This is an account of the English Cardinals by Baxter written in 1903. As we can see the entries on both Simon Langham and Adam are well researched and a number of the errors that carried down from earlier biographies have now been corrected.. However even Baxter has failed to identify a single one of the works by Adam, that are known to remain in existence today and the Visitation Office he can only refer to as of doubtful provenance.
Cardinal Langham.
THE next English name upon Rome's list is that of a Benedictine-Dom SIMON LANGHAM, who had been successively monk, Prior, and Lord Abbot of Westminster. Evidently Abbot Langham, during the next decade, displayed both virtue and ability to no ordinary extent, for his subsequent promotions were many and rapid. His skill in ruling Westminster Abbey led to his appointment as Lord Treasurer of England in A.D. 1360, while two years later a Papal Bull appointed him to the vacant See of Benedictine Ely. In the following year Langham was created Lord Chancellor of England, and in this connection it is noticeable that he opened Parliament by delivering the speech from the woolsack, for the first time, in English. In A.D. 1366, the Primatial Throne of St. Augustine became vacant, and Benedictine Canterbury now very appropriately received as her pontiff this illustrious son of St. Benet. Upon November 4th, 1366, his Grace was invested with the pallium at Royal Westminster, and on Lady Day following was enthroned in his Cathedral amid all the magnificence of our Sarum ritual. As Primate, Dom Langham vigorously opposed the prevalent abuse of pluralities as well as the heresies and the " socialism " of Wiclif. He had not held the See of Canterbury for two years when a still higher honour was conferred ; for on September 27th, 1368, Bl. Urban V. (himself a Benedictine) created Archbishop Langham Cardinal-Priest of the Holy Roman Church by the title of St. Sixtus. The new Cardinal forthwith, indeed of necessity, resigned the Primacy of All England with its rich temporalities, and obtained, not without difficulty the Royal sanction to leave his native land for Avignon. This was the disastrous period of a Francophil and divided Papacy : Langham reached Avignon in 1369, where he was known as " the Cardinal of Canterbury." Afterwards he paid a State visit to his home country, with little success, on behalf of peace ; in 1374, the Chapter of Canterbury actually re-elected Cardinal Langham to the Primacy, but in vain. Meanwhile the Holy Father had conferred a signal honour upon this English Prince of the Church : for in July, 1373, he was raised to the exalted rank of Cardinal-Bishop of Praeneste (Palestrina). When the Papal Court was enabled to return to Rome, Cardinal Langham obtained permission from Pope Gregory XI. henceforth to reside in England. He had intended to supervise the completion of Westminster's Abbey Minster, but unfortunately sudden death put an end to these plans, upon the eve of his departure, in A.D. 1376. By his dying request, our Benedictine Cardinal was buried in St. Benet's Chapel in the exquisite Church of his old conventual home : there his tomb still remains, the oldest and most remarkable of all its ecclesiastical monuments. Cardinal Langham equeathed the whole of his estate, worth about £200,000 towards the building fund of his beloved Westminster Abbey ; the nave, a portion of the cloisters, the Abbot's house, etc., were thereby completed, and he himself has thus earned the proud title of its "second founder." This Cardinal was a great administrator, a man of marked ability as well as of holy character; he was also, we may notice, the first to establish technical schools in England.
Adam Easton
His English successor in the Roman Purple was curiously another Benedictine monk-Dom ADAM EASTON. He had received the black habit of St. Benet at the Cathedral Priory of Norwich, and afterwards studied at Oxford : here he acquired great reputation as a Greek and Hebrew scholar. Afterwards Dom Easton left England for Avignon, probably in the train of Cardinal Langham, and received some appointment in curia. He proceeded to Rome with the Papal Court, and was at length raised to the Purple by Pope Urban VI., probably in A.D. 1381, as Cardinal-Priest of St. Cecilia. Soon afterwards Easton was nominated, by Papal provision, Dean of York Minster : as an example of the grave abuses in this direction, we find he was the third non-resident Cardinal in succession to hold this preferment. In 1384, the real Pope, Urban VI., transferred the seat of his curia to Nocera in Umbria ; then occurred the famous revolt of certain Cardinals against his cruel despotism, which only ended in their own destruction. Our English Cardinal escaped with his life, through the intervention of King Richard II., after suffering torture and imprisonment as well as degradation from the Cardinalate itself. However, upon the accession of Pope Boniface IX. in A.D. 1389, one of his first acts was to restore this English Prince of Holy Church to his honours. Apparently Cardinal Easton was now allowed to return to his native country, but eventually journeyed back to Rome, attracted by its immortal spell. There he died in 1397, and was buried in his titular Church: the Cardinal's tomb, near St. Cecilia's Shrine, and his temporary prison at Genoa, are objects of much interest to English pilgrims. Unfortunately his learned theological treatises have all perished, but the Church's Office for our Blessed Lady's Visitation is said to have been composed by Adam Cardinal Easton.
