8 September 1499 A.D. Pietro “Peter Martyr” Vermigli Born—Italian Reformer, Aide to Thomas Cranmer, Shaper of Book of Common Prayer, Hebrew Scholar, and Professor at Oxford and Zurich
8 September 1499 A.D. Pietro “Peter Martyr” Vermigli
Born—Italian Reformer, Aide to Thomas Cranmer, Shaper of Book of Common Prayer, Hebrew Scholar, and Professor at Oxford and
Zurich
Graves, Dan. “Peter Vermigli Names for a
Martyr.” Christianity.com. Jul
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/peter-vermigli-named-for-a-martyr-11629907.html. Accessed 20 May 2014.
Peter
Vermigli shocked sixteenth-century England. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer had
invited the reformer to England and offered him a position at Oxford. The
Italian was considered a significant catch because he was known as one of the
greatest scholars of the age. However, not everyone favored this appointment,
because Peter, who had once sworn to be celibate had accepted Reformation
ideas, changed his mind and married; what is more, his wife had been a nun.
Born in
Florence on this day, September 8, 1499,
Peter's father named him after the Dominican saint Pietro Martire (Peter
Martyr). Peter joined the Augustinian monks when he was sixteen. By the age of
30 he had become an abbot and in 1533 the prior of Naples. There he became
friends with the Spanish reformer Juan de Valdes. Perhaps some of Juan's ideas
rubbed off. At any rate, Peter began to study the Bible seriously and was
suspended from preaching for denying purgatory. Cardinal Pole and other
influential friends bailed him out and got him a job teaching.
But when
the inquisition became active in Italy, Peter fled to Switzerland. Martin
Bucer, one of the big names in the Reformation, invited him to teach at
Strasbourg and he accepted. While in Switzerland, he "stole" a nun
named Catherine out of her cloister one night and married her. Sometime after
that, Thomas Cranmer invited him to England. But to the English, who had not
yet begun to break their vows of priestly celibacy and marry, Peter's marriage
seemed outrageous. "They have professed virginity to the Lord,"
growled Richard Smith, a Catholic, "and afterward being stirred by the
lusts or pleasures of the flesh, would cover their whoredom with the name of
marriage."
While in
England, Peter took part in many significant debates. He was often consulted by
English reformers. In public, he taught in Latin, but in private, in Italian.
His private views were more liberal than his public statements until he made a
strong declaration of what he believed on the Lord's Supper. Since he claimed
it was largely symbolic, he angered many people.
Catherine,
his wife, died in 1553. Not long afterward, the Catholic queen, Mary, came to
the throne and Peter found himself under house arrest. As soon as he was
allowed to, he hurried back to Switzerland. There he taught at Strasbourg again
until he was driven out because his doctrine of the Lord's Supper disagreed
with the Calvinist teaching. Peter's views were nearer to Zwingli's.
Peter
then moved on to Zurich (where Zwingli had introduced the Reformation many
years before) and taught Hebrew. He was still there when he died in 1562. The
longest he stayed at any place in his adult life was eight years. Usually he
had to leave because of opposition to his ideas. Some thought he earned his
name "martyr" because of that.
Bibliography:
McLelland,
Joseph C. Peter Martyr Vermigli and Italian Reform. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada:
Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1980.
"Peter
Martyr." Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by F. L. Cross
and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997. "Vermigli, Peter Martyr." The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, Hans J. Hillerbrand, editor in chief New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
Last
updated July, 2007
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