, may be feen in 
the third volume of d’Achery’s Specilegium. Thefe Ihow 
him not to be unworthy of the encomium palled upon 
him, that he was a learned and polite author for the age 
in which he lived. The firft divifion of the books of the 
Old and New Teftament into chapters is afcribed to this 
prelate. Mojkeim. 
LANG'TON, a town of Scotland, in the county of 
Berwick : two miles fouth-weft of Greenlaw. 
LANG'TON, a village in Dorfetlhire, between Mel- 
comb Regis and Abbotlbury. It is fituated on the Fleet, 
two miles fouth of the village of that name. The church 
is an ancient fmall building. 
LANG'TON, a village in Dorfetlhire, one mile eaft of 
Blandford Forum, on the north bank of the liver Stour, 
with a fmall church. 
LANG'TON MALTRAVERS, Dorfet; a village con- 
fiftingof one (ireetneara mile in length; it lies on the top of 
a hill about two miles weft from Sandwich, and is divided 
into Langton Maltraversand Langton Wallis. The church 
is an ancient ItruClure, confifting of a chancel, body, and 
two ailes, with an embattled tower. 
LAN'GUAGE, f. [langage , Fr. lingua, Lat.] Human 
fpeech.—We may define Language , if we confider it more 
materially, to be letters, forming and producing words 
and fentences; but, if we confider it according to the de- 
fign thereof, then language is apt figns for communication 
of thoughts. Holder .—The tongue of one nation as diftinft 
from others : 
He not from Rome alone, but Greece, 
Like Jafon, brought the golden fleece ; 
To him that language, though to none 
Of th* others, as his own was known. Denham. 
Style ; manner of expreffion : 
Others for language all their care exprefs, 
And value books, as women men, for drefs: 
Their praife is Hill—the ftyle is excellent; 
The fenfe, they humbly take upon content. Pope. 
Of the ORIGIN of LANGUAGE. 
Nature has endowed every animal with powers fafficient to 
make known all thofeof its lenfations and defires, with which 
it is neceflary, for the prefervation of the individual or the 
continuance of the kind,that others of the fame fpecies Ihould 
be acquainted. For this purpofe, the organs of all vocal 
animals are fo formed, as, upon any particular impulfe, to 
utter founds, of which thole of the fame fpecies inftinc- 
R r tivdy 
