Note 488 — Chapter II · The Lutheran Hymn-Book—The Book of Arithmetic—The Geometrical Instruments—The Mosaic Pavement—The Lute—The Seven Liberal Arts—The Silver Crucifix—Occult Science—Conclusion

It is a curious thing that Agrippa, whose name has descended to posterity as the incarnation of black magic, enjoyed for a time a European reputation for learning of the highest kind. Ecclesiastics such as the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal La Marck, and Cardinal Campeggio, were his special protectors. The freedom with which he expressed his opinion of the monks seems first to have drawn from his enraged enemies those accusations of meddling with black art which afterwards sullied his fame. His talents were universal. Secretary, soldier, knight, doctor of law, physic, and divinity, equally at home in France, Germany, England, and Italy, his life was as varied as the professions he undertook to exercise. But by some fault of tact or temper on his part his career always broke off just when apparently about to prosper, and ended in bitterness and disappointment. Agrippa died at Grenoble in 1535.