Stephen Langton
Archbishop of Canterbury and probable author of the Veni Sancte Spiritus.
Stephen Langton was an English theologian who studied and taught at the University of Paris before being made a cardinal by Pope Innocent III in 1206 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1207. He is one of the most consequential medieval English churchmen, best known for two contributions that have shaped Christian use of scripture and Christian prayer for eight hundred years. First, he is credited with dividing the Bible into the chapter numbers used in every modern translation, a system he developed while teaching in Paris around 1205 that was adopted into the standard Latin Bible by the 13th century. Second, modern scholarship attributes to him the Veni Sancte Spiritus, the great Latin Pentecost sequence, on the basis of stylistic analysis and the dating of the earliest surviving manuscripts. Langton was also instrumental in mediating between King John and the English barons in the negotiations that produced Magna Carta in 1215, and his influence on English ecclesiastical and political life extended well beyond his liturgical writings.
This is the traditional attribution; modern scholarship is divided. See the prayer page for details.