Peter Martyr Vermigli (8 September 1499 – 12 November 1562) was an Italian-born Reformed theologian. His early work as a reformer in Catholic Italy and decision to flee for Protestant northern Europe influenced many other Italians to convert and flee as well. English reformer Thomas Cranmer invited him to leave a teaching position at Strasbourg in Alsace to take an influential post at the University of Oxford, where he defended his Eucharistic beliefs against Catholic proponents of transubstantiation in a public disputation. He influenced the Edwardian Reformation, including the Eucharistic service of the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. Forced to leave England on the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary I, he eventually settled in Reformed Zürich, where he taught until his death. He was considered an authority on the Eucharist among the Reformed churches, and engaged in controversies on the subject by writing treatises. His Loci Communes, a compilation of excerpts from his biblical commentaries organized by the topics of systematic theology, became a standard Reformed theological textbook. (Full article...)