AGRIP'PA, CORNELIUS HENRY, a remarkable character of the 16th c., distinguished as writer, philosopher and physician, who united great ability and extensive acquire ments with quackery, was born of a noble family at Cologne, 1486. He led an adven turous and unsettled life, quite in the spirit of his times. As early as 1509, he was appointed teacher of theology at Dole, in Franche Comte, and attracted great attention by his lectures; but having by his bitter satires on the monks drawn upon himself the hatred of that body, he was accused of heresy, and obliged to leave Dole. He next taught theology for some time in Cologne, occupying himself at the same time with alchemy, and then went to Italy, where he took military service under Maximilian I., and was knighted. He was afterwards made doctor of laws and of medicine, and gave lectures at Pavia, until, burdened with debt, he fled to Casale. After a time lie was appointed syndic of Metz; but in 1520 he was again in Cologne, having excited the hos tility of the inquisition and of the monks by his defense of a witch. His old enemies, the monks, persecuted him still in Cologne, so that lie went to Freiburg in Switzerland, where he began to practice as a physician. In 1524, he went again to Metz, and there
he gained such a reputation that the mother of Francis I. chose him as her physician. As he declined to prophesy the issue of the campaign that Francis I. undertook in 1525. in Italy, he lost his post and went to Holland. Here he wrote his celebrated book, De Incertitudine etVanitate Scientictrum (Cologne, 1527), a biting satire on the sciences as they then existed. An accusation against hint having been brought before Charles V., on account of this book, he again became a fugitive, and repaired to Lyon. He there found the hatred he had early excited iu France not yet extinguished, and was imprisoned; but being liberated, through the exertions of his friends, he retired to Grenoble, where he d. (1535). A.was a clear-headed man, and had the merit of successfully combating many of the prejudices of his age. His book, De Oceulta Philosaphia, containing a systematic account of the cabala (q.v.), directly contradicts the above work. A complete collec tion of his writings appeared at Lyon, 2 vols., without date (about 1550). See Life of A., and analysis of his works, by II. Morley (1856).