Simon Langton (clergyman)

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Simon Langton (also Simon de Langton ; † 1248 ) was an English clergyman and diplomat.

origin

Simon Langton was the youngest son of Henry Langton from Langton near Wragby in Lincolnshire . He had two older brothers, Stephen Langton , who became a clergyman like him, and Walter Langton, who inherited his father's property. Walter Langton died childless in 1234, so that Simon Langton inherited his possessions and debts.

Quarrel with King John

He presumably attended the then-forming University of Paris , the leading scholar of which was his brother Stephen, and was referred to as a Magister . He is said to have written a number of writings, which, however, have not survived or cannot be assigned to him without any doubt. The appointment of his brother Stephen as Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Innocent III. 1207 caused the break between the Pope and the English King John Ohneland . In 1208 Simon traveled twice to England and again in 1209 to persuade King John, on behalf of his brother, to recognize him as Archbishop. However, King John suspected his brother that he was a partisan of the French king because of his activities in Paris and, after tough negotiations with Simon, refused his recognition as archbishop and head of the English church. After the Pope then interdicted England in 1208 and excommunicated the King in 1209 , John finally submitted to the Pope in 1213 and recognized Stephen Langton as Archbishop. The king reconciled himself with the Pope and welcomed Simon back to England, but both Stephen and his brother Simon remained opponents of the king. Simon was a leading member of the archbishop's entourage and presumably served as his chancellor. In 1214 he traveled to Pope Innocent III. to Rome to defend his brother's opposition to King John.

At a meeting of the English bishops in Dunstan called by his brother in 1214, Simon contradicted the papal ambassador Pandulf and rejected the offered compensation, which the king wanted to make for the church's losses during the interdict, as too small. Through the mediation of his brother, Simon received ecclesiastical benefices in London and York . In 1215 he was elected Archbishop of York by the Cathedral Chapter of York, despite a ban by the Pope . Simon then traveled again to Rome to have his election confirmed by the Pope, but the Pope rejected his election and instead appointed Walter de Gray , a confidante of the king, as archbishop, and forbade Simon to accept another ecclesiastical office without express papal permission. Simon Langton then joined the French Prince Ludwig , who had been offered the English crown by the rebellious barons during the First Barons' War . When Ludwig translated to England with a French army in May 1216, Simon Langton served him as chaplain. After the barons and the people of London paid homage to him in London, Ludwig appointed Simon Langton his chancellor. Simon disregarded the orders of Pandulf Verraccio, who continued to support King John, and was then excommunicated by name in 1216 as an opponent of the English king, who had offered his kingdom to the Pope as a fief.

Exiled from England and worked as a diplomat

After the defeat of Prince Ludwig in the War of the Barons, Simon resigned from all his offices and returned to France with the prince at the end of 1217. He traveled to Rome to seek absolution from the Pope . The new Pope Honorius III. forgave him in 1218, appointed him papal subdeacon and allowed him to accept benefices in France. However, both the Pope and the English king forbade him to return to England. He lived in Paris for the next few years, where he became a canon at the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral and received a pension from the French king. When it was rumored in 1220 that the Pope would lift his exile from England, numerous English magnates protested against it, and at the end of 1223 the English King Henry III announced. his annoyance with Simon Langton.

Archdeacon of Canterbury

It was not until June 1227 that Simon received permission to return to England through the mediation of his brother Stephen, who was now old and sick. As early as May 14, 1227, his brother had made him Archdeacon of Canterbury , and in December he gave him and his successors the supervision of all churches in the archbishopric. In addition he received the income from the rich churches of Teynham and Hackington . The cathedral chapter agreed to this transfer, in return it received the assurance that no secular canon monastery would be established in Hackington that would have reduced its income. To this end, Simon transferred the previous office of the Archdeacon in Canterbury to him and instead built a new palace in Hackington.

During his tenure there were three major disputes with Benedictines from the archdiocese. The first dispute arose in 1235 when he approached the Pope as the lawyer for Archbishop Edmund of Abingdon , because he did not agree with the election of Richard Wendene as the new Bishop of Rochester . However, the Pope confirmed the election of the Rochester cathedral chapter and commissioned Simon to assist in the episcopal ordination of Wendene. The second major conflict occurred in 1237, when St Augustine's Abbey of Canterbury tried to regain spiritual jurisdiction over the parishes under the monastery. This was also about the income from these parishes, since in the event of a vacancy, the income previously went to the archbishopric. After a settlement, the dispute was settled. The greatest dispute arose in 1238 with the cathedral chapter of Canterbury Cathedral over its privileges, rights and income. To resolve the dispute, Simon traveled to Rome as the archbishop's representative, where he accused the canons of forgery. After examining this accusation, the Pope deposed the prior of the cathedral chapter and expelled two canons from the cathedral chapter. The members of the cathedral chapter then elected a new prior without properly involving the archbishop. With the support of Simon, the latter then demanded the excommunication of the canons. After the death of Archbishop Edmund of Abingdon in 1240, Simon claimed that until a new archbishop was elected he would have spiritual jurisdiction over the archbishopric instead of the prior. The angry King Henry III. then quickly named Boniface of Savoy as a candidate, who was then elected the new archbishop.

Further work as a diplomat

Simon delegated most of his duties to his subordinates, most notably Master Robert of Gloucester and Master Roger of Elham. He himself often worked as an envoy for the Pope or the King and was probably not in England at all between 1229 and 1237. There is evidence that he was in Rome in 1229. Simon stood with Pope Gregory IX. in high esteem, and allegedly prevented the election of Ralph de Neville in 1231 and John Blund in 1232 as successors to the late Archbishop Richard Grant . The Pope sent him as ambassador to Paris, where he was able to broker an armistice between England and France in long negotiations from November 1234 to August 1235, which made him highly regarded by the English king. By November 20, 1237 at the latest, he was back in England, where he had a dispute with the papal legate. In 1238 he accompanied Archbishop Edmund Rich on his trip to Rome. During the dispute with the cathedral chapter of Canterbury after 1240, however, he refused another trip to Rome in 1241, because he felt too old for the arduous crossing of the Alps . Before his new campaign in Gascony, King Henry III asked. expressly asked him to pray for him in 1242. However, Simon later belonged to a commission that wrote a report on the unsuccessful campaign to the Pope, in which the king was criticized.

Aftermath

In the chronicles written by Benedictines, Simon Langton is depicted badly because of his disputes with the order. On the other hand, he was highly regarded by the Franciscans , as he had helped them establish their first branches in England. He left a collection of books to the University of Paris that poor students were allowed to use, and was a generous donor to a college for poor priests in Canterbury, the second founder of which he was considered to be. After the Reformation in the 16th century, this Poor Priest's Hospital became a school that gave rise to the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys and Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School in Canterbury, founded in 1881 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John T. Appleby: Johann "Ohneland" - King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1965, p. 180
  2. ↑ John T. Appleby: Johann "Ohneland" - King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1965, p. 224
  3. ^ Simon Langton School: Our History. Retrieved May 29, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School. Retrieved May 29, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Langton, Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Langton, Simon de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English clergyman and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Langton near Wragby , England
DATE OF DEATH 1248