May 27, 2017
Devotions: Personalities of the Reformation: Peter Martyr Vermigli

Peter Martyr Vermigli was born with the name Piero Mariano, but he took the name Peter Martyr when he was ordained into the Augustinian order and took the name from St. Peter Martyr (1206 – 1252). Peter was a theologian who came out of Italy, educated in an Augustinian cloister at Fiesole, Italy (next to Florence) and was transferred to the convent of St. John of Verdara near Padua. He was employed as a public preacher at Brescia, Pisa, Venice and Rome; and in his spare time he would master the languages of Greek and Hebrew. In 1530 he was elected abbot of the Augustinian monastery at Spoleto, and in 1533 he was appointed prior of the convent of St Peter ad Aram at Naples.

But things would soon change for Peter Martyr Vermigli. He would be exposed to the writings of Martin Bucer and Zwingli. His views were changing so much that he would eventually flee to Pisa to become acquainted with an Italian Reformer Bernardino Ochino in Florence. Vermigli was soon in Zurich, Switzerland, then in Basel, and finally to Strasbourg where he received the support of Bucer. He would marry his first wife, Catherine Dammartin of Metz.

Vermigli, along with Ochino were invited to England by Thomas Cranmer in 1547 and given a pension of forty marks by the government. He would be appointed the professor of divinity at Oxford. In 1549 he took part in the great disputation on the Eucharist, taking the view of Reformed theologians that the real presence of Christ is conditioned by the faith of the recipient (according to Calvin, that by faith believers partake of the body and blood of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit who pours the life of Christ into them. As such, according to Calvin, Christ’s human body is locally present in heaven, but it does not have to descend in order for believers to truly partake of it because the Holy Spirit effects communion) – against Luther’s teachings of the “real presence” of Christ, where Christ is truly present “in under and through the elements” when Christ’s “Word meets the bread and wine” in the midst of the gathered faithful.

Vermigli appears to have profoundly affected the views of Cranmer, and historians have proven definitively that Vermigli had a great deal of influence in the modifications of the Book of Common Prayer in 1552. (adapted from theopedia.com, Peter Martyr Vermigli)

Bernardino Ochino lived from 1487 to 1564. He too like Vermigli was an Italian drawn to the Reformation. He was raised a Catholic and later turned to Protestantism. For a period of 10 years Ochino wrote books which gave increasing evidence of his alienation from Calvinistic doctrine, especially predestination. He had his controversies – in 1563 Thirty Dialogues was published maintaining Ochino had justified polygamy while his dialogues on divorce and the Trinity were considered heretical. So, the opinion among Reformers about Ochino was low, to say the least. Yet, he obviously had an impact on Vermigli, on Cranmer, as well as being a fervent evangelist and controversial thinker who often wrote arguing out difficult questions with himself often coming to no absolute conclusion.

Pastor Dave

Please bring in diapers and paper towels to donate to Trinity’s Table.