Peter Martyr Vermigli

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 De vera et falsa religione. 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.

Once Vermigli arrived in Zürich he was questioned regarding his theological views by several Protestant leaders, including Heinrich Bullinger, Konrad Pellikan, and Rudolph Gualther. They eventually determined that he could be allowed to teach Protestant theology, but there was no position vacant for him to fill there or in Basel, where he went next. In a letter to his former congregation in Lucca, he explained his motives for leaving and also expressed discouragement at not being able to find a post. Basler humanist Bonifacius Amerbach assisted him with money, and reformer Oswald Myconius recommended him to Martin Bucer in Strasbourg, with whose writings Vermigli was already familiar. Vermigli moved to Strasbourg and became a close personal friend and ally of Bucer, who granted him the chair of Old Testament at the Senior School, succeeding Wolfgang Capito. He began by lecturing on the minor prophets, followed by Lamentations, Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. Vermigli was delighted to be able to teach from the original-language text of the Old Testament, as many of his students could read Hebrew. He was well-liked by his students and fellow scholars. Vermigli was known for precision, simplicity, and clarity of speech in contrast to Bucer's propensity for digressions which sometimes left his students lost.

Two of Vermigli's former colleagues in Lucca—Lacizi and Tremellius—would join him in Strasbourg. In 1544 he was elected canon of St. Thomas Church, Strasbourg. In 1545 Vermigli married his first wife, Catherine Dammartin, a former nun from Metz. Catherine knew no Italian, and Peter very little German, so it is assumed that they conversed in Latin.

England (1547–1553)

Edward VI acceded to the English throne in 1547, and the Protestant reformers there hoped to take the opportunity to more thoroughly reform the Church of England. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer invited Vermigli and Ochino to assist in the effort. In addition, the victory of the Catholic Emperor Charles V in the Schmalkaldic War and the resulting Augsburg Interim led to a hostile environment for Protestants in Germany. Vermigli accepted the invitation in November and sailed with Ochino to England. In 1548, he replaced Richard Smyth, becoming the second Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. This was a very influential post at a university which had been slow to accept reform.

On arriving in Oxford, Vermigli began lecturing on 1 Corinthians, denouncing Catholic doctrines of purgatory, clerical celibacy, and lenten fasting. He then spoke against the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, the most sensitive area of disagreement between Protestants and Catholics in England at the time. Conservative faculty, led by Smyth, challenged Vermigli to defend his views in a formal disputation. Smyth fled to St Andrews and finally to Leuven before the disputation could be held, so three Catholic divines, William Tresham, William Chedsey and Morgan Phillips, stepped forward to take his place. The disputation was held in 1549 before Richard Cox, the University Chancellor and a firm Protestant. It focused on the doctrine of transubstantiation, with Vermigli's opponents arguing for it and him against. Chancellor Cox made it obvious that he considered Vermigli to have the better argument, but did not formally declare a winner. The disputation put Vermigli at the forefront of debates over the nature of the Eucharist.

In 1549, a series of uprisings known as the Prayer Book Rebellion forced Vermigli to leave Oxford and take up residence at Lambeth Palace with Cranmer. The rebellion involved conservative opposition to a vernacular liturgy, which was imposed with the Book of Common Prayer at Pentecost in 1549. Rioters in the streets of Oxford threatened Vermigli with death. At Lambeth, Vermigli assisted Cranmer by helping write sermons against the rebellion. After some time, he returned to Oxford, where he was made first canon of Christ Church in January 1551. Vermigli, the first married priest at Oxford, caused controversy by bringing his wife into his rooms overlooking Fish Street at the Great Quadrangle. His windows were smashed several times until he moved to a location in the cloisters, where he built a fortified stone study.

Vermigli became deeply involved in English church politics. In 1550, he and Martin Bucer provided recommendations to Cranmer for additional changes to the Book of Common Prayer's Eucharistic liturgy. Vermigli supported the church's position in the vestarian controversy, over whether bishop John Hooper should be forced to wear a surplice. Vermigli agreed with Hooper's desire to rid the church of elaborate garments, but he did not believe they were strictly prohibited. He advised Hooper to respect the authority of his superiors. Vermigli was probably instrumental in convincing Hooper to drop his opposition in February 1551. In October 1551 he participated in a commission to rewrite the canon law of England. In the Winter he assisted in the writing of a draft set of such laws, which was published by John Foxe as Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum in 1552.

King Edward died in 1553, followed by the accession of Mary I, who opposed the Protestant reformers. Vermigli was placed under house arrest for six months, and his Catholic opponents at Oxford would likely have had him executed, as Cranmer eventually was in 1556. Despite this risk, he agreed to a public disputation with Cranmer against the new Catholic establishment, but this never came to fruition because Cranmer was imprisoned. Vermigli was able to receive permission from the Privy Council to leave England, and was advised by Cranmer to do so.

Vermigli's wife, Catherine, had become well known in Oxford for her piety and ministry to expectant mothers. She also enjoyed carving faces into plum stones. She had died childless in the February before Vermigli left. Soon after Vermigli's departure, Cardinal Pole had her body disinterred and thrown on a dungheap. Following the accession of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I in 1558, she was re-interred with the relics of Saint Frithuswith (Frideswide) in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Strasbourg and Zürich (1553–1562)

Vermigli arrived in Strasbourg in October 1553, where he was restored to his position at the Senior School and began lecturing on Judges as well as Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Vermigli often gathered with other Marian exiles for study and prayer in his home. His lectures on Judges often addressed the political issues relevant for the exiles, such as the right to resist a tyrant. Since Vermigli's departure and the death of Bucer in 1551, Lutheranism had gained influence in Strasbourg under the leadership of Johann Marbach. Vermigli had been asked to sign both the Augsburg Confession and the Wittenberg Concord as a condition of being reinstalled as professor. He was willing to sign the Augsburg Confession, but not the Concordat, which affirmed a bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He was retained and reappointed anyway, but controversy over the Eucharist, as well as Vermigli's strong doctrine of double predestination, continued with the Lutherans. Another professor in Strasbourg, Girolamo Zanchi, who had converted to Protestantism while under Vermigli in Lucca, shared Vermigli's convictions regarding the Eucharist and predestination. Zanchi and Vermigli became friends and allies. Vermigli's increasing alienation from the Lutheran establishment led him in 1556 to accept an offer from Heinrich Bullinger to teach at the Carolinum school in Zürich. John Jewel, a fellow Marian exile, came along with him.

In Zürich, Vermigli succeeded Konrad Pellikan as the chair of Hebrew, a position he would hold until his death. He married his second wife, Catarina Merenda of Brescia, Italy, in 1559. Vermigli was able to share his teaching duties with fellow Hebraist Theodor Bibliander, allowing him time to study and prepare the notes from his previous lectures for publication. He began lecturing on the books of Samuel and Kings. While in Zürich, Vermigli declined invitations to desirable positions in Geneva, Heidelberg, and England.

Vermigli's Eucharistic views were accepted in Zürich, but he ran into controversy over his doctrine of double predestination. Similarly to John Calvin, Vermigli believed that in some way God wills the damnation of those not chosen for salvation. Vermigli attempted to avoid confrontation over the issue, but Bibliander began to openly attack him in 1557, at one point allegedly challenging him to a duel with a double-edged axe. Bibliander held the Erasmian view that God only predestines that those who believe in him will be saved, not the salvation of any individual. Reformed theologians during this time held a variety of beliefs about predestination, and Bullinger's position is ambiguous, but they agreed that God sovereignly and unconditionally chooses whom to save. They believed salvation is not based on any characteristic of a person, including their faith. Bullinger and the Zürich church did not necessarily agree with Vermigli's double predestinarian view, but Bibliander's view was deemed unallowable. He was dismissed in 1560, in part to assure other Reformed churches of the Zürich church's orthodoxy. Vermigli was involved in predestinarian controversy again when Zanchi, who had remained in Strasbourg when Vermigli left for Zürich, was accused of heretical teachings on the Eucharist and predestination by the Lutheran Johann Marbach. Vermigli was selected to write the official judgement of the Zürich church on the matter in a statement signed by Bullinger and other leaders in December 1561. His affirmation of a strong doctrine of predestination represented the opinion of the Zürich church as a whole.

Vermigli attended the abortive Colloquy at Poissy in the summer of 1561 with Theodore Beza, a conference held in France with the intention of reconciling Catholics and Protestants. He was able to converse with queen mother of France Catherine de'Medici in her native Italian. He contributed a speech on the Eucharist, arguing that Jesus' words "this is my body" at the Last Supper were figurative rather than literal. Vermigli's health was already declining when he succumbed to an epidemic fever in 1562. He died on 12 November 1562 in his Zürich home, attended by the physician Conrad Gesner. He was buried in the Grossmünster cathedral, where his successor Josias Simler gave a funeral oration, which was published and is an important source for Vermigli's later biographies. Vermigli had two children by his second wife, Caterina, while he was alive, but they did not survive infancy. Four months after his death she had their third child, Maria.