Stephen Langton

The article provides updated basic information on the life, the works, and the principal doctrines of Stephen Langton. Langton was born in England around the midtwelfth century. Around 1170 he arrived in Paris, where he was to remain until 1206, becoming one of the most outstanding theologians of the newly established university. In 1206, Pope Innocent III made him a cardinal and brought him to Rome, where he probably taught theology until 1207. Hoping thereby to resolve a disputed election to the see of Canterbury, the pope consecrated him archbishop on June 17th, 1207. But King John refused to accept him in England until July 16th, 1213. SL spent the intervening years in exile, mainly at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny. Once in England, he supported the rebel barons against John and played a key role in the negotiations leading to Magna Carta (June 1215). He was subsequently suspended by the pope and left Britain once again. Also in 1215 he took part in the Fourth Lateran Council. Reestablished by Honorius III in 1216, he governed the archdiocese until his death in 1228. All SL’s numerous works that have come down to us are theological works: he did not write any philosophical works nor did he comment on any philosophical text. His oeuvre as a whole can be considered as the enactment of a great project of theological training inspired by Peter Cantor, which comprises the clarification of theological statements, a comprehensive study of the Bible, and also a pastoral training for theologians, aiming to make them good preachers and zealous propagandists for the sacrament of penance. Nevertheless, in three of his works (the Sentence Commentary, the Summa magistri Stephani, and the Quaestiones theologiae) SL enunciates a series of philosophical positions, mainly in the field of logic and semantics, but also on other topics, such as God’s will and omnipotence, human freedom, and the nature of the soul.