formation of its state from a chief who had been banished from thence. In his sixth campaign he passed the firth of Forth, ordering his fleet, the first which the Romans ever had upon those seas, to row along the coasts, and take a view of the northern parts. He was advancing farther northwards, when he was informed that the northern nations were marching against him with a formidable army, which he routed. In the following spring the Britons raised an army of thirty thousand men, commanded by Galgacus, who endeavoured to rouse their patriotism by an admirable speech which may be seen in Tacitus, and which seems adapted to the case of every nation about to lose its liberties by the invasion of a powerful enemy. Agricola on this occasion likewise addressed his soldiers in a very eloquent harangue, which was so prevailing, that the Britons were routed, with the loss of ten thousand killed; whereas but three hundred and forty of the Romans were killed. Domitian, being informed of this victory, grew jealous of the conqueror, and recalled him under pretence of making him governor of Syria. His death was suspected to have been occasioned by poison given him by that emperor; and, as Tacitus remarks, happened very seasonably for him, as he did not live to witness the calamities brought upon his country by the cruelty of Domitian. He died Aug. 23, A. D. 93, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. It is scarcely needful to remind our readers that his life was affectionately written by his son-in-law Tacitus, who gives him a very high character, but not more than is warranted by contemporary authority; at least we are acquainted with no documents that can detract from it.' AGRICOLA (GEORGE), a German physician, eminent for his knowledge of metallurgy, was born at Glaucha in Misnia, March 24, 1494. The discoveries which he made in the mountains of Bohemia after his return from Italy, whither he went to pursue his studies, gave him such a taste for examining every thing that related to metals, that when engaged in the practice of physic at Joachimstal in Misnia, he employed all the time he could possibly spare in the study of fossils; and at length removed to Chemintz, that he might wholly devote himself to this pursuit. He is said to have applied to it with such disinterested zeal, that he not only spent the pension procured for him from Maurice, duke of Saxony, but a considerable part of his own estate; and when duke Maurice and duke Augustus went to join the army of Charles V. in Bohemia, Agricola attended them, in order to demonstrate his attachment, although this obliged him to quit the care of his family and estate. He died at Chemintz, Nov. 21, 1555. He was a zealous Roman Catholic, but was considered by the Lutherans as in some respects an apostate from the reformed religion, and they carried their rancour against him so far as to refuse his body the rites of burial. It was therefore obliged to be removed from Chemintz to Zeits, where it was interred in the principal church. Bayle thinks that he must have irritated the Lutherans by some instances of excessive aversion to them, and Peter Albinus represents him as an intolerant bigot. His works are "De ortu et causis Subterraneorum. De natura eorum, quæ effluunt ex terra. De natura Fossilium. De Medicatis Fontibus. De Subterraneis Animantibus. De veteribus et novis Metallis. De re Metallica." This last has been printed at Basil four times, in folio, 1546, 1556, 1558, and 1561, which shews the very high esteem in which it was held. His work "De ortu et causis Subterraneorum" was printed at Basil, 1583, fol. Bayle mentions a political work of his, " De bello Turcis inferendo," Basil, 1538, and a controversial treatise, " De Traditionibus Apostolicis." His principal medical work, "De Peste," was printed at Basil, 1554. He wrote also "De Ponderibus et Mensuris" against Budeus, Leonard Portius, and Alciati, which the latter endeavoured to answer, but without success. His life is written by Melchior Adam.1 1 Gen. Dict. AGRICOLA (JOHN), a Saxon divine, born at Isleben, April 20, 1492, was an eminent doctor of the Lutheran church, though chargeable with vanity, presumption, and artifice. Bayle gives rather a confused account of his life, from which, however, it appears that he made himself distinguished in 1538, upon the following occasion. Luther, in the course of his ministry, was insisting upon the necessity of imprinting deeply in the minds of the people, that doctrine of the gospel, which represents Christ's merits as the source of man's salvation; and while he was eagerly employed in censuring and refuting the popish doctors, who mixed the law and the gospel together, and repre Gen. Dict. Moreri. - Saxii Onomast. - Melchior Adam, sented eternal happiness as the fruit of legal obedience, Agricola took an opportunity to declaim against the law, maintaining that it was neither fit to be proposed to the people as a rule of manners, nor to be used in the church as a means of instruction; and that the gospel alone was to be inculcated and explained both in the churches and in the schools of learning. This was the foundation of the sect of ANTINOMIANS, who appeared in England during the usurpation of Cromwell, and carried their extravagant doctrines to a higher pitch than this Agricola. But the for titude, vigilance, and credit of Luther suppressed the followers of Agricola for the present; and Agricola himself, intimidated by the opposition of so powerful an adversary, acknowledged and renounced his system. His recantation, however, does not seem to have been sincere, since we are told that, when his fears were dispelled by the death of Luther, he returned to his errors, and gained many proselytes. Still it has been pleaded on the part of Agricola, by Mosheim, that the full extravagance of Antinomianism is not to be attributed to him, and that his principal fault lay in some harsh and inaccurate expressions, that were susceptible of dangerous and pernicious interpretations. If therefore, we follow the intention of Agricola, without interpreting, in a rigorous manner, the uncouth phrases and improper expressions he so frequently and so injudiciously employed, his doctrine, Mosheim thinks, will plainly amount to this; "That the ten commandments, published during the ministry of Moses, were chiefly designed for the Jews, and on that account might be lawfully neglected and laid aside by Christians; and that it was sufficient to explain with perspicuity, and to enforce with zeal, what Christ and his apostles had taught in the New Testament, both with respect to the means of grace and salvation, and the obligations of repentance and virtue." He died at Berlin in 1566. Agricola wrote but few books. The first was "An explanation of three hundred German Proverbs;" and in a second edition he added another hundred. He wrote also "Commentaries upon St. Luke," 8vo, and confuted the explication of the nineteenth Psalm, published in High Dutch, by Thomas Muncer. He was likewise concerned with Julius Pelugius, bishop of Naumburg, and Michael Sidonius, or Heldingus, by desire of the emperor Charles V. in drawing up a formulary, which might serve as a rule of faith and worship to the contending parties of Protestants and Papists, until a council should be summoned: this is well known in ecclesiastical history by the name of the Interim, and was opposed by many of the reformers.1 AGRICOLA (MICHEL), a native of Finland, and a Lutheran divine of considerable eminence in the sixteenth century, studied divinity and medicine in the university of Wittemberg. Having become acquainted with Luther, that reformer recommended him to Gustavus I.; and on his return to Sweden, he was made rector of Abo, in 1539. Gustavus afterwards sent him to Lapland to preach Christianity to the benighted Laplanders. In 1554, he was appointed bishop of Abo, and then went into Russia, with the archbishop of Upsal, Laurentius Petri, in order to have a conference with the clergy of that country. He died in 1557. He translated the New Testament into the Finland language, which was printed at Stockholm, 1548; and is said also to have translated into the same language a work entitled "Rituale Ecclesiæ ab erroribus pontificiorum repurgatus." AGRICOLA (RODOLPHUS), one of the most learned men of the fifteenth century, was born in 1442, in the village of Bafflon, or Baffeln, near Groningen, in Friseland. Melchior Adam says, his parents were of one of the most considerable families in Friseland; but Ubo Emmius, in his history of that country, represents him as of mean extraction; and Bayle, who appears to have examined the matter with his usual precision, inclines to the latter opinion. He was, however, sent to school, where he made an uncommon progress, and had scarcely taken his degree of M. A. at Louvain, when he was offered a professorship, which he did not accept, as it would have prevented his travelling for farther improvement, a course usually taken by the learned men of those times. He went from Louvain to Paris, and from thence to Italy, residing two years at Ferrara, where he learned Greek and taught Latin, and disputed in prose and verse with Guarinus and the Strozzas, and where the duke honoured him with particular attention. He read lectures likewise on philosophy in this city, and his auditors were so well pleased as to wish he had been an Italian. At his return to his own country, he had the offer of many considerable employments; and at last 1 Gen. Dict. Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History.-Melchior Adam. Morerit • Biographie Universelle. Gen. Dict. accepted of a post at Groningen, and attended the court of Maximilian I. for six months, upon the affairs of that city. After this, which the gratitude of his masters did not render a very profitable employment, he resumed his travels for many years, in the course of which he refusedthe presidentship of a college at Antwerp, and fixed at length in the Palatinate, influenced by the persuasions of the bishop of Worms, whom he had instructed in the Greek language. He came to reside here in 1482, and passed the rest of his life, sometimes at Heidelberg, and sometimes at Worms. The Elector Palatine was pleased to hear him discourse concerning antiquity, and desired him to compose an "Abridgement of Ancient History," which he performed with great accuracy. He also read public lectures at Worms; but his auditors being more accustomed to the subleties of logic than to polite literature, he was not so popular as he deserved. About the fortieth year of his age, he began to study divinity; and having no hope to succeed in it without a knowledge of Hebrew, he applied himself to that language, in which he had made considerable progress, when he was seized with an illness, which put an end to his life and labours, on the 28th of October, 1485. He died in a very devout manner, and was buried in the church of the minor friars at Heidelberg. He is thought to have inclined a little to the principles of the reformers. He was accomplished in music and poetry, although he used these talents only for his amusement. There are but two works of his extant: "De Inventione Dialectica," printed at Louvain, 1516; and at Cologne in 1539, along with his "Abridgement of Ancient History," under the title "R. Agricolæ lucubrationes," 2 vols. 4to. Erasmus gives a very exalted character of his learning and abilities; and by some of his admirers he was compared to Virgil in verse, and to Politian in prose.1 AGRIPPA (CAMILLE), a celebrated architect of Milan, of the sixteenth century. He was a successful student of mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Under the pontificate of Gregory XIII. there was a design at Rome to remove a vast obelisk to St. Peter's square, and Agrippa was one of those employed in this undertaking, hitherto thought so difficult. He published the result of his plan under the title of "Trattato di trasportar la guglia in su la piazza 1 Gen. Dict.-Melchior Adam. |