The Early Life Of Agrippa

At Cologne, on the 14th of September, 1486, there

was born into the noble house of Nettesheim a son,

whom his parents called in baptism Henry Cornelius

Agrippa. Some might, at first thought, suppose

that

the last of the three was a Christian name likely to

find especial favor with the people of Cologne, the

site of whose town, in days of Roman sovereignty,

Marcus Agrippa's camp suggested and the colony of

Agrippina fixed. But the existence of

any such pre- dilection

is disproved by some volumes filled with the

names of former natives of Cologne. There were as

few Agrippas there as elsewhere, the use of the name

being everywhere confined to a few individuals taken

from a class that was itself not numerous. A child

who came into the world feet-foremost was called an

Agrippa by the Romans, and the word itself, so Aulus

Gellius explains it, was invented to

express the idea,

being compounded of the trouble of the woman and

the feet of the child. The Agrippas of the sixteenth

century were usually sons of scholars, or of

persons in

the

upper ranks, who had been mindful of a classic

precedent; and there can be little doubt that a peculiarity

attendant on the very first incident in the life

here to be told was expressed by the word used as

appendix to an already sufficient Christian name. The son thus christened became a scholar and a subject of discussion among scholars, talking only Latin

to the world. His family name. Von Nettesheim, he

never Latinised, in as much as the best taste suggested

that " ^if a Latin designation was most proper for a

scholar " he could do, or others could do for him,

nothing simpler than to set apart for literary purposes

tliat half of his real style which was already com- pletely

Roman. Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim became therefore to the world what he is

also called in this narrative " Cornelius Agrippa.

He is the only member of the family of Nettesheim

concerning whom any records have been left for the

instruction of posterity. Nettesheim itself is a place

of little note, distant about twenty-five miles to the

southwest of Cologne, It lies in a valley, through

which flows the stream from one of the small sources

of the Roer. The home of the Von Nettesheims, when

they were not personally attached to the service of

the emperor was at Cologne. The ancestors of Cornelius

Agrippa had been for generations in the service

of the royal house of Austria; his father had in this

respect walked in the steps of his forefathers, and

from a child, Cornelius looked for nothing better than

to do the same.

It is proper

to mention that among the scholars of

Germany one, who before the time of Agrippa was

known as the most famous of magicians, belonged to

the same city of Cologne; for there, in the thirteenth

Century, Albertus Magnus taught, and it is there that

he is buried.

Born in Cologne did not mean in 1486 what it has

meant for many generations almost until now " born

into the darkness of a mouldering receptacle of relics.

Then the town was not priest-ridden but rode its

priests. For nearly a thousand years priestcraft and

handicraft have battled for predominance within its

walls. Priestcraft expelled the Jews, banished the

weavers, and gained thoroughly the mastery at last.

But in the time of Cornelius Agrippa handicraft was

uppermost, and in sacred Cologne, every trader and

mechanic did his part in keeping watch on the archbishop.

Europe contained then but few cities that

were larger, busier, and richer, for the Rhine was a

main highway of commerce, and she was enriched, not

only by her manufacturers and merchants but, at the

same time also, by a large receipt of toll. Commerce

is the most powerful antagonist to despotism, and in

whatever place both are brought together one of them

must die.

Passing by the earlier times to about the year 1350

there arose a devilish persecution of the Jews in

many

parts of Europe, and the Jews of Cologne, alarmed by

the sufferings to which others of their race had been

exposed, withdrew into their houses, with their wives

and children, and burnt themselves in the midst of

their possessions. The few who had flinched from

this self-immolation was banished, and their houses

and lands, together with all the land that had belonged

to Cologne Jews, remained as spoils in the hands of

the Cologne Christians. All having been converted

into cash, the gains of the transaction were divided

equally between the town and the archbishop. The

Jews, twenty years later, were again allowed to reside

in the place on payment of a tax for the protection

granted them.

In 1369 the city was again in turmoil, caused by a

dispute concerning privileges between the authorities

of the church and the town council. The weavers, as

a democratic body, expressed their views very strong

and there was fighting in the streets. The weavers

were subdued; they fled to the churches and were

slain at the altars. Eighteen hundred of them, all

who survived, were banished, suffering, of course,

confiscation of their property and Cologne being

cleared of all its weavers " who had carried on no

inconsiderable branch of manufacture " their guild was

demolished. This event occurred twenty years

the town had lost, in the Jews, another important

part of its industrial population, and the proud city

thus was passing- into the first stage of its decay.

In 1388 an university was established at Cologne,

upon

the model of the University of Paris. Theology

and scholastic philosophy were the chief studies cultivated

in it, and they were taught in such a way as to

win many scholars from abroad. Eight years afterwards,

churchmen, nobles, and traders were again contesting

their respective claims, and blood was again

shed in the streets. The nobles, assembled by night

at a secret meeting, were surprised, and the final conquest

of the trading, class was in that way assured.

A new constitution was then devised, continuing in

force during the lifetime of Cornelius Agrippa.

The Von Nettesheims were likely to be on better

terms with the archbishop than with the party who

opposed him, and they were in the emperor's service.

This must-have influenced the early years of Agrippa.

In these early years, he displayed a rare aptitude for

the study, and, as Cologne was an university town and

printing, discovered shortly before his birth, was carried

on there in the production of Latin classics, the

writings of ascetics, scholastics, and mystics like

Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus, it was only

natural he should avail his eager

desire for knowledge

at these sources.

.

He was remarkably successful in

the study of European languages also, becoming proficient

in several. Thus his years of home training

were passed until he arrived at the age when princes

are considered fit to be produced at court. He then

left Cologne and became an attendant on the Emperor

of Germany, Maximilian the First, whom he served

first as a secretary, afterwards for seven years as a

soldier. At the age of twenty, he was employed on

secret service by the German court. At this time

Spain was in a chaotic political condition. Ferdinand,

the widower of Isabella, was excluded from the crown

after his wife's death, that inheritance having passed

with his daughter Joanna, as a dower, to her husband

Philip, who was the son of Maximilian. In Septem- ber,

1506, Philip died, shortly before having declared

war against France. Thus it was that Cornelius went

to Paris, ostensibly to attend the university there, but

in reality to keep Maximilian advised of the important

news regarding the French. In the capacity of secret

service, in which he was engaged more than once,

he showed himself abundantly able to preserve diplomatic

secrets, though concerning his own affairs he

was open, frank, and free. Thus he is silent in regard

to official duties at this time. In attending the university

Agrippa came in contact with several other

minds who had a love for the occult " mystics who

found in him a natural leader to guide them into the

realms of the unknown. With these he organized a

secret band of Theosophists, or possibly Rosicrucians.

Among these mystics was one more prominent as the

friend of Agrippa, who might be regarded as second in

leadership, an Italian by the name of Blasius Caesar

Landulphus, who afterwards became noted in medicine,

and also a professor at the University of Pavia.

Among them were MM. Germain, advocate, and author

of a history of Charles V., etc.; Gaigny, theologian,

linguist, Latin poet, and successively procurator, rector,

and chancellor of the Paris University; Charles

Foucard, M. de Molinflor, Charles de Bouelles, canon,

professor of theology, and author of works on metaphysics

and geometry, among which he treated of the

quadrature of the circle and the cubication of the

sphere, and other unusual matters; Germain de Brie,

canon, linguist, and writer of Greek verse; MM. Fasch,

Wigand, and Clairchamps; and Juanetin Bascara de Gerona, a young- Catalonian nobleman, temporarily at

Paris while on his

way

to the court of Maximilian,

Disturbances in Spain had spread to Arag^on and

Catalonia, and in the district of Tarragon the Catalonians had chased one of their local masters, the Senor

de Gerona, the last named of the secret band above.

Agrippa and his friends devised a plan whereby Gerono

could be restored to his estates. The capture of a

fortification known as the Black Fort was necessary

to the enterprise, and to effect this a daring stratagem

was decided upon. As the whole province of Tarragon

could thus be held against the rebellious peasantry it

was believed the

emperor, Maximilian, would sanction

the enterprise in behalf of his kin, and Gerona went

to the German court for this purpose. Agrippa also

returned to Cologne for a season early in 1507.

It was over a year afterwards when the plans of the

conspirators were carried out. The Black Fort was

captured, as planned, by a stratagem. After remain- ing

there for a time, Agrippa was sent with some

others to garrison the place of Gerona at Villarodona.

Landulph had, meanwhile, gone to Barcelona, and it

and it was deemed prudent that Gerono, the peasants

of the whole country being now in arms, should join

him there. Gerona was, however, captured by the

infuriated rustics, who immediately organized themselves

in great force to storm his castle and exterminate

the garrison there, who, in Gerona 's absence, were

under the charge of Agrippa. Timely warning of the

attack was conveyed to the garrison. To escape by

breaking through the watches of the peasantry was

madness, to remain was equally futile. But one way

of escape presented itself " an old, half-ruined tower

three miles distant, situated in one of the mountain

wildernesses which characterize the district of Vails.

The tower stood in a craggy, cavernous valley, where

the broken mountains make way for a gulf containingstagnant waters, and jagged, inaccessible rocks hem

it in. At the gorge by which this place is entered

stood the tower, on a hill which was itself surrounded

by deep bogs and pools, while it also was within a

ring of lofty crags.

There was but one way

to this

tower, except when the ground was frozen, and these

events happened in the midsummer of 1508. The

way

among

the pools were by a narrow path of stone, with

turf walls as hedges. The site of the tower made it

inexpugnable in summer time. It was owned by an

abbot, who gave them permission to occupy

and fortify

it. This they accordingly done, having a poor bailiff,

in charge of the place, for company.

The retreat to the tower was safely accomplished

under cover of night. Gerona's place was sacked the

next day by the peasants, who sought fiercely for the

German, as they termed Agrippa. The hiding place of

the conspirators becoming known, the flood of wrath

poured down towards the tower, but the strength of

the position was then felt. With a barricade of over-thrown

wagons the sole path to the besieged was

closed, and behind this barrier they posted themselves

with their arquebuses, of which one only sufficed to

daunt a crowd of men accustomed to no weapons

except for slings or bows and arrows. The peasantry,

discovering that the tower was not to be stormed, settled

down to lay strict siege to the place and thereby

starve its little garrison into surrender.

Perilous weeks were passed by the adventurers, but

more formidable than actual conflict was the famine

consequent on their blockade. Perrot, the keeper,

taking counsel with himself as how to help his guests

and rid himself of them at the same time, explored

every cranny of the wall of rock by which they were

surrounded. Clambering among the wastes, with feet

accustomed to the difficulties of the mountain, he discovered

at last, a devious and rugged way, by which

the obstacles of crag and chasm were avoided and the

mountain top reached. Looking down from there he

saw how, on the other side, the mountain rose out of

a lake, known as the Black Lake, having an expanse

of about four miles, upon the farther shore of which

his master's abbey stood. He found a way to the lake

through a rocky gorge, but from there to the abbey

was a long way, and, to men without a boat, the lake

was a more impassible barrier than the mountain. He

returned to the tower, where the little garrison heard

the result of his explorations. It was seen that a boat

was necessary to effect an escape,

and to procure

that

a letter would have to be sent through the ranks of

the vigilant besiegers, whose sentries were posted at all

points, and who allowed no one to approach the tower;

not even the good abbot himself, who had vainly tried

to turn the peasants from their purpose.

Under these circumstances the ingenuity of Agrippa

was severely tested, and he justified the credit he had

won for subtle wit. The keeper had a son, a shepherdboy, and Agrippa disfigured him with stains of milkthistle and the juice of other herbs, befouled his skin

and painted it with shocking spots to imitate the

marks of leprosy fixed his hair into a filthy bunch,

dressed him like a beggar, and gave him a crooked

branch for a stick, within which there was scooped a

hollow for the letter. Upon the boy so disguised " a

fearful picture of the outcast leper " the leper's bell

was hung, his father seated him on an ox, and led him

by night across the marshes by the ford, where he left

him. Stammering, as he went, petitions for alms, the boy walked without difficulty by a very

broad road

made for ham among the peasantry, who regarded his

approach with terror and fled from his path. The letter was safely delivered, the boy returning" the next

day with the desired answer, ringing his bell at the

border of the marsh at dark for his father to bring

him in. Agrippa and his companions spent the night

in preparations for departure. Towards dawn, they

covered their retreat by a demonstration of their usual

state of watchfulness, fired their guns, and gave other

indications of their presence. This done, they set

forth, in dead silence, carrying their baggage, and

were guided by Perrot, the keeper, to the summit.

There they lay gladly down among the stones to rest,

while their guide descended on the other side and

spread a preconcerted signal, a white cloth, upon a

rock. When he returned they ate the breakfast they

had brought with them, all sitting with their

eyes

towards the lake. At about nine o'clock two fisher- men's

barks were discerned, which hoisted a red flag,

the good abbot's signal. Rejoicing at the sight of

this, the escaped men fired off their guns in triumph

from the mountain-top, a hint to the besieging peasantry

of their departure, and, at the same time, a signal

to the rescuers. Still following Perrot, they next

descended, along ways by him discovered, through the

rocky gorge, to the meadows that bordered the lake.

Entering the boats, before evening they found themselves

safe under the abbot's roof. The day of this

escape was the 14th of August, 1508. They had been

suffering siege, therefore, during almost two months

in the mountain fastness.

Cornelius Agrippa being safe could quit the scene,

and done so without waiting to see how the difficulty

would be solved between the Catalonian peasants and

their master. It perplexed him much that he had no

tidings of Landulph, his closest friend. The abbot

advised him to go to court again, but Agrippa replied

that he had no mind to risk being again sent upon hazardous missions. After remaining" several days in

the abbey he set out, with an old man and his servant

Stephen, for Barcelona. Antonius Xanthus, the companion

of Agrippa, had seen much of the rough side

of the world, was useful as a traveling companion

and became a member of Agrippa 's secret league.

Not finding" Landulph at Barcelona the* traveled to

Valentia. From there they sailed for Italy, and by

way of the Balearic Islands and Sardinia they went to

Naples, where, disheartened by not finding Landulph,

they shipped for Leghorn, and then traveled to Avignon.

There they learned, from a traveling merchant,

that Landulph was at Lyons. The friends now corresponded,

Cornelius writing December 17th " nearly four

months after he had left the abbey in search of his

friend, the 24th of August. We may imagine many of

the things these friends wrote each other. It was the

suggestion of Agrippa that all the members of their

league be called together that they might be absolved

of their oaths regarding the Spanish conspiracy and

to resume, once more, their former pleasant relations.

He also hoped that Landulph might be able to visit

him at Avignon and talk their secrets over, as he was

unable to leave for Lyons, his funds being exhausted,

until after the lapse of a little time.

The foregoing account, which has been condensed

from Mr. Henry Morley's excellent Life of Cornelius

Agrippa is continued in that part of this volume that

starts with the heading of "Agrippa and the Rosicrucians. "

Agrippa 's life now becomes so interwoven

with mysticism that we give Morley's account in full.

The next chapters in his life are replete with the fruition

of his mystic nature, its full-blown flower being

The Occult Philosophy, or Three Books of Magic,

the writing of which completes his early life.