Henry Cornelius Agrippa was born in the year 1486. He was one of the
most celebrated men of his time. His talents were remarkably great;
and he had a surprising facility in the acquisition of languages. He
is spoken of with the highest commendations by Trithemius, Erasmus,
Melancthon, and others, the greatest men of his times. But he was a
man of the most violent passions, and of great instability of temper.
He was of consequence exposed to memorable vicissitudes. He had great
reputation as an astrologer, and was assiduous in the cultivation of
chemistry. He had the reputation of possessing the philosopher's stone,
and was incessantly experiencing the privations of poverty. He was
subject to great persecutions, and was repeatedly imprisoned. He
received invitations at the same time from Henry VIII, from the
chancellor of the emperor, from a distinguished Italian marquis, and
from Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries. He made his
election in favour of the last, and could find no way so obvious of
showing his gratitude for her patronage, as composing an elaborate
treatise on the Superiority of the Female Sex, which he dedicated to
her. Shortly after, he produced a work not less remarkable, to
demonstrate the Vanity and Emptiness of Scientifical Acquirements.
Margaret of Austria being dead, he was subsequently appointed physician
to Louisa of Savoy, mother to Francis I. This lady however having
assigned him a task disagreeable to his inclination, a calculation
according to the rules of astrology, he made no scruple of turning
against her, and affirming that he should henceforth hold her for a
cruel and perfidious Jezebel. After a life of storms and perpetual
vicissitude, he died in 1534, aged 48 years.
He enters however into the work I am writing, principally on account
of the extraordinary stories that have been told of him on the subject
of magic. He says of himself, in his Treatise on the Vanity of
Sciences, "Being then a very young man, I wrote in three books of a
considerable size Disquisitions concerning Magic."
The first of the stories I am about to relate is chiefly interesting,
inasmuch as it is connected with the history of one of the most
illustrious ornaments of our early English poetry, Henry Howard earl
of Surrey, who suffered death at the close of the reign of King
Henry VIII. The earl of Surrey, we are told, became acquainted with
Cornelius Agrippa at the court of John George elector of Saxony. On
this occasion were present, beside the English nobleman, Erasmus, and
many other persons eminent in the republic of letters. These persons
shewed themselves enamoured of the reports that had been spread of
Agrippa, and desired him before the elector to exhibit something
memorable. One intreated him to call up Plautus, and shew him as he
appeared in garb and countenance, when he ground corn in the mill.
Another before all things desired to see Ovid. But Erasmus earnestly
requested to behold Tully in the act of delivering his oration for
Roscius. This proposal carried the most votes. And, after marshalling
the concourse of spectators, Tully appeared, at the command of Agrippa,
and from the rostrum pronounced the oration, precisely in the words in
which it has been handed down to us, "with such astonishing animation,
so fervent an exaltation of spirit, and such soul-stirring gestures,
that all the persons present were ready, like the Romans of old, to
pronounce his client innocent of every charge that had been brought
against him." The story adds, that, when sir Thomas More was at the
same place, Agrippa shewed him the whole destruction of Troy in a
dream. To Thomas Lord Cromwel he exhibited in a perspective glass King
Henry VIII and all his lords hunting in his forest at Windsor. To
Charles V he shewed David, Solomon, Gideon, and the rest, with the
Nine Worthies, in their habits and similitude as they had lived.
Lord Surrey, in the mean time having gotten into familiarity with
Agrippa, requested him by the way side as they travelled, to set
before him his mistress, the fair Geraldine, shewing at the same time
what she did, and with whom she talked. Agrippa accordingly exhibited
his magic glass, in which the noble poet saw this beautiful dame, sick,
weeping upon her bed, and inconsolable for the absence of her
admirer.--It is now known, that the sole authority for this tale is
Thomas Nash, the dramatist, in his Adventures of Jack Wilton, printed
in the year 1593.
Paulus Jovius relates that Agrippa always kept a devil attendant upon
him, who accompanied him in all his travels in the shape of a black
dog. When he lay on his death-bed, he was earnestly exhorted to repent
of his sins. Being in consequence struck with a deep contrition, he
took hold of the dog, and removed from him a collar studded with nails,
which formed a necromantic inscription, at the same time saying to him,
"Begone, wretched animal, which hast been the cause of my entire
destruction!"--It is added, that the dog immediately ran away, and
plunged itself in the river Soane, after which it was seen no more.
[201] It is further related of Agrippa, as of many other magicians,
that he was in the habit, when he regaled himself at an inn, of paying
his bill in counterfeit money, which at the time of payment appeared
of sterling value, but in a few days after became pieces of horn and
worthless shells. [202]
But the most extraordinary story of Agrippa is told by Delrio, and is
as follows. Agrippa had occasion one time to be absent for a few days
from his residence at Louvain. During his absence he intrusted his
wife with the key of his Museum, but with an earnest injunction that
no one on any account should be allowed to enter. Agrippa happened at
that time to have a boarder in his house, a young fellow of insatiable
curiosity, who would never give over importuning his hostess, till at
length he obtained from her the forbidden key. The first thing in the
Museum that attracted his attention, was a book of spells and
incantations. He spread this book upon a desk, and, thinking no harm,
began to read aloud. He had not long continued this occupation, when a
knock was heard at the door of the chamber. The youth took no notice,
but continued reading. Presently followed a second knock, which
somewhat alarmed the reader. The space of a minute having elapsed, and
no answer made, the door was opened, and a demon entered. "For what
purpose am I called?" said the stranger sternly. "What is it you
demand to have done?" The youth was seized with the greatest alarm,
and struck speechless. The demon advanced towards him, seized him by
the throat, and strangled him, indignant that his presence should thus
be invoked from pure thoughtlessness and presumption.
At the expected time Agrippa came home, and to his great surprise
found a number of devils capering and playing strange antics about,
and on the roof of his house. By his art he caused them to desist from
their sport, and with authority demanded what was the cause of this
novel appearance. The chief of them answered. He told how they had
been invoked, and insulted, and what revenge they had taken. Agrippa
became exceedingly alarmed for the consequences to himself of this
unfortunate adventure. He ordered the demon without loss of time to
reanimate the body of his victim, then to go forth, and to walk the
boarder three or four times up and down the market-place in the sight
of the people. The infernal spirit did as he was ordered, shewed the
student publicly alive, and having done this, suffered the body to
fall down, the marks of conscious existence being plainly no more. For
a time it was thought that the student had been killed by a sudden
attack of disease. But, presently after, the marks of strangulation
were plainly discerned, and the truth came out. Agrippa was then
obliged suddenly to withdraw himself, and to take up his residence in
a distant province. [203]
Wierus in his well known book, _De Praestigiis Demonum_, informs
us that he had lived for years in daily attendance on Cornelius
Agrippa, and that the black dog respecting which such strange surmises
had been circulated, was a perfectly innocent animal that he had often
led in a string. He adds, that the sole foundation for the story lay
in the fact, that Agrippa had been much attached to the dog, which he
was accustomed to permit to eat off the table with its master, and
even to lie of nights in his bed. He further remarks, that Agrippa was
accustomed often not to go out of his room for a week together, and
that people accordingly wondered that he could have such accurate
information of what was going on in all parts of the world, and would
have it that his intelligence was communicated to him by his dog. He
subjoins however, that Agrippa had in fact correspondents in every
quarter of the globe, and received letters from them daily, and that
this was the real source of his extraordinary intelligence. [204]
Naudé, in his Apology for Great Men accused of Magic, mentions, that
Agrippa composed a book of the Rules and Precepts of the Art of Magic,
and that, if such a work could entitle a man to the character of a
magician, Agrippa indeed well deserved it. But he gives it as his
opinion that this was the only ground for fastening the imputation on
this illustrious character.
Without believing however any of the tales of the magic practices of
Cornelius Agrippa, and even perhaps without supposing that he
seriously pretended to such arts, we are here presented with a
striking picture of the temper and credulity of the times in which he
lived. We plainly see from the contemporary evidence of Wierus, that
such things were believed of him by his neighbours; and at that period
it was sufficiently common for any man of deep study, of recluse
habits, and a certain sententious and magisterial air to undergo these
imputations. It is more than probable that Agrippa was willing by a
general silence and mystery to give encouragement to the wonder of the
vulgar mind. He was flattered by the terror and awe which his
appearance inspired. He did not wish to come down to the ordinary
level. And if to this we add his pursuits of alchemy and astrology,
with the formidable and various apparatus supposed to be required in
these pursuits, we shall no longer wonder at the results which
followed. He loved to wander on the brink of danger, and was contented
to take his chance of being molested, rather than not possess that
ascendancy over the ordinary race of mankind which was evidently
gratifying to his vanity.