MIDDLETON, PATRICK (1662–1736), Scottish nonjuring divine, born in 1662, studied in St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews; graduated M.A. 20 July 1680, and after ordination became, in 1684, minister of Leslie, in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy. He was deprived by the privy council, 22 Aug. 1689, for not reading the proclamation of the estates and for praying for James II. He was discharged from exercising any part of the clerical function under a severe penalty by the privy council in December 1692 for not praying for William and Mary. In 1716 he had a meeting-house in Skinner's Close, Edinburgh, and was prosecuted, with others, before the lords of justiciary, and being convicted a second time, 19 June 1717, of not praying nominatim for George I in terms of the Act of Toleration, he was forbidden to preach or exercise any part of the ministry. He died at Bristol on 25 July 1736.
His works are: 1. ‘A Dissertation upon the Power of the Church; In a Middle Way, Betwixt those who screw it up to the highest, with the Papists and Scotish Presbyterians on the one hand; and the Erastians and Followers of Hugo Grotius, who, on the other hand, do wholly reject the Intrinsic Spiritual Authority wherewith Jesus Christ hath vested the Rulers of his Church,’ London, 1733, 8vo. 2. ‘A Short View of the Evidences upon which the Christian Religion, and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures is established. … With a Defence not only of the Usefulness, but also of the Necessity of Divine Revelation; against [Matthew Tindal],’ 2 parts, London [1734], 8vo. 3. ‘The Case of Abraham's being commanded by God Almighty to offer up his son Isaac in sacrifice, impartially examined and defended, against the Deists and other modern Infidels,’ 2nd edit. London, 1740, 8vo. On the title-page he is styled a doctor of divinity, though it does not appear that he took that degree. 4. ‘An Enquiry into the Inward Call of the Holy Ministry’ (anon.), Cambridge, 1741, 8vo.
[Bodl. Cat. ii. 741; Hist. Reg. 1736, Chron. Diary, p. 44; Political State of Great Britain, lii. 102; Hew Scott's Fasti, ii. 550.]
MIDDLETON, RICHARD (fl. 1280), Franciscan, was no doubt an Englishman, though Dempster (Hist. Eccl. xii. 512) calls him a Scot. Fuller (Church History, xiv. 25) suggests that he was a native of Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire, or Middleton Cheyney, Northamptonshire. He is conjectured to have studied at Oxford; he was certainly a scholar at Paris, where he graduated B.D. in 1283, and D.D. soon afterwards (cf. Du Boulay, Hist. Univ. Paris, iii. 708). He devoted himself specially to the canon law and theology, and acquired a great name by his disputations. Bonagratia, the then general of the Franciscans, appointed Middleton with others to examine into the doctrines of Peter Olivi in 1278, 1283, and 1288. Middleton was a friend of St. Louis of Toulouse (d. 1297); he is supposed to have died about 1307. Marianus Florentius erroneously described him as archbishop of Rheims. Middleton's name is inscribed on the tomb of Joannes Duns Scotus at Cologne as one of the fifteen chief doctors of his order; Duns is alleged to have been a pupil of Middleton. Middleton was known at Paris as ‘doctor solidus et copiosus, fundatissimus et authoratus.’ At the council of Constance in 1415 his authority was cited in condemnation of Wyclif, and at Basle in 1433 he was quoted by John of Ragusa as ‘doctor profundus et magnæ authoritatis in scholis.’ In the 1499 (Venice) edition of his commentary on the ‘Fourth Book of the Sentences’ the following verses are given:
Sacra refert celeber Richardus dogmata quædam,
Quem tenuit Media Villa decora virum.
Hauserunt veteres claro de fonte Ricardi,
Doctoresque novi qui meliora docent.
Middleton wrote: 1. ‘Super Sententias Petri Lombardi.’ The commentary of Middleton, of which there are numerous manuscripts at Oxford and elsewhere, was written between 1281 and 1285; it was printed complete at Venice, 1489 and 1509, Brescia, 1591; the first book, Venice, 1507, the second and third books, Venice, 1509, and the fourth book only, Venice, 1489, without date, and 1499, and Paris, 1504 and 1512. The statement made by Wadding, that the fourth book was not by Middleton, is an error. 2. ‘Quæstiones Quodlibetales,’ incipit ‘Quæritur utrum Deus sit summe simplex,’ MS. Merton College 139, f. 2, Troyes 142, Florence Laurentiana ex Bibl. S. Crucis Plut. xvii. Sin. Cod. vii. 3. ‘Quodlibeta tria,’ printed in the 1509 ed-
