HENRY AINSWORTH. — English nonconformist theologian, b. at Swanton Morley (Norfolk) in 1571, d. at Amsterdam, allegedly poisoned by Jews, in 1622 or 1623.
He studied at Caius College, Cambridge (from 1587); having embraced the Puritanism of Robert Browne, he was forced to flee to Holland. In Amsterdam from 1593, upon the death of John Greenwood he became (1594 or 95) the “pastor” of his church, and together with Francis Johnson (from whom he separated in 1610) he polemicized against Anglicans and Catholics (*The Trying out of the Truth*, 1615, against John Ainsworth, who had converted to Catholicism). He is renowned for his most erudite *Annotations on the five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Song of Solomon*. The work went through many editions (the best being that of London 1639, in folio), was used in Matthew Poole’s *Synopsis criticorum* (v.), and reprinted at Glasgow in 1843. The commentary is valuable philologically, though the translation is marred by servility.