Holebeck, Laurence

Holebeck, Laurence an English scholar, probably a native of Lincolnshire, was bred a monk in the abbey of Ramsey, and was one of the first 'Hebrew' scholars of his age, a language then so unknown, even to the priests, that in the reign of Henry VIII, Erasmus, with his keen wit, says, "they counted all things Hebrew which they did not understand" (Dial. per Relig. Er.). Holebeck made a Hebrew dictionary, counted exact in those days. Pits complains that Robert Wakefield, the first Hebrew professor at Cambridge, purloined this dictionary to his private use. Holebeck died in, 1410. See Fuller, Worthies of England (ed. Nuttall), 2:290.