After his death, his teachings and writings continued to remain vital in shaping the Protestant Reformation in Europe, as many of his pupils went on to train a future generation of leaders and worked on important documents of the Protestant church, such as the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dordt. While his name became gradually less conspicuous in church history books, his legacy lived on, until today, when he is finally and rightly being rediscovered.

In the summer of 1542, Peter Martyr Vermigli reached the northern side of the Alps with mixed emotions: thankfulness, excitement, relief, but also homesickness, concern, and occasional doubts.

Born to Teach

Born in Florence, Italy, in 1499, he had entered the Augustinian order at the young age of 15 with conviction and anticipation. From an even earlier age, he had dreamed of teaching God’s word and focused his energies toward that goal, crushing his father’s ambition of having a wealthy son.

His theological turnabout happened in Naples, where he moved in 1537 after his ordination and some years of experience as preacher and prior. There, he met Juan de Valdés, a refugee from the Spanish inquisition, and his heterogeneous group of followers. They were known as spirituali and were committed to a deep study of Scriptures and a reformation of the church.

It was no secret that the church needed to be reformed. Many had already denounced its corruption and hunger for power. At that point in time, however, much criticism was focused on its theology. Some commonly taught doctrines, like the nature of justification or the transubstantiation of the elements in the mass, were often late and poorly discussed developments which had lost connection with the biblical texts. Ad fontes (to the sources), the prevalent rallying cry of the day, included theology, and northern reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Martin Bucer became models of this insistence on biblical accuracy and ecclesiastical purity.

True to this motto, Vermigli applied himself to the careful study of Scriptures in the original languages – a knowledge not required for Roman Catholic preachers – and of the writings of the church fathers. He also devoted himself to teaching, which was his passion and vision. He had experienced first-hand the poverty of many sermons under preachers who were either theologically unprepared or motivated by money and fame. As soon as he had the opportunity, as prior of the church in Lucca, he founded an unprecedented school of biblical studies, hiring competent teachers of Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and theology to lead separate courses for older children, young people, and adults.

His sermons were theologically rich and gospel-oriented, even if he had to carefully weigh his words – in Naples, he had been temporarily banned from preaching for stating that 1 Corinthians 3:9–17 cannot be taken as proof text for the existence of purgatory, as the church had been doing for some time.

The Escape

Pope Paul III, however, was not sitting idle in this rapidly changing climate. In 1542, after a failed attempt to conciliate Roman Catholics and Protestants at the Diet of Regensburg, he agreed on renewing the earlier practice of the Roman Inquisition under the oversight of the zealous Cardinal Giampietro Carafa. Anything that suggested echoes of European Reformers was now subject to rigorous scrutiny.

When Vermigli got news that an invitation by church officials to a meeting in Genoa, Italy, was really a call to an interrogation, he realized he had three options: deny (at least outwardly) his faith, face the possibility of torture and death, or flee. He chose the third one. At least he could continue to teach and preach abroad.

It was not an easy decision. He was 43 and unaccustomed to long trips, and feared the problems common to all travelers: lack of knowledge of foreign languages, utter dependence on others, and even the trivial discomforts of new foods and strange lodging. Besides, much like today, a stranger was often seen with suspicion, “regarded as a person of dubious character, … rejected or badly received.”[1] Little did he know that this was going to be his condition for much of his life.

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