[An Italian Paduanian Augustinian Scholastic Protestant Reformer]

Peter Martyr Vermigli—born Piero Mariano Vermigli at Florence, 8 Sept 1499—was a vessel fashioned of Providence for the furtherance of Gospel light. Nurtured amid Tuscan splendor, he entered the Canons Regular of the Lateran and, at Padua, drank deeply of Aristotle and Aquinas, adding to these the tongues of Greece and Zion. Yet while he pored over the Fathers—especially blessed Augustine—he perceived that justifying righteousness is imputed by faith alone, not infused by sacramental artifice (Rom 3:28). Conscience, chafing beneath the Roman yoke, urged flight; and in 1542 he forsook Lucca for Strasbourg, that he might preach Christ without the fetters of popish tradition. Thereafter he served thrice‑notably: in Strasbourg with Bucer, in Oxford under Cranmer, and in Zürich beside Bullinger. Wherever he taught, he wed exact philology to sound doctrine, expounding Holy Writ with a lucid brevity seldom equalled. His Loci Communes distilled these labors into orderly heads, furnishing the Reformed churches with a scholastic armory against both papal transubstantiation and Lutheran ubiquity. In predestination he echoed the potent decree of Eph 1:11, yet held reprobation a passing‑by rather than an equal act with election. Having endured manifold exile for the truth’s sake, he fell asleep at Zürich, 12 Nov 1562, commended by Josias Simler as “integritas et pietas incarnata.” Thus ended the earthly pilgrimage of a faithful divine whose pen and pulpit still instruct the sons of the Reformation.

Peter Martyr Vermigli—born Piero Mariano Vermigli at Florence, 8 Sept 1499—was a vessel fashioned of Providence for the furtherance of Gospel light. Nurtured amid Tuscan splendor, he entered the Canons Regular of the Lateran and, at Padua, drank deeply of Aristotle and Aquinas, adding to these the tongues of Greece and Zion. Yet while he pored over the Fathers—especially blessed Augustine—he perceived that justifying righteousness is imputed by faith alone, not infused by sacramental artifice (Rom 3:28). Conscience, chafing beneath the Roman yoke, urged flight; and in 1542 he forsook Lucca for Strasbourg, that he might preach Christ without the fetters of popish tradition. Thereafter he served thrice‑notably: in Strasbourg with Bucer, in Oxford under Cranmer, and in Zürich beside Bullinger. Wherever he taught, he wed exact philology to sound doctrine, expounding Holy Writ with a lucid brevity seldom equalled. His Loci Communes distilled these labors into orderly heads, furnishing the Reformed churches with a scholastic armory against both papal transubstantiation and Lutheran ubiquity. In predestination he echoed the potent decree of Eph 1:11, yet held reprobation a passing‑by rather than an equal act with election. Having endured manifold exile for the truth’s sake, he fell asleep at Zürich, 12 Nov 1562, commended by Josias Simler as “integritas et pietas incarnata.” Thus ended the earthly pilgrimage of a faithful divine whose pen and pulpit still instruct the sons of the Reformation.

His Works:

Systematical Theologies:

LOCI COMMUNES (c. 1583)