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See also:MIDDLETON, CONYERS (1683–1750) , See also:English divine, was See also:born at See also:Richmond in See also:Yorkshire on the 27th of See also:December 1683. He graduated at See also:Cambridge, took orders, and in 1706 obtained a fellowship, which he soon resigned upon contracting an advantageous See also:marriage. In 1717 a dispute with See also:Richard See also:Bentley, who made an extortionate demand on the occasion of Middleton's being created D.D., involved him in an acrimonious controversy. He wrote several trenchant See also:pamphlets, among them the " Remarks " and " Further Remarks " on Bentley's Proposals for a New Edition of the See also:Greek Testament, an endeavour to visit his grievances upon the See also:text of the New Testament. In 1723 he was involved in a lawsuit by personalities against Bentley, which had found their way into his otherwise judicious See also:tract on library See also:administration, written on the occasion of his See also:appointment as university librarian. In 1726 he offended the medical profession by a dissertation contending that the healing See also:art among the ancients was only exercised by slaves or freedmen. Between the See also:dates of these publications he visited See also:Italy, and made those observations on the See also:pagan origin of See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
church ceremonies and beliefs which he subsequently embodied in his See also:Letter from See also:Rome (1729). This cogent tract probably contributed to prepare the See also:storm which See also:broke out against him on his next publication (1731). In his remonstrance with See also:Daniel Waterland on occasion of the latter's reply to See also:Matthew See also:Tindal's See also:Christianity as Old as the Creation, Middleton takes a See also:line which in his See also:day could hardly fail to expose him to the reproach of infidelity. He gives up the literal truth of the primeval See also:Mosaic narratives; and, in professing to indicate a See also:short and easy method of confuting Tindal, See also:lays See also:principal stress on the indispensableness of Christianity as a mainstay of social See also:- ORDER
- ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
- ORDER, HOLY
order. This was to resign nearly every-thing that divines of the Waterland See also:stamp thought See also:worth defending. Middleton was warmly assailed from many quarters, and retreated with some difficulty under See also:cover of a sheaf of apologetic pamphlets and a more See also:regular attendance at church. His next important publication was a See also:Life of See also:Cicero (1741), largely told in that statesman's own words. Though Middleton's reputation was much enhanced by this piece of See also:work, there is no doubt that he See also:drew largely from the scarce See also:book of See also:- WILLIAM
- WILLIAM (1143-1214)
- WILLIAM (1227-1256)
- WILLIAM (1J33-1584)
- WILLIAM (A.S. Wilhelm, O. Norse Vilhidlmr; O. H. Ger. Willahelm, Willahalm, M. H. Ger. Willehelm, Willehalm, Mod.Ger. Wilhelm; Du. Willem; O. Fr. Villalme, Mod. Fr. Guillaume; from " will," Goth. vilja, and " helm," Goth. hilms, Old Norse hidlmr, meaning
- WILLIAM (c. 1130-C. 1190)
- WILLIAM, 13TH
William See also:Bellenden, De tribes luminibus Romanorum. The work was undertaken at the instance of See also:Lord See also:Hervey, in See also:correspondence with whom also originated his disquisition on The See also:Roman See also:Senate, published in 1747. The same See also:year and the following produced the most important of all his writings, the See also:Introductory Discourse and the See also:Free Inquiry " concerning the miraculous See also:powers which are supposed to have subsisted in the church from the earliest ages." In combating this belief Middleton indirectly established two propositions of See also:capital importance. He showed that ecclesiastical miracles must be accepted or rejected in the See also:mass; and he distinguished between the authority due to the See also:early fathers' testimony to the beliefs and practices of their times, and their very slender credibility as witnesses to matters of fact. Some individual grudge seems to have prompted him to expose, in 1750, See also:Bishop See also:Sherlock's See also:eccentric notions of antediluvian prophecy, which had been published 25 years before. On the 28th of See also:July 1750 he died at Hildersham, near Cambridge.
Middleton's most ambitious work is obsolete from no See also:fault of his, but his controversial writings retain a permanent See also:place in the See also:history of See also:opinion. In his more restricted See also:sphere he may not inappropriately be compared with See also:Lessing. Like Lessing's, the See also:character of his See also:intellect was captious and iconoclastic, but redeemed from See also:mere negation by a See also:passion for abstract truth, too See also:apt to slumber until called into activity by some merely See also:personal stimulus. His diction is generally masculine and
harmonious. See also:Pope thought him and Nathaniel See also:Hooke the younger the only See also:prose writers of the day who deserved to be cited as authorities on the See also:language. See also:Samuel See also:Parr, while exposing his plagiarisms, heaps encomiums on his See also:style. But his See also:bes . qualities, his impatience of superstition and disdain of mere See also:external authority, are rather moral than See also:literary.
The best See also:general view of his intellectual character and See also:influence is to be found in See also:Sir See also:Leslie See also:Stephen's English Thought in the Eighteenth See also:Century, ch. vi. A handsome edition of his See also:works, containing several See also:posthumous tracts, but not including the Life of Cicero, appeared in 4 vols. in 1952 and in 5 vols. in 1755.
End of Article: MIDDLETON, CONYERS (1683–1750)
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