RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Agrapha Agricola
Britons to the Catholic faith (cf. Bede, Hist, eccl., i. 17). Caspari has printed five unsigned letters and a tract on riches which are obviously all by the same Pelagian author, and has shown it to be probable that this is Agricola. From them it is learned that the author on his way to the East to learn the true ascetic life, heard the Pelagian ascetic teaching from a Roman lady in Sicily, and became a zealous preacher of it. The value of these writings lies in the glimpse which they give of the ethical side of Pelagianism. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: C. P. Caspari, Briefe, Abhandlungen, und Predigten aus den zwei letzten Jahrhunderten des kirchlichen Altertums und dem Anfang des Mittelalters, Christiania, 1890.
AGRICOLA, JOHANN: An associate of Luther, and the originator of the antinomian controversy of the German Reformation; b. at Eisleben Apr. 20, 1494 (according to his own account; others give 1492 or 1496); d. at Berlin Sept. 22, 1566. His real name was Schneider, first Latinized into " Sartor," then, from a corruption of " Schneider (Snider) " to " Schnitter," into " Agricola." He entered the University of Leipsic in the winter of 1509-10, with the intention of studying medicine, but Luther attracted him to theology. After taking his bachelor's degree, he went, in the winter of 1515-16, to Wittenberg, where he came wholly under Luther's influence. He witnessed the famous promulgation of the theses; and at the Leipsic disputation (1519) he acted as Luther's secretary. He soon became friendly with Melanchthon also, and an influential member of the little group of Wittenberg theologians. A modest income was provided for him by the position of teacher of grammar and the Latin classics in the Paedagogium; and before long he lectured on dialectics and rhetoric, and later on the New Testament.
On the outbreak of the Peasants' War (1525), Agricola accompanied Luther to the Hartz Mountains, and gained from Count Albert of Schoolmas- Mansfeld the nomination as head of the ter in Latin school to be opened at Eisleben.
Eisleben. This work, after a visit to Frankfort, as Luther's deputy, to help settle the ecclesiastical affairs of that place, he took up in Aug., 1525; and two catechetical books grew out of it, the second of which (1528) already exhibits the opposition between the Law and the Gospel which was to develop into his antinomian convictions. A commentary on the Epistle to Titus (1530) and a translation of Terence's Andria, with notes (1544), are doubtless other results of his school work. At Eisleben also he began his three collections of German proverbs, with explanations, which have ever smce been popular. Certain critical remarks about Ulnch of Wurttemberg in the first of these collec- TTJ>"VnV0lved ASricola in difficulties both with Ulnch and with his protector, Philip of Hesse, which were ended only by two successive apologies, prevented Luther from taking him to the Marburg conference, and influenced his bearing in the Schmal-
MS MUggle- He had opportunities of preaching at bt. Nicholas's church in Eisleben, and acquired tie reputation of being one of the strongest pulpit
orators of the Wittenberg circle, so that he was asked to attend the Diet of Speyer in 1526 and 1529 and preach before the court. At this period also he made himself useful as a translator from the Latin, rendering among other things Melanchthon's commentary on several Pauline epistles.
His relations with Melanchthon were seriously disturbed in 1526. Soon after his departure from Wittenberg a new theological profes- Contro- sorship was founded there, on which, versies. with Melanchthon's encouragement, he set his heart. When it was conferred on the latter, Agricola's vanity received a wound which put an end to the cordiality of their friendship; and it is easy to understand why he began the antinomian controversy in 1527 with an attack, not on Luther, but on Melanchthon. Luther, however, whose relations with Agricola were still friendly, succeeded in effecting an apparent agreement. Agricola now fell out with Albert of Mansfeld. Differences arose over the measures to be taken for defense against the emperor and with regard to the treatment of matrimonial questions; and in 1536 Agricola was treating with Luther to secure a recall to Wittenberg. The elector promised him a speedy appointment to a university position, and meantime invited him to come to Wittenberg to give his counsel on the question of the Schmalkald articles. Agricola removed thither at Christmas, 1536. Albert, annoyed at the manner of his departure from Eisleben, accused him to the Wittenberg group as the founder of a new sect antagonistic to Luther, and to the elector as a turbulent fellow of the Mtinzer type. Luther stood by him, however, and even gave him and his family shelter in his own house; and when Luther went to Schmalkald in 1537, Agricola took his place both at the university and in the pulpit. Expressions used in some of his sermons, and the rumor that he was privately circulating antinomian theses containing attacks on Luther and Melanchthon, made him an object of suspicion. His antinomian disputes with Luther himself began; and after each apparent settlement they broke out with fresh violence (for details of the controversies see Antinomianism, Antinomian Contko versies, II.). He found employment in the newly founded Wittenberg consistory until Feb., 1539, when he formally accused Luther before the elector, who practically put him under arrest. Before the matter was settled he escaped to Berlin (Aug., 1540). At Melanchthon's suggestion and through Bugenhagen's mediation, he was allowed to retract his accusation and to return to Saxony. Cordial relations between the two men could, however, no longer exist: Luther never trusted Agricola again; and the latter, on his side, held that he remained true to the original cause, from which Luther had fallen away.
Joachim II. of Brandenburg gave Agricola a position as court preacher, and took him to the Conference of Regensburg (1541), the interim drawn up at which he considered a useful basis of unity. He followed his prince in the inglorious campaign against the Turks in 1542, and gained more and
AgTicola Agriculture