Pietro Martire Vermigli

Born in Florence on September 8, 1499, he entered the Augustinian order as a young man and took the name Pietro Martire, later known across Europe as Peter Martyr Vermigli. He built a reputation as a gifted preacher and scholar in Italy, but his growing sympathy with reform ideas eventually forced him to leave his homeland.

After fleeing Italy in the 1540s, he lived and taught in major Protestant centers including Strasbourg, Oxford, and Zurich. In England he served as Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford during the reign of Edward VI, where he took part in important debates that influenced the English Reformation.

Vermigli is remembered especially for his careful, learned theology and for his work on the Lord’s Supper. He died on November 12, 1562, but his sermons, biblical commentaries, and theological writings continued to be read long after his lifetime, securing his place as one of the most important Reformed thinkers of the sixteenth century.