Agricola, Michel

, a native of Finland, and a Lutheran divine of considerable eminence in the sixteenth century, studied divinity and medicine in the university of Wittemberg. Having become acquainted with Luther, that reformer recommended him to Gustavus I.; and on his return to Sweden, he was made rector of Abo, in 1539. Gustavus afterwards sent him to Lapland to preach Christianity to the benighted Laplanders. In 1554, he was appointed bishop of Abo, and then went into Russia, with the archbishop of Upsal, Laurentius Petri, in order to have a conference with the clergy of that country. He died in 1557. He translated the New Testament into the Finland language, which was printed at Stockholm, 1548; and is said also to have translated into the same language a work entitled “Rituale Ecclesise ab erroribus pontificiorum rep.urgatus.” ²