I. Conclusion
I. Conclusion
Looking at the big picture of Italian Evangélisme, a variety of notable characters cross the stage: aristocratic ladies such as Vittoria Colonna and Giulia Gonzaga; Spaniards such as Juan de Valdés; for a period of time, at least, Cardinals Contarini, Pietro Bembo, Reginald Pole, Giovanni Morone, Jacopo Sadoleto, and Girolamo Seripando; those who eventually fled, such as Bernardino Ochino, Peter Martyr Vermigh, Piero Paolo Vergerio, and Girolamo Zanchi; and those who would become martyrs, namely Pietro Carnesecchi and Aonio Paleario.225 The beliefs and agendas of these characters often diverged;226 nevertheless, there was a basic theological core drawing these figures together, the constituent elements of which would remain with Vermigh for the remainder of this life.
Peter Martyr brought his doctrine of two-fold righteousness with him to Strasbourg and eventually to Oxford. Amidst his many accomplishments during his six-year tenure as Regius Professor of Divinity at Christ Church—from the Eucharistic Disputation (1549) to his contributions to the Second Book of Common Prayer (1552) and the Forty Two Articles of Religion (1553)—Vermigh’s lectures on Romans and his subsequent commentary remain among his most significant theological achievements. The latter of his two loci from this volume, de iustificatione, represents his most mature thinking on the subject of justification and therefore constitutes the focus of our study.
A summary of the doctrinal elements characteristic of both Italian Evangélisme in general and Peter Martyr in particular would have at the center sola fide, based upon a canonically informed exegesis of Scripture. And this saving faith, Vermigh and his co-adherents insisted, produced in the believer a life so closely identified with Christ that he enjoys the benefits of both a forensic imputation and the Holy Spirit who transforms the believer from within. Exactly how Vermigh develops this duplex iustitia and distinguishes it from the teaching of his Catholic interlocutors will be analyzed below; but, we first wish to let Vermigh speak to the matter for himself. In his final moments of life, according to Simler, Peter Martyr “was silent in deep personal reflection; then he turned to us and stated with a rather clear voice that he acknowledged life and salvation in Christ alone, who had been given by the Father to the human race as its only savior.”227 This phrase, “salvation in Christ alone,” is an apt summary of Vermigh’s doctrine of justification, a doctrine so deeply ingrained in his Italian background, his heart, and his mind that it found clear expression in his dying words.
1. The Italian name, Pietro Martire Vermigh, was generally known as “Peter Martyr” outside of Italy (and equivalents in French and German), or simply “Martyr.” It is not surprising that modern scholars vary between these options and his last name, “Vermigh.” This study will use each of these appellations indiscriminatingly for the sake of variety.
2. Simler’s Oratio was subsequently attached to the preface of Vermigh’s Commentary on Genesis (1569) and also appeared in his Loci communes from 1582 onward. An English version of the Loci communes, published in 1583, included the first English translation of the Oratio. A contemporary, annotated translation of Simler’s Oratio from the 1583 Loci communes is available in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, trans. and ed. Donnelly, 9–62.
3. Baumann, “Josias Simler’s Hagiography,” 459.
4. Despite assigning the wrong year to Vermigh’s birth, Simler’s work has been embraced by scholars as a reliable account of Vermigh’s life. McNair, Peter Martyr in Italy, xiv–xvii, 130; “Translator’s Introduction,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 2.
5. Most notably, Beza, Icones, id est Verae imagines virorum doctrina simul et pietate illustrium. Other major works indebted to Simler include Schlosser, Leben des Theodor de Beza und des Peter Martyr Vermigh; and Schmidt, Peter Martyr Vermigh.
6. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 10.
7. “Baumann, “Josias Simler’s Hagiography,” 459–65. For this reason, Fritz Büsser calls Simler a “pioneer in biography”: in Büsser, “Vermigh in Zürich,” in Peter Martyr Vermigh: Humanism, Republicanism, Reformation, ed. Campi, James, and Opitz, 204.
8. By the mid-sixteenth century, Protestant Martyrologies were being written. These were inspiring stories of faith, often against the backdrop of Catholicism. The most popular and enduring example was John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments, written in 1563. See Brad S. Gregory, Salvation at Stake.
9. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons,10.
10. The Works of John Jewel, ed. Ayre, vol. 4, 126.
11. McNair, PMI, xxi-xxii. McNair explains his discovery in April of 1956 of a previously untapped series of monastic records, the Biblioteca Classense in Ravenna, which included a record of the yearly proceedings of Vermigh’s order. Analyzing these against the backdrop of Simler’s Oratio, McNair concludes: “For the most part they (the Acta Capitularia) confirm the statements of the Oratio, but they add a wealth of detail which would have taken a lifetime to assemble from subsidiary sources” (ibid., xxii).
12. “Translator’s Introduction,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 2.
13. Sleidan, The general history of the Reformation of the Church, 443, 483–84, 590, 637.
14. Strype, Annals of the Reformation, vol. 1 pt. 1, 428–32.
15. Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, 2nd ed., vol. 1, 326–32.
16. The first monograph of the nineteenth century to focus on Vermigh came from Schlosser, Leben des Theodor de Beza. Nearly a half century later, this was followed by Gorham, Gleanings of a Few Scattered Ears, During the Period of the Reformation in England and of the Times Succeeding A.D. 1533 to A.D. 1589, which, as the title suggests, addresses elements of Vermigh’s legacy and thought. The most rigorous and comprehensive work was by Schmidt, published in 1858. Schmidt’s inclusion of Swiss and German Reformation sources, in addition to Simler’s Oratio, raised the bar for Vermigh studies. Young, The Life and Times of Aonio Paleario, published two years after Schmidt’s, provides a chapter on Peter Martyr. The forty pages of Durand, Vie de Pierre Martyr Vermigh outhnes the major movements of Vermigh’s life. Durand describes Vermigh in the opening words of the first chapter as “this miraculous Italian” (Miraculum Italiane) who followed a previous Reformer from Tuscany, namely Savonarola. This was not the first time the two men had been compared. Finally, there is the article at the end of the century by Paulus, “Die Stellung der protestantischen Professoren,” 201–28.
17. McNair, PMI, xviii. Schmidt provides the first modern study, brief as it is, of Vermigh’s Romans locus on justification. Schmidt, Peter Martyr Vermigh, 113–17.
18. A friend of Peter Martyr’s in exile, Celio Curione (1503–69), translated writings of Juan de Valdés. Despite his apparent anti-trinitarian inclinations, Curione was invited by Heinrich Bullinger in 1542 to fill a principal post of a school in Lausanne.
19. Girolamo Zanchi (1516–90) first met Vermigh in the Italian city of Lucca in 1541. After fleeing Italy’s Inquisition in October of 1551, he settled down in Strasbourg (where he married Curione’s eldest daughter) to occupy the chair of Divinity in the College of St. Thomas. Zanchi, De religione christiana fides, 1–13.
20. McNair, PMI, viii.
21. Notwithstanding J. W. Ashton’s article, each of the following simply address Vermigh as a piece of the larger Reformation story: Gardy, in his “Les Livres de Pierre Martyr Vermigh,” mentions the relocation of Vermigh’s personal library to the Academy of Geneva; Paist catalogues the contributions of Vermigh at the Colloquy of Poissy in his “Peter Martyr and the Colloquy of Poissy”; Hugelshofer presents a portrait of Vermigh in his “Zum Porträt des Petrus Martyr Vermilius”;. Ashton examines Vermigh’s literary understanding in “Peter Martyr on the Function and Character of Literature.”
22. It was originally McLelland’s PhD thesis at New College University of Edinburgh, completed four years earlier under the supervision of T. F. Torrance. On its heels came two articles by Luigi Santini, “Appunti sulla ecclesiologia di P. M. Vermigh e la edificazione della Chiesa,” and “La Tesi della fuga nella persecuzione nella teologia di P. M. Vermigh.” During this time, the number of scholars doing Vermigh research grew. Gordon Huelin’s doctoral thesis was produced in 1954 at the University of London, “Peter Martyr and the English Reformation,” and within a decade Marvin W. Anderson had finished his unpublished thesis “Biblical Humanism and Roman Catholic Reform 1444–1563: A Study of Renaissance Philology and New Testament Criticism from Laurentius Valla to Pietro Martyre Vermigh.”
23. McNair, PMI. Edoardo Labanchi published an Italian translation four years later: Pietro Martire Vermigh in Italia.
24. These included: Sturm, “Die Theologie Peter Martyr Vermiglis während seines ersten Aufenthalts in Strassburg 1542–1547,” written at the University of Bonn under the supervision of Ernst Bizer; Donnelly, “Peter Martyr on Fallen Man: A Protestant Scholastic View,” authored under the supervision of Robert M. Kingdon, later to be revised and published as Calvinism and Scholasticism in Vermigh’s Doctrine of Man and Grace in 1976. Donnelly’s work was substantially complete when Sturm’s monograph was published, and, according to Donnelly, did not exercise any influence upon it (ibid., 5). Anderson produced, Peter Martyr, a Reformer in Exile, while Corda completed, Veritas Sacramenti at the University of Zürich under the supervision of Drs. Fritz Blanke and Fritz Büsser.
25. Kingdon, The Political Thought of Peter Martyr Vermigh.
26. McLelland, Peter Martyr Vermigh and Italian Reform.
27. Anderson, “Rhetoric and Reality,” 451–69; Courter Boughton, “Supralapsarianism and the Role of Metaphysics,” 63–96; Dall’Asta, “Pietro Martire Vermigh (1499–1562),” 275–303; Muller, Christ and the Decree; Overell, “Peter Martyr in England 1547–1553,” 87–104.
28. Di Gangi, Peter Martyr Vermigh, 1499–1562: Renaissance Man, Reformation Master.
29. Jason Zuidema uses the word “renaissance” in Peter Martyr Vermigh (1499–1562), 17. Zuidema’s section entitled “The Vermigh Research Renaissance” offers a cogent summary of this development.
30. The Peter Martyr Library is a collaborative effort on the part of Truman State University Press, Thomas Jefferson University Press, and Sixteenth Century Journal. Nine volumes have appeared so far.
31. Donnelly, Calvinism and Scholasticism; Donnelly, “Peter Martyr Vermigh’s Political Ethics,” 59–66. Donnelly also edited and translated three volumes in The Peter Martyr Library: Dialogue on the Two Natures in Christ; Sacred Prayers; and Life, Letters, and Sermons.
32. McLelland is the editor and translator of three volumes of The Peter Martyr Library: Early Writings; Philosophical Works; and Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. He also served as co-editor with Donnelly and James of The Peter Martyr Reader.
33. James, Peter Martyr Vermigh and Predestination, based on his doctoral thesis, “Praedestinatio Dei: The Intellectual Origins of Peter Martyr Vermigh’s Doctrine of Double Predestination,” completed under the supervision of Alister E. McGrath, at St. Peter’s College, Oxford in 1993. See bibliography for his many subsequent contributions.
34. “Advenit ex Italia vir quidam graece, hebraice et latine admodum doctus, et in scripturis feliciter versatus . . . Petro Martyri nomen est.” Martin Bucer to John Calvin, 28 October 1542. Calvin, Ioannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia, vol. 11, sec. 430.
35. According to Simler’s Oratio, Martyr’s mother had taught him Latin when he was a child. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 11.
36. Sambin, “La formazione quattrocentesca della biblioteca di S. Giovanni di Verdara in Padova,” 263–80.
37. Church, The Italian Reformers, 7.
38. For a taxonomy of the various Aristotelian “schools” of the day, see Donnelly, Calvinism and Scholasticism, 13–41; McNair, PMI, 86–115.
39. McNair, PMI, 86.
40. McNair says, “This library was one of the great formative influences on Martyr’s early years.” PMI, 93.
41. The “ambience of [Padua’s] devout and learned humanism” is described by Fenlon in Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy, 26.
42. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 17.
43. James provides a helpful survey of how modern scholars position Vermigh on the historiographical map, particularly with regard to theological methodology. James posits three common profiles: “pioneer of Calvinist Thomism,” “Protestant Humanist,” and “intensified Augustinian.” After examining each of these labels, James argues for the intensified Augustinian view. James, “De Iustificatione,” 52–92.
44. According to Simler, such study would mostly happen in the houses of his Congregation at Padua, Ravenna, Bologna, and Vercelli. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 17.
45. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 17.
46. McNair, PMI, 118.
47. Ibid., 124–25.
48. Spoleto is roughly 200 kilometers south-east of Florence, a little more than half way to Rome.
49. Simler, “Oratio,” Life, Letters, and Sermons, 19. Simler also notes that it was during his three years in Naples that Martyr “fell into a serious and deadly sickness,” although we have no indication whether this experience factored into his conversion (ibid., 22). This disease is thought to have been Malaria.
50. McNair, PMI, 179. James echoes this interpretation in his dissertation, in which he states, “There is little doubt that Simler understood this ‘greater light of God’s truth’ to be the doctrine of justification by faith alone.” James, “De Iustificatione,” 1.
51. This study will use the term “Evangélisme” instead of the more common “Evangelism,” to avoid confusion with the name used in current parlance to describe the activity of gospel proclamation. Eva-Maria Jung et al. employ “Evangelism” as a sociological designation, following the third volume of Perre Imbart de la Tour’s study of the early Reformation in France: Les Origines de la Réforme: L’ Evangelisme, vol. 3.
52. Significant works on this topic include: Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty; Cantimori, Eretici italiani del Cinquecento; Caponetto, trans. The Protestant Reformation in Sixteenth-century Italy; Church, The Italian Reformers; Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience; Gleason, “On the Nature of Sixteenth-century Italian Evangelism,” 3–25; ibid., Gasparo Contarini: Venice, Rome, and Reform; Grendler, “Religious Restlessness in Sixteenth-century Italy,” 25–38; Jung, “On the Nature of Evangelism in Sixteenth-century Italy,” 511–27; Martin, “Salvation and Society in Sixteenth-century Venice,” 205–33; Martin, Venice’s Hidden Enemies; McNair, PMI; Nieto, Juan de Valdés; Jacobson Schutte, “Periodization of Sixteenth-century Italian Religious History,” 269–84; Simoncelli, Evangelismo italiano del cinquecento.
53. Jung, “On the Nature of Evangelism,” 512.
54. Gleason, “On the Nature of Sixteenth-century Italian Evangelism,” 25.
55. Ibid., 3–26. Gleason cautions that, on account of the dynamic nature of Italian Evangelisme, interpreters are especially prone to misconceptions. She explains how evaluations of the movement often depend on the writings of a relatively small number of well-known figures or on records from inquisitorial proceedings. Sometimes a narrow sampling of these sources has been the basis of judgment. The tenuous ground of these assessments is a methodological hazard to which scholars must be attentive. Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 190–91. Four years after Gleason, the Italian scholar, Susanna Peyronel Rambaldi offered a literature survey in “Ancora sull’evangelismo italiano: Categoria o invenzione storiografica?,” 935–67.
56. Jung, “On the Nature of Evangelism,” 511–27.
57. Ibid., 520.
58. Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty.
59. For a counter-argument to McNair, see Fenlon, who argues for the indigenous origins of Italian Evangelisme in Heresy and Obedience. Fenlon points to Cardinals such as Pole, Contarini, Giberti, and Morone as examples of men who experienced renewal and worked out their doctrine of justification in the Roman communion of Italy. A credible case is also made by Nieto, who finds the roots of Valdés’s thought in the mysticism of Spanish alumbrados. Nieto, Juan de Valdés, 314–22.
60. McNair, PMI, 142. McNair also questions the objectivity of Catholic historians who maintain this view, scholars such as Imbart de la Tour, Monsignor Jedin, and Dr. Jung. McNair argues that “Evangelism has been used [by them] as a Roman Catholic device for explaining away an embarrassing phase of Catholic Church history when what looks suspiciously like crypto-Lutheranism invaded the very College of Cardinals” (ibid., 6). The tools of historicism have also been used against McNair, suggesting that he too may have succumbed to prejudices, as evidenced by his reference to the Rome-imposed “Iron Curtain which had descended upon the Alps” (ibid., 1, 293). Anne J. Schutte questions whether these allusions betray a Cold War mentality in McNair’s work. Schutte, “The Lettere Volgari,” 643.
61. Bucer, Enarrationes perpetua in sacra quatuor Evangelia.
62. Bucer, Sacrorum psalmorum libri quinque. Bucer published this work under his pseudonym, Aretio Felini.
63. De vera et falsa religione (1525) and De providentia Dei (1530)—these are considered to be Zwingh’s two most important works.
64. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 20.
65. McNair, PMI, 6–15. See also Grendler, “Religious Restlessness in Sixteenth-century Italy,” 26. By the early 1540s, Evangélisme “began to develop a significant popular following, especially in the cities and towns of northern Italy.” Martin, “Salvation and Society,” 208.
66. McNair, PMI, 8.
67. See Jedin, “Contarini und Camaldoli,” 59–118. It was “on Holy Saturday of 1511,” when Contarini “experienced a moment of illumination” that was likened to Luther’s epiphany, in which “he was fully convinced that salvation could not be won by any human act but was God’s free gift.” Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty, 124. For a detailed examination of Contarini’s experience, see Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 11–18; Ross, “Gasparo Contarini and His Friends,” 204–17. Alister McGrath agrees that Cardinal Contarini had embraced sola fide before Luther, even if he did not articulate it as such. McGrath, ID, 310–11. See also Firpo, “The Italian Reformation,” trans. Tedeschi, 353–64.
68. Martin, “Salvation and Society,” 209.
69. Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 192.
70. In addition to making a mockery of Christian piety, most popes of this era lacked the spiritual fortitude to implement genuine renewal. These spiritually malnourished leaders included Pope Sixtus IV (1471–84), Innocent VIII (1484–92), Alexander VI (1492–1503), Pius III (1503), Julius II (1503–13), Leo X (1513–21), and Clement VII (1523–34). Adrian XI (1522–23) was a short-lived exception to this pattern. Their inability to instill confidence among the faithful inevitably catalyzed a movement of dissent.
71. Crews, Twilight of the Renaissance, 47.
72. Burke, Culture and Society in Renaissance Italy, 276. Political and military struggles plagued the peninsula from 1494 to 1559, in the so called the Great Italian Wars. During Charles V’s reign, such conflict was most dramatically displayed in the sack of Rome in 1527. Machiavelli’s invocation of a pragmatic prince and Savonarola’s bonfire of the vanities were two early examples of how Italians responded to this unrest. The same trajectory of discontent can be traced in the salons of Naples where Vermigh et al. eventually crossed the Rubicon into Reformation theology.
73. Huizinga, Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, 62–68; Nieto, Juan de Valdés, 314–22.
74. “Erasmus belonged to the generation which had grown up together with the youthful art of printing. To the world of those days it was still like a newly acquired organ; people felt rich, powerful, happy in the possession of this ‘almost divine implement.’” Huizinga, Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, 65. For its impact on Italy see Caponetto, Protestant Reformation, 18. Grendler examines literary aspects of religious restlessness in Cinquecento Italy. Grendler, “Religious Restlessness,” 25–38.
75. So Fenlon opens his book Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy with the memorable words, “At the close of the middle ages the condition of the Church was nowhere considered to be healthy . . . [it was] magnificent in everything except religion.” His first chapter provides a helpful telling of this story. Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience, 1–23.
76. Jung suggests that this classic formula, “reformandi sunt homines per sacra et non sacra per homines,” could be called the motto of Evangelisme. Jung, “On the Nature of Evangelism,” 513.
77. Ortolani, “The Hopes of the Italian Reformers,” 13. Ortolani is best known for his work on the Italian Evangelisme martyr, Pietro Carnesecchi (1508–67): Ortolani, Pietro Carnesecchi. Schutte offers a trenchant analysis of this history in her work, Schutte, “Lettere Volgari,” 639–88.
78. Caponetto, Protestant Reformation, xviii. Bouwsma’s examination of Venice is a fine example of how one region differed significantly from another. Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican, 124.
79. About these epistles, Erasmus advised his readers, “In primis autem Paulum tibi facito familiarem: hic tibi semper habendus in sinu, nocturna versandus manu, versandus diurna, postremo & ad verbum ediscendus” [In the first place, make Paul your intimate friend . . . keep him always in your bosom, turning it night and day . . . and learn (him) by heart]. Erasmus, Enchiridion Militis Christiani, 328.
80. Collett, Italian Benedictine Scholars and the Reformation, 127.
81. Church, The Italian Reformers, 1534–1564, 53.
82. Concerning this period’s emphasis on Scripture, Gleason asserts, “Foremost was the focus on ethical and moral reform of the individual Christian who encountered God’s word in the Bible, specifically the Gospels and Pauline epistles” Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 191.
83. Erasmus exerted an especially strong influence in Spain, so much so that McNair uses the word “cult” to describe his popularity. McNair, PMI, 310.
84. Firpo, “Italian Reformation,” 353–64. Erasmus also had direct influence on the peninsula. About this phenomenon, Grendler writes, “Joyful letters spread the message of Erasmus to Italy, and many men opened the Gospel and moved forward to the glory of Christ.” Grendler, “Religious Restlessness,” 29.
85. Firpo, “Italian Reformation,” 353–64; McNair, PMI, 143; Valdés, Valdés’ Two Catechisms. McLelland makes this case in “Valdés and Vermigh,” 238–50.
86. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 20. Salvatore Caponetto asserts, “Juan de Valdés (c. 1500–1541) was one of the most important Christian thinkers of the sixteenth century and one of the greatest writers in the Castilian language prior to Miguel de Cervantes.” Caponetto, Protestant Reformation, 63.
87. “Evangelism included a desire to reform abuses, emphasis on Scripture, and the primacy of justification through faith without the omission of good works.” Grendler, “Religious Restlessness,” 27. For more on this movement see Gilly, “Juan de Valdés,” 257–58; Nieto, “The Changing Image of Valdés,” in Valdés, Valdés’ Two Catechisms, ed. Nieto, 51–125.
88. Nieto, Juan de Valdés, 148. Firpo describes Valdés’s role in Naples as “spiritual director and proselytizer for a message capable making use of diverse instruments and approaches: from personal encounters and colloquies to the clandestine circulation of his writing, from the epistolary exchange to the spoken word from the pulpit.” Firpo, “Italian Reformation,” 359.
89. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 20.
90. Benrath, Bernardino Ochino, of Siena, 62. Carnesecchi confirmed the nature of this friendship at his Inquisition trial, in which he stated that Valdés was “molto amico.” Ortolani, Pietro Carnesecchi, 237.
91. Firpo, “Italian Reformation,” 353–64. Firpo makes his case on the basis of Gilly, “Juan de Valdés,” 257–305.
92. Gleason, “On the Nature of Sixteenth-century Italian Evangelism,” 14; ibid., “Sixteenth-century Italian Interpretations of Luther,” 168; Cargnoni et al., Storia della spiritualità italiana, 292–96.
93. Schutte, “Lettere Volgari,” 639–88. With the exception of Rome, most letters in this corpus come from the northern half of the peninsula (ibid., 670). Nevertheless, our research confirms that the constituent elements of Italian Evangelisme in the north (ibid., 662) were also shared by the south, as in the work of Valdés and Benedetto.
94. “Many literate Italians had ample opportunity to acquaint themselves with Protestant ideas, since in the 1520s and 1530s a number of works by Northern Reformers circulated freely in Italy.” Schutte, “Lettere Volgari,” 643. McNair goes so far as to assert that, “Wherever the doctrine of Justification by Faith took root in pre-Tridentine Italy—whether in Lucca, Modena, Naples, Padua, Venice, or Viterbo—it was preceded by Lutheran, Zwinglian, or Calvinist tracts which the timely invention of printing had disseminated far and wide.” McNair, PMI, 8. Perhaps a more balanced explanation, one that gives adequate attention to the indigenous elements of Italian reform, is Fenlon’s statement: “Evangelism was not created by the Reformation; it was most certainly re-directed by it.” Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience, 19.
95. McNair, “New Light on Ochino,” 290–300.
96. Founded by Gaetano di Thiene (1480–1547), this group was established as an official order by Pope Clement VII’s 1524 papal bull, Exponi nobis. Members of this group included Gian Matteo Giberti (later Cardinal-bishop of Verona), Giacomo Sadoleto (Cardinal-bishop of Carpentras, France), and Gianpetro Carafa (Cardinal-bishop of Naples, later Pope Paul IV, prominent zelanti leader and catalyst of the Italian Inquisition). Church, The Italian Reformers, 21–22. There is evidence that co-founder Gaetano de Thiene (1480–1547) listened to Peter Martyr preach from the pulpit of San Pietro ad Aram in the years 1537 to 1540. Olin, The Catholic Reformation, 128.
97. Founded by Antonio Maria Zaccaria (1502–47) et al., the order was accepted by Clement VII in 1533 before Pope Paul III officially recognized them in 1535. Mullett, The Catholic Reformation, 73.
98. Ozment, The Age of Reform,, 404. The Discalced Carmelites and Society of Jesus also emerged during this era. While originating in Spain, their influence quickly traveled to Italy. The “Discalced” Carmelites (“without shoes,” actually, they wore sandals) was a women’s movement led by St. Teresa Avila (1515–82). Teresa influenced St. John of the Cross (1542–91) to found the first monastery of Discalced Carmelite Friars. Egan, “The Spirituality of the Carmelites,” 50–62. For a helpful overview of the Jesuits during this period, see O’Malley, The First Jesuits.
99. The commission issued a report on March 9, 1537 titled Consilium de emendanda ecclesia (“Plan for Reforming the Church”), which was later adopted as the group’s name. Church, The Italian Reformers, 21–22. Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 142–44.
100. Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience, 19.
101. McNair, PMI, 116–38.
102. While sometimes used as a synonym for “Evangelism,” Prosperi and Bowd argue that it is anachronistic to employ the nomenclature of “Spirituali” to describe the movement of Italian reform prior to 1540. For an examination of the diachronic use of the term see Bowd, Reform before the Reformation, 144–45; Prosperi, Tra evangelismo e controriforma, 285–86, 314–15. Notable (clerical) members of the Spirituali were Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, Cardinal Reginald Pole, Cardinal Giacomo Sadoleto, Cardinal Giovanni Morone, Abbot Gregorio Cortese of San Georgio in Venice, Tommaso Badia (Master of the sacred palace), Bishop Gian Matteo Giberti of Verona, and Archbishop Federico Fregoso of Salerno. Background on each of these men is found in Church, The Italian Reformers and in Caponetto, Protestant Reformation.
103. Paoletti and Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy, 404. Antonio Forcellino contends that Michelangelo was a member of the Spirituali. Forcellino, Michelangelo: A Tormented Life, 8.
104. For an explanation of how members of the Spirituali like Carafa, who eventually championed the Zelanti cause, cooperated with more amiable advocates of reform among the Spirituali (i.e., Contarini and Pole) before the Italian Inquisition started in 1542, see Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience, 24–44.
105. For an overview of Contarini’s life and major contributions, see Gleason, Gasparo Contarini; Mackensen, “Contarini’s Theological Role at Ratisbon in 1541,” 36–49; Matheson, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg. Prior to Gleason’s volume, the standard full-length work was by Franz Dittrich, Gasparo Contarini, 1483–1542: Eine Monographie.
106. Among the others were Federigo Fregoso (made Cardinal in 1539) and Gian Matteo Giberti (made Cardinal in 1543). Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience, 34–35.
107. Ibid., 31.
108. During the same year as the Colloquy of Regensburg, Contarini wrote his Epistola de iustificatione (1541) in which he articulated a duplex iustitia on justification that distinguishes righteousness that is credible in the sight of God from righteousness that is credible in the eyes of men. Hünermann, ed., “Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, Bishop of Belluno,” 24.
109. This phrase was employed by Pole after it was first used by a certain Benedictine monk named “Marco,” a lecturer from Padua who exercised particular influence on some of the Spirituali members. Ibid., 34.
110. Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 275. James Ross summarizes Contarini’s soteriological priorities in terms of a “firm belief in the total inadequacy of human penance, faith in the saving merits of Christ crucified, and hope in the loving mercy of God.” Ross, “Gasparo Contarini and His Friends,” 208.
111. James, “Complex of Justification,” 45–58. Campi, James, and Opitz, eds., Peter Martyr Vermigh. Vermigh’s main interlocutors in his writing on justification were Pighius, Richard Smith, and the Council of Trent.
112. Matheson, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg, 93–94. Evidence indicates that Contarini originally asked Vermigh to represent the Catholic delegation at the Colloquy of Worms in 1540 before it was reconvened in 1541 to coincide with the Imperial diet. McNair, PMI, 197–99.
113. Eells, “The Origin of the Regensburg Book,” 355–72; Gleason, Gasparo Contarini, 225–35; Lane, Justification by Faith in Catholic-Protestant Dialogue; ibid., “A Tale of Two Imperial Cities,” 119–45; Lugioyo, Martin Bucer’s Doctrine of Justification, 103–208; Mackensen, “Contarini’s Theological Role at Ratisbon in 1541”; Matheson, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg.
114. For a detailed analysis of the Latin text of Article 5 with commentary and English translation see Lane, “Calvin and Article 5 of the Regensburg Colloquy,” 234. The Regensburg Book was written prior to the colloquy and used as a basis for the discussion, although it was also amended on the basis of those discussions.
115. Abigail Brundin and Matthew Treherne describe Catholics and Protestants both holding ardent positions of sola fide. Brundin and Treherne, eds., Forms of Faith in Sixteenth-century Italy, 3–4.
116. O’Malley, Trent: What Happened at the Council, 104, 108–9.
117. While the term duplex iustitia is not made explicit, the concept underlies the whole of the article.
118. Lane agrees with Matheson and Fenlon on this point. Justification by Faith, 57.
119. Ives, “An Early Effort toward Protestant-Catholic Conciliation,” 99–110. The Regensburg text may be found in Bucer, Acta colloquii in commitiis Imperii Ratisponae habiti, 6.
120. “Quod remissionem peccatorum et reconciliationem propter meritum Christi gratuita Dei bonitate acceperunt.” Ibid.
121. In context, “Et sic fide in Christum iustificamur seu reputamur iusti, id est accepti per ipsius merita, non propter nostram dignitatem aut opera.” Ibid.
122. Schenk, Reginald Pole, Cardinal of England, 102.
123. Ibid.
124. John Calvin to Guillaume Farel, 11 May, 1541, Letters of John Calvin, vol. 1, 260. Months later, Calvin wrote negatively about the overall Colloquy of Regensburg, but he mentions nothing of Article 5. Calvin to Viret, 3 or 13 August, 1541, (ibid., 278–79).
125. Vermigh, Predestination and Justification, 182n460. McGrath explains why it is incorrect to assign the term “double justification” to the position of Gropper and Pighius. “There is no question of a ‘double formal cause of justification’; simply the recognition that both notions of righteousness are involved in justification.” McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction, 4th ed., 133.
126. Unlike the Catholic and Protestant varieties of duplex iustificatio, Article 5 teaches that indwelling and imputed righteousness occur “simul.”
127. “Article 5,” in Lane, Justification by Faith, 233.
128. A treatment of Vermigh’s Romans locus on justification is found in Schmidt, Peter Martyr Vermigh: 113–17.
129. Ibid., 113. Emphasis added. “Diese Lehre ist Unfang, Quelle und Stüze aller Frömmigheit.”
130. McNair, PMI, 139–79.
131. Ibid., 179. Thus McNair concludes his chapter with a memorable summary of Vermigh’s Evangelical doctrine, “Though the man who set out for Ravenna [from Naples] in the spring of 1540 was half mortified by fever he was wholly justified by faith.”
132. Ibid., 229.
133. McLelland, Visible Words of God, 113.
134. Ibid., 142.
135. Ibid., 128, 144, 176.
136. Sturm, Die Theologie Peter Martyr.
137. Vermigh’s Genesis commentary is also considered by Emidio Campi, “Genesis Commentary: Interpreting Creation,” 209–29.
138. Sturm, Die Theologie Peter Martyr, 44.
139. Ibid., 69.
140. Ibid., 67–68.
141. Ibid., 69.
142. Ibid.
143. Anderson, Peter Martyr, a Reformer in Exile, 601, 270–78, 323–26, 335–42, 346–53.
144. Anderson, “Peter Martyr on Romans,” 405. He also highlights agreement between Vermigh and Cranmer on the subject based on their common patristic influences. Ibid., 414.
145. Ibid., 413.
146. Anderson, Peter Martyr, a Reformer in Exile, 274.
147. Donnelly, Calvinism and Scholasticism, 149–55.
148. Ibid., 149.
149. Ibid., 156. Of interest to us (for the way it contrasts with Newman’s understanding) is Martyr’s agreement with Aquinas on the functional value of hope as a “habit.” We will examine this concept more closely in the next chapter.
150. Ibid., 197–207.
151. Ibid., 154.
152. Ibid.
153. Ibid., 159.
154. James, “The Complex of Justification,” 51.
155. Ibid., 157.
156. Ibid., 160.
157. Ibid. Donnelly states that Martyr’s doctrine of sanctification compares closely with that of Calvin (ibid., 119).
158. Ibid., 154. Donnelly also finds Vermigh’s doctrine of perseverance less than Reformed and his position on irresistible grace to be “highly qualified” (ibid., 159).
159. This was James’s second monograph on the doctrine of Peter Martyr, following his DPhil thesis at Oxford, “Peter Martyr Vermigh and Predestination: the Augustinian Inheritance of an Italian Reformer.”
160. After tracing Vermigh’s steps through Italy to his departure in 1542, James examines his years in Strasbourg (1542–47), during which he first addressed the doctrine of justification in his Genesis lectures. Next, James examines this doctrine from Vermigh’s Oxford lectures on 1 Corinthians (1548–49) and then from his Oxford lectures on Romans (1550–53). A concluding chapter compares and contrasts Peter Martyr’s mature doctrine of justification to other early Reformed theologians.
161. In addition to his dissertation, James addresses the topic in “The Complex of Justification,” and “Peter Martyr in Bucer’s Strassburg.” A cogent introduction is found in Predestination and Justification: Two Theological Loci, trans. and ed. James, III. Finally, one should consult James’s translation of Peter Martyr’s justification loci (from his 1 Corinthians commentary) in “Justification and Faith,” in PMR, 133–50.
162. James, “De Iustificatione,” 2–3.
163. Ibid., 139.
164. Ibid., 142–44. James cites McNair, who argued that Vermigh had embraced “the doctrine of justification by faith alone” in Naples. McNair, PMI, 179. Cf. Donnelly, Calvinism and Scholasticism, 172.
165. McNair, “Biographical Writings,” 7.
166. It was on the basis of Matthew 10:23, which provides sanction for Christians to flee persecution that Peter Martyr and Bernardino Ochino chose to leave their beloved homeland. McLelland, Visible Words of God, 9. For an interesting treatment of Peter Martyr’s theology of exile, see Jason Zuidema’s recent article, “Flight from Persecution,” 112–16.
167. James has pointed out that this warm reception probably followed careful theological scrutiny. James, “De Iustificatione,” 9.
168. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 28.
169. Ibid. In a personal letter to Heinrich Bullinger in 1551, Vermigh corroborates Simler’s account by mentioning these books vis-à-vis his Strasbourg lectures (except for Lamentations). About them he writes, “But if it please God to spare my life, and I should obtain leisure, I shall not object to publish them.” Peter Martyr to Henry Bullinger, in Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation, vol. 2, 499.
170. Sturm analyzes the locus on justification from Vermigh’s Genesis commentary in Sturm, Die Theologie Peter Martyr, 58–70. Martyr’s locus centered on Genesis 15:6.
171. James, “De Iustificatione,” 155.
172. In Simler’s words, “[Vermigh] seemed in the judgment of all not just to match Bucer but to surpass him.” Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters and Sermons, 29.
173. Metz was a Bishopric and Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire until 1552, when King Henry II of France seized the city after the agreement, in the Treaty of Chambord, of the Protestant German princes—who were in rebellion against Charles V—to support his claim. With the exception of the period between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I, it has remained a French territory ever since. Presumably, Peter Martyr communicated with his wife in Latin.
174. McNair, “Early Writings,” 9.
175. Ibid., 9–11. Martyr’s second wife, Caterina Merenda of Brescia, bore him two children who did not survive infancy, and a daughter, Maria, who was born on March 6, 1563, after Peter Martyr’s death on November 12, 1562.
176. Charles V’s victory at Mühlberg on April 24, 1547 over the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League was probably the writing on the wall. The religious settlement called the Augsburg Interim was temporarily imposed until the completion of Trent, becoming Imperial law on June 30, 1548.
177. McNair, “Peter Martyr in England,” 89.
178. They arrived in London on December 20. Vermigh traveled under the aegis of John Abell, a merchant at Strasbourg. Ibid., 90. Diarmaid, MacCulloch, outhnes details of this journey, including an important letter from Bucer to Cranmer, which Vermigh and Ochino delivered upon arrival, outhning their (Reformed) view of the Eucharist. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life, 380–83.
179. McNair, “Peter Martyr in England,” 96.
180. McLelland, Visible Words of God, 13.
181. Cross, “Oxford and the Tudor State,” 133–35.
182. This date is potentially confusing. McNair identifies 1546 as the founding of the Regius Chair of Divinity, with Richard Smith occupying it. McNair, Peter Martyr in England, 93. However, G. D. Duncan has it starting with Smith in 1540. Duncan, “Public Lectures and Professional Chairs,” 343–47. The discrepancy is explained by the fact that, after its initial establishment in 1540, the chair had its financial oversight transferred from Westminster Cathedral to the newly re-founded Christ Church in 1546.
183. It was officially incorporated as “the cathedral church of Christ in Oxford” of King Henry VIII College. For an overview of this history, including an explanation of its origins as Wolsey’s Cardinal College, see McConica, “The Rise of the Undergraduate College,” 32–42.
184. Strictly speaking, Christ Church is not a college, but a “foundation.” Richard Cox, the first Dean, is believed to have written its new constitution. During this time, Cox also served as Chancellor of Oxford University. Ibid., 37.
185. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life, 173.
186. Cross, “Oxford and the Tudor State,” 134.
187. McLelland, Visible Words of God, 16.
188. MacCulloch, “Peter Martyr and Thomas Cranmer,” 176.
189. McLelland, Visible Words of God, 17.
190. Greenslade, “The Faculty of Theology,” 315.
191. McLelland, Visible Words of God, 20.
192. McNair, “Peter Martyr in England,” 97.
193. Löwe, Richard Smyth and the Language of Orthodoxy. Löwe explains that Smith regularly attended Vermigh’s lectures, taking assiduous notes and occasionally causing a disturbance (41).
194. Ibid., 152. This and the following treatise were published together in a volume entitled De coelibatu sacerdotum liber vnus. Eiusdem de votis monasticis liber alter, nunc primum typis excusi.
195. According to Löwe, Smith “frequently accused Vermigh of breaking his vows in order to marry: ‘Who was released by breaking his vow (such a man is that Peter, who—they say—took monastic vows in Italy) to consider marriage unlwaful in his mind and not admit that it was any crime of his.’” Löwe, Richard Smyth and the Language of Orthodoxy, 153.
196. McNair, “Peter Martyr in England,” 95–99.
197. Gorham, Gleanings, 153–54. The letter is dated 10 June, 1550.
198. The disputation grew out of Martyr’s exposition of 1 Corinthians 10:16–17, in which he cast aspersions upon the traditional Catholic doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. The history of how the debate developed along with a modern English version of the treatise has been translated and edited by McLelland in The Oxford Treatise and Disputation on the Eucharist, 1549, published in 2000.
199. While Smith’s title has Vermigh in the crosshairs, it is actually Luther and Melanchthon who receive the lion’s share of attention.
200. Löwe, Richard Smyth and the Language of Orthodoxy, 120.
201. Donnelly calls them “the most influential period of [Vermigh’s] life.” Donnelly, Calvinism and Scholasticism, 3. McNair identifies seven particular fronts on which Peter Martyr exerted influence during this period: (1) The Eucharistic Disputation of 1549; (2) Riots later the same year; (3) The Vestrian Controversy; (4) The second Book of Common Prayer, published in 1552; (5) The Ecclesiastical Laws (also in 1552); (6) The Forty-Two Articles of Religion of 1553; (7) The Reformation Settlement after 1558. McNair, Peter Martyr Vermigh, 87.
202. Peter Martyr indicates in the preface of his commentary that even though he had read the Romans commentaries of Melanchthon, Bucer, Bullinger, and Calvin, he felt that it was nevertheless important to write his own commentary. Vermigh, Romanos, Preface.
203. Anderson, “Peter Martyr on Romans,” 403.
204. De Praedestinatione is located immediately after Vermigh’s exegesis of Romans 9. For a study of this locus see McLelland, “The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination According to Peter Martyr.”
205. De Iustificatione is located immediately after Vermigh’s exegesis of Romans 11.
206. Vermigh, Romanos, 87–230. All references to Vermigh’s Romans commentary will cite page numbers from the 1560 version (which is available on the Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts) followed in brackets by pages from James’s English translation. In his English text, James indicates the pagination of the original 1558 version.
207. Like Donnelly (Calvinism and Scholasticism, 149), James also takes this approach, “This is especially important because it establishes his understanding of justification toward the end of his life and career.” James, “De Iustificatione,” 275.
208. For an overview of its history and development, see McLelland, “A Literary History of the LOCI COMMUNES,” 479–94.
209. The Topica of Aristotle is part of his Organon, a collection of logical works addressing principles and methods of presenting proof.
210. Vasoli, “Loci Communes,” 20–21.
211. Kristeller, Renaissance Thought, 92–119. This was the case, for instance, at institutions featuring a mixture of scholastic and humanist curricula, such as the University of Padua where Vermigh received his education, or Heidelberg University, from which Martin Bucer was influenced during his study at the Dominican monastery in Heidelberg. Greschat, Martin Bucer, 18–20
212. Armstrong, Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy, 87.
213. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics. See also, Schmitt, “Towards a Reassessment of Renaissance Aristotelianism,” 159–93.
214. Donnelly, “Calvinist Thomism,” 441–55.
215. Anderson, “Biblical Humanism.”
216. McLelland, “Peter Martyr Vermigh: Scholastic or Humanist?,” 141.
217. Baschera, “Aristotle and Scholasticism,” 133–60.
218. According to James, Vermigh lectured on Romans in at least three different locations (possibly four) during his career. The first conclusive account is from Girolamo Zanchi who noted that he heard Peter Martyr lecture on Romans in Lucca (1541–42). A few years later, a Frenchman, Hubert de Bapasme of Lille, revealed in a letter dated March 10, 1546 that Vermigh lectured on Romans in Strasbourg. Finally, there was Martyr’s lectures as Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford (1550–52). A possible fourth occasion was during Vermigh’s triennium in Naples, about which McNair enumerates several reasons in support before ultimately calling the evidence inconclusive. James, “Romans Commentary: Justification and Sanctification,” 308.
219. Pighius, Controversiarum praecipuarum in Comitiis Ratisponensibus. For more on Pighius, see Jedin, Studien über die schriftstellertätigkeit Albert Pigges; Pfeifer, Ursprung der katholischen Kirche und Zugehörigkeit zur Kirche nach Albert Pigge; Bäumer, “Albert Pighius,” 271; Feiner, Die Erbsündenlehre Albert Pigges.
220. Anderson suggests that Vermigh’s opposition to Pighius may have been motivated by the latter’s polemic against Calvin. Anderson, Reformer in Exile, 270. Pighius’s reputation as a formidable theologian is demonstrated by the fact that Calvin wrote two works against him, in 1543 and 1552.
221 Vermigh, Romanos, 1231, 1264 [138, 172]. On page 1298 [204], Vermigh calls Pighius “Hercules.”
222. The canons of Trent which anathematized Luther’s doctrine of justification were issued in January 1547. The newest volume to date on Trent is O’Malley, Trent: What Happened at the Council. Classic sources on Trent include the eighteen volumes of the Concilium Tridentinium; Tanner, ed. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols.; Bäumer, ed. Concilium Tridentinium; Jedin, Geschichte des Konzils von Trient, 4 vols.; Schroeder, ed. and trans., The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent.
223. James, “Romans Commentary,” 309.
224. Greschat, Martin Bucer: A Reformer and His Times, 31. An important work for understanding Bucer’s doctrine of justification is Stephens, The Holy Spirit in the Theology of Martin Bucer. With regard to Bucer’s doctrine of “threefold justification,” see Fink, “The Doers of the Law Will Be Justified,” 485–524.
225. Caponetto, Protestant Reformation; Firpo, “Italian Reformation,” 353–64; Grendler, “Religious Restlessness,” 27.
226. Grendler, quoting Delio Cantimori, notes the difficulty of distinguishing between Evangelisme’s “Catholic Reform, philo-Protestantism, or sympathy for Protestant ideas.” This was especially true in the years leading up to 1542. Grendler, “Religious Restlessness,” 25–38.
227. Simler, “Oratio,” in Vermigh, Life, Letters, and Sermons, 60.