patroness.

His death occurred at Grenoble, France, February 18, 1535.

Agrippa was possessed of great versatility and learning, but his
writings are tinctured with bitterness and satire. He has been described
as restless, ambitious, enthusiastic, and credulous, a dupe himself and
a deceiver of others. His career was a continuous series of
disappointments and quarrels.

Yet he was an earnest searcher after truth, who was fain to attempt the
unlocking of Nature's secrets, but did not hold the right key.
Profoundly superstitious, he taught, for example, that the herb,
_Verbena officinalis_, vervain, would cure tertian or quartan fevers
according to the manner in which it was divided or cut. Agrippa has been
tersely described as a "meteor of philosophy."

CARDAN

JEROME CARDAN, an Italian physician, author, mathematician and
philosopher, was born at Pavia, September 24, 1501. He was the
illegitimate son of Facio Cardan, a man of repute among the learned in
his neighborhood, from whom Jerome received instruction in his youth.
Although idolized by his mother, he incurred his father's dislike, and
these circumstances, we are told, exerted a peculiar influence upon his
character. Despite many difficulties, however, he achieved both fame and
notoriety. After having received degrees in arts and medicine from the
University of Padua, he became Professor of Mathematics at Milan in
1534, and later was admitted to the College of Physicians in that city.
In 1547 he declined an invitation to become court physician at
Copenhagen, on account of the harsh northern climate and the obligation
to change his religion. In the year 1552 Jerome Cardan visited Scotland
at the request of John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, whom he
treated for asthma with success. Thence he was summoned to England to
give his professional advice in the case of Edward VI, after which he
returned to Milan with enhanced prestige. He afterwards practised
Medicine at Pavia and Bologna and finally settled at Rome, where he
received a pension from the Pope. His death occurred there, September
21, 1575.

Cardan was possessed of great natural ability, and for a time was
regarded as the most eminent physician and astrologer among his
contemporaries. But his mind was of a peculiar cast, and his temper most
inconstant. He had, says Peter Bayle, in his "Historical Dictionary," a
decided love of paradox, and of the marvellous, an infantine credulity,
a supersti