and his conciliatory disposition is evinced by his constant though unavailing efforts to bring about a reconciliation between the Catholics and the Reformed Church. Some of his works man proverbs. He also wrote a volume of Commentaries on St. Luke, a folio entitled "Historia Passionis J C." and in 1548 composed, in conjunction with Heldingus and Phlug, the famous Interim, which created so great a sensation. He died at Berlin in 1566, in the 74th year of his age.-Nouv. Dict Hist. in Britain; and on his return to Rome he mar- | From being the friend and scholar, he became ried a lady of rank, and was made quæstor in the antagonist of Martin Luther, against whom, Asia, where in a rich province, peculiarly open as well as Melanctbon, he maintained a spirited to official exactions, he maintained the strictest controversy, advocating the doctrine of faith in integrity. He was chosen tribune of the peo- opposition to the works of the law, whence the pie and prætor under Nero, and unhappily, in sect, of which he became the leader, received the commotion which followed the accession the name of Antinomians. These opinions he of Galba, lost his mother, as above mentioned. inculcated principally at Wittemberg, where By Vespasian, whose cause he espoused, he he had obtained a professorship. In the early was made a patrician and governor of Aquita- part of his career he had been chaplain to nia, which post he held for three years. The count Mansfeld, in whose train he had acdignity of consul followed, and in the same companied the elector of Saxony to the diets year he married his daughter to the historian | held at Spires and Augsburg in 1526 and 1530. Tacitus. He was soon afterwards made go- His opinions however soon lost him the favour vernor of Britain, where he subjugated North of both these patrons, which he never afterWales and reduced the Isle of Anglesea or wards regained. The latter part of his life Mona. He adopted the most wise and gene- was spent at Berlin, where he became preacher rous plans to civilize the Britons, by inducing to the court and acquired considerable reputathe nobles to assume the Roman habit and tion. Although of a restless and ambitious have their children instructed in the Latin lan-temper, his motives seem to have been good, guage. He also gradually adorned the country with magnificent temples, porticos, baths, and public edifices, of a nature to excite the admiration and emulation of the rude people whom he governed. With these cares how-possess merit, especially his collection of Gerever he indulged the usual ambition of a Roman commander, to add to the limits of the Roman territory by extending his arms northward; and in the succeeding three years he passed the river Tweed, subdued the country as far as the Frith of Tay, and erected a chain of protective fortresses from the Clyde to the Frith of Forth. He also stationed troops on the coast of Scotland opposite to Ireland, on which island he entertained views of conquest; and in an expedition to the eastern part of Scotland, beyond the Frith of Forth, was accompanied by his fleet, which explored the inlets and harbours, and hemmed in the natives on every side. His seventh summer was passed in the same parts of Scotland, and the Grampian Hills became the site of a decisive engagement with the Caledonians under their most able leader Galgacus. The latter made a noble stand, but was at last obliged to yield to Roman valour and discipline; and having taken hostages, Agricola gradually withdrew his forces into the Roman limits. In the mean time, Domitian had succeeded to the empire, to whose mean and jealous nature the brilliant | character and successes of Agricola gave secret uneasiness. Artfully spreading a rumour that he intended to make the latter governor of Syria, he recalled him, received him coldly, and allowed him to descend into private life. The jealousy of this tyrant pursued him for the remainder of his life; and as after he had been induced to resign his pretension to the pro- AGRIPPA (II) son and successor of the consulship of Asia or Africa, he was soon seized preceding, seventh and last of the Jewish with an illness of which he died; Domitian, monarch of the family of Herod the Great. possibly without reason, has been suspected In the war carried on by Vespasian against of a recourse to poison. Agricola died A. D. his own countrymen, he sent a succour of 93, in his fifty-fourth year, leaving a widow 2000 men to his assistance. It was before and one daughter, the wife of Tacitus, who has him, his sister Berenice, and the Roman goso admirably written his life and preserved his vernor, that St Paul made his defence and high character for the respect of posterity.-appeal to the Emperor, when in custody at Tacitus. AGRICOLA (JOHN) a polemical writer of celebrity, born at Isleben in Saxony, in 1492. AGRICOLA (RODOLPHUS) one of the most learned men of the fifteenth century, was born A. D. 1442, near Groninger. in Friesland, He is spoken of both by Erasmus and Bayle with great respect; but two works only of his remain : 1. "De Inventione Dialectiæ," Louvain, 1516, and Cologne, 1539; 2. An abridgment of history under the title of "R. Agricola Lucubrationes," 2 vols. 4to.-Melchior Adum. Bayle. AGRIPPA (HEROD) Son of Aristobolus and Berenice, grandson of Herod the Great. He gave great offence to Tiberius, who threw him into prison for too openly expressing his wishes with regard to the succession. On Caligula's becoming emperor, however, he was not only released, but received from the favour of that emperor a golden chain, equal in weight to the irou one which he had worn in his confinement, as also the kingdom of Judea. He commenced a persecution of the Christians, in which the apostle St James perished, and is the person represented to have been eaten up by worms, on account of his impiety in accepting the adoration of the people.-Lardner. Cæsarea. Agrippa lived to the year 100 of the Christian æra, and died at Rome in the third year of the emperor Trajan.-Suetonius. dil not like to be employed as an astrologer instead of a physician; and he vented his resentment with his usual unguarded impetuosity. He now resolved to remove to the Low Countries, but experienced much delay, owing to the mysterious character which he had so injudiciously assumed, the duke of Vendome refusing to sign the passport of a conjuror. In 1529 Agrippa was again in great request, invitations being transmitted to him from Henry VIII of England, from the chancellor of the emperor, from an Italian marquis, and from Margaret of Austria, governor of the Low Countries. He preferred the offer of the last, and received the appointment of historiographer to the emperor. His eccentric genius however was to be kept in none of the bounds that would allow of repose in the age in which he lived; and in the year 1530 he produced another storm by his celebrated treatise “On the Vanity of the Sciences," which was not an attack upon real learning, but a very caustic satire upon the inefficiency of the common modes of instruction, and upon the monks. theologians, and members of the universities. On the appearance of this work, the bishop of Liege withdrew his pension, and even permitted his imprisonment for debt at Brussels, from which enthralment he was not released until the death of Margaret of Austria, which happened very opportunely, as the monks had fully succeeded in prejudicing her against him. Soon after his release he sent out another trea AGRIPPA (CAMILLE) a celebrated architect of Milan, in the sixteenth century, who, under the pontificate of Gregory XIII, accomplished the removal of a vast obelisk to St Peter's Square; an account of which labour he published. His other works, which are very scarce, are, 1. "Trattano di Scientia d'Arme," Rome, 1533, Venice, 1568-1604, 4to; 2. " Dialogo sopra la generazione de Venti," Rome, 1584, 4to; 3. “ 'Dialogo del modo di mettere in Battaglia," Rome, 1585, 4to; 4. " Nuove invenzione sopra il modo de Navigare," Rome, 1595, 4to.-Biog. Univer. AGRIPPA (HENRY CORNELIUS). This highly gifted but eccentric man of learning was born in the year 1486, at Cologne, of a noble family, which had long been in the service of the house of Austria. In his youth he was employed as secretary to the emperor Maximilian, and subsequently served in the army of Italy seven years, and obtained the honour of knighthood. The particulars of his education are unknown; but he himself relates that he was acquainted with eight languages. On his quitting the army, when he gave himself up to the pursuit of science, he rapidly attained the honours of doctor in law and physic, and began to assume the reputation of an acquaintance with the secrets of nature, which it is difficult to distinguish from Latentional quackery. It is now thought, that by his alchemical and kindred pretensions, he had no other object than to excite admiration and court powerful protection. In the twenty-tise at Antwerp, "On the Occult Philosofirst year of his age he visited France, and the succeeding year passed into Spain, from which however he soon returned, and delivered lectures at the college of Dole in Burgundy, on the mystical work of Reuchlin, "De Verbo Mirifico." In these discourses he hazarded novelties which commenced a warfare with the monks, that lasted for the remainder of his life. In order to court the favour of Margaret of Austria, he wrote a treatise "On the Excellence of Women," which work monkish influence prevented him from publishing; he then went over to England, and wrote a "Commentary on the Epistles of St Paul." On his return he again joined the army of the emperor in Italy, which he left on an invitation to Pisa by the cardinal St Croix. In the year 1515 he read lectures upon Mercurius Trismegistus, at Pavia, from which town he was obliged to make a very hasty retreat, when his friends procured him the honourable employment of syndic and councillor for the city of Metz. Here, with his usual imprudence, he undertook to refute the vulgar notion that St Ann had three husbands, and-what was much more sensible as well as humane-not in an hospital, as affirmed by some defended and saved the life of a countrywoman accused of witchcraft. Obliged to quit Metz, he returned to Cologne, where he lost his first wife, a very amiable woman; after which he successively resided at Geneva, Fribourg, and Lyons, where he obtained a pension from Francis I, and was appointed physician to the Queen Mother. His latter appointment proved of no advantage to him, because he BIOG. DICT.—No, IÏI. phy." This was not a work on magic, but a sketch of mystical theology, explaining, on the principles of the emanative system, the harmony of the elementary, celestial, and intellectual worlds. The clergy, although unable to discover magic, detected heresy, and the father inquisitor at Ulm interfered to prevent a third edition. This prohibition was soon disregarded, for in 1533 a new edition appeared in Cologne, which was accompanied by an apology addressed to the senate, so replete with satire and invective, that Agrippa was once more obliged to withdraw from the effects of the resentment excited He retired tBonn, where, according to the account a Wier, who had been his domestic servant, he divorced his third wife, having buried his second, who had produced him five children, at Antwerp, in 1529. Resolved once more to try his fortune in France, he repaired to Lyons in 1539, where, instead of patronage, he met with imprisonment for some former satires on the Queen mother. He was however soon released, and returned to Grenoble, where he died in the course of the year, authors, but in the house of the receivergeneral of the province. To the practised observer, the character of Cornelius Agrippa may be tolerably well estimated from his ex traordinary adventures. His genius was strik ing, but irregular; his spirit was strong and penetrating, but restless and unquiet; and in his quarrels with the monks, what his vigorous understanding prompted him to think, he was D and to unite both in the general term "loyalty." Agrippa married first the daughter of Pomponius Atticus, and afterwards Julia the widow of Marcellus and daughter of Augustus. By the first he had one daughter, married to Tiberius, and by the second three sons and two daughters, of which two of the sons died young, while the latter, Agrippa Posthumus, fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of Tiberius. Of the daughters, Julia was married to Lucius Paulus; and Agrippina, first to Tiberius, and then to the celebrated Germanicus.-Suetonius. Univ. Hist. AGRIPPA (MENENIUS) consul of Rome in the year of Rome 251, B.C. 503, was distinguished for his urbane and well-principled mediation between the patrician and plebeian by no means backward in daring to say. Looking at the commencement of his life and his changeable fortune, the extent of his erudition was surprising, and his industry in composition most extraordinary. His reputation for necromancy, his attendant demon in the form of a black dog, and similar imputations, will now only provoke a smile. Ridiculous as it may at present appear, it is however obvious that his presumed skill in occult science, especially alchemy, led to the numerous invitations which he received from royal and exalted personages, and that his inability to answer their absurd expectations produced their subsequent neglect of him. On the other hand, Agrippa only reaped the fruit of his own disingenuousness, by encouraging the notion of his possession of endow-interests, in that early stage of the republic. ments, of which he must have been conscious he was destitute. Yet so singularly constituted is the human mind, he was at the same time partly his own dupe; for it is proved that he belonged to cabalistical and other societies for magical pursuits; and if his assertions may be credited, he had attained that intercourse with the demoniacal natures, which was the boast of Plotinus and Jamblichus. Here the monks might have satirized in their turn; but these silly pretensions they believed, and instead of laughing at, would have burnt him. The works of Agrippa above-mentioned, with all his other productions, have been frequently published entire; but the edition of Lyons, by the Behrings, Leyden, 1550, 8vo, 2 vols., AGRIPPINA, the elder daughter of Marcus is deemed the best. This edition contains a Agrippa and of Julia, was married in the first fourth book of the Occult Philosophy, on ma-instance to Tiberius, who divorced her; on gical ceremonies, which is not by Agrippa, but has probably done much to make aftertimes regard him as a magician. It must not be omitted, that this writer looked with great satisfaction at the bold attacks of Martin Luther upon the corruption of the church of Rome, although the patronage he sought for from Catholic princes would not allow him to quit the pale of the church in which he was educated.-Moreri. Bayle. Brucker. AGRIPPA (MARCUS VIPSANIUS) the celebrated friend and general of Augustus Cæsar, whose life belongs rather to history than biography, in consequence of its complete amalgamation with the public events of an interesting period in Roman history. To the military abilities and faithful services of Agrippa, Augustus owed not only the empire, but the most felicitous portion of his subsequent creditable career. After the battle of Actium, Octavius, then possessed of supreme power, either really or affectedly consulted bis friends, Mecenas and Agrippa, whether he should retain his sovereignty, or resign it to the senate. Agrippa, contrary to Mecanas, recommended the more magnanimous part; which it need not be said Octavius declined to adopt, although he was not so ungenerous as to be offended with Agrippa for his dangerous counsel. Gibbon, alluding to Agrippa, observes that he was almost the first model, in the ancient world, of the faithful courtier of the modern one; a character who is supposed to mix up personal devotion with the love of country, Being chosen one of the deputies by the former to conduct a conference with the people, he addressed to them the celebrated political fable of the belly and the members. The latter insisted however on the establishment of the protective magistrates named tribunes, with which demand Menenius advised the senate to comply. Menenius died soon after, at an advanced age, universally esteemed for his wisdom and integrity, but so poor, that the people insisted upon taxing themselves to support the expense of a public funeral, and when the senate issued a sum from the treasury for the purpose, demanded that their money should be given to his children.-Livy. which she became the wife of Germanicus. On the death of the latter, she returned to Rome with his ashes, and took advantage of the public grief for the death of her husband, to accuse Piso, who was suspected of having hastened it. The latter was so harassed by her persecutions, and the indignation of the people, that he was found dead in his bed. Tiberius, jealous of the affection of the people for Agrippina, banished her to a small island, where he allowed her to die of hunger, A.D. 35. This magnanimous woman, who exhibited the same elevated character in all fortunes, left nine children by Germanicus.—Nouv. Diet. Hist. AGRIPPINA (the younger) daughter of the foregoing, and mother of Nero, was at once cruel and licentious. After having two husbands, she married her uncle the emperor Claudius, and having run a career of perfidy and baseness, poisoned him in order to make way for Nero. She however lived bitterly to repent the exaltation of this monster, who soon deprived her of the imperial authority she had obtained under the stupid Claudius, and, resisting all her intrigues and blandishments, put her to death. The centurion employed as her executioner struck her on the head with his sword: "Strike rather at my womb," she exclaimed, "for having brought forth such a monster." Tacitus observes, that Agrippina left memoirs behind her, which had proved very serviceable to him in the compilation of his annals.—Tacitus. AGUESSEAU (HENRY FRANCIS D') a French | suffer, while the ruin of clients is continual. statesman of great worth and talents, was born In 1750, having attained his eighty-second year, he tendered his resignation, which the king accepted, but continued to him his official rank, and granted him a pension of 100,000 francs, which he did not long enjoy, as he died February 9, 1751. D'Aguesseau is considered by Voltaire as the most learned magistrate that France ever possessed, as he was eminently versed in both ancient and modern languages, master of jurisprudence in its most enlarged acceptation. He was also fond of the belles lettres, and even composed verses which passed the critical ordeal of Racine and Boileau, who were the frequent companions of his leisure. To conclude: he was a man of great genius and integrity, and so superior to avarice, that he left no other gains from his long possession of office than his very fine library. The works of D'Aguesseau are published in 13 vols. 4to, Paris, 1759-89. He has the character of thinking in them like a philosopher, and speaking like an orator: his style is deemed chaste and harmonious, but somewhat cold.--Nouv. Dict. Hist. AGUJARI (LUCREZIA) a celebrated singer, wife of Colla the composer. She is said in her youth to have had a voice of most extraordinary compass. At the Pantheon in London her salary was fixed at 100l. a night for two songs. She died in 1783 at Parma.-Mus. Biog. Dict. at Limoges in 1668. He was the son of Henry d'Aguesseau, intendant of Limosin, a man of high character for integrity and learning, by whom he was educated in every species of knowledge which promised to qualify him for the magistracy. Admitted an advocate in 1690, he was a few months after made advocate-general of the parliament of Paris at the age of twenty-two. He performed the func-profoundly acquainted with history, and a tions of this office with great reputation, and was made procurator-general, which enabled him to show his abilities for the public service, by introducing a great reform in the management of hospitals, and by greatly improving the administration of the criminal code. Towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV, however, he was threatened with disgrace for refusing to register the famous bull Unigenitus. He thought that it interfered with the rights of the monarchy, and determined to defend the monarch even against himself. "Is it thus you forge arms against Rome?" exclaimed Quirini, the Pope's nuncio. They are not arms, but shields," replied D'Aguesseau. At the death of Louis he again became ascendant, and in 1717 succeeded Voisin as chancellor; but before a year expired the Regent deprived him of the seals, for opposing the royal bank and other delusive projects of the celebrated Law. The issue of this famous bubble is well known; and in the hour of embarrassment the Regent thought proper to restore the seals to AIDAN, a monk who, by his zeal and D'Aguesseau, who immediately began to repair preaching, converted a large portion of the a portion of the mischief done in his absence, northern part of Britain to Christianity. He by ordering the payment of the notes issued by was afterwards bishop of Lindisfern or Holy the bank as far as possible; which measure, Island on the coast of Northumberland, where although the loss to individuals was great, he he died, highly revered, about the year deemed less odious than a total bankruptcy. 651. The mildness and benevolence of his A new storm however awaited him, for the disposition and manners appear to have gained Regent in his turn became solicitous for the him a great ascendancy over the untutored inregistration of the bull Unigenitus; and with habitants of his diocese. Among the miracles some modifications D'Aguesseau was finally attributed to Aidan, is that of calming the sea induced to comply. Through the influence of in a storm, by pouring consecrated oil upon it. cardinal Dubois, however, he was once more Pliny and Franklin mention the operation of oil deprived of the seals, which were not restored upon the waves; but the quantity in this case to him until 1737, when he resolved to confine being so small, the alleged miracle stands unimhimself to his duties as a magistrate, and labour-peached upon that score.-Biog. Brit. ed incessantly to produce a reform in the laws, AIGNAN (- ) a gentleman of some and uniformity in the administration of justice. repute in the list of modern French authors. So great are the impediments to reform in this His works, which are not numerous, are chagrand direction, that he could only procure four racterised rather by their elegance than their or five ordinances that were really effective. solidity. Besides a new translation of Homer, Like many other great legal luminaries, it was in the execution of which the critics accuse thought that the habit of viewing things in him of having done little more than present every light, and formally discussing the argu- the public with a second edition of that of De ments on all sides, produced in him a species Rochfort in a more polished form, he early diof indecision, which is very unfavourable to the rected his attention to the stage, and his production of extensive plans of amelioration. tragedy called " Brunehaut" not only met with His professional sympathies also interfered; decided success, but was thought to afford for he frankly confessed to the count de Gram- much promise of the future excellence of its mont, in a conversation on the great expense author in this particular department of literaof law-suits, that he had begun a plan for re- ture. Soon after the coronation of Napoleon, forming it, but was prevented by reflecting M. Aignan, then in the zenith of his reputaon the number of counsellors, attornies, and tion, was made choice of to furnish letter-press inferior officers he should ruin by it; a feeling descriptions explanatory of the magnificent which might be much corrected by the recol-plates engraved to illustrate that ceremony; lection, that but one generation of these could but the work was never published, the price 44 enabled him to execute without detriment to his success in life. John duke of Argyle, and the earl of Burlington, ranked among his earliest friends and patrons. Portrait painting was the branch of his art to which he more particularly directed his attention. Among the best specimens created by his pencil, are portraits of several members of the Bucking demanded for the manuscript (4001.) being far | ral of the leading poets, and of various mis too high to produce any bidders. During the cellaneous works, which unite good sense, an latter years of his life, he was known princi- accurate knowledge of life, and considerable pally as the author of a periodical work, the critical acumen. He was also a very sensible Bibliothèque Etrangere," a publication bear- and entertaining essayist, as the early volumes ing some resemblance in its plan to that of the of the Monthly Magazine will evince, as well as Retrospective Review." In the three vo- the periodical work entitled the Atheneum, and lumes which have appeared, many scarce and several kindred publications.-Gent. Mag. Ed. curious tracts in various languages, as well AIKMAN (WILLIAM) a painter of emiancient as modern, have been translated by nence, who flourished in what has been termed him, and rescued from the oblivion that was the Augustan age of England. With most of fast overtaking them in the obscurity of an im- the wits of queen Anne's time he enjoyed an mense national collection. Catapulti's account intimacy, especially with Swift, Pope, Arbuthof the massacre of St Bartholomew, originally not, Gay, Somerville, and his countrymen written in Italian, is one of the last and most Thomson, Smollett, and Allan Ramsay. To interesting of these documents. M. Aignan the four last he is indebted for honourable died at Paris in the beginning of 1825.-New mention and sundry poetic compliments in Monthly Magazine. their works. Born in Scotland, he was origiAIKIN (JOHN, M. D.) born January 15, nally intended for the same profession as that 1747, at Kibworth, Leicestershire, youngest followed by his father, the law; but on reachchild and only son of T. Aikin, D.D. a dissenting the age of manhood, his love of the fine ing minister and schoolmaster. He commenced arts induced him to relinquish so dry a study his education in the dissenters' academy at for one more congenial to his disposition; a Warrington in Lancashire, whence he was ap-change which the easiness of his circumstances prenticed to the late Dr Garthshore, then a surgeon and apothecary at Uppingham in Rutlandshire. In 1764 he became a student in the university of Edinburgh, where he spent two years, and after three more passed as a pupil to Mr White of Manchester, settled in Chester as a surgeon, whence he afterwards removed to Warrington. During his residence in this place, in addition to numerous works on pro-hamshire family, and a large picture of the fessional subjects, he published several miscellaneous pieces in conjunction with his sister Mrs Barbauld, and gave proof of his scholastic acquirements by an excellent translation of Tacitus'"De moribus Germanorum," and of that author's life of Agricola. Here too he commenced his acquaintance with Dr Priestley and Gilbert Wakefield. In 1784 he proceeded to Leyden, where he graduated, and afterwards had considerable practice as a physician at Yarmouth in Norfolk, till he gave of fence to a portion of the inhabitants by two pamphlets on the failure of the dissenters in their attempt to procure the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, as also by the freedom of his opinions with respect to the French Re-died in August 1419.-Moreri. volution; when Dr Girdlestone was encouraged AILRED, ET HELRED, or EALRED, abby the high church party to settle in the town, and Dr Aikin escaped the bitterness of impending personal controversy by removing to London in March, 1792. In 1796 he accepted an offer made him by Mr (now Sir Richard) Phillips, of editing the Monthly Magazine, which he superintended from its commencement till 1806, when the connexion was dissolved. In 1799 he published, in conjunction with Dr Enfield, the first volume of a "General Biographical Dictionary" in quarto; but in consequence of the death of his coadjutor, and other circum. stances of a pecuniary nature, which materially retarded the progress of the work, the tenth and last volume was not completed till 815. Dr Aikin died December 7, 1822, in his 75th year, at his residence in Stoke Newington. Dr Aikin is the author of a life of Hoet bishop of Avranches, of essays on seve then royal family. The latter is now in the possession of the duke of Devonshire. He died in 1731, in the 49th year of his age, at his house in Leicester-fields.-Walpole's Anec. AILLY (PETER D') a cardinal and legate in the time of Charles VI of France, with which monarch he was in high favour: he received from his munificence the see of Puy and Cambray, with the chancellorship of the university of Paris. Before his elevation to the purple, he presided at the famous council of Constance, which condemned John Huss to the stake. He was the author of several polemical works much patronized by pope John XXIII, an edition of which was printed at Strasburg. He bot of Revesby, Lincolshire, was born in the AIMON (of Aquitaine) author of a legendary history of France, is supposed to have lived in the ninth century. The history is brought down to 1165 by another hand; it may be seen in the third volume of the collection of Duchesne.-Vossius. Moreri. |