9 September 1499 A.D. Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) Peter Vermigli born.
http://www.reformationitaly.org/2013/10/peter-martyr-vermigli-international-reformer/comment-page-1/#comment-302
Written by W. Robert Godfrey, President at Westminster Seminary California March 1, 1999
1999 for many
seems to be only the year before the new millennium. But by God’s grace 1999 is
a year in which we are called to live, serve and remember the Lord and His
work. One great servant of Christ whom we ought to remember in 1999 is Peter
Martyr Vermigli. He was born 500 years ago on September 9, 1499 in Florence,
Italy.
Peter Martyr is
little remembered today, but in his day he was widely recognized for his
brilliance, his learning, his piety and his influence. By reviewing his life
and work we can see again the amazing complexity and interconnectedness of the
Reformation and see how God used one man to advance the cause of His truth.
Vermigli was
born in Florence at a moment of great accomplishment and turmoil in the history
of that city. The Renaissance was at its height and Florence was in many ways
its capital. The city produced or nurtured such great artists as Botticelli
(1444-1510), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Raphael (1483-1520), and
Michelangelo (1475-1564). The Renaissance thinker Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
(1463-1494) who wrote the famous “Oration on the Dignity of Man” had studied
and died in Florence. In the year of Vermigli’s birth the great Florentine
Platonist Marsilio Ficino died.
Politically
Florence had flourished under the rule of Lorenzo di Medici, “the Magnificent.”
from 1469-1492. After his death turmoil came, as France invaded Italy and the
city struggled for independence and liberty. In this time of trouble arose the
remarkable monk Girolamo Savonarola. In the years between 1491 and 1498 he grew
to become the most important influence in the city, preaching for religious
renewal and criticizing the papacy. He was executed in 1498, the year before
Vermigli’s birth.
Peter Martyr
grew up in this great city in these days of vitality and difficulty. In 1514 he
entered an Augustinian monastery, dedicating himself to become a monk in one of
the most rigorous monastic orders. The church recognized his intellectual gifts
and sent him to study at the University of Padua 1518-1526, where he
concentrated on Aristotelian philosophy and the fathers of the ancient church.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1525. He became known as a powerful preacher
and was advanced in his order. From 1533-1537 he served as an abbot in Spoleto
and from 1537-1541 as an abbot in Naples.
During this
time his theology developed in the same direction as the Protestant Reformers
in the north although it is difficult to trace the sources of influence on him.
Clearly he was influenced by Paul, Augustine and the late medieval theologian
Gregory of Rimini. He came to a strong conviction about double predestination,
and also moved to Protestant views of justification and the Lord’s Supper.
The decade of
the 1530s was one in which many leaders of the Roman Catholic Church recognized
that the church needed improvement. Pope Paul III (pope from 1534-1549)
encouraged reflection on moral reform in the church, and that allowed some room
for men like Vermigli to speak in cautious ways about doctrinal reform as well.
In 1541 Vermigli became a prior in Lucca where he found a great receptivity to
reforming ideas and where he preached and taught Reformation doctrine. There he
came into contact and influenced a number of important Italian theologians.
Emmanuel Tremellius, a converted Jew from Ferrara, worked with him and taught
Hebrew. Tremellius would later teach as a Protestant in Cambridge and
Heidelberg. The great theologian Girolamo Zanchi was converted to Protestantism
in Lucca as were the Diodati and Turrettini families. From these families would
come noted theologians: Giovanni Diodati represented Geneva at the Synod of
Dort and Francis Turretin was the great Genevan systematician.
In September
1541 Pope Paul III and the Emperor Charles V met in Lucca to discuss the state
of Europe (Budapest had fallen in August to the advancing Turks) and the state
of the church. Joining them was Cardinal Contarini, just returned to Italy from
the Colloquy at Regensburg where he had tried to negotiate a religious
settlement with Philip Melanchthon and Martin Bucer (with the young John Calvin
also in attendance.) Contarini stayed with Vermigli while in Lucca and it would
be fascinating to know the character of their conversations.
Paul III became
more defensive about calls for reform in the church. He encouraged Cardinal
Carrafa (who in 1555 became Pope Paul IV) to establish a vigorous Inquisition
in Italy. Vermigli increasingly sensed that the freedom he had enjoyed in Lucca
was coming to an end and that his choices for the future were probably death,
apostasy from his Protestant convictions, or exile. He chose exile leaving
Lucca August 12, 1542. He took leave of friends and associates as he traveled
north arriving finally in Strassburg in November 1542 where Bucer invited him
to teach in the place of Wolfgang Capito who had died the previous year.
The decision of
Peter Martyr to identify openly with the Reformed cause was remarkable. He was
already 43 and most who courageously joined the Reformed church did so at a
younger age. He had a very promising career in the Roman church and left great
opportunities behind. But the Lord was to open for him remarkable positions of
service and influence for the Reformed faith in the last twenty years of his
life.
He served in
Strassburg from 1542 to 1547 sharing in the work that Martin Bucer had done
there to reform the church. In 1547 he received an invitation from Archbishop
of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, to teach as a Regis professor at Oxford. There
he taught powerfully on the Reformed view of the Lord’s Supper, helped Cranmer
and others with the 1552 revision of the Book of Common Prayer, and aided
Bishop Hooper in the discussion of the use of vestments in the church. When
King Edward VI was succeeded on the throne by his half-sister Mary (known to
history as “bloody Mary”), Vermigli again had to move to escape Roman Catholic
persecution. He returned to Strassburg (1553- 1556) and then settled
finally in Zurich where he taught and worked with the distinguished Reformer
Heinrich Bullinger. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest Reformed
authorities on the Lord’s Supper and so was invited to the Colloquy of Poissy
in 1561 where he and Theodore Beza defended the Reformed cause before the king
and queen mother of France. He also seems to have had a significant influence
on Zacharius Ursinus as he was moving from a Lutheran to a Reformed theology.
When Vermigli was invited to teach in Heidelberg, he recommended Ursinus in his
place. Perhaps Peter Martyr deserves to be called a grandfather of the
Heidelberg Catechism.
At the age of
63 his body began to weaken and death approached. He had lived a most
remarkable life that had led him to live in many parts of Europe and to know
and influence many of the most important figures of his day. His great talents
and learning he dedicated to Christ in teaching, preaching and writing
(especially on the Lord’s Supper and commentaries on the Pentateuch, Judges, 1
and 2 Samuel, 1 and2 Kings, Romans and 1 Corinthians). Excerpts from his
writings circulated widely as Loci Communes published in Latin in 1576 and in
English in 1583. Josiah Simler who preached a funeral oration for him aptly
named him “an ambassador of Jesus Christ, to divers cities and nations.” [1]
Simler recorded
the final hours of Vermigli ‘s life and his own last words: “And on the day
before he died, some of us his friends being present with him, and specially
Bullinger among the rest, he lay a certain space meditating with himself; then
turning unto us he testified with speech plain enough that he acknowledged life
and salvation in Christ alone, who was given by the Father an only favour unto
mankind; and this opinion of his he declared and confirmed with reasons and
words of scriptures; adding at the last, This is my faith, in this will I die;
but they which teach otherwise and draw men any other way. God will destroy
them.” These words show the seriousness of his faith and his intense
sense of the spiritual conflict of his times. His remarkable life and testimony
deserve to be remembered on the 500th anniversary of his birth.
[1] The Life,
Early Letters and Eucharistic Writings of Peter Martyr, edited by J.C.
McLelland and
G.E. Duffield, (Sutton Courtney Press), 1989, p.51.
G.E. Duffield, (Sutton Courtney Press), 1989, p.51.
Originally
published in The Outlook, March 1999 by Reformed Fellowship, Inc.
www.reformedfellowship.net. Used with permission.
© Westminster Seminary
California All rights reserved
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