Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa | |
|---|---|
 Engraving by Theodor de Bry, 1598 | |
| Born | 14 September 1486 |
| Died | 18 February 1535(1535-02-18) (aged 48) |
| Alma mater | University of Cologne |
| Occupations | Occult writer,theologian,physician, legal expert, andsoldier |
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (/əˈɡrɪpə/;German:[aˈgʀɪpa]; 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535) was a GermanRenaissancepolymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, knight, theologian, andoccult writer.[1][2]
Agrippa'sThree Books of Occult Philosophy published in 1533 drew heavily uponKabbalah,Hermeticism, andNeoplatonism. His book was widely influential among esotericists of the early modern period, and was condemned asheretical by the inquisitor of Cologne.[3]
Agrippa was born in Nettesheim, nearCologne, on 14 September 1486, to a family of middle nobility.[1] In letters later in life he wrote that members of his family had been in the service of theHouse of Habsburg,[4] although such claims may have been motivated by a desire to gain the support of potential patrons.[5] On the record of his matriculation at theUniversity of Cologne in 1499, he is listed simply as a citizen of Cologne, and his father's name is recorded as Henricus de Nettesheym.[5][6] Agrippa studied at the university from 1499 to 1502, (age 13–16) when he received the degree ofmagister artium.[1] The University of Cologne was one of the centers ofThomism, and the faculty of arts was split between the dominant Thomists and theAlbertists. It is likely that Agrippa's interest in the occult came from this Albertist influence.[7] Agrippa himself namedAlbert’sSpeculum as one of his first occult study texts.[7] He later studied at theUniversity of Paris, where he apparently took part in a secret society involved in the occult.[1]
In 1508 Agrippa traveled to Spain to work as amercenary.[1] He continued his travels by way ofValencia, theBaleares,Sardinia,Naples,Avignon, andLyon.[1] He served as a captain in the army ofMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, who awarded him the title ofRitter (knight).[1]
Agrippa's academic career began in 1509, receiving the patronage ofMargaret of Austria, governor ofFranche-Comté, and Antoine de Vergy, archbishop ofBesançon and chancellor of theUniversity of Dole.[7] He was given the opportunity to lecture a course at the University on Hebrew scholarJohann Reuchlin'sDe verbo mirifico.[7] At Dole, Agrippa wroteDe nobilitate et praecellentia foeminae sexus (On the Nobility and Excellence of the Feminine Sex), a work that aimed at proving the superiority of women usingcabalistic ideas.[1][7] The book was probably intended to impress Duchess Margaret.[7] Agrippa’s lectures received attention, and he was given adoctorate in theology because of them.[1] He was, however, denounced by theFranciscan prior Jean Catilinet as a "Judaizing heretic", and was forced to leaveDole in 1510.[1][2]
In the winter of 1509–1510 Agrippa returned to Germany and studied with humanist, Abbot of Würzburg,Johannes Trithemius atWürzburg.[1] On 8 April 1510 he dedicated the then unpublished first draft ofDe occulta philosophia ("On the Occult Philosophy") to Trithemius, who recommended that Agrippa keep his occult studies secret.[1] Proceeding to the Netherlands he took service again with Maximilian. In 1510 the king sent Agrippa on a diplomatic mission to England, where he was the guest of the Humanist and PlatonistJohn Colet, dean ofSt Paul's Cathedral, and where he replied to the accusations brought against him by Catilinet (Expostulatio super Expositione sua in librum De verbo mirifico).[4][1] In the reply he argued that his Christian faith was not incompatible with his appreciation for Jewish thought, writing "I am a Christian, but I do not dislike Jewish Rabbis".[1] Agrippa then returned to Cologne and gavedisputations at the university's faculty of theology.[1]
Agrippa followed emperor Maximilian toItaly in 1511, and as a theologian attended the schismaticcouncil of Pisa (1512), which was called by some cardinals in opposition to a council called by PopeJulius II. He remained in Italy for seven years, partly in the service ofWilliam IX, Marquess of Montferrat, and partly in that ofCharles III, Duke of Savoy, probably occupied in teaching theology and practicing medicine.[4] During his time in northern Italy Agrippa came into contact with Agostino Ricci and perhapsPaolo Ricci, and studied the works of philosophersMarsilio Ficino andGiovanni Pico della Mirandola, and thekabbalah.[1] In 1515 he lectured at theUniversity of Pavia on thePimander ofHermes Trismegistus, but these lectures were abruptly terminated owing to the victories ofFrancis I, King of France.[4][2]
In 1518 the efforts of one or other of his patrons secured for Agrippa the position of town advocate and orator, orsyndic, atMetz. Here, as at Dole, his opinions soon brought him into collision with the monks, and his defense of a woman accused of witchcraft involved him in a dispute with theinquisitor, Nicholas Savin. The consequence of this was that in 1520 he resigned his office and returned to hometown Cologne, where he stayed about two years. He then practiced for a short time as a physician atGeneva andFreiburg, but in 1524 went toLyon on being appointed physician toLouise of Savoy, mother ofFrancis I. In 1528 he gave up this position, and about this time was invited to take part in the dispute over the legality of the divorce ofCatherine of Aragon byHenry VIII; but he preferred an offer made byMargaret, duchess of Savoy and regent of the Netherlands, and became archivist and historiographer to the her nephew, emperorCharles V.[4]
Margaret's death in 1530 weakened his position, and the publication of some of his writings about the same time aroused anew the hatred of his enemies; but after suffering a short imprisonment for debt atBrussels he lived atCologne andBonn, under the protection ofHermann of Wied, archbishop of Cologne. By publishing his works he brought himself into antagonism with theInquisition, which sought to stop the printing ofDe occulta philosophia. He then went to France, where he was arrested by order of Francis I for some disparaging words about the queen-mother Louise of Savoy; but he was soon released, and on 18 February 1535 died atGrenoble. He was married three times and had a large family.[4]
During his wandering life in Germany, France, and Italy, Agrippa worked as a theologian, physician, legal expert, and soldier.[citation needed] Agrippa was for some time in the service ofMaximilian I, probably as a soldier in Italy, but devoted his time mainly to the study of the occult sciences and to problematic theological legal questions, which exposed him to various persecutions through life, usually in the mode described above: He would be privately denounced for one sort of heresy or another. He would only reply with venom considerably later (Nauert demonstrates this pattern effectively).
No evidence exists that Agrippa was seriously accused, much less persecuted, for his interest in or practice of magical or occult arts during his lifetime, although it was known he argued against the persecution of witches.[8] It is impossible, of course, to cite negatively, but Nauert, the best bio-bibliographical study to date, shows no indication of such persecution, and Van der Poel's careful examination of the various attacks suggest that they were founded on quite other theological grounds.
Recent scholarship (see Further Reading below, in Lehrich, Nauert, and Van der Poel) generally agrees that this rejection or repudiation of magic is not what it seems: Agrippa never rejected magic in its totality, but he did retract his early manuscript of theOccult Philosophy – to be replaced by the later form.[a]
In theThird Book of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa concludes with:
But of magic I wrote whilst I was very young three large books, which I called Of Occult Philosophy, in which what was then through the curiosity of my youth erroneous, I now being more advised, am willing to have retracted, by this recantation; I formerly spent much time and costs in these vanities. At last I grew so wise as to be able to dissuade others from this destruction. For whosoever do not in the truth, nor in the power of God, but in the deceits of devils, according to the operation of wicked spirits presume to divine and prophesy, and practising through magical vanities, exorcisms, incantations and other demoniacal works and deceits of idolatry, boasting of delusions, and phantasms, presently ceasing, brag that they can do miracles, I say all these shall withJannes, and Jambres, andSimon Magus, be destinated to the torments of eternal fire.[9]
According to his studentJohann Weyer, in the 1563 bookDe praestigiis daemonum, Agrippa died inGrenoble, in 1535.[10]
Agrippa is perhaps best known for his books.
De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum atque artium declamatio invectiva (Declamation Attacking the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences and the Arts, 1526; printed in Cologne 1527), a skeptical satire of the sad state of science. This book, a significant production of the revival ofPyrrhonic skepticism in itsfideist mode, was to have a significant influence on such thinkers and writers asMontaigne,Descartes andGoethe.[citation needed]
Declamatio de nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus (Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex, 1529),[11] a book pronouncing the theological and moral superiority of women. Edition with English translation, London 1652.[12]
De occulta philosophia libri tres (Three Books Concerning Occult Philosophy, Book 1 printed Paris 1531; Books 2–3 in Cologne 1533). This summa of occult and magical thought, Agrippa's most important work in a number of respects, sought a solution to theskepticism proposed inDe vanitate. In short, Agrippa argued for a synthetic vision of magic whereby the natural world combined with the celestial and the divine throughNeoplatonic participation, such that ordinarily licitnatural magic was in fact validated by a kind of sourced ultimately from God. By this means Agrippa proposed a magic that could resolve allepistemological problems raised by skepticism in a total validation of Christian faith.[13]
One example of the text, not especially indicative of its broader contents, is Agrippa's analysis of herbal treatments formalaria in numeric terms:
Rabanus also, a famous Doctor, composed an excellent book of the vertues of numbers: But now how great vertues numbers have in nature, is manifest in the hearb which is calledCinquefoil, i.e. five leaved Grass; for this resists poysons by vertue of the number of five; also drives away divells, conduceth to expiation; and one leafe of it taken twice in a day in wine, cures the Feaver of one day: three the tertian Feaver: foure the quartane. In like manner four grains of the seed ofTurnisole being drunk, cures the quartane, but three the tertian. In like mannerVervin is said to cure Feavers, being drunk in wine, if in tertians it be cut from the third joynt, in quartans from the fourth.[citation needed]
The book was a major influence on such later magical thinkers asGiordano Bruno andJohn Dee. The book (whose early draft, quite different from the final form, circulated in manuscript long before it was published) is often cited in discussions ofAlbrecht Dürer's famous engravingMelencolia I (1514).
A spuriousFourth book of occult philosophy, sometimes calledOf Magical Ceremonies, has also been attributed to him; this book first appeared in Marburg in 1559 and is not believed to have been written by Agrippa.[14]
De occulta philosophia libri tres
Other works
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Agrippa Von Nettesheim, Henry Cornelius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 426.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) Provides a scholarly summary of Agrippa's occult thoughts in the context of Hermeticism.
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