Henry Holland (priest)


Henry Holland was an English Church of England priest, known for his writing on witchcraft.

Life

He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1580. He was instituted to the vicarage of Orwell, Cambridgeshire, on 21 November 1580. In 1583 he commenced Cambridge Master of Arts, and on 13 February 1594 was instituted to the vicarage of St Bride's Church in the City of London, on the presentation of the dean and chapter of Westminster Abbey. This benefice was vacant by his death before 13 February 1604.

Works

Holland was the author of A Treatise against Witchcraft.
It was directed from a Calvinist point of view against folk magic and the sceptical arguments of Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot; it also introduced arguments from the writings of Jean Bodin, Lambert Daneau and Niels Hemmingsen.
Other works were
Holland also edited ‘Lectures upon the Epistles of Paul to the Colossians,’ by Robert Rollok of Edinburgh, and the works of Richard Greenham.