cancelled; a second nomination was made with the king's consent, but in opposition to the bishops. Both parties appealed to the pope, who set aside the two candidates, and required the election of Langton. The monks reluctantly obeyed, and Langton was consecrated by the pope at Viterbo in 1207. John resisted the appointment, whereupon Innocent addressed him first in a letter and then by a brief, exhorting him to receive Langton as archbishop. A violent quarrel ensued between the pope and the king, which led to the pope's laying the kingdom under an interdict in 1208. John was enraged and proceeded to violent measures, whereupon a sentence of excommunication was sent over in 1209, but not at once published. In 1211 the pope sent two legates into England, Pandulf a cardinal, and Durand a knight templar, and they partially persuaded the king to acquiesce. As, however, he would not go far enough, excommunication was pronounced upon John, and a bull published absolving his subjects from allegiance. John was formally deposed, and Philip of France ordered to take possession of the kingdom. A war was imminent, and at this juncture the legate Pandulf induced John to submit, whereupon he was reinstated in his kingdom, and Philip directed to abandon his claim. Langton, who had been waiting in France, returned in 1213, and by him the king was absolved. In the quarrel with the barons Langton opposed the king, and took an active part in procuring from him the Magna Charta, in which his name is inserted. Meantime the pope succeeded in persuading John to resign his crown a second time. This was followed by a papal decree, which Langton solemnly protested against, though thereby incurring the pope's displeasure. When Innocent excommunicated the barons, Langton refused to publish the bull, whereupon he was sent for to Rome, and narrowly escaped deposition; as it was, the intercession of the cardinals prevented him from being more than suspended. Some time after, the suspension was taken off and in 1218 Langton returned to his see, which he retained till his death in 1228. In 1220 he crowned Henry III.; in 1224 he received an injunction from the pope, Honorius III., to summon the parliament to impose a levy upon the revenues of the cathedrals and monasteries for the uses of the Roman see; but he does not appear to have complied. He died at Slindon in Sussex, and was buried at Canterbury. Langton was eminent as a churchman, and appears to have been endowed with great independence and determination of spirit: hence his alternate quarrels with the king and the pope. He was also distinguished as a theological writer, and wrote commentaries on all or nearly all the books of the Old Testament and the epistles of St. Paul, besides a life of À Becket, a memoir of Richard I., and numerous sermons and other theological treatises. He is said to have divided the Bible into chapters as we now have it; and he composed sundry poems and hymns, one of which is the admired and popular "Veni, Sancte Spiritus" (Pitra, Spic. Sol. iii. 130). In 1222 he held a council at Oxford, the canons of which, ascribed to him, have been published. All his other works remain inedited, except a letter to King John, and an account of the translation of the body of Thomas à Becket.—B. H. C.
LANGUET, Hubert, a celebrated French protestant writer and politician of the sixteenth century, was born in 1518 at Viteaux in Burgundy. His talents were manifested in childhood, as he could talk in Latin at nine years of age. Travelling into Germany to see the learned Camerarius, he was much struck with the doctrines of the protestants, but his public adoption of their creed did not occur till after his acquaintance with Melancthon at Wittemberg. Leaving the troubled scenes of Germany for Italy, he studied for some time at Padua, where, in 1548, he received the honours of the university. Won by the writings of Melancthon, he went to Wittemberg to see the reformer, adopted his opinions, and continued to visit him while Melancthon lived. From 1551 to 1560 Languet travelled in Sweden, Denmark, Lapland, and again in Italy. In 1565 and following years he was employed by the Elector Augustus of Saxony on various missions to France and other places. Thus it happened that he was in Paris in 1572, on the day of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, when he exerted himself to save his friends Wechel the printer and Duplessis-Mornay. In 1574 he was sent to Vienna, but three years later he quitted the service of the elector, because his views on the Eucharist were more Zwinglian than Lutheran. For a time he served John Casimir, the count palatine, but was subsequently employed by William of Orange, by whom he was greatly esteemed, and in whose service he died at Antwerp on the 30th September, 1581. He enjoyed the friendship of Sir Philip Sidney, his letters to whom were published in 1776. His letters to Camerarius, and those to the elector, have also been published. Languet was the author of the famous book, "Vindiciæ Contra Tyrannos," which was published, in 1579, as the work of Junius Brutus, and which has been attributed both to Beza and to Duplessis-Mornay.—R. H.
LANGUET de Gergy, Jean Baptiste Joseph, an eminent christian philanthropist, born in 1675 at Dijon, where his father was procurator-general to the parliament. In 1703 he took the degree of doctor in the Sorbonne, and in 1714 succeeded La Chetardie as vicar of the large parish of St. Sulpice in Paris, containing a population of more than one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants. In this important sphere of duty he exhibited an ardent zeal for the material and spiritual welfare of his parishioners; and one of the first objects on which he set his heart was to obtain the erection of a place of worship in some degree commensurate with the parish. A church which had been commenced on a grand design in 1646, had long been suspended for want of the necessary funds, and in 1718 Languet resolved to take immediate measures for continuing and completing the great work. Having already sold his patrimony to relieve the poor, he possessed at this time only three hundred francs that had been left him by a benevolent lady; and this money he employed in purchasing a quantity of hewn stones which he caused to be paraded in the streets, with a public announcement of the purpose to which he intended to apply them. This expedient, assisted by the eloquent exhortations of the worthy vicar, was completely successful. The pious, by their ample donations, liberally responded to the appeal, and the duke of Orleans, regent of the kingdom, granted the profits of a lottery, the end of which was supposed to sanctify the means. The work was pushed on with vigour; the grand portal was commenced by the Chevalier Servandoni in 1733, and the magnificent edifice was consecrated on the 30th June, 1745. A great many stories are told of the pious stratagems which Languet employed to obtain the sacred vessels, and to enrich the chapels with decorations. It is stated, for example, that he never dined abroad without carrying away with him the plate on which he was served, and the result was a massive statue of the Virgin in silver, six feet in height. If Languet had done nothing more to commemorate his name than erect the superb church of St. Sulpice, his motives might have been liable to misconstruction; but he carried on at the same time another arduous work, in which he could be actuated only by the purest benevolence. He hired in 1724, and afterwards purchased, a house which had been used as a school under the title of L'Enfant Jesus, with the view of converting it into an hospital for the sick, poor, and unfortunate females of his parish. Without entirely departing from his original plan, he availed himself of the considerable funds which were placed at his disposal by charitable persons to found an extensive establishment consisting of two departments—the first composed of thirty-five young ladies belonging to honourable families which had been reduced to indigence; the second, of an indefinite number of poor women and unfortunate girls, whom it was the duty of the ladies to superintend and to provide with work and food. In 1741 there were more than one thousand four hundred women and girls of this sort in the establishment, which was also provided with a well-cultivated garden, a large dairy, a bakehouse, spinning-rooms, and a laboratory, in which all sorts of medicines were compounded. In each room were two ladies of the Society of St. Thomas of Villeneuve, of which the vicars of St. Sulpice were ex-officio the superiors. At the Revolution the house was converted into an hospital for orphan children, and in 1814 it was reoccupied by the sisterhood of St. Thomas of Villeneuve. Besides the large sums derived from charitable sources which the vicar expended on this establishment, he was made the medium of so many donations and legacies, that he is said to have distributed not less than a million of francs annually for benevolent purposes. At the same time when a legacy was left him, he always took care to inquire whether there were any relatives of the testator who had a just claim to the money; and if so he took only part of it, or sometimes none at all, according to the circumstances of the case. Not only did he act as almoner-general of the rich inhabitants of his parish and other benevolent persons, but he consumed in these good works his own patrimony, almost the entire
