Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) was one of the early members of the abortive Italian reform movement as well as one of the formative shapers of Reformed Protestantism. Through its focus on Vermigli, these essays illuminate new dimensions to the various Reformations in sixteenth-century Europe, both Catholic and Protestant. Vermigli's work is considered under three rubrics: his relationship to other Reformers, an analysis of his more provocative theological ideas and his contributions to church reform. Particularly notable is the breadth of his interests, which ranged from his view of women,...

The great Florentine Protestant reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) made a unique contribution to the scriptural hermeneutics of the Renaissance and Reformation, where classical theories of interpretation derived from Patristic and Scholastic sources engaged with new methods drawn from Humanism and Hebraism. Vermigli was one of the pioneers of the sixteenth century in acknowledging and harnessing the biblical scholarship of the medieval Rabbis. His eminence in the Catholic Church in Italy (until 1542) was followed by an equally distinguished career as theologian and exegete in...