Christian Cyclopedia

(Pier; Pierpaolo; Vergerius; Petrus Paulua; Peter Paul; ca. 1497/98–ca. 1564/65). Called “the Younger” because an earlier mem. of the family had the same name (see preceding entry); lawyer, poet, reformer; b. Capodistria, It.; educ. Padua; lawyer in Verona, Padua, Venice; sent with others to 1530 Augsburg Diet (see Lutheran Confessions, A 2) by Clement VII (see Clement VII, 2) to oppose Prots.; papal secy. and domestic chaplain 1532; sent to Ger. 1535 by Paul* III to negotiate with Ger. princes about a proposed council at Mantua, It. (the council, for which M. Luther* wrote the Schmalkaldic Arts. [see Lutheran Confessions, B 2], did not materialize); conferred with Luther (whom he, in a report to the papal secy., called a “beast” who was possibly possessed by a demon); bp. Modrus(z) May 1536, Capodistria September 1536; attended the 1540 colloquy of Worms* (as commissioner for Francis* I) and 1541 Regensburg* Conference; studied writings of Luther; aroused RC suspicion for perhaps conceding too much to Prots.; broke with RCm 1545; applied unsuccessfully for admittance to the Council of Trent* to justify himself; excommunicated 1549; active in Switz. till 1553; spent rest of his life in service of Christoph,* duke of Württemberg. Works include many anti-RC polemical writings.