Sacred Prayers: Drawn from the Psalms of David volume 3 (Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies)
(Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) is considered to be one...)
Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) is considered to be one of the most important Italian reformers of the early modern period. Martyr is the subject of renewed interest for historical and theological scholars. "The Peter Martyr Library", a series of critical English translations of the chief works of Peter Martyr Vermigli, allows his own words in context to speak for themselves. This volume contains 297 prayers based on 149 "Psalms" written by Vermigli during the political and religious turmoil of the Reformation era.
Peter Martyr Vermigli was an Italian-born Reformed theologian.
Background
Vermigli was born in Florence, Italy, on 8 September 1499 to Stefano di Antonio Vermigli, a wealthy shoemaker, and Maria Fumantina. He was christened Piero Mariano the following day. He was the eldest of three children; his sister Felicita Antonio was born in 1501 and his brother Antonio Lorenzo Romulo was born in 1504. His mother taught him Latin before enrolling him in a school for children of noble Florentines. She died in 1511, when Piero was twelve. Vermigli was attracted to the Catholic priesthood from an early age.
Education
Educated in the Augustinian cloister at Fiesole, Peter Martyr Vermigli was transferred in 1519 to the convent of St John of Verdara near Padua, where he graduated D. D. about 1527 and made the acquaintance of the future Cardinal Pole.
Career
In 1530 Peter Martyr Vermigli was elected abbot of the Augustinian monastery at Spoleto, and in 1533 prior of the convent of St Peter ad Aram at Naples.
About this time he read Bucer's commentaries on the Gospels and the Psalms and also Zwingli's De vera et falsa religione; and his Biblical studies began to affect his views.
He was accused of erroneous doctrine, and the Spanish viceroy of Naples prohibited his preaching.
The prohibition was removed on appeal to Rome, but in 1541 Vermigli was transferred to Lucca, where he again fell under suspicion.
Summoned to appear before a chapter of his order at Genoa, he fled in 1542 to Pisa and thence to another Italian reformer, Bernardino Ochino, at Florence.
In 1549 he took partin a great disputation on the Eucharist.
He had abandoned Luther's doctrine of consubstantiation and adopted the doctrine of a Real Presence conditioned by the faith of the recipient.
This was similar to the view now held by Cranmer and Ridley, but it is difficult to prove that Vermigli had any great influence in the modifications of the Book of Common Prayer made iv 1552.
He was consulted on the question, but his recommendations seem hardly distinguishable from those of Bucer, the
(Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) is considered to be one...)
Religion
Vermigli began to publicize Protestant views in such doctrinal matters as the interpretation of the Eucharist solely as a spiritual remembrance.
Connections
In 1545 Vermigli married his first wife, Catherine Dammartin, a former nun from Metz. Catherine knew no Italian, and Peter very little German, so it is assumed that they conversed in Latin.
He married his second wife, Catarina Merenda of Brescia, Italy, in 1559.