# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Middleton, Richard (fl.1280)

1904 Errata appended.
​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​ition of the ‘Sentences.’ 4. ‘De gradibus formarum,’ MS. Munich 8723. 5. ‘Quæstiones disputatæ,’ manuscript at Assisi. Middleton is also credited with 6. ‘Super epistolas Pauli.’ 7. ‘Super evangelia.’ 8. ‘Super distinctiones decreti.’ 9. ‘De ordine judiciorum.’ 10. ‘De clavium sacerdotalium potestate.’ 11. ‘Contra Petrum Joannem Olivum.’ 12. ‘De Conceptione immaculata Virginis Mariæ,’ in verse. 13. ‘Expositio super Ave Maria,’ which is more probably by Richard or Conrad de Saxonia. To Middleton has incorrectly been assigned the authorship of a treatise, ‘In regulam S. Francisci,’ and of the ‘Quadragesimale’ of Francis of Asti. It is also stated in error that he completed the ‘Summa’ of Alexander of Hales by order of Alexander IV; this was the work of William of Meliton [q. v.], who died in 1261. Three sermons, preached by a Friar Richard at Paris in 1281 and 1283, and now preserved in MS. Bibliothèque Nationale 14947; Nos. 47, 69, and 98, may be by Middleton.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 526–7; Wadding's Script. Ord. Min. pp. 207–8; Sbaralea's Suppl. in Script. Ord. Min. pp. 633–5; Hist. Litt. de la France, xxi. 128–32; Little's Grey Friars in Oxford, pp. 214–15 (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), where a full list of manuscripts will be found.]
C. L. K.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.198 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 357 | i | 18-19 | Middleton, Richard: for William Middleton, a D.D. of Paris read William of Meliton [q. v.] |