AGRICOLA, JOHANNES (originally Schneider, then Schnitter) (1494-1566), German Protestant reformer, was born April 20, at Eisleben, whence he is sometimes called Magister Islebius. He studied at Wittenberg, where he met Luther. In 1519 he accompanied Luther to the great assembly of German divines at Leipzig, and acted as recording secretary. He taught and preached the Lutheran doctrine in Frankfurt, Eisleben and Witten berg, but in 1536 an old controversy broke out more violently than ever. Agricola was the pioneer of the Antinomian heresy, which maintained that while the unregenerate were still under the Mosaic law, Christians were entirely free from it, being under the gospel alone. During the bitter controversy with Luther that followed, Agricola in 154o left Wittenberg secretly for Berlin, where he ad dressed a letter to the elector of Saxony, which was generally interpreted as a recantation of his views. Luther, however, was not satisfied, and Agricola remained at Berlin, where Joachim II. of Brandenburg appointed him court preacher and general super intendent. With Julius von Pflug and Michael Helding, he pre pared the Augsburg Interim of 1548. He endeavoured in vain to appease the Adiaphoristic controversy (see ADIAPHORISTS). He died during an epidemic of plague on Sept. 22, 1566.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. See Cordes, Joh. Agricola's Schriften moglichst Bibliography. See Cordes, Joh. Agricola's Schriften moglichst verzeichnet (Altona, 1817) ; Life by G. Kawerau 0880, who also wrote the notice in Hauck-Herzog, Realencyk. fur Prot. Theol.