Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/359

 to make him some compensation, induced the senate to pass a grace by 112 to 49 votes (14 Dec. 1721), which made him ‘Protobibliothecarius’ of the university library, with a salary of 50l. This was a new office, created expressly for Middleton, although the king's recent donation of Bishop Moore's library gave a pretext. Middleton in 1723 published a plan for the future arrangement of the books. He took the opportunity of attacking Bentley for retaining some manuscripts (the famous ‘Codex Bezæ’ among others) in his own house. A dedication to the vice-chancellor also included a phrase, aimed at Bentley, which might be construed as reflecting upon the court of king's bench. Colbatch had vainly recommended its suppression. Bentley immediately appealed to the court, and on 20 June 1723 Middleton was fined 50l. and ordered to provide securities for good behaviour for a year. Bentley had finally triumphed by this time in his long warfare with the college and university. Middleton, disgusted at his defeat, and in weak health, went to Italy. On his return he renewed his old suit for the four guineas. Bentley apparently did not oppose him, and in February 1725–6 he at last got back his fee, together with 12s. costs. Middleton stayed in Rome during a great part of 1724 and 1725. A silly story—probably a bit of college wit taken seriously—is told in the ‘Biographia Britannica,’ that Middleton found that the librarian at the Vatican had only heard of Cambridge as a school where boys were prepared for Oxford, and that Middleton, to show his dignity, took an hotel at 400l. a year, and injured his fortune by buying antiquities. He did in fact make a collection, of which he afterwards published a description. He sold it to Horace Walpole in 1744 (, Letters, ed. Cunningham, i. 307). Henry Hare, third lord Coleraine [q. v.], also a collector, was his companion on this journey. Another result of his journey was the ‘Letter from Rome,’ published in 1729, upon the incorporation of pagan beliefs and ceremonies in the catholic church. The argument, as Middleton said in his preface, was old enough, and he only claimed novelty for his mode of statement. It was applauded by the orthodox English divines as an attack upon popery, and its merits of style brought it to a fourth edition in 1741. His first wife died on 19 Feb. 1730–1. In 1731 Middleton was appointed first Woodwardian professor by the executors of the founder, and delivered an inaugural address in Latin, pointing out the services which might be expected from a study of fossils in confirming the history of the deluge. He resigned the chair, however, in 1734, upon his (second) marriage to his cousin Mary, daughter of the Rev. Conyers Place of Dorchester. She died 26 April 1745, aged 38. He had meanwhile got into a controversy with Waterland. Waterland had attacked Matthew Tindal's ‘Christianity as old as the Creation’ (1730), which marked the culmination of the deist controversy. Middleton published an anonymous ‘Letter to Waterland,’ urging that apologists placed themselves in a false position by endeavouring to maintain the historical accuracy of every statement in the Bible. He ridiculed some parts of the book of Genesis, and said that Tindal should be answered by proving the utility of a traditional religion, and confuting his à priori theories of the ‘religion of nature.’ This sceptical tendency, really latent in the ‘Letter from Rome,’ now became obvious. Zachary Pearce [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Rochester, accused him in a ‘Reply’ of covert infidelity. Middleton's authorship had become known, and he was threatened with a loss of his Cambridge degrees. Middleton replied in two pamphlets, making such explanations as he could. Some time later (1733), however, an anonymous pamphlet by Dr. Williams, the public orator, declared that his books ought to be burnt and himself banished from the university, unless he made a recantation. Middleton made an explanation in a final pamphlet, but for some time remained silent upon theological topics. His letters to Lord Oxford (Add. MS. 32457) show that he suspected Oxford of dropping his friendship on account of the suspicions thus cast upon his orthodoxy. He complains that he had ‘for many years’ been ‘a kind of domestic’ to the earl, who now recommended some very inferior person to be travelling governor to a young nobleman. Though some overtures of reconciliation followed, their friendship soon ended. He employed himself upon his life of Cicero, which was long regarded as a model of style. Serious imputations, however, have been made upon his literary honesty. He is accused of plagiarism from the ‘De tribus luminibus Romanorum,’ a scarce work by William Bellenden (d. 1633?) [q. v.] It was a compilation, giving Cicero's history in his own words, and most of the impression having been lost at sea, had become very scarce. Middleton, whose book followed a similar plan, had thus all his materials arranged for him, and instead of acknowledging the debt, boasted in the preface of his great labours. Parr, in his famous ‘Preface to Bellendenus,’ states that after a careful investigation he has been compelled to regard Middleton as guilty of plagiarism. The book was published by subscription in