Agrippa Henry Cornelius

Agrippa, Henry Cornelius, born at Cologne in 1486 of a noble and ancient family. Entering the service of the Emperor Maximilian as secretary, he fought in the Italian wars, but soon abandoned arms for learning. He visited France, Spain, and England, lecturing on theology, between 1507 and 1510. After a sojourn in his native-place he again joined Maximilian in Italy, and lectured at Pavia and Turin. His opposition to monkish legends and to prosecutions for witchcraft brought upon him the enmity of the Dominicans. He was driven out of Metz, where he held important municipal offices, and reports were spread as to his familiarity with the "black art." We find him successively dwelling at Cologne, Geneva, and Lyons, and for a time he enjoyed a pension from Francis I. of France, but losing the favour of the Queen Mother, took refuge with the Emperor Charles V. in the Netherlands, and became his historiographer. On the publication (1530) of two treatises upon Occult Philosophy and the Vanity of the Sciences he was again persecuted by the Inquisition, but Cardinals Campeggio and de la Marck protected him. Imprisoned for a time at Brussels, he next went to Bonn, and thence to Lyons, where he was once more incarcerated, this time for a libel on the Queen Mother. He was released, and died at Grenoble in 1535. Though influenced by Luther, he remained till death within the pale of the Roman Church, and his writings show him to have been a Christian, with a tendency towards Quietist doctrines. He was thrice married.