AGRIPPA, HENRY CORNELIUS, celc:brated as one of the reformers of learning, was born on the 14th Septem ber, 1486, at Cologne, of the noble and ancient family of Nettesheym. Following the profession of his ancestors, who had long been in the service of the house of Aus tria, he entered early into the army. Here his talents procured him the situation of secretary to the emperor Maximilian ; and after seven years service in Italy, where he exhibited many proofs of his valour, he was invested by that monarch with the honour of knighthood. Agrippa, however, was not satisfied with military glory : He panted after literary distinction ; and, by his exten sive acquirements in languages, and his acquaintance with the sciences of the times, he soon obtained the honours to which he aspired.
After being created Doctor of Laws and Physic, his attention was engaged by the chimerical projects of the alchemists. He was recommended to several princes, as peculiarly qualified to find the philosopher's stone, the grand talisman for converting the baser metals into gold ; and while he looked forward to opulence and fame as the recompense of this great discovery, his liberty was frequently endangered, from the avarice of the powerful, who were desirous to obtain possession of a man whom they imagined to be blessed with such pe culiar accomplishments.
With these wild and romantic views, Agrippa began his travels, and spent a considerable time in Spain, France, England, and Italy. When he was at Dole, in Burgundy, he read lectures in the college, in order to explain the mysterious work of Reuchlin, De Verb° Mirffico ; and was honoured with the applause, as well as with the presence, of the counsellors of parlia ment.
To obtain the good graces of Margaret of Austria, he composed his Treatise on the Excellence of Women ; but having unfortunately provoked the hostility of the monks, by the freedom and novelty of his commenta ries on Reuchlin, he was prevented from publishing it, and was induced to depart for England, where he em ployed himself in studying the Epistles of St Paul.
Upon his return to the continent, he read lectures on theology at Cologne. He then joined the army of Max imilian in Italy, where he continued till he was sent for to the council at Pisa. When this assembly was dis solved, he gave a course of theological lectures at Pavia and Turin. During such a wandering and unsettled life, Agrippa was unable to provide for the wants of a wife and son, for whom he cherished the warmest affection. He was therefore compelled to quit Pavia, and return to his friends at Cologne ; by whose exertions, to pro cure him an honourable and permanent settlement, he obtained the office of Syndic, Advocate, and Orator to the city of Metz. This respectable office, however, Agrippa was not destined to enjoy. The freedom of thought which he had formerly ventured to exercise at Dole was not soon forgotten; and the monks, who con tinued to follow him with an evil eye, soon found, in the imprudence of Agrippa, sufficient means to excite against him new jealousies and persecutions. Having ventured to refute some foolish notions respecting the mother of the Virgin Mary, and to save from the stake an unhappy female, who was supposed to have inherited witchcraft from her parents, the unextinguished hosti lity of the clergy again broke forth, and compelled him, in 1520, to return for shelter to his native city. The restlessness of his temper did hot permit him to remain long at Cologne. He removed to Geneva in 1521, to Friburg in 1523, and to Lyons in 1526, w here lie sm., ccssively practised as a physician.
Louisa of Savoy, the mother of Francis I., to whom Agrippa was now engaged as physician at Lyons, with a handsome pension from her son, requested him to in form her, upon the principles of astrology, what suc cess would attend the arms of Francis i., in the war which he then carried on with the Constable of Bour bon. With this simple request Agrippa was not dis posed to comply. lie reprobated the curiosity of the
lady as idle and impertinent, and refused to debase his understanding, by exercising it on so ignoble a subject. Unfortunately, however, for Agrippa, lic had on some former occasion calculated the nativity of the Constable, and promised him, from the aspect of the heavens, a glorious triumph over the arms of France. This cir cumstance soon reached the ears of his royal mistress ; and though she might have borne from Agrippa the indignity of a refusal, she could not brook the thought that he had granted the same favour to another, and flattered with the hopes of victory the enemies of her country. Agrippa was dismissed from her service ; his pension was stopped, and his name struck from the civil list. This severe retaliation made a deep impres sion upon his mind. Again abandoned to the mercy of the world, he could not conceal the mortification and chagrin which preyed upon his spirits. Neither the re membrance of former sufferings, nor the consciousness of integrity, could calm the tempest of indignation that agitated his breast : It burst forth with the most licen tious fury ; and Agrippa, execrating the perfidy of his mistress, and threatening revenge against the courtiers that had ruined him, displayed in his conduct all the impotent violence of the passions. As soon as reason had resumed its influence, he began to look around him for a new settlement. He fixed upon Antwerp, in the Low Countries, where he arrived in 1528, and where the singular variety of his talents excited universal no tice, and procured him numerous offers of distinguished patronage. In the year 1529, he received invitations from Henry VIII. of England, from the chancellor of the emperor, from an Italian marquis, and from Marga ret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries. Agrip pa accepted the patronage of Margaret of Austria, who immediately appointed him historiographer to her bro ther the emperor. In this honourable situation, he soon found leisure for prosecuting his literary studies. He published " The history of the Government of Charles V.;" and in 1530, appeared his work, entitled " The Vanity of the Sciences." In composing this treatise, Agrippa seems to have forgotten the consequences of his former imprudence. With an unmerciful hand, he lashed the vices and prejudices of the times ; and at such a signal the whole swarm of monks and theologians were in arms. Working upon the weak mind of Mar garet of Austria, they persuaded her to desert her friend ; and so far did she carry her hostility, that she even in duced the emperor to withdraw the pension of Agrippa, and suffered him to be imprisoned for debt at Brussels, in 1531. The death of Margaret, which happened soon after, relieved Agrippa from confinement ; but his tran quillity was again disturbed by the publication of his " Occult Philosophy ;" in which he proposed to explain the harmony of the elementary, the intellectual, and the celestial worlds. Though this work met with the ap probation of many eminent prelates, the inferior clergy suspected that error and heresy lurked in its pages, and succeeded in preventing the publication of a second edition. This success, however, was only temporary : Agrippa published his work at Cologne, in 1533; and, in an apology fur himself to the senate of his native city, he inveighed with freedom and warmth against the bigo try of his accusers. The violent resentment excited by this new attack upon the clergy, involved Agrippa in fresh calamities. He was compelled to withdraw to Bonn, from which, after a short stay, he returned to Lyons. I Icre he was thrown into prison, on account of some satirical compositions which he had published against the mother of Francis 1. ; and being released 0 • from confinement by the interposition of his friends, he retired to Grenoble, where he died in 1535, at the age of forty-nine.