Friday, November 7, 2025

It is the 7th of November 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I was recently researching for a piece I was putting together on Luther’s opponents when I came across the single encounter between Martin Luther and a representative for the Pope, an Italian called Pier Paulo Vergerio. The report of their meeting in Wittenberg in 1535 might raise an eyebrow or even induce a chuckle- but it would likely be more of a footnote than anything else unless you follow this Vergerio away from Wittenberg and hear his rather remarkable story.

The meeting in Wittenberg in 1535 was called to discuss a possible church council in Mantua, with all parties present to decide the fate of the Reformation in the Empire. Vergerio had been sent by the Pope because he had shown himself a learned man who had experience with the Reformers themselves- he had been at Augsburg in 1530 for the presentation of the Augsburg Confession, and he had recently been recommending a book by Erasmus on the need to find consensus for church doctrine.

But the meeting did not go well. Vergerio was something of a diva, and Luther by the 1530s was not the most pleasant fellow if you were not in his inner circle. Let me read from the historian Phillip Schaff:

         [Vergerio] had a personal interview with Luther in Wittenberg (Nov. 7), and took offence at his bad Latin, blunt speech, and plebeian manner. He could              not decide, he said in his official report to the papal secretary (Nov. 12), whether this German "beast" was possessed by an evil demon or not, but he certainly was the embodiment of arrogance, malice, and unwisdom”

Vergerio would become the Pope’s choice to represent the Roman church at a few theological colloquies at both Worms and Regensburg. He would meet Phillip Melanchthon (the prominent Lutheran) and John Calvin (the prominent, er.. Calvinist).

Vergerio’s north star was church unity- but on the basis of theology. And so he would gather all of the reformers' books and tracts to study and refute. He began to drift towards the Reformation when it came to the abuses of the Papacy (the Indulgence issue did not sit well with some of the most ardent Catholics). He would become suspect by some fellow Catholics, but he attempted to attend the Council of Trent in 1546. He was barred from entering and this precipitated his official resignation from church work and the Roman church. He was excommunicated by the Pope in 1549 and took off for the safety of the Grison (that was the enclave of Italian speakers amongst the Swiss).

He would become a popular figure amongst the Swiss Reformed. He obtained a printing press and wrote popular pamphlets against the Papacy. He would serve as a pastor and seemed to have carved out a place for himself. But, as I mentioned, he could be something of a diva. His life, from Italian of somewhat noble lineage to servant of the church, to ambassador and then heretic and pamphleteer, he seems to have been a restless fellow, always looking for his next landing spot.

He would attempt to elevate his status with requests to come serve in Zurich or Geneva, but it seems Calvin was slightly leery of the man who seemed to always be on the move. Later, Vergerio wrote to Elizabeth I to secure something like a position in England, but the letter was left unread.

The best he could do, and it wasn’t a bad gig, was to serve as a counselor to Duke Christopher of Wuertemberg. From 1553, he served the Lutheran duke in various capacities while encouraging scholarship that brought the Bible into various vernaculars and promoted Reformation doctrines. He, re-remembered Luther, it seems, and according to Schaff called Luther "a man of sacred memory," and "a great instrument of God”.

Vergerio seems to have been liked by his new fellow reformers while also keeping an arm's length. His popularity and invectives against the masses were useful- but no one ever knew if he’d stay in one place, geographically or theologically, for long. He eventually came to find affinity for the Bohemians- those early Reformers that followed Jan Hus in the 1400s and became something like a midway station between the Lutherans and the Radicals. Nevertheless, when Vergerio died in 1565, the eminent Johan Valentine Andreae, the paragon of Lutheran Orthodoxy, gave the funeral sermon.  A curious character- never quite fitting in but often trying to unite disparate Christian groups in the 16th century- as when he fatefully met Luther on this, the 7th of November in 1535.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 145, I’ll read from the Scottish Psalter:

¹ I’ll thee extol, my God, O King;
I’ll bless thy name always.
²
Thee will I bless each day,
and will
thy name for ever praise.

³ Great is the Lord, much to be praised;

his greatness search exceeds.

⁴ Race unto race shall praise thy works,

and show thy mighty deeds.

⁵ I of thy glorious majesty

the honor will record;

I’ll speak of all thy mighty works,

which wondrous are, O Lord.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 7th of November 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who often takes offense at my bad Latin, blunt speech, and plebeian manner- He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man telling you to get ready for what has been a delightfully fun weekend edition to make- and Go Rams- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.