A. The Study of Peter Martyr Vermigh
Chapter 1: Background to Peter Martyr’s Doctrine of Justification
A. The Study of Peter Martyr Vermigh1
Vermigh’s first biography originated as his eulogy. Josiah Simler (1530–76)—a disciple, colleague, and confidant of Vermigh—expanded his funeral oration for his mentor, which he had delivered on November 12, 1562, into the earliest and definitive biography of Peter Martyr’s life. 2 A striking feature of Simler’s Oratio is its tone. Earnest affection for Vermigh breathes from its pages, infusing the narrative with gravitas.
While sometimes described as “hagiography,”3 Simler’s Oratio, first published in 1563, is generally recognized as a carefully constructed historical record.4 As such, it has been commonly employed as the starting point for subsequent biographies.5 Part of its hagiographic feel is due to both its original purpose and the context in which it was written. As the fledgling Reformed movement of Simler’s Zürich was plagued, in his description, with news of the “despoiling of churches . . . the sacking of cities, the terrible battles, the imprisonment and slaughter of good men,”6 Simler applied the conviction and fidelity of Peter Martyr to the manifold challenges facing his Reformed brethren. According to Michael Baumann, Simler’s goal for the Oratio was “not only preserving the remembrance of Peter Martyr, but at the same time posthumously incorporating him into the process of legitimizing the young Reformed church.”7 Inspiration, as much as instruction, was his goal.8
Simler was well suited to compose the Oratio. His relationship with Vermigh as a colleague at the academy in Zürich, and then as his successor in that institution, afforded him insight into the reformer’s personal and professional life. He also had access to Vermigh’s letters and commentaries, which he eventually helped to publish.9 The closeness of Simler’s association and the accuracy of his remembrances are affirmed by his sixteenth-century contemporaries. John Jewel, for instance, protégé of Vermigh at Oxford and Strasbourg (where Jewel lived in Martyr’s house before taking the Bishopric of Salisbury), said of Simler’s work, “I seemed to myself to behold the same old man with whom I had formerly lived upon such affectionate terms; and to behold him too, I know not why, more nearly and thoroughly, than when we were living together.”10 Likewise, modern historians support the reliability of Simler’s account. Philip McNair marshals evidence to this effect on the basis of monastic records that he discovered in Ravenna in 1956.11 John Patrick Donnelly, editor of Peter Martyr’s Life, Letters and Sermons (which features a modern translation of the Oratio), also agrees with this assessment, pointing to the “excellence” of Simler’s work.12
Other accounts of Vermigh’s life appeared between the years 1562 and 1809, particularly in the writings of John Sleidan,13 Jon Strype,14 and Anthony Wood.15 The nineteenth century produced a modest number of studies.16 Charles Schmidt’s Peter Martyr Vermigh: Leben und ausgewählte Schriften nach handschrifthchen und gleichzeitigen Quellen is considered to have been the “fundamental and most solid authority for the life of Peter Martyr in exile” written in the nineteenth century.17 Schmidt relied considerably upon Simler’s Oratio, while also giving attention to German and Swiss Reformation sources. These documents, alongside writings by Celio Curione18 and Girolamo Zanchi,19 helped to develop the portrait of Vermigh. McNair describes Schmidt’s work in the Leben as “sober, painstaking, usually well documented, thorough with Teutonic “Gründlichkeit” and a “balanced work of scholarship, despite its ‘confessional tone.’” But the need for research continued. 20
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Vermigh remained in the shadows of obscurity apart from a few brief articles.21 New light diminished the shadows with Mariano Di Gangi’s Bachelor of Divinity thesis at Presbyterian College, Montreal in 1949, entitled “Pietro Martire Vermigh (1500-1562): An Italian Calvinist.” Eight years later, in 1957, Joseph C. McLelland published The Visible Words of God: An Exposition of the Sacramental Theology of Peter Martyr Vermigh A.D. 1500–1562, the first full-length volume since Charles Schmidt’s work in 1858.22 In 1967, McNair published the next monograph dedicated exclusively to Vermigh, Peter Martyr in Italy: Anatomy of Apostasy.23 In hindsight, this volume served as a veritable beacon, drawing scholars from various quarters to recognize the fertile opportunity in Vermigh study. Several doctoral theses were published in the 1970s.24 Then, in 1980, Robert Kingdon produced a selection of Vermigh’s political texts,25 and in that same year McLelland published papers from the 1977 conference at McGill University addressing the “Cultural Impact of Italian Reformers.”26 Beyond these two works, the 1980s saw little productivity beyond an occasional article and chapter;27 but in the 1990s, Vermigh research made profound gains. Di Gangi developed his previous work into a popular level biography of Vermigh in 1993.28 Then there was the biggest development of all, the step that moved the “renaissance”29 of Vermigh research into plain sight—the inauguration of The Peter Martyr Library in October of 1994.30 The Library is an extensive work of English translation, annotation, and commentary by an international range of scholars. Since the 1990s, three particular scholars have championed the project: Donnelly,31 McLelland,32 and Frank A. James III. 33