Upon the great enlargement of the public librarj' at Cambridge, a new office of principal librarian was estab- lished, to which Middleton was elected, notwithstanding a violent opposition. He afterwards travelled through France and Italy, and spent some months in Kome in 172-J:. After his return, Jliddleton published his cele- brated Letter from Rome (1729), in which he attempted to show that " the rehgion of the present Romans was derived from that of their heathen ancestors ;" and that, in particular, the rites, ceremonies, dress of the priests, etc., in the Roman Catholic Church, were taken from the pagan religion. This work was received with great favor bj' the learned, and went through four editions in the author's lifetime. The free manner, however, in which he attacked the miracles of the Roman Catholic Church gave offence to many Anglican divines, and they charged Middleton with entertaining as little respect for the miracles of the apostles as for those of the Roman Catholic saints.
Hitherto Dr. Middleton stood well with mankind; for notwithstanding the offence he had given to some bigots bj' certain passages in the above-mentioned pamphlet, yet the reasonable part of Christians were well pleased with his writings, believing that he had done great service to Protestantism by his expose of the absurdities of popery. He was, in fact, a general favorite with the public, when, by the publication of a new work, Christianity as old as Creation (1731), he not only gave great oifence to the clergy, but also ruined all his hopes ft)r preferment. This letter, which Avas tirst published anonymously, was soon known to be writ-
ten by Middleton. Pearce (q. v.), bishop of Rochester, replied to it, treating the author as an infidel ; and so strong was the feeling against Middleton that he was in danger of losing his degree and office of librarian. Prom- ising, however, to publish a satisfactorj^ vindication of his course, the authorities withheld their intended deg- radation, and in 1732 Middleton gave to the world Some Remarlcs on Dr. Pearce's second Reply ; wherein the au- thor's sentiments, as to all the principal points in dis- pute, are fully, clearly, and satisfactorily explained. In this manifesto, Middleton strongly asserted his belief in Christianity, and disavowed any intention to cast doubt upon its evidences ; and thereby saved himself from deg- radation, but not from strong suspicion of hypocrisj' — a charge which has ever since attached to his name.
Middleton regarded Christianity in scarcely any oth- er light than as a republication of the law of nature, and endeavored to reduce, as far as possible, everything su- pernatural in the Bible to mere natural phenomena. He expressly maintained that there were contradictions in the four evangelists which could not be reconciled (^Reflections on the Variations found in the Four Evan- gelists) ; he accused Matthew " of wilfully suppressing or negligently omitting three successive descents from father to son in the first chapter of his Gospel" (see vol. ii, 24) ; he asserted that the apostles were sometimes mistaken in their applications of prophecies relating to Christ (ii, 59) ; he considered " the story of the fall of man as a fable or allegory" (ii, 131), and, with respect to the prophecy given at the fall, he did not hesitate to declare (iii, 183) " that men who incpnre into things will meet with many absurdities which reason must wink at, and many incredibilities which faith must digest, before they can admit the authority of this prophecy upon the evidence of this historical narration." Such being the opinions of Middleton, it cannot excite surprise, not- withstanding his assertions to the contrary, that he should have been looked upon as a disbeliever in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
While these discussions were going on, INIiddleton was appointed to the professorship of natural history, which appointment he resigned in 1734. In the following }'e.ar he published A Dissertation concerning the Origin of Printing in England, showing that it was first introduced and practiced by an Englishman, William Caxton, at Westminster, and not, as commonly supposed, by a for- eign printer at Oxford. In 1741 he published by sub- scription his most celebrated work. The History of the Life of M. Tullius Cicero (Lond. 2 vols. 4to). There were three thousand subscribers to this work, and the profits arising from its sale were so considerable as to enable Middleton to purchase a small estate at Hilder- sham, six miles from Cambridge, where he chiefly re- sided during the remainder of his life. Two years af- terwards Jliddleton published a translation of Cicero's letters to Brutus, and of Brutus's to Cicero, with the Latin text, and a prefatorj' dissertation, in which he de- fended the authenticity of the Epistles. In 1745 he published Germana qucedam Antiquitatis eruditoe Monu- nienta, etc., in which he gave an account of the various specimens of ancient art which he had collected during his residence at Rome. Two years afterwards he pub- lished his Treatise on the Roman Senate, in which he maintained that all vacancies in the senate were filled up by the people. But the work which has a peculiar interest for us he published shortly after, under the title An Introductory Discourse to a larger Worl; designed hereafter to be piihlishrd. cnnreriring the ^riraculous Pow- ei-s which an sii]iji,,.<i d f,i Imn .<iilisi.</, d in the Christian Church from thi >i,j-/list A </..<. Ihrmi,/// s, reral successive Centuries; by which il is shoini (h<it »■< Imre no sufieient Reason to believe, upon the A iithnrily <ftht primitive Fa- thers, that any such Powers win- mnliiiind to the Church after the Days of the Ai^oslles (1748). Tlie Introductory Discourse to the work, and the Free Inquiry itself, elic- ited numerous controversial tracts. IMiddleton was at- tacked by Stebbiug and Chapman, the former of whom