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MIDDLEBURG MIDIANITES. 



this good effect, that truths were advanced and main- 

 tained in the universities, which were alarming to 

 the vigilant hierarchy ; and Luther's theses, in Wit- 

 tenberg, contributed in no small degree to bring on 

 the reformation, and thereby to the shedding of new 

 light upon science. Yet the reformation did not (as 

 many are inclined to believe) give the first signal 

 for higher intellectual endeavours and freedom of 

 thought; it was rather produced by this striving and 

 this freedom, which had originated some centuries 

 before, with the flight of the Greek scholars from 

 Constantinople, and the invention of the art of print- 

 ing, had been encouraged by the lovers of science 

 iuuong the princes of Italy, and had shone forth, 

 even in Germany, in the brotherhood of De venter, 

 in Wessel, Erasmus, Celtes, Reuchlin, and others. 

 But with the appearance of these men, with the rise 

 of the sun of the new day, the romantic twilight of 

 the middle ages faded away. 



We shall now give briefly the chief epochs of the 

 history of the middle ages, leaving more copious 

 details to the articles on particular countries and 

 men. The formation of separate Germanic states 

 succeeded the general irruption of the barbarians, 

 and was followed, after some hundred years, by the 

 universal monarchy of Charlemagne. This had only 

 a short continuance ; but it left the idea of the unity 

 of the whole of Christendom under a spiritual head, 

 and under the temporal protection of the newly- 

 revived Roman empire an idea which had a power- 

 ful influence during the whole of the middle ages. 

 New modifications of the European states after the 

 fall of the Carlovingians : the devastations of new 

 tribes of barbarians ; of the Saracens in the south, of 

 the Normans in the north and west, and the Hun- 

 garians in the east, all of whom, at length, became 

 subject to the Germanic power. Colonies of the 

 Normans in France, Italy, and England. From 

 these romantic adventurers especially proceeded the 

 spirit of chivalry which made its way through all 

 Europe. Christianity gained a footing among the 

 Sclavonian tribes. Struggles between the spiritual 

 and secular power convulsed Christendom. The 

 idea of their unity, as well as of knighthood, is en- 

 nobled in the crusades, whose success these discords 

 frustrated. Origin of the cities and of the third 

 estate. Commerce with the East, by means of Italy 

 and the Hanse towns. Corruption of the clergy, at 

 two epochs, after Charlemagne and after Gregory 

 VII. Mendicant orders, and the inquisition. De- 

 cline of the imperial dignity in Germany and Italy. 

 Desolation of these countries by private warfare. 

 Other kingdoms are now enabled to obtain more 

 solidity. The flourishing of new arts and know- 

 ledge. Universities. The popes humbled by their 

 dependence upon France and the great schism. 

 Councils at Constance and Basle. Subjection of the 

 Greek empire ; hence the formidableness of the 

 Turkish power to the west of Europe; and hence, 

 also, the diffusion of learning by the fugitive scholars 

 of Constantinople. Printing. The discovery of the 

 New World, and of a way by sea to the East Indies. 

 Reformation. See Hallam's View of the State of 

 Europe during the Middle Ages (3d edit., London, 

 1822); Berrington's Literary History of the Middle 

 Ages, etc. (London, 1814) ; Sismondi's Hist, des Re- 

 publiques Italiennes (3d edit., Paris, 1825) ; Ruh's 

 Handbuch der Geschichte des Mittelalters (Berlin, 

 1818); Rehm's Handbuch der Geschichte des Mit- 

 idalters (Marb., 1821 seq.. 2 vols.). 



MIDDLEBURG ; capital of the province of Zea- 

 land, kingdom of Holland, situated in the centre of 

 the island of Walcheren ; Ion. 3 37' E. ; lat. 51 

 3')' N. ; population, 13,200. The town-house was 

 formerly a rich and celebrated abbey, founded in the 



year 1256. It has six Calvinist churches, and on 

 athenaeum or academy, which affords nearly the 

 same course of instruction as an university. The forti- 

 fications of Middleburg were formerly very strong, 

 but are not now kept in repair. It preserves its cir- 

 cular mound of earth, divided into bastions, and sur- 

 rounded by a broad and deep ditch. See Nether- 

 lands. 



MIDDLETON, CONVERS, a learned English 

 divine and polemical writer, was born at York, in 

 1683, and was the son of an Episcopal clergyman. 

 He became a student, and afterwards a fellow of 

 Trinity college, Cambridge, in which situation he 

 attracted some notice by his quarrel with the cele- 

 brated doctor Bentley (q. v.), the master of his 

 college. In 1724, he visited Italy, and, on his 

 return, published a tract, designed to show that the 

 medical profession was held in little esteem by the 

 ancient Romans ; and, in 1729, appeared his Letter 

 from Rome, on the conformity between popery and 

 paganism. Not long after, he obtained the Wood- 

 wardian professorship of mineralogy, which he held 

 till 1734, when he was chosen librarian to the uni- 

 versity. In 1735, he published a Dissertation con- 

 cerning the Origin of Printing in England. His 

 greatest literary undertaking was the History of the 

 Life of M. T. Cicero (2 vols., 4to, 1741), in which 

 he displays an intimate acquaintance with his sub- 

 ject, accompanied with a degree of elegance in his 

 style and language which entitle him to rank among 

 the principal modern historians of England. In 

 1743, he published the Epistles of M. T. Cicero to 

 Brutus, and of Brutus to Cicero, with the Latin 

 Text and English Notes, a prefatory Dissertation, 

 &c. In 1747, doctor Middleton published his Free 

 Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are sup- 

 posed to have subsisted in the Christian Church from 

 the earliest Ages through several successive Cen- 

 turies. This treatise brought on the author the im- 

 putation of infidelity, and occasioned a warm contro- 

 versy, which was continued after his death, in 1 750. 

 His miscellaneous works have been published in 2 

 vols., 4to, and 5 vols., 8vo. 



MIDDLESEX ; the smallest county (except Rut- 

 land) in England, yet the most important, as contain- 

 ing within its limits the metropolis of the British 

 empire, is bounded on the north by Hertfordshire; on 

 the south by the river Thames, which separates it 

 from the county of Surrey ; on the west by Bucking- 

 hamshire, from which it is separated by the river 

 Colne ; and on the east by Essex, from which it is 

 divided by the river Lea. Its length, from north- 

 east to south-west, is about twenty-three miles, and 

 in breadth it does not exceed fifteen. The name is 

 supposed to be derived frtjm the Middle Saxons, the 

 people inhabiting it lying between the east, west, 

 and south Saxons. The prevailing soils of Middle- 

 sex are loam and clay ; much of the clay in the 

 vicinity of London has been dug up for brick-mak- 

 ing. A great portion of the county is laid out in 

 gardens, nurseries, and pasture-grounds ; in the art 

 of hay-making, the Middlesex farmers are said to be 

 superior to any in the island. Middlesex contains 

 197 parishes, two cities (London and Westminster), 

 and six market towns. It returns eight members to 

 parliament ; namely, two for the county, four for the 

 city of London, and two for Westminster. Popula- 

 tion, in 1801, 818,129 ; in 1831, 1,358,541. See 

 London. 



MIDIANITES; an Arabian tribe represented, in 

 the Old Testament, as the descendants of Midian, son 

 of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2), and described 

 as engaged at an early period in a commerce with 

 Egypt. They dwelt in the land of Moab (Arabia 

 Petnea), to the south-east of Canaan. One portion 



