Everything about Pietro Martire Vermigli totally explained
Pietro Martire Vermigli, sometimes simply
Peter Martyr (
September 8 1499 –
1562), was an
Italian theologian of the
Reformation period.
He was born at
Florence, the son of Stefano di Antonio Vermigli and Maria Fumantina, a moderately well-to-do family. The young couple originally christened their child
Piero Mariano, though he took the name Peter Martyr when he was ordained into the
Augustinian order after
St. Peter Martyr. Educated in the
Augustinian cloister at
Fiesole, he was transferred in 1519 to the convent of
St John of Verdara near
Padua, where he graduated
D.D. about 1527 and made the acquaintance of the future
Cardinal Pole. From that year onwards he was employed as a public preacher at
Brescia,
Pisa,
Venice and
Rome; and in his intervals of leisure he mastered
Greek and
Hebrew. In 1530 he was elected abbot of the Augustinian monastery at
Spoleto, and in 1533 prior of the convent of St Peter ad Aram at
Naples.
About this time, primarily through the influence of
Juan de Valdes, he read
Martin Bucer's commentaries on the
Gospels and the
Psalms and also
Zwingli's
De vera et falsa religione; and his Biblical studies began to affect his views. He was accused of erroneous doctrine, and the Spanish viceroy of Naples prohibited his preaching. The prohibition was removed on appeal to Rome, but in 1541 Vermigli was transferred to
Lucca, where he again fell under suspicion. Summoned to appear before a chapter of his order at
Genoa, he fled in 1542 to Pisa and thence to another Italian reformer,
Bernardino Ochino, at Florence. Ochino escaped to
Geneva, and Vermigli to
Zürich, thence to
Basel, and finally to
Strasbourg, where, with Bucer's support, he was appointed professor of theology and married his first wife, Catherine Dammartin of
Metz.
Vermigli and Ochino were both invited to England by Archbishop
Thomas Cranmer in 1547, and given a pension of forty marks by the government. In 1548 Vermigli was appointed
Regius Professor of Divinity at
Oxford, in succession to
Dr. Richard Smyth, and was incorporated D.D. In 1549 he took part in a great disputation on the
Eucharist. He had abandoned
Luther's doctrine of
consubstantiation and adopted the doctrine of a Real Presence conditioned by the faith of the recipient standard amongst
Reformed theologians. Indeed, Vermigli appears to have profoundly affected the views of Cranmer and
Ridley, and historians have proven definitively that Vermigli had a great deal of influence in the modifications of the
Book of Common Prayer in 1552.
On the accession of the Catholic
Mary I of England, Vermigli was permitted to return to Strasbourg, where, after some opposition raised on the ground that he'd abandoned Lutheran doctrine, he was reappointed professor of
theology. He befriended a number of English exiles, but had himself in 1556 to accept an offer of the chair of Hebrew at Zürich owing to his increased alienation from Lutheranism. He was invited to Geneva in 1557, and to England again in 1561, but declined both invitations, maintaining, however, a constant correspondence with Bishop
John Jewel and other English prelates and reformers until his death at Zürich on
12 November 1562.
His first wife, Catherine, a former nun who died at Oxford on
17 February 1553, was disinterred in 1557 and tried for
heresy; legal evidence wasn't forthcoming because witnesses hadn't understood her tongue; and instead of the corpse being burnt, it was merely cast on a dunghill in the stable of the dean of Christ Church. The remains were identified after
Elizabeth's accession, mingled with the supposed relics of St
Frideswide to prevent future desecration, and reburied in the cathedral. Vermigli's second wife, Caterina Merenda, whom he married at Zürich, survived him, marrying a merchant of
Locarno.
Vermigli published over a score of theological works, chiefly Biblical commentaries and treatises on the Eucharist. His learning was striking and profound, and he played a vital role in both the Swiss and English Reformations.
John Calvin himself regarded Peter Martyr as one of the greatest expounders of the doctrine of the Eucharist in
Protestantism.
Josias Simler's
Oratio, published in 1563 and translated into English in 1583, is the basis of subsequent accounts of Vermigli, though it has been amended somewhat by recent studies, especially by Philip McNair's work,
Peter Martyr in Italy.
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