HOLDEN, HENRY

Theologian and controversialist; b. Chagley, Lancashire, England, 1596; d. Paris, March 1662. In 1618 he entered the seminary at Douai under the assumed name of Johnson and he remained there until 1623. Later, as a priest, he studied at the Sorbonne, was awarded the degree of doctor of theology by that institution, and was given a position on the faculty. About the same time, he received an appointment as a vicar-general of the archbishop of Paris. For a while he was superior of the seminary of St. Gregory in Paris, but he was not a success as a financial administrator and in 1655 had to be replaced. In 1659 he was appointed superior of a famous community at Paris known as the "Blue Nuns," whose rule had originally been Franciscan but had been changed to that of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady.

In the controversy that developed in the 17th century between the regular and secular clergy over the timeliness of having a bishop present in England, Holden was an active supporter of the secular argument. He wrote prominently on the subject, and in 1631 he went to Rome as a representative of the secular position. As a professor at the Sorbonne he could not escape being influenced by Gallican ideas concerning the authority of the pope, but his orthodoxy in relation to the religious controversies of his day, as well as his learning, is attested to by his position and his works, such as Divinae fidei analysis, seu de fidei Christianae resolutione, libri duo … (Paris 1652), and his letters concerning the condemned writings of Thomas white, alias Blacklo.

Bibliography: h. tootell, Dodd's Church History of England, ed. m. a. tierney, 5 v. (London 1839–43). j. gillow and r. trappes-lomax, eds., The Diary of the 'Blue Nuns' or Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, at Paris. 1658–1810 (London 1910). c. butler, Historical Memoirs Respecting the English, Irish and Scottish Catholics from the Reformation to the Present Time, 4 v. (London 1819–21). j. gillow, A Literary and Biographical History or Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics from 1534 to the Present time, 5 v. (London-New York 1885–1902; repr. New York 1961) 3:332–339. p. feret, La Faculté de Théologie de Paris … époque moderne, 7 v. (Paris 1900–10) 3:220, 224. j. g. alger, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900) 9:1013–14. a. gatard, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables Générales 1951–) 7.1:31–32.

[v. ponko, jr.]