Agrippa's academic career began in 1509, receiving the patronage of
Margaret of Austria, governor of
Franche-Comté, and Antoine de Vergy, archbishop of
Besançon and chancellor of the
University of Dole. In the reply he argued that his Christian faith was not incompatible with his appreciation for Jewish thought, writing "I am a Christian, but I do not dislike Jewish Rabbis". Agrippa then returned to Cologne and gave
disputations at the university's faculty of theology. Agrippa followed emperor Maximilian to
Italy in 1511, and as a theologian attended the schismatic
council of Pisa (1512), which was called by some cardinals in opposition to a council called by Pope
Julius II. He remained in Italy for seven years, partly in the service of
William IX, Marquess of Montferrat, and partly in that of
Charles III, Duke of Savoy, probably occupied in teaching theology and practicing medicine. During his time in northern Italy Agrippa came into contact with Agostino Ricci and perhaps
Paolo Ricci, and studied the works of philosophers
Marsilio Ficino and
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and the
kabbalah. In 1515 he lectured at the
University of Pavia on the
Pimander of
Hermes Trismegistus, but these lectures were abruptly terminated owing to the victories of
Francis I, King of France. In 1518 the efforts of one or other of his patrons secured for Agrippa the position of town advocate and orator, or
syndic, at
Metz. Here, as at Dole, his opinions soon brought him into collision with the monks, and his defense of a woman accused of witchcraft involved him in a dispute with the
inquisitor, Nicholas Savin. The consequence of this was that in 1520 he resigned his office and returned to hometown Cologne, where he stayed about two years. He then practiced for a short time as a physician at
Geneva and
Freiburg, but in 1524 went to
Lyon on being appointed physician to
Louise of Savoy, mother of
Francis I. In 1528 he gave up this position, and about this time was invited to take part in the dispute over the legality of the divorce of
Catherine of Aragon by
Henry VIII; but he preferred an offer made by
Margaret, duchess of Savoy and regent of the Netherlands, and became archivist and historiographer to her nephew, emperor
Charles V. Margaret's death in 1530 weakened his position, and the publication of some of his writings about the same time aroused anew the hatred of his enemies; but after suffering a short imprisonment for debt at
Brussels he lived at
Cologne and
Bonn, under the protection of
Hermann of Wied, archbishop of Cologne. By publishing his works he brought himself into antagonism with the
Inquisition, which sought to stop the printing of
De occulta philosophia. He then went to France, where he was arrested by order of Francis I for some disparaging words about the queen-mother Louise of Savoy; but he was soon released, and on 18 February 1535 died at
Grenoble. He was married three times and had a large family. During his wandering life in Germany, France, and Italy, Agrippa worked as a theologian, physician, legal expert, and soldier. Agrippa was for some time in the service of
Maximilian I, probably as a soldier in Italy, but devoted his time mainly to the study of the occult sciences and to problematic theological legal questions, which exposed him to various persecutions through life, usually in the mode described above: He would be privately denounced for one sort of heresy or another. He would only reply with venom considerably later (Nauert demonstrates this pattern effectively). No evidence exists that Agrippa was seriously accused, much less persecuted, for his interest in or practice of magical or occult arts during his lifetime, although it was known he argued against the persecution of witches. It is impossible, of course, to cite negatively, but Nauert, the best bio-bibliographical study to date, shows no indication of such persecution, and Van der Poel's careful examination of the various attacks suggest that they were founded on quite other theological grounds. Recent scholarship (see Further Reading below, in Lehrich, Nauert, and Van der Poel) generally agrees that this rejection or repudiation of magic is not what it seems: Agrippa never rejected magic in its totality, but he did retract his early manuscript of the
Occult Philosophy – to be replaced by the later form. In the
Third Book of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa concludes with: According to his student
Johann Weyer, in the 1563 book
De praestigiis daemonum, Agrippa died in
Grenoble, in 1535. ==Works==