Confluence and Influence: Peter Martyr Vermigli and Thomas Aquinas on Predestination

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the important dead-white-European-male codifier of Reformed theology Peter Martyr Vermigli and his doctrine of predestination. Among Vermigli scholars, one of the central historiographical issues centers on the question of Thomistic influence. The chapter addresses this historiographical question of Thomistic influence by comparing Vermigli and Thomas Aquinas with respect to the mysterious doctrine of predestination. To determine the continuities and discontinuities the chapter examines Thomas Aquinas' definitive exposition on predestination in the Summa Theologiae , Ia.23, under eight articles. As for Vermigli the chapter considers his two main loci on predestination from his early commentary on Genesis composed in 1543-1544 and his Romans locus derived from his lectures in Oxford (1550-1552). In order to gain insight into the predestinarian predilections of Thomas and Vermigli, the chapter examines four theological concepts: pradestinatio , meritum , praescentia , and reprobatio . Keywords: doctrine of predestination; Peter Martyr Vermigli; Summa Theologiae ; Thomas Aquinas