BENTLEY, RICHARD. - English scholar and Hellenist, b. at Dulton on 27 Jan. 1662, d. at Cambridge on 14 Sept. 1742. He studied at Cambridge and, in 1690, took Orders.
The first of the eight lectures he delivered in defence of the Christian religion, A confutation of atheism (1692), in which he demonstrated the existence of God on the basis of Newton’s recent discovery, became famous. He was appointed royal librarian in 1694 and, in 1699, master of Trinity College, where he remained until his death, despite the uninterrupted hostility of the Fellows. B. was responsible for the emendation of a great many ancient texts and for establishing scientific criticism. With the Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris (1699), he exposed the evident inauthenticity of those epistles. Among his most renowned writings should be mentioned Remarks upon a late discourse of Freethinking (1713), in which he ridicules Anthony Collins as a deist and critic of the Christian Creed.
His style, always keen and precise and often sarcastic, is sometimes pervaded by a vein of humour.