LANGEN, JOSEPH (1837-1901), German theologian, was born at Cologne on the 3rd of June 1837. He studied at Bonn, was ordained priest in 1859, was nominated professor extraordinary at the university of Bonn in 1864, and a professor in ordinary of the exegesis of the New Testament in 1867—an office which he held till his death. He was one of the able band of professors who in 1870 supported Döllinger in his resistance to the Vatican decrees, and was excommunicated with Ignaz v. Döllinger, Johann Huber, Johann Friedrich, Franz Heinrich Reusch, Joseph Hubert Reinkens and others, for refusing to accept them. In 1878, in consequence of the permission given to priests to marry, he ceased to identify himself with the Old Catholic movement, although he was not reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church. Langen was more celebrated as a writer than as a speaker. His first work was an inquiry into the authorship of the Commentary on St Paul’s Epistles and the Treatise on Biblical Questions, ascribed to Ambrose and Augustine respectively. In 1868 he published an Introduction to the New Testament, a work of which a second edition was called for in 1873. He also published works on the Last Days of the Life of Jesus, on Judaism in the Time of Christ, on John of Damascus (1879) and an Examination of the Vatican Dogma in the Light of Patristic Exegesis of the New Testament. But he is chiefly famous for his History of the Church of Rome to the Pontificate of Innocent III. (4 vols., 1881-1893), a work of sound scholarship, based directly upon the authorities, the most important sources being woven carefully into the text. He also contributed largely to the Internationale theologische Zeitschrift, a review started in 1893 by the Old Catholics to promote the union of National Churches on the basis of the councils of the Undivided Church, and admitting articles in German, French and English. Among other subjects, he wrote on the School of Hierotheus, on Romish falsifications of the Greek Fathers, on Leo XIII., on Liberal Ultramontanism, on the Papal Teaching in regard to Morals, on Vincentius of Lerins and he carried on a controversy with Professor Willibald Beyschlag, of the German Evangelical Church, on the respective merits of Protestantism and Old Catholicism regarded as a basis for teaching the Christian faith. An attack of apoplexy put an end to his activity as a teacher and hastened his death, which occurred in July 1901.
(J. J. L.*)
LANGENBECK, BERNHARD RUDOLF KONRAD VON (1810-1887), German surgeon, was born at Horneburg on the 9th of November 1810, and received his medical education at Göttingen, where he took his doctor’s degree in 1835 with a thesis on the structure of the retina. After a visit to France and England, he returned to Göttingen as Privatdozent, and in 1842 became professor of surgery and director of the Friedrichs Hospital at Kiel. Six years later he succeeded J. F. Dieffenbach (1794-1847) as director of the Clinical Institute for Surgery and Ophthalmology at Berlin, and remained there till 1882, when failing health obliged him to retire. He died at Wiesbaden on the 30th of September 1887. Langenbeck was a bold and skilful operator, but was disinclined to resort to operation while other means afforded a prospect of success. He devoted particular attention to military surgery, and was a great authority in the treatment of gunshot wounds. Besides acting as general field-surgeon of the army in the war with Denmark in 1848, he saw active service in 1864, 1866, and again in the Franco-German campaign of 1870-71. He was in Orleans at the end of 1870, after the city had been taken by the Prussians, and was unwearied in his attentions, whether as operator or consultant, to wounded men with whom every public building was packed. He also utilized the opportunities for instruction that thus arose, and the “Militär-Aerztliche Gesellschaft,” which met twice a week for some months, and in the discussions of which every surgeon in the city was invited to take part, irrespective of nationality, was mainly formed by his energy and enthusiasm. He was ennobled for his services in the Danish War of 1864.
LANGENSALZA, a town in the Prussian province of Saxony, on the Salza, about 20 m. N. W. from Erfurt. Pop. (1905) 12,545. Near it are the remains of the old Benedictine monastery of Homburg or Hohenburg, where the emperor Henry IV. defeated the Saxons in 1075. The manufacture of cloth is the chief industry; lace, starch, machines, cigars and chemicals are also produced, while spinning, dyeing, brewing and printing are carried on. There is a sulphur bath in the neighbourhood, situated in a pleasant park, in which there are monuments to those who fell in the war of 1866. Langensalza became a town in 1211 and was afterwards part of the electorate of Saxony. In 1815 it came into the possession of Prussia. It is remarkable in history as the scene of three battles: (1) the victory of the Prussians and English over the imperial army on the 15th of February 1761; (2) that of the Prussians over the Bavarians on the 17th of April 1813; and (3) the engagement on the 27th of June 1866 between the Prussians and the Hanoverians, in which the latter, though victorious in the field, were compelled to lay down their arms on the arrival of overwhelming Prussian reinforcements.
See Göschel, Chronik der Stadt Langensalza (Langensalza, 1818-1842); G. and H. Schütz, Chronik der Stadt Langensalza (Langensalza, 1901); and Gutbier, Schwefelbad Langensalza (Langensalza, 1900).
LANGHAM, SIMON (d. 1376), archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal, was born at Langham in Rutland, becoming a monk in the abbey of St Peter at Westminster, and later prior and then abbot of this house. In 1360 he was made treasurer of England and in 1361 he became bishop of Ely; he was appointed chancellor of England in 1363 and was chosen archbishop of Canterbury in 1366. Perhaps the most interesting incident in his primacy was when he drove the secular clergy from their college of Canterbury Hall, Oxford, and filled their places with monks. The expelled head of the seculars was a certain John de Wiclif, who has been identified with the great reformer Wycliffe. Notwithstanding the part Langham as chancellor had taken in the anti-papal measures of 1365 and 1366 he was made a cardinal by Pope Urban V. in 1368. This step lost him the favour of Edward III., and two months later he resigned his archbishopric and went to Avignon. He was soon allowed to hold other although less exalted positions in England, and in 1374 he was elected archbishop of Canterbury for the second time; but he withdrew his claim and died at Avignon on the 22nd of July 1376. Langham’s tomb is the oldest monument to an ecclesiastic in Westminster Abbey; he left the residue of his estate—a large sum of money—to the abbey, and has been called its second founder.