27 Facts About Conyers Middleton

Conyers Middleton was elected a fellow of the college in 1705 and took his MA in 1706 In 1707 he was ordained a deacon, and a priest in 1708.

In 1710 Dr Conyers Middleton married Sarah Morris, the daughter of Thomas Morris of Mount Morris, Monks Horton, Hythe, Kent, and widow of Councillor and recorder Robert Drake of Cambridge, of the family Drake of Ash.

Conyers Middleton claimed the pamphlet as his own; Bentley continued to prosecute the bookseller, until Conyers Middleton made a declaration of his authorship before witnesses.

The proceedings were slow, and meanwhile Conyers Middleton took advantage of Bentley's proposals for an edition of the New Testament to attack him in a sharp pamphlet.

Colbatch brought an action against him, and Conyers Middleton wrote a longer and more temperate rejoinder.

When Conyers Middleton's case was heard in the court of king's bench, he was found guilty of libel.

Conyers Middleton had to pay his own costs, and expenses of his opponent.

Conyers Middleton stayed in Rome during a great part of 1724 and 1725.

Conyers Middleton made a collection of antiquities, of which he later published a description; he sold it to Horace Walpole in 1744.

In 1731 Conyers Middleton was appointed first Woodwardian Professor of Geology, and delivered an inaugural address in Latin, pointing out the benefits which might be expected from a study of fossils in confirming the history of Noah's Flood.

Conyers Middleton resigned the chair in 1734, on his second marriage.

Conyers Middleton was threatened with a loss of his Cambridge degrees.

Conyers Middleton replied in two pamphlets, making such explanations as he could.

Conyers Middleton made an explanation in a final pamphlet, but for some time remained silent on theological topics.

Conyers Middleton's major work, his Life of Cicero, was a success.

Conyers Middleton was attacked by Samuel Parr in 1787 for knowing plagiarism: Parr claimed it was based on De tribus luminibus Romanorum, a scarce work by William Bellenden.

Conyers Middleton looked for ecclesiastical preferment, but was unpopular with the bishops.

Conyers Middleton stood out as an especially lethal species of the polemical divine.

Conyers Middleton visited Italy, and drew conclusions on the pagan origin of Christian church ceremonies and beliefs; he subsequently published these in his Letter from Rome, showing an Exact Conformity between Popery and Paganism.

Conyers Middleton retaliated through the legal system, and Challoner in 1738 left for Douai.

In 1726, prompted by the Harveian Oration by Richard Mead, with an appendix by Edmund Chishull, Conyers Middleton offended the medical profession with a dissertation contending that the healing art among the ancients was exercised only by slaves or freedmen.

Conyers Middleton was answered by John Ward, Joseph Letherland, and others, to whom Middleton replied.

Conyers Middleton let the matter drop after meeting Mead socially; but two related works, an Appendix seu Definitiones, pars secunda and a letter from Conyers Middleton to another opponent, Charles La Motte, were later published in 1761 by William Heberden the elder.

Conyers Middleton had remonstrated with Daniel Waterland when the latter replied to Matthew Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation.

Conyers Middleton took a line which exposed him to the reproach of infidelity.

Conyers Middleton was attacked from many quarters, and produced several apologetic pamphlets.

Conyers Middleton's reputation was enhanced by this work; but, as was later pointed out, he drew largely from a rare book by William Bellenden, De tribus luminibus Romanorum.