ian attack upon Melanchthon.
The dispute was settled by Luther, but only for a time. In 1536
Agricola, through the influence of Luther (whose hospitality also he and
his large family on their arrival in Wittenberg enjoyed for more than
six weeks), received an appointment at the university. He rewarded his
generous friend with intrigues and repeated renewals of the antinomian
quarrels, now directing his attacks also against his benefactor. By 1540
matters had come to such a pass that the Elector felt constrained to
institute a formal trial against the secret plotter, which Agricola
escaped only by accepting a call of Joachim II as courtpreacher and
superintendent at Berlin. After Luther's death, Agricola, as described
in a preceding chapter, degraded and discredited himself by helping
Pflug and Sidonius to prepare the Augsburg Interim (1547), and by
endeavoring to enforce this infamous document in Brandenburg. He died
September 22, 1566.

Vanity, ambition, conceit, insincerity, impudence, arrogance, and
ungratefulness were the outstanding traits of Agricola's character.
Luther said that Agricola, swelled with vanity and ambition, was more
vexatious to him than any pope; that he was fit only for the profession
of a jester, etc. December 6, 1540, Luther wrote to Jacob Stratner,
courtpreacher in Berlin: "Master Grickel is not, nor ever will be, the
man that he may appear, or the Margrave may consider him to be. For if
you wish to know what vanity itself is you can recognize it in no surer
image than that of Eisleben. _Si enim velis scire, quidnam ipsa vanitas
sit, nulla certiore imagine cognosces quam Islebii._" (St. L. 21b,
2536.) Flacius reports that shortly before Luther's death, when some
endeavored to excuse Agricola, the former answered angrily: "Why
endeavor to excuse Eisleben? Eisleben is incited by the devil, who has
taken possession of him entirely. You will see what a stir he will make
after my death! _Ihr werdet wohl erfahren, was er nach meinem Tod fuer
einen Laerm wird anrichten!_" (Preger 1, 119.)

185. Agricola's Conflict with Melanchthon.

The antinomian views that repentance (contrition) is not wrought by the
Law, but by the Gospel, and that hence there is no room for the Law and
its preaching in the Christian Church, were uttered by Agricola as early
as 1525. In his _Annotations to the Gospel of St. Luke_ of that year he
had written: "The Decalog belongs in the courthouse, not in the pulpit.
All those