
Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
The Peter Martyr Vermigli Library, Volume 9
By Peter Martyr Vermigli
Edited by Emidio Campi and Joseph C. McLelland
$37.95 $26.50
Published November 18, 2025
About this book
A Peripatetic Reformer: Where Christian Virtue Meets Aristotelian Ethics
This ninth volume of The Peter Martyr Library presents the only non-biblical commentary by Peter Martyr Vermigli—his scholarly exposition of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Written during his final years at Strasbourg (1544-1547), this remarkable work demonstrates Vermigli’s profound philosophical learning and his unique approach to integrating classical moral philosophy with Christian theology.
Trained in the rich Aristotelian tradition at the University of Padua, Vermigli brings exceptional depth to his analysis of virtue, happiness, and human flourishing. Unlike contemporaries who either rejected pagan philosophy or subordinated theology to Aristotelian thought, Vermigli charts a middle course. He offers a close, sympathetic reading of Aristotle while maintaining that Scripture provides the ultimate criterion for truth about human nature and destiny.
The commentary covers the first three books of the Nicomachean Ethics, dealing with happiness, virtue, and moral character. Vermigli demonstrates how Aristotle’s insights into the cardinal virtues (prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice) can be appreciated within a Christian framework, while arguing that these natural virtues require completion by the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, which are gifts of the Holy Spirit rather than products of human habituation.
This work illuminates crucial questions about “Reformed Scholasticism” and the relationship between philosophy and theology in Protestant thought. Vermigli shows that grace does not destroy nature but perfects it, revealing how a Reformed theologian could seriously engage with Aristotelian moral philosophy without compromising biblical authority.
The collaborative translation by Kenneth Austin, Stephen Beall, and Leszek Wysocki, expertly edited by Emidio Campi and Joseph C. McLelland, makes this sophisticated philosophical work accessible to modern readers. The volume provides unique insight into Vermigli as both biblical commentator and philosophical theologian, demonstrating the breadth of intellectual engagement that characterized the most learned Reformers.
Paperback | 248 pages | 6×9 | Published November 18, 2025 | ISBN-10 1-949716-54-6 | ISBN-13 978-1-949716-54-2
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FROM THE BOOK
“All our knowledge is either revealed or acquired. In the first case it is theology, in the other philosophy… What could be more noble than to know oneself?—and this we know in the first place through philosophy. We should also keep in mind what Plato said, that it may easily happen that ardent love for virtue is aroused in us if now and then its likeness meets our eyes. Moreover, the Christian religion is inflamed by knowledge of pagan ethics, for we understand through comparison how far those things taught in scripture surpass philosophy.”
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
General Editor’s Preface
Editors’ Preface
Introduction by Joseph C. McLelland
- A Peripatetic Reformer
- Vermigli’s Lecture Series
- The Medieval Synthesis
- Thomas Aquinas
- Vermigli’s Commentary
- Philosophy and Theology
- Text and Translation
COMMENTARY ON ARISTOTLE’S NICOMACHEAN ETHICS
Dedication by Giulio Santerenziano
Introduction by Peter Martyr Vermigli
- The Nature of Philosophy
- Practical Philosophy
- The Nicomachean Ethics
- A Warning from Saint Paul
- The Biblical Criterion
Book 1: Happiness
- Chapter 1: The Highest Good
- Chapter 2: Political Science and the Chief Good
- Chapter 3: The Method of Ethics
- Chapter 4: Views About the Highest Good
- Chapter 5: Three Lives and the Nature of Happiness
- Chapter 6: Plato’s Theory of Ideas
- Chapter 7: The Function of Human Beings
- Chapter 8: Confirmation from Popular Views
- Chapter 9: Can Happiness Be Learned?
- Chapter 10: When Can We Call Someone Happy?
- Chapter 11: Honor Paid to the Dead
- Chapter 12: Praise and Honor
- Chapter 13: The Soul and Its Virtues
Book 2: Virtue
- Chapter 1: How Virtue Is Acquired
- Chapter 2: Virtue and Action
- Chapter 3: Pleasure and Pain as Tests of Virtue
- Chapter 4: Actions in Accordance with Virtue
- Chapter 5: What Virtue Is
- Chapter 6: The Doctrine of the Mean
- Chapter 7: Application of the Doctrine
- Chapter 8: Relations Between Extreme and Mean States
- Chapter 9: How to Achieve the Mean
Book 3: Will
- Chapter 1: Voluntary and Involuntary Action
- Chapter 2: Choice and Deliberation
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Classical References
Subject Index
Praise for this work
“Peter Martyr Vermigli was everywhere in the sixteenth century—abbot of a monastery in Naples, teacher and colleague of Cranmer in Oxford, pastor and theologian in Zurich. His erudition was immense, from Aristotle and Augustine and Aquinas to Bucer and Zwingli, not to mention his biblical commentaries. These nine volumes will be a major resource for all who seek to learn from the leading figures of the sixteenth century and, in our own context, to foster ecumenical conversations rooted in the love and truth of Christ.”
– Matthew Levering
James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary
“Legend has it that Peter Martyr Vermigli wandered out of the Italian Alps as the ‘ready-made reformer,’ a fact confirmed by the respect he commanded among sixteenth-century Reformed churches. A theologian of the first order, trained in catholic theology and fully committed to the Reformation, students of Scripture would do well to read, mark, and meditate upon the biblically faithful, theologically insightful, and practically oriented work of this great theologian.”
– J. V. Fesko
Harriet Barbour Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi
“Peter Martyr is a name too little known and appreciated, but his clarity, rigor, and meaningful contribution to early Reformation theology make his work well worth our time. Whether he is carefully navigating the hypostatic union, the eucharist, or questions about justification, this powerful Reformer helps us better appreciate not only 16th-century Reformed distinctives, but why it all might matter for Christian life. I am thrilled that the Davenant Institute is now making these significant volumes available as high-quality hardback reprints. I hope they will fill the shelves of many personal and professional libraries.”
– Kelly M. Kapic
Professor of Theological Studies, Covenant College
“There are few servants of the Reformation era who had such theological insight and widespread influence as Peter Martyr Vermigli. Yet his labours have never truly received either the attention or the appreciation that they deserve. It is therefore a delight to see this stunning new edition of his works come to publication, which will hopefully inspire fresh engagement with his ideas and his legacy. There are treasures here – for Christians and for churches – that will amply reward careful reading and judicious reflection.”
– Professor Paul T. Nimmo
King’s Chair of Systematic Theology, University of Aberdeen
“This is a wonderful collection from an exemplary Hebraist, exegete, preacher, theologian and controversialist. Forced to move between the Continent and British Isles following his conversion to the Reformation, Vermigli impressed people wherever he went and will undoubtedly impress readers today. The Florentine was a trained Dominican and Renaissance humanist. He exhibited deep familiarity with the Patristic, Classical, and Scholastic corpora. He is not for the faint-hearted, but the effort of reading him will be rewarded 1000-fold.”
– Christina Larsen
Associate Professor of Theology, Grand Canyon Theological Seminary & College of Theology
“The very fact that Peter Martyr Vermigli has become something of a household name in Reformed theology is due in large part to the Davenant Institute’s republication of his various works at a reasonable price. The Peter Martyr Vermigli Library covers a whole panoply of this Italian Reformer’s writings, ranging from exposition of Aristotle’s moral philosophy to the catechetical theology of his commentary on the Apostles’ Creed. Vermigli—more so than Calvin—represents the intellectual and theological high-mark of early, 16th century Reformed orthodoxy. This collection has and will continue to provide theologians, ministers, or even those simply interested in Reformational Protestantism a one-stop shop for early modern theological, philosophical, and biblical reflection. With pleasure I say: Tolle lege!”
– Michael Lynch
Professor of Christian History, Davenant Hall
“Peter Martyr Vermigli was one of the preeminent theologians of the Protestant Reformation. For far too long his contributions to the development of Reformed theology have been neglected. With the publication of this library, his rich, thoughtful, and textured theology and philosophy will finally be widely available!”
– Gayle Doornbos
Associate Professor of Theology, Dordt University
“Peter Martyr Vermigli must be listed among the most remarkable men who shaped one of the most remarkable centuries in the long span of human history. The fact that the man and his writings have been barely known is a scandal and that is why the publication of The Peter Martyr Vermigli Library is such good news. Vermigli was one of the most important figures in the Protestant Reformation and, strangely enough, in the formation of what became the English constitutional tradition. The Peter Martyr Vermigli Library represents a great recovery and is to be celebrated.”
– R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
President & Centennial Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“This is a wonderful collection from an exemplary Hebraist, exegete, preacher, theologian and controversialist. Forced to move between the Continent and British Isles following his conversion to the Reformation, Vermigli impressed people wherever he went and will undoubtedly impress readers today. The Florentine was a trained Dominican and Renaissance humanist. He exhibited deep familiarity with the Patristic, Classical, and Scholastic corpora. He is not for the faint-hearted, but the effort of reading him will be rewarded 1000-fold.”
– Jon Balserak
Visiting Lecturer, University of Illinois at Chicago (History dept), Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol

About the Editors
Emidio Campi (b. 1943) is professor of church history and director of the Institute for Swiss Reformation History at the University of Zurich. His research has centered mainly on the Swiss Reformation and Reformed Protestantism in early modern Europe. He has organized two major international symposia, the first in 1999 on Peter Martyr Vermigli at Kappel/Zurich. He was coeditor for the publication of its papers, with Frank James III and Peter Opitz: Peter Martyr Vermigli: Humanism, Republicanism, Reformation. The second, dedicated to the work of Heinrich Bullinger, was held at Zurich in August 2004. Among his recent publications are Heinrich Bullinger und seine Zeit; and Architect of Reformation: An Introduction to Heinrich Bullinger, 1504–1575 (with Bruce Gordon). He is general editor of a new series of Bullinger’s works.
Joseph Cumming McLelland (1925-2016) was McConnell Professor of Philosophy of Religion Emeritus, McGill University, Montreal, and Robert Professor of the History and Philosophy of Religion and Christian Ethics Emeritus, The Presbyterian College, Montreal; he was dean of the faculty of religious studies at McGill University from 1975 to 1985. His original research on Peter Martyr Vermigli was at New College, Edinburgh (PhD, 1953, under T. F. Torrance). He was president of the Canadian Theological Society, 1968–69, and editor of Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 1973–77. He continued to act as a general editor of the Peter Martyr Library.
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