9 September 1499 A.D. Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) Peter Vermigli born
9 September 1499 A.D. Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.)
Peter Vermigli born.
(Prof. Godfrey identifies
9 Sept as Vermigli’s birth whereas we believe it is 8 Sept.)
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 aa 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.
Originally published in The Outlook, March 1999 by
Reformed Fellowship, Inc. www.reformedfellowship.net. Used with
permission.
© Westminster Seminary California All rights
reserved
Comments
Post a Comment