In 1217 Stephen Langton was back again at Canterbury, to remain for eleven more years the primate of England. With William the Marshall and Hubert de Burgh, Stephen worked for the preservation of public peace during those early years of Henry III. We find him in 1223 demanding a fresh confirmation of the Charter in the council at Oxford, and two years later its solemn proclamation is required by the archbishop and the barons as the price of a new subsidy. Equally resolute is Archbishop Stephen for public order, threatening with all the pains and penalties of excommunication the barons, who (in spite of Hubert de Burgh’s letters from the pope declaring Henry to be of age) were anxious to keep the royal castles in their own hands. “At a time when constitutional freedom was hardly known, when insurrection seemed the only possible means of checking despotism, he (Langton) organized and established a movement for freedom which by every act and word of his life he showed to be in opposition to mere anarchy.” (C. E. Maurice.) Stephen Langton was never canonized, though application was made to Rome to that end shortly after his death in 1228. His learning had made him famous in Paris before Pope Innocent summoned him to Rome to become cardinal priest of St. Chrysogonus. His wise statesmanship was proved by the victory he won for England’s liberties over so energetic and ruthless a despot as John, and with such material as the barons. His strength of character and disinterested patriotism were impaired by no taint of baseness or self seeking. If Stephen Langton is not numbered with the saints, he ranks high in the great list of England’s primates, serving religion as faithfully as he served justice and social order, and his name is resplendent for all time in the charters of English liberty. Bishop Grosseteste, the Reformer 1235–1253 AUTHORITIES: _Letters of Robert Grosseteste_, edited by Luard; _Monumenta Franciscana_; _Letters of Adam of March and Eccleston on the coming of the Friars_, edited by Brewer; _Annales Monastici_--Burton and Dunstable; Matthew Paris (Rolls’ Series); Samuel Pegge--_Life of Robert Grosseteste_, 1793; F. S. Stevenson, M.P.--_Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln_; M. M. C. Calthrop--_Victoria County History--Lincolnshire_; Gasquet--_Henry III. and the Church_. BISHOP GROSSETESTE THE REFORMER 1235–1253