LIUS (1486-153 5 ), German writer, soldier, physician and by common reputation a magician. Agrippa was for many years in the service of Maximilian I., the German king, who sent him in 151.0 on a diplomatic mission to England, where he was the guest of Dean Colet. From 1511 to 1518 he was in Italy in the service of William VI. of Monferrato and of Charles III. of Savoy. His interest in the occult sciences had brought him into conflict with the church at Dole in I Soo when he lectured on John Reuchlin's De verbo mini Pico; again at Pavia in 1515 when he lectured at the university on the Pimander of Hermes Trismegistus; and again at Metz in 1518, where he was town orator, for his defence of a woman accused of witchcraft. He then practised medicine in Cologne, Geneva, Freiburg and Lyons for short periods until Margaret, duchess of Savoy and regent of the Netherlands, ap pointed him archivist and historiographer to the emperor. Mar garet's death in 153o weakened his position, but after suffering a short imprisonment for debt at Brussels he lived at Cologne and Bonn, under the protection of Hermann of Wied, archbishop of Cologne. He then went to France, where he was arrested by order of Francis I. for some disparaging words about the queen mother; but he was soon released, and on Feb. 18 1535, died at Grenoble. He was thrice married and had a large family. Agrip pa's work, De occults philosophia, which brought him into an tagonism with the Inquisition, was written about 151 o, partly under the influence of the author's friend, John Trithemius, abbot of Wiirzburg, but its publication was delayed until 1531, when it appeared at Antwerp. It is a defence of magic, by means of which men may come to a knowledge of nature and of God, and contains Agrippa's idea of the universe with its three worlds or spheres. His other principal work, De incertitudine et vani tate scientiarum et artium atque excellentia Verbi Dei declama tio, was written about 1527 and published at Antwerp in 1531. In it Agrippa denounces the accretions which had grown up around the simple doctrines of Christianity, and wishes for a return to the primitive belief of the early Christian church. He also wrote De nobilitate et praecellentia feminei sexus, dedicated to Margaret of Burgundy, De matrimonii sacramento and other smaller works. An edition of his works was published at Leyden in 155o and they have been republished several times.
See H. Morley, Life of H. C. Agrippa (London, 1856) ; A. Prost, Les sciences et les arts occultes au XVI. siecle: Corneille Agrippa, sa vie et ses oeuvres (Paris, 1881) ; A Daguet, Cornelius Agrippa (Paris, 1856) ; J. Orsier, H. C. Agrippa, sa Vie et son Oeuvre (1911) .