Peter Martyr Vermigli (; 8 September 149912 November 1562) was an Italian-born Reformed theologian. His early work as a reformer in Catholic Italy and his decision to flee for Protestant northern Europe influenced some other Italians to convert and flee as well. In England, he influenced the Edwardian Reformation, including the Eucharistic service of the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. He was considered an authority on the Eucharist among the Reformed churches and engaged in controversies on the subject by writing treatises. Vermigli's Loci Communes, a compilation of excerpts from his biblical commentaries, became a standard Reformed theological textbook.
Born in Florence, Vermigli entered a religious order and was appointed to influential posts as abbot and prior. He came in contact with leaders of the Italian spirituali reform movement, and read Protestant theologians such as Martin Bucer and Ulrich Zwingli. He came to accept Protestant beliefs about salvation and the Eucharist. To satisfy his conscience and avoid persecution by the Roman Inquisition, he fled Italy for Protestant northern Europe. He ultimately arrived in Strasbourg, where he taught on the Old Testament of the Bible under Bucer. English reformer Thomas Cranmer invited him to take an influential post at Oxford University where he continued to teach the Bible. He also defended his Eucharistic beliefs against Catholic proponents of transubstantiation in a public disputation. Vermigli was forced to leave England on the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary. As a Marian exile he returned to Strasbourg and his former teaching position. Vermigli's beliefs regarding the Eucharist and predestination clashed with those of leading Lutherans in Strasbourg, so he transferred to Reformed Zürich where he taught until his death in 1562.
Vermigli's best-known theological contribution was defending the Reformed doctrine of the Eucharist against Catholics and Lutherans. Contrary to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, Vermigli did not believe that the bread and wine are changed into Christ's body and blood. He also disagreed with the Lutheran view that Christ's body is ubiquitous and so can be present in the Eucharist. Instead, Vermigli taught that Christ remains in Heaven even though he is offered to those who partake of the Eucharist and received by believers.
Vermigli developed a strong doctrine of predestination independently of John Calvin. His interpretation was that God's will determines election and the reprobation of the non-elect. Vermigli's belief is similar but not identical to Calvin's. Vermigli's political theology was important in the Elizabethan settlement; he provided theological justification for royal supremacy, the doctrine that the king of a territory, rather than any ecclesiastical authority, rules the church.
Life Early life (1499–1525)
Vermigli was born in Florence, the centre of the Florentine Republic, on 8 September 1499 to Stefano di Antonio Vermigli, a wealthy shoemaker, and Maria Fumantina. He was christened Piero Mariano the following day. He was the eldest of three children; his sister Felicita Antonio was born in 1501, and his brother Antonio Lorenzo Romulo was born in 1504. His mother taught him Latin before enrolling him in a school for children of noble Florentines. She died in 1511, when Piero was twelve. Vermigli was attracted to the Catholic priesthood from an early age. In 1514 he became a novice at the Badia Fiesolana, a monastery of the Canons Regular of the Lateran. The Lateran Canons were one of several institutions born out of a fifteenth-century religious reform movement. They emphasised strict discipline, and could be transferred from house to house rather than being bound to stability in one place, as was the custom of Benedictine monasticism. They also sought to provide ministry in urban areas. Peter's sister followed him into the monastic life, becoming a nun the same year.
On completing his novitiate in 1518, Vermigli took the name Peter Martyr after the thirteenth-century Dominican Saint Peter of Verona. The Lateran Congregation had recently decided that promising young ordinands should be sent to the monastery of Saint John of Verdara in Padua to study Aristotle, so Vermigli was sent there. The University of Padua, with which Saint John of Verdera was loosely affiliated, was a highly prestigious institution at the time. At Padua, Vermigli received a thorough training in Thomistic scholasticism and an appreciation for Augustine and Christian humanism. Vermigli was determined to read Aristotle in his original language despite the lack of Greek teachers, so he taught himself. He also made the acquaintance of prominent reform-minded theologians Pietro Bembo, Reginald Pole, and Marcantonio Flaminio.
Early Italian ministry (1525–1536) Vermigli was ordained in 1525 and probably received his Doctor of Divinity around that time. The chapter-general of the Congregation elected him to the office of public preacher in 1526. His first series of sermons was in Brescia later that year. He then preached for three years, travelling around northern and central Italy. Unlike the practice of other preaching orders which usually only preached at Lent and Advent, the Augustinians preached year-round. He also gave lectures on the Bible as well as Homer in Lateran Congregation houses.
In 1530 Vermigli was appointed vicar of the monastery at San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna. There he learned Hebrew from a local Jewish doctor so he could read the Old Testament scriptures in their original language. Even among those who sought deeper biblical study, it was uncommon for clergy to learn Hebrew, though not unheard of. In 1533 the chapter-general elected Vermigli abbot of the two Lateran monasteries in Spoleto. At this post he was also responsible for two convents. The discipline in the monastic houses in Vermigli's care had been lax before his arrival, and they had become a source of scandal in Spoleto. There was also a history of a power struggle between the Bishop of Spoleto, Francesco Eroli, and the Spoletan abbacy, to the point that the bishop had excommunicated Vermigli's predecessor, only to be overturned by Rome. Vermigli brought order to his houses and mended the relationship with the bishop.
The chapter general re-elected Vermigli to the Spoletan abbacy in 1534 and again in 1535, but he was not elected to lead any house the following year. He may have been identified as a promising reformer who could help with reform efforts in higher places. Vermigli was in contact with the Catholic leaders working on the Consilium de emendanda ecclesia, an internal report on potential reforms of the Church commissioned by Pope Paul III. He may have even travelled to Rome to assist in writing it.
First controversial preaching and ministry in Lucca (1537–1541) The Congregation elected Vermigli abbot of the monastery at San Pietro ad Aram, Naples in 1537. There he became acquainted with Juan de Valdés, a leader of the spirituali movement. Valdés introduced Vermigli to the writings of Protestant reformers. Toward the end of his time in Naples, he read Martin Bucer's commentaries on the Gospels and the Psalms, and Huldrych Zwingli's . Reading these works was an act of ecclesiastical defiance, but not an uncommon one in reformist circles. Vermigli seems to have slowly moved in a Protestant direction primarily through the study of the Bible and the Church Fathers, especially Augustine. He probably read Protestant literature critically; it was common for those in reform-minded circles to do so while remaining in the Catholic Church. Vermigli embraced the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone during this time, and he had probably rejected the traditional Catholic view of the sacraments. Vermigli also seems to have influenced Valdés. Scholars believe that Valdés's strong doctrine of double predestination, that God has chosen some people for salvation and others for damnation, was learned from Vermigli. Vermigli in turn had acquired it from his study of either Gregory of Rimini or Thomas Aquinas at Padua.
Vermigli's move away from orthodox Catholic belief became apparent in 1539 when he preached on 1 Corinthians 3:9–17, a passage commonly used as proof of the doctrine of purgatory. Vermigli did not take this view in his preaching, though he did not openly deny the existence of purgatory. Gaetano da Thiene, an opponent of the spirituali, reported his suspicions of Vermigli to the Spanish viceroy of Naples Don Pedro de Toledo, who prohibited Vermigli's preaching. The prohibition was removed on Vermigli's appeal to Rome, with which he received some help from powerful friends he had made in Padua, such as Cardinals Pole and Bembo. Despite this controversy, Vermigli continued to rise in the Lateran Congregation. He was made one of four visitors by the chapter general in 1540. The visitors assisted the rector general by inspecting the Congregation's religious houses.
In 1541 the Congregation elected Vermigli to the important post of prior of Basilica of San Frediano in Lucca. The prior at San Frediano exercised some episcopal authority over half the city, as well as control of the Lateran's religious houses. As at his earlier post in Spoleto, the monks of the San Frediano monastery, as well as the clergy of Lucca, were known for moral laxity, which led to an openness to the new Lutheran religion there. Vermigli saw his task as one of education as well as moral correction. He set up a college based on humanist principles of education and modelled on the newly founded St John's College, Cambridge, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Instruction was in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Among the professors were the humanists Immanuel Tremellius, Paolo Lacizi, Celio Secondo Curione, and Girolamo Zanchi, all of whom would later convert to Protestantism. The Congregation recognised Vermigli's work by appointing him to a disciplinary commission of seven canons in May 1542.
Flight from Italy and first Strasbourg professorship (1542–1547) Vermigli was widely respected and very cautious. He was able to continue his reform efforts in Lucca without any suspicion of unorthodox views, despite a papal meeting there with Emperor Charles V in 1541. His eventual downfall was caused by two of his followers, one of whom openly questioned papal authority and another who celebrated a Protestant form of the Eucharist. The reconstitution of the Roman Inquisition in 1542 may have been in part a response to the fear that Lucca and other cities would defect from the Catholic Church. The authorities of the Republic of Lucca began to fear that their political independence from the Holy Roman Empire was at stake if their city continued to be viewed as a Protestant haven. Bans on Protestant books heretofore ignored were enforced, religious feasts which had been dropped were reinstated, and religious processions were scheduled to assure Rome of Lucca's loyalty.
Vermigli was summoned to a Chapter Extraordinary of the Lateran Congregation, and his friends warned him that he had powerful adversaries. These increasingly foreboding events contributed to his decision to ignore the summons and flee, but he was finally persuaded by his conscience against the Masses he was bound to perform. Vermigli fled Lucca for Pisa on 12 August 1542 by horse with three of his canons. There he celebrated a Protestant form of the Eucharist for the first time. When he stopped in Florence, staying in Badia Fiesolana, where he had entered religious life, Vermigli learned that Bernardino Ochino had arrived there. Vermigli convinced Ochino, a popular preacher with Protestant leanings, to flee Italy as well. On 25 August Vermigli left for Zürich by way of Ferrara and Verona.