Peter Martyr

Peter Martyr (Ital. Pietro Martire Vermigli), Reformer, was born in Florence, September 8, 1500, entered at sixteen the order of the canons regular of St Augustine at Fiesole, studied at Padua, and became abbot of Spoleto, and later prior of St Peter ad Aram near Naples. Here he was drawn into the doctrines of the Reformers by the teaching of Juan Valdes and Ochino, yet was appointed visitor-general of his order in 1541. His rigour made him hateful to the dissolute monks, and he was sent to Lucca as prior of San Frediano, but soon fell under the suspicions of the Inquisition, and had to flee to Zurich (1542). At Strasburg he was welcomed by Bucer, and made professor of the Old Testament. In 1547 he came to England on Cranmer's invitation, lectured at Oxford on 1 Corinthians and Romans, and took an active part in the great controversy of the day. Mary's accession drove him back to Strasburg, now grown too Lutheran for his tastes, and at length in 1555 he repaired to Zurich, where he died, November 12, 1562. His admirable Loci Communes was printed at London in 1575. See the study by C. Schmidt (Elberfeld, 1858).