A G R 



attar'nmcnt to the old religion, though lie lived among 

 Lutherans. He died at Chemnitz, November 21, 1555, 

 and was buried at Zeitz ; the bigotry of his townfmen not 

 allovriiig him a grave ->.mong them. G. Fabricins, his in- 

 timate friend, compofcd the following epigram on his 

 works ; 



«« Viderat Agricolir, Plircbo monllninte, hbellos, 



Jupiter, et t:tles cdidit ore fonos. 



Ex ipfo hie tcrnc tiiefauros eruet orco, 



Et fratris pandct tertia legna mci. 



His works on mines, pnbliflied originally in parts, were 

 coUefted and printed together, at Balil, i J46, in folio. 

 They are chiefly compreU'ended under the following titles : 

 " De ortu et cauiis fubtcnaneorum ;" " De Nature eorum 

 qux efflunnt ex terra ;" " De Natura Follilium ;" De Medi- 

 catis Fontibus ;" " De Subterrantis Animantibus ;" and 

 " De vcteribus tt novis Metallis." His great work, " De re 

 Metalliea," was printed at tlie fame place, 1 56 1 , aUo in folio ; 

 " De Mcnfuris et Poiideribus, Romanorum et Gra:conim," 

 with additions referring to modern times, 1 550, folio; 

 " De I'elte Llbri tres," Bafil, 1554, 8vo; "Opus de 

 Foffilihus, cum Annotationibus Georgii F;-.bricii," 1657. 

 He alfo v.rotc other treatifis on political and theological 

 fubjefts. 



Agricola, John, a Saxon divine, was born at Eiile- 

 ben, in Germany, April 20th, 1492. Mofheim defciibes 

 him as an eminent doAor of the Lutheran church, though 

 chargeable with vanity, prefumption, and artifice. He was 

 miniller, and principal of a college in his own countiy ; 

 ;md attended the eleftor of Saxony to the diet of Spire, in 

 1526; and to that of Auglburgh, in 1530. Urged by 

 ambition, he quitted his own countiy in 1536, and went to 

 Wittemberg, where he fettled as a profelTor and miniiler. 

 Although he wrote againft Melanithon, in 1527, he was 

 not much noticed before the year 1538, when he took oc- 

 cafion, from the doftrine of Luther, concerning the 

 ground of man's acceptance and falvation, to declaim 

 againft the Ltw ; maintaining, that it w.is neither fit to be 

 propofed to the people as a rule of manners, nor to be 

 ufed in the churcli as a means of inftruftion ; and that the 

 gofpel alone was to be inculcated and explained, both in the 

 churches and in the fchools of learning : and he thus be- 

 came the founder of the feft of Antinomians. Luther, 

 who had been before his friend, attacked him with great 

 feverity ; and his accufations were fupported by the divines 

 of Wittemberg. At length, by the interpolition of the 

 tleftors of Saxony and of Brandenburg, Agricola was in- 

 duced to publifh a recantation of his errors, and to retratl 

 the injurious reproaches which he had cafl upon Luther. 

 Mofneim fays, this recantation does not feem to have been 

 fincere ; as he returned to his errors, when his fears were 

 difpeUed by the death of Luther, and gained profelytes to 

 his extravagant doftrine. Agricola was employed by 

 Charles V., in 154S, in conjuntlion with other perfons, 

 and liberally revcarded, in compofing the Interim. It is 

 faid, that he wanted to reftore the ufe of holy oil in the 

 cafe of the fick ; and that he attributed a fupernatural effi- 

 cacy 13 it. Some have faid, that he was a Papill ; and 

 Others charge him with being a man of pkafure, and with 

 maintaining all religions to be in themfelves really indifferent. 

 When he left Saxony, he was patronized at the court of 

 Bnindenburg, by the eleftor Joachim II. whofe favour he 

 emoyed till his death, which happened at Berhn, in 1566. 

 His " Exphcation of German Proverbs," and his " Com- 

 mentaries upon St. Luke," are the principal of his works, 

 Gen. Dift. Molh. Eccl. Hift.vol. iv. p. 321, &c. 



Agricola, Mar.tin, a theoretic and praitical mufician, 



A G R 



who was chanter of Magdeburg, and (louilfhed about the 

 middle of the i6th century. -He died, June loth, 1556. 

 His works are two trtatiles on mufic, written in German 

 verfe, and pnblilhed at ^\'ittembcrg, in 152^ and 1529; the 

 latter of which, i':'~.. " Mufica Inllrumcntalis," was rc- 

 publifhed, with large additions, in IJ45 ; and contains an 

 explanation of the fundamentals of nuilie, together with a 

 dclcription of the indruments ufed in his time, and the me- 

 tliod of playing upon them ; and an account of the divifion 

 of the monochord, and of a temperature for the organ and 

 harpfichord ; a tract " on Figurate Mulic," and a brief 

 treatife " De Proportionibns :" a tieatife, iutitled, " Scho- 

 lia in Muficam planam Wecenflai Philomutis ex variis Muli- 

 corum fcriptis por Magdeb. Scliola colleftis :" a larger 

 work, intitled, " Melodiae Scholafticic fub horaiiim inter- 

 vallis decantandx," publiflied at Magdeburg in 1682 ; and a 

 polthumous W(n-k, intitled " Duo Libri Mulices continentes 

 compendium Artis, et illuftria Excmpla, &:c." publilhed in 

 1561. His feveral treatifes were deiigned for the inltruftioi* 

 of beginners in the iludy of mufic. Hawkins's Hill. Mulic. 

 vol. iii. p. 83. 



Agricola, Michaei,, a Lutheran minifter at Abo, in 

 Finland, was the firtl who tianllated the New Tellament 

 into the language of the country, and thus contributed to 

 the propagation of Lutheranifni. It was printed in 1548. 

 He died in 1556. Gen. Did. 



Agricola, Rodolphus, was born in the village of 

 Bafflon, near Groningen, in Friefland, in the year 1442; 

 and diftinguifhed by his love and purfuit of literature. 

 Having tinilhed his education at Louvain, where he main- 

 tained an exemplary charafter for fobriety and application, 

 he declined the profelfor's chair, which was offered him, 

 and vilited France and Italy for farther improvement. At 

 Ferrara, he ihidied Greek, and availed himfelf of the lec- 

 tures of philofophy that were read by Theodore Gaza; and 

 at tlie fame time taught Latin, which he was able to write 

 with fo much purity and elegance as to rival Guarini, in 

 profe ; and the Strozzas, celebrated writers at that period, 

 in verfe. After a rehdence of two years in Ferrara, he 

 returned to the Netherlands, about the year 1477 ; and, at 

 Daveiiter, had an interview with Erafmus, whofe future 

 celebrity, though he was then a boy of ten years old, he 

 had the fagacity to predict. His love of independence^ 

 and his folicitude for ftcuring leifure to indulge his literary 

 talle, induced him to forego feveral offices of honour and 

 profit, which he might have obtained by the favour of the 

 emperor Maximihan I. At length, in 14S2, he fettled in 

 the Palatinate, reliding fom.etimes at Heidelberg, and fome- 

 times at Worms, and delivering occafional leftures in polite 

 literature. The Eleftor Palatine was his auditor ; and in 

 compliance with his requeft, Agricola compofed, " An 

 Abridgment of Ancient Hiftory." He vras alfo much 

 refpedled by John d'Alburgh, bifhop of Worms, whom he 

 had inftrufted in the Greek language. About the 40th 

 year of his age he direfted his thoughts to the ftudy of' 

 divinity ; and by the affiflance of a Jew, made confiderable 

 progrefs in the Hebrew language ; but death put a flop 

 to his literary purfuits, at Heidelberg, in 1485. Although 

 his natural temper, which was chara (fieri fed by a fondnefs 

 for eafe and leifure, was altogether inconliilent with the 

 aftive exertions of a reformer, he feems, however, to have 

 deplored the darknefs of the cburch, and to have had fome 

 ghmpfe of the light which illuminated it in the next cen- 

 tuiy. The indolence of his difpofition prevented his enter- 

 ing into the married flate, though he profeffed an attach- 

 ment to the female fex ; and took pleafure in amufing 

 them with elegant verfes, and with mufieal performances, 

 both vocal and jnftrumental, in which he excelled. To 



Agricola 



