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v hich had been pofleffed by Herod his brother. Thus 
Agrippa became on a hidden one of the greateft princes 
of the eaft; and was pofTeffed of as much, if not more, 
territories than what had been held by Herod the Great 
his grandfather. He returned to Judea, and governed it 
to the grdat fatisfadlion of the Jews. But the define of 
pleafing them, and a miftaken zeal for their religion, in¬ 
duced him to commit an unjuft adtion, the memory of 
which is preferved in Scripture, Adts xii. i,2,&c. for 
about the feaft of the pailbver, in the,year of Chrift 44, 
St. James major, the fon of Zebedee and brother to St. 
John the Evangelift, was feized by Ids order and put to 
death. He proceeded alfo to lav hands on St. Peter, and 
imprifoned him, waiting till the feftival was over, that lie 
might have him executed. But, God having miraculouf- 
ly delivered St. Peter from the place of his confinement, 
the defigns of Agrippa were fi uprated. After the pa (To 
ver, this prince went from Jerufalem to Carfarea, and there 
had games performed in honour of Claudius.; Here the 
inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon waited on him to fine for 
peace. Agrippa being come early in the morning to the 
theatre, with a defig'n to give them audience, feated him- 
fclf on his throne, drelled in a robe of lilver tifUie, worked 
in the moll admirable manner. The riling fun darted on 
it with its rays, and gave it Inch a htflre as the eyes of the 
fpectators could not endure. When therefore the king 
fpoke to the Tyrians and Sidonians, the parafites around 
him began to lay, that it was the voice of a god and not 
that of a man. Inftead of rejecting thefe impious flatte¬ 
ries, Agrippa received them with an air of complacency; 
but at the fame time obferved an owl above him on a 
cord. He had feen the fame bird before when he was in 
bonds by order of Tiberius; and it was then told him, 
that he fliould be foon at liberty : but that, w henever lie 
law the fame thing a fecond time, he fnould not live above 
five days afterwards. He was therefore extremely terri¬ 
fied ; and he died at the end of five days, racked with 
tormenting pains in his bowels, and devoured with worms. 
Such was the death of Herod Agrippa, after a reign of 
only feven years. 
Agrippa ii. fon of the preceding, was made king of 
Chalcide ; but, about four years after, lie was deprived of 
that kingdom by Claudius, who gave him in the place of 
it other provinces. In the war Vefpalian carried on againlt 
the Jews, this prince lent him a fuccour of 2000 men; by 
which it appears, that, though a Jew by religion, he was 
yet entirely devoted to the Romans, whofe alliftance in¬ 
deed he wanted, to fecure the peace of his own kingdom. 
He lived to the third year of Trajan, and died at Rome, 
A. C. 100. He was the feventh and lafi king of the fa¬ 
mily of Herod the Great. It was before him, and Bere¬ 
nice his filter, that St. Paul pleaded his caufe at Caefarea. 
AGRirrA (Marcus Vefpanius), fon-in-law to Auguf- 
tus, of mean birth, but one of the moll confiderable ge¬ 
nerals among the Romans. Auguftus’s victory over Pom- 
pey and Mark Antony was owing to his cou'rifel. He 
adorned the city with the pantheon, baths, aqueducts, &c, 
Agrippa (Henry Cornelius), a man of coniiderable 
learning, and a great magician according to report, was 
born at Cologne, the 14th of September, i486, of a noble 
family. He was very early in the fervice of the emperor 
Maximilian ; afted at firft as his lecretary; but, being no 
lefs foimed for the fword than the pen, he afterwards 
took to the profeflion of arms, and ferved that emperor 
feven years in Italy, where he diftinguifhed himfelf in fe- 
veral engagements, and received the honour of knighthood 
for his gallant behaviour. To his military honours he 
was delirous likevvife to add thofe of the univerfities, and 
accordingly took the degrees of doftor of laws and phy- 
fic. He was a man of an extenfive genius, and well lkil- 
led in many parts of knowledge, and a variety of langua¬ 
ges. His infatiable curiofity, the freedom of his pen, and 
the inconllancy of his temper, involved him in many mis¬ 
fortunes: he was continually changing his fituation; al¬ 
ways engaging himfelf in fome difficulty or other; and, 
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fo complete his troubles, he drew upon himfelf the hatred 
of the ecclefiaftics by his writings. In order to ingratiate 
himfelf into the favour of Margaret of Aultria, governefs- 
of the Low’ Countries, he compofed a treatife “ On the 
Excellence of Women;” but the perfecution he met With 
from the monks prevented him from publilhing it, and 
obliged him to go over to England, where lie wrote a 
Commentary upon St. Paul’s Epilfles. Upon his return to 
Cologne, he read public lectures upon thofe queftions in 
divinity which are called Quodlibdaks. 
In the year 1515, he read lectures upon Mercurius. 
Trifmegiftus at Pavia. He left this city the fame year, or 
the year following. By his fecond book of Letters we 
find, that his friends endeavoured to procure him fome 
honourable fettlement at Grenoble, Geneva, Avignon, or 
Metz: he chofe the lad of thefe places; and in 1518, was 
employed as fyndic, advocate, and counfdlor, for that 
city. The perfecutions railed againft him by the monks, 
becaufe he had refuted a vulgar notion about St. Anne’s 
three hulbands, and becaufe he protected a countrywo¬ 
man who was accufed of witchcraft, obliged him to leave 
the city of Metz. Agrippa retired to Cologne in the year 
1520, leaving without regret a city which thofe turbulent 
inquifitors had rendered averfe to all polite literature and 
real merit. He left his own country in 1521, and went to 
Geneva: here his income mull have been inconfidefable; 
for he complai ns of not having enough to defray his expell¬ 
ees to Chamberi, in order to folicit a penlion from the 
duke of Savoy. I11 this however his hopes were difap- 
pointed ; and, in 1523, he removed to Fribourg, in Swit¬ 
zerland. The year following he went to Lyons, and ob¬ 
tained a penlion from Francis I. He was appointed phy- 
iician to the king’s mother; but this did not turn out fo 
much to his advantage as might be expended, nor did he 
attend her at her departure from Lyons, in Augufl 1525, 
when fhe went to conduct her daughter to tire borders of 
Spain. He was left behind at Lyons, and was obliged to 
implore the alliftance of his friends in order to obtain his 
fiilary; and, before he received it, had the mortification of 
being informed that he was (truck oft the lift. The caufe 
of Ins difgrace was, that, having received orders from 
his miftrefs to examine by the rules of aftrology what 
fuecefs would attend the affairs of France, he too freely 
exprefted his diftike that (lie fhould employ him in fuch 
idle curiofities, inftead of things of confequence : at which 
the lady was highly offended ; and became yet more irri¬ 
tated againft him, when (lie underftood that his aftro’ogi- 
cal calculations promifed new fuccefles to the conftable of 
Bourbon. Agrippa, finding himfelf thus abandoned, 
gave way to the utmofl rage and impetuofity of temper : 
he wrote feveral menacing letters, and threatened to pub- 
lilh fome books, wherein he would expofe the fecret hif- 
tory of thofe'eourtiers who had worked his ruin: nay, he 
proceeded fo far as to fay, that he would for the future, 
account that princefs, to whom he had been counfellor and 
phyfician, as a cruel and perfidious Jezebel. 
He now refolved to remove to the Low Countries; this 
he could not do without a paflport, which he at length 
obtained, after many tedious delays, and arrived at An¬ 
twerp in July 1328. The duke de Vendome was the prin¬ 
cipal caufe of thefe delays; for he, inftead of figning the 
paffport, tore it in pieces in a paffion, profefting he would 
never fign it for a conjurer. In 1529, Agrippa had invi¬ 
tations from Henry king of England, from the chancellor 
of the emperor, from an Italian marquis, and from Mar¬ 
garet of Auftria, governefs of the Low Countries: he 
preferred the laft, and accepted of being hiftoriographer 
to the emperor, which w’as offered him by that princefs. 
He publifhed, by way of introduction, the Hiftory of the 
Government of Charles V. Soon after, Margaret of 
Auftria died, and he fpoke her funeral oration. His 
treatife “ Of the Vanity of the Sciences,” which he pub¬ 
lifhed in 1530, greatly enraged his enemies; and that which 
he foon after printed at Antwerp, “ Of the Occult Phil.o- 
fophy,” afforded them frefli pretexts for defaming his re¬ 
putation. 
