Cornelius Agrippa and the Demon of Louvain

Born at Cologne in 1486, in the noble and ancient family of Nettesheim, Cornelius Agrippa wanted to walk in the footsteps of his ancestors. For many generations they had been employed by the house of Austria, so he entered into the service of Emperor Maximilian, first as a Secretary, later and for seven years as a soldier in Maximilian's Italian army. He was created knight in the field because of his brave actions, but he soon added some academical honours to the military and became doctor of laws and physic.

The Greatest Magician of his age

Cornelius Agrippa had a wonderful genius and a great talent to obtain knowledge in almost all arts and sciences. He was a diligent researcher, fascinated by the mysteries of nature, and obsessed by the Philosopher's Stone. Agrippa was recommended to a princess as a Master in the Art of Alchemy, but his temper once again got him in trouble. He read lectures at Rome, Pavia, Turin and his work raised the indignation of the Pope. Because the people of those days suspected whatever they could not understand, he had to flee from various cities in France - where he defended a country-woman, accused of witchcraft - and Spain.

Agrippa had a wife who was very handsome and by whom he had one son. He lost her in 1521, but the next year he married again, in Geneva. His second wife gave him two sons and a daughter. He went to Fribourgh in Switzerland to practise physic there and in 1523 he was in Lyon. A princess asked him now to enquire by the rules of astrology how the affairs of France would be doing and when he expressed his disapprobation - his mistress should not employ him in such a vain curiosity, she should use his abilities in more important matters! - he fell in disgrace once again.

He cast his eyes on the Low Countries and in the month of July, 1528, Cornelius Agrippa arrived at Antwerp. Here the King of England sent him a kind invitation, but at the same time he was invited by an Italian marquis and by Margaret of Austria, governess of the Netherlands. His treatise on the Vanity of the Sciences and another work of his hand, the Occult Philosophy, afforded his enemies a pretence to defame him. In 1531 he was imprisoned at Brussels and when he got released, he was chased by his many creditors. He returned to Cologne, lived some time in Bonn and Lyon again, was imprisoned a second time, now for something he had said against the mother of the French King, was released at the request of some friends and went to Grenoble, where he died in 1535.

The Demon of Louvain

Martín Antonio Del Rio, the Jesuit theologian who was partly responsible for the witch-hunts in the Southern Netherlands, taught for several years theology in the Flemish city of Louvain when Agrippa lived there. He accused the Magister of practising diabolical magic, the awful Black Art. For instance, Agrippa would have paid at inns with pieces of horn and casted an illusion over the senses whereby those who received the pieces took them for real money. It also was Del Rio who told the story of the Demon of Louvain, raised in Agrippa's study.

One day, when Agrippa had to go outside, he took all of his black magical books, put them in his study and made sure the room was carefully locked. He gave the key to his wife and said that no one was to be allowed in the locked room. Because he still hadn't found the Philosopher's Stone and hadn't succeed in turning lead into gold, he was obliged to rent out a room to make ends meet. His tenant was a student of his, eager to get a peek at the books of the Magus. The young man asked Agrippa's wife for the key of the study, but she refused. However, being very handsome and saying he just wanted to look around for a few minutes, Agrippa's wife finally agreed and gave him the key.

The evening was falling when the student entered the study in the light of a flickering candle. He could see the tools of the magician: a crystal ball, magic charms... and many, many old books, some of them real grimoires. One of the books lay open on Agrippa's desk, the student saw some strange phrases there... he could pronounce them, but he didn't understand what they meant.

And then... What was that noise? Was that a knock on the door? Startled, the student went into the corridor, but no one was there. He continued to read out loud those strange phrases, it was no Latin, no Greek, no language he knew... and then there was another knock, much louder now.

This time, the student was badly frightened. Trembling he muttered something that sounded like: "Come in..."

And see, the door was thrown open and a huge, evil-looking stranger entered. "Why was I called, Master?"

"I didn't call you!"

"Oh yes, you did!" cried the creature as it advanced across the room. "Demons are not called in vain! Never! They don't like to be disturbed!"

The student was frozen in terror, speechless... Accidentally, he had read a magic spell that opened the door to infernal regions. The demon, in rage, grabbed his throat and choked the life out of him.

When Agrippa got home, he found the body of the student on the floor of his study. He saw the open book on his desk and the demon sitting in his chair.

"Why did you kill this boy?" he asked angrily.

"Your student has summoned me with no good reason. He deserved to die!"

The demon was right... and Agrippa had a problem. What did he have to do about the student's dead body? If he turned it over to the authorities, he would be accused of murder. If he made it disappear, people would wonder what happened with this handsome young man.

There was only one thing he could do... "You have to take over the corpse for a walk in the city," he said.

While the demon was walking in the body of the dead student, Agrippa made sure his neighbours saw that he was at home. At sunset, the "student" suddenly fell down, cold and lifeless, at the market-place. No one saw the demon disappear in a puff of smoke. No one, except Martín Del Rio, maybe.

At first, people thought the young man died of some sort of sudden stroke. But knowing he had been Agrippa's tenant, they were suspicious. Del Rio examined the corpse more closely and found marks of strangulation on the neck and marks of the demon's claws on other parts of the body.

So, Agrippa's plan to protect his reputation did not succeed... and it was business as usual: he had to leave Louvain in a real hurry.