and suspended him as archbishop for two years. The dispute was eventually settled by the
deaths of John and Innocent, and Stephen returned to England in 1218.
He attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and was very much in sympathy with
its reforming principles. Back in England, he avidly pursued church reform, holding the
first provincial council to legislate in England in 1222 in Oxford. He himself was active
in administration of his see. He presided over the translation of the relics of Thomas
Becket at Canterbury in 1220. He played a major role in the coronation of the boy-king
Henry III (1220) and became his adviser. He died in Sussex in 1228.
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: BIBLE, CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION OF; INNOCENT III; PETER
COMESTOR; PETER THE CHANTER; PREACHING]
Stephen Langton. Commentary on the Book of Chronicles, ed. Avrom Saltman. Ramat-Gan: Bar-
Ilan University Press, 1978.
——. Der Sentenzenkommentar des Kardinals Stephan Langton, ed. Artur Michael Landgraf.
Münster: Aschendorff, 1952.
——. Selected Sermons of Stephen Langton, ed. Phyllis Barzillay Roberts. Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980.
Baldwin, John W. Masters, Princes, and Merchants: The Social Views of Peter the Chanter and
His Circle. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970, Vol. 1, pp. 25–31.
Longère, Jean. Œuvres oratoires de maîtres parisiens au XIIe siècle: étude historique et doctrinale.
Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1975.
Powicke, Frederick Maurice. Stephen Langton: Being the Ford Lectures Delivered in the
University of Oxford in Hilary Term 1927. Oxford: Clarendon, 1928.
Roberts, Phyllis Barzillay. “Master Stephen Langton Preaches to the People and Clergy: Sermon
Texts from Twelfth-Century Paris.” Traditio 36(1980):237–68.
——. Stephanus de Lingua-Tonante: Studies in the Sermons of Stephen Langton. Toronto:
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1968.
STEPHEN OF BLOIS
(ca. 1100–1154). King of England. Stephen of Blois, the third son of Adèle, daughter of
William the Conqueror, and Étienne de Blois, rose to prominence through the patronage
of his uncle Henry I of England. Stephen acquired his French lands by grants from
Henry: the county of Mortain (by 1113), and the county of Boulogne through marriage to
the heiress Matilda in 1125. Despite significant holdings in France, Stephen played a
limited role in French politics. As an active member of Henry’s court, Stephen had little
time for independent action in France, though he did lead an unsuccessful Flemish
campaign in 1127 against Henry’s rival to the throne, William Clito, who was supported
by Louis VI. His assumption of the English throne in December 1135 led to a civil war
that was waged primarily in England.
Stephen fought to establish his control in Normandy from March to November of
- After formal recognition as duke of Normandy by Louis VI in May, Stephen put
down several rebellions but failed to regain control of territories seized by Geoffroi
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