AGRICOLA (John), a Saxon divine born at Ilsebe in 1492. He went as chaplain to count Mansfield, when that nobleman attended the Elector of Saxony to the diet of Spire in 1526, and that of Augsburg in 1530. He was of a restless ambitious temper, rivalled and wrote against Melancthon, and gave count Mansfield occasion to reproach him severely. He obtained a professorship at Wittemberg, where he taught particular doctrines, and became founder of the sect of Antinomians; which occasioned warm disputes between him and Luther, who had before been his very good friend. But though he was never able to recover the favour either of the elector of Saxony or of Luther, he received some consolation from the same he acquired at Berlin: where he became preacher at court; and was chosen in 1548, in conjunction with Julius Phlug and Michael Holdingus, to compose the famous Interim, which made so much noise in the world. He died at Berlin in 1566.