Johannes Agricola

Johannes Agricola (Eisleben, 1494 - Berlin, 1566) was a German theologian and humanist of the Reformation. He began as a follower and friend of Martin Luther and later became one of his best-known opponents. He matters chiefly for the dispute over the place of moral law in the Christian life, which gave rise to antinomianism.

He studied at Wittenberg, where he befriended Luther, and in 1519 accompanied him to the Leipzig assembly as recording secretary. After short spells of teaching and preaching in Frankfurt and Eisleben, he returned to Wittenberg in 1536, where the old quarrel flared up more fiercely than ever. Agricola held that Christians, freed by the gospel, were not bound to the Mosaic law. Luther insisted that the Ten Commandments still guided conduct and exposed sin.

In 1540 he left Wittenberg for Berlin, where he published a letter to Frederick III of Saxony that was generally read as a recantation, though Luther did not accept it as one. Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg took him into his favour and made him court preacher and general superintendent. In 1548 he helped draft the Augsburg Interim, a compromise with Rome that earned him the scorn of many Protestants. He also compiled early collections of German proverbs, the first in 1528 and a second volume in 1530.