AGRIPPI´NA, the elder, was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and of Julia, the daughter of Augustus. She became the devoted wife of C. Germanicus, whom she accompanied in most of his expeditions. By her sagacity and heroism she suppressed, on one occasion, a mutiny in the camp; and, on another, prevented the destruction of the bridge over the Rhine, and thus saved the remnant of a Roman army. When her husband died at Antioch, of poison, as was suspected, she returned to Rome with his ashes. Tiberius, dreading her influence over his subjects, by whom she was universally beloved and revered, banished her to the island of Pandataria, where, in 33 a.d., she was put to death by order of the tyrant. She had nine children by Germanicus, one of whom was the Emperor Caligula, and another, the mother of Nero.—E. M.
AGRIPPI´NA, the younger, daughter of the preceding and of Germanicus, and mother of Nero, was a woman of great capacity, boundless ambition, and matchless wickedness in every form. Her first husband, and the father of Nero, was Domitius Ahenobarbus. After his death, and that of another whom she is said to have poisoned, she married, in defiance of the laws and moral sentiments of the Romans, her own uncle, the Emperor Claudius, whom she eventually poisoned, to make way for her son Nero, by whose order she was put to death in 59 a.d.—E. M.
AGRŒCIUS or AGRŒTIUS, a Roman grammarian, author of a work still extant, entitled "De Orthographia, et differentia Sermonis." He is favourably mentioned by Ausonius, and is supposed to have lived about the middle of the fifth century.
AGUA´DO, Francis d', a celebrated Spanish jesuit, who, by his indefatigable labours and voluminous writings, exerted great influence in promoting the views of his order, was born at Torrejon, near Madrid, in 1572. Died in 1654.
AGUANI, Juvenal d', a German Capuchin of the seventeenth century, of Tyrolese extraction, and author of various works, who attained great notoriety in his time by his attainments and his intrigues.
AGUCCHIA, Lactantius, an Italian mathematician of the seventeenth century, author of a curious treatise, now rare, on ready reckoning.
AGUERO, Benito Manuel, a Spanish painter, born in Madrid in 1626. He was a pupil and a successful imitator of Juan Batista del Mazo, and generally painted battles and landscapes. The Spanish king, Philip IV., who was very fond of him, used to frequent his studio and keep him company whilst at work. Towards the end of his career he tried, but in vain, to imitate the style of Titian. Died in 1670.—R. M.
AGUESSEAU, Henri François d', chancellor of France, was born at Limoges in 1668. Displaying from his earliest years pre-eminent capacity and great ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, he soon attained, under the superintendence of his accomplished and amiable father, who was "intendant" of Bordeaux, remarkable proficiency in classical and modern languages and literature, as well as in mathematics, history, and philosophy. While prosecuting, for a series of years, the study of jurisprudence, both Roman and French, he was most assiduous in the practice of composition, incessantly perusing and eagerly imitating the choicest models of Latin, Greek, and French eloquence. Through the influence of his relatives and youthful associates, he was early imbued with that tone of patriotism and piety which pervades the writings of Pothier and Domat, and of all the great French legists of the seventeenth century. Possessing all the requisites of a true orator—acumen, memory, knowledge, taste, expression—with the love of truth and righteousness, he became, almost from the very commencement of his public career, the most classic model of French forensic eloquence. After serving for a few months as king's counsel in an inferior court, he was appointed, at the age of twenty-two, "avocat-general" for the parliament (supreme judicature) of Paris, and seems to have at once eclipsed his two colleagues; all three being subordinate to the "procureur-general," but more frequently required to exercise their powers of oratory. So completely successful, in fact, were his first appearances, that one of the most eloquent veterans of the parliament declared they resembled, not the attempts of a novice, but the feats of a practised and consummate orator. According to the legal institutions of France, as law officer of the crown, he was not expected to be the echo of a ministry, but the independent voice of truth and righteousness. The parliament, also, by exercising their privilege of refusing to register an "ordonnance," or by carrying remonstrances to the throne, were able, even under the old Bourbons, to apply a constitutional check to the arbitrary acts of the sovereign; and, though their efforts in behalf of freedom might be overruled, they exerted a powerful influence on public opinion. According to the fundamental principles of French ecclesiastical law, a papal bull has no legal force in France till formally sanctioned by the civil and ecclesiastical power of the realm; and on no pretext can the church interfere with the free action of the secular authority. These principles constitute what are called the "Gallican liberties"—a platform long heroically upheld by the sovereign, the national church, and the people of France, in spite of all the efforts of the court of Rome to accomplish its destruction. Louis XIV., after having long asserted the Gallican liberties, became, during the latter part of his reign, a willing vassal of the papacy and a tool of the jesuits, mainly through the instrumentality of Madame de Maintenon, whose permanent influence over Louis was an achievement of that wily and unscrupulous fraternity. In 1699 the papal censure of the illustrious Fénélon arrived at Paris, and D'Aguesseau was directed to demand its registration by the parliament. This task, so peculiarly difficult, owing to the parliament's jealousy of papal encroachment, he executed with success. The discourse he delivered on the occasion displays great eloquence and admirable tact. He complimented Fénélon on his meek acquiescence in the papal decision, and urged the registration of the brief on the ground of its having received the approval of the secular power and of all the bishops in France. Thus the measure was carried, while the Gallican liberties were preserved from infringement.
In 1700 he was promoted to the office of "procureur-general," and entered on a new field of labour, in which his special attainments soon became conspicuous. His singular habits of application, and his minute acquaintance with French history and feudal jurisprudence, enabled him to render immense service to the crown in the recovery of fiefs and jurisdictions. The reforms he introduced into the management of charitable institutions, and the measures he recommended or enforced, to alleviate the suffering of the people during the famine of 1709, procured him universal esteem. The Jesuits, encouraged by their success in crushing the Huguenots and humbling the Jansenists, now determined to strike a final blow for extinguishing all resistance to papal supremacy in France, and under pretext of condemning certain propositions of the Jansenist Quesnel, Clement XI., urged by the king's confessor, Le Tellier, issued the famous bull "Unigenitus" in 1713. The vindictive ferocity of Le Tellier had intimidated numerous individuals; and a party in the parliament of Paris, to which the attention of the whole nation was now directed, was disposed to sacrifice the independence of the Gallican church and French nation, by the registration of the uncanonical and unconstitutional bull. D'Aguesseau fearlessly opposed the papal aggression, and, as member of a deputation from the parliament to the king, gave expression to the boldest remonstrances. Jesuit influence, however, prevailed, and the bull was registered both by the parliament and the Sorbonne. On the death of Louis XIV. in 1715, the regent Orleans favoured for some time the opponents of the jesuits, and in 1717 D'Aguesseau was made chancellor of France; but owing to his opposition to the delusive scheme of the famous Law, was dismissed from office, and banished from Paris in 1718, through the influence of Dubois, afterwards made cardinal for his subserviency to the court of Rome. In 1720, Dubois, alarmed at the disastrous consequences with which the explosion of Law's bubble threatened the nation, afforded D'Aguesseau a signal triumph, by sending Law himself to implore his return to office, to aid in saving France from impending ruin. D'Aguesseau's again accepting office in connection with Dubois and the regent, has been regretted by his greatest admirers. He acted, no doubt, from the noblest motives, hoping to conciliate opponents, and mitigate evils he was unable to prevent. Seven distinguished members of the Sorbonne having solemnly protested against the registration of the bull "Unigenitus," the court and jesuits deemed it expedient, in order to neutralise the protestation, to insist on the parliament's registering a royal declaration in favour of the bull, and D'Aguesseau unfortunately urged the registration. His conduct on this occasion raised a general outcry, and seemed, at least, a melancholy inconsistency. He endeavoured to justify himself on the ground that, as the bull had been, in spite of his opposition, previously registered, the refusal to register the declaration, under existing circumstances, would exasperate opponents and
