Johannes Agricola facts for kids
Johannes Agricola (born Schneider) was an important German Protestant Reformer. He lived during the time of the Protestant Reformation, a big change in Christian religion. He was a friend and follower of Martin Luther, another famous reformer. However, they later had disagreements about how important old laws were for Christians.
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About Johannes Agricola
Johannes Agricola was born in a town called Eisleben in 1494. Because of this, he was sometimes called Magister Islebius. He went to study in Wittenberg, where he quickly became friends with Martin Luther.
His Early Career
In 1519, Agricola went with Luther to a large meeting of religious leaders in Leipzig. He helped by writing down what was said there. After teaching for some time in Wittenberg, he moved to Frankfurt in 1525. His job there was to help set up the Protestant way of worship.
He only stayed in Frankfurt for a month. Then he was called back to Eisleben. He remained there until 1526. During this time, he taught at the school of St Andrew. He also preached at the Nicolai church.
Disagreements and New Roles
Agricola had a big disagreement with Luther. This argument was about whether Christians still needed to follow certain old laws. Because of this, Agricola secretly left Wittenberg in 1540. He moved to Berlin.
In Berlin, he published a letter. Many people thought this letter meant he had changed his mind about his earlier views. But Luther did not seem to accept it as a full change of heart. Agricola stayed in Berlin.
Working for the Elector
Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg took a liking to Agricola. He gave Agricola two important jobs. Agricola became the court preacher and a general superintendent. He held both of these positions until he died in 1566. His time in Brandenburg was very busy and he had a lot of influence.
Trying to Find Peace
Agricola also worked with other leaders, Julius von Pflug and Michael Helding. Together, they helped create something called the Augsburg Interim in 1548. This was a plan to try and settle things between Protestants and Catholics. It suggested that Protestants would accept most Catholic rules. They would only be allowed to keep a few Protestant ideas. For example, they could still have communion in both kinds. And their clergy could still be married. But they would have to accept other Catholic teachings. This included not believing that faith alone makes a person right with God.
Because of his work on the Interim, many other Protestant leaders saw him as someone who had given in to the Catholics. It was surprising because he had been a very strong reformer early on. He also tried to calm another argument called the Adiaphoristic controversy, but he was not successful.
Johannes Agricola died in Berlin on September 22, 1566. He passed away during a time when many people were getting sick from the Black Death, a serious illness.
His Writings
Agricola wrote many books about religious topics. He was also one of the first people to collect German proverbs. Proverbs are short, wise sayings. He wrote down these sayings and added comments about what they meant.
His first book of proverbs came out in 1529. It had 300 proverbs. The second book, published in 1530, had 450 more. A bigger, updated version with all 750 proverbs was published in 1534. This book was printed again later, for example, in 1592.
In Literature
In 1836, a poet named Robert Browning wrote a poem about Johannes Agricola. The poem is called "Johannes Agricola in Meditation".
