Peter Martyr Vermigli, A Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (Oxford, 1549)
Peter Martyr Vermigli, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford; English by Nicholas Udall (1550)
It lets the other side speak first, and at full strength, and then it answers every point.
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
Solid. Four days of public disputation in May 1549, against three Oxford doctors, and a written treatise behind them.
Good. It fights with the other side’s own authorities: Scripture first, then the fathers, then the schoolmen’s own logic.
Its best stat. It states the case for transubstantiation at full strength before answering a word, so there is little left for an opponent to spring on it.
Below its Defend. A careful treatise, argued point by point, and Oxford students rioted over the lectures before the disputation was over.
In May 1549 Peter Martyr Vermigli, an Italian who had fled the Inquisition and become Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, publicly disputed the Lord’s Supper against three Oxford doctors. He argued that the bread is not changed into Christ’s body, which is in heaven, and that believers truly feed on Christ by faith. He first set out the case for transubstantiation as strongly as it could be put, and then answered each argument in order.
A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 8 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 14 | Affirm | — | Status | — | — | 1 |
| 22 | As Strongly As Possible | Rationality | Argument | 80 | 100% | 15 |
| 30 | Except We Use Figures | Exegesis | Argument | 84 | 100% | 15 |
| 36 | But of a Late Time | History | Argument | 82 | 100% | 15 |
| 38 | His Body in One Place | Christology | Argument | 86 | 100% | 10 |
| 50 | Speak Latin | History | Status | — | 100% | 5 |
How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.
Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.
In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.
“First he bringeth in the school doctors and all that ever may be said for transubstantiation as strongly as is possible to be reasoned, and as much as can be alleged for it.”
Nicholas Udall, translator’s preface, describing the method of Peter Martyr Vermigli, A Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (Oxford, 1549; London, 1550), EEBO-TCP, public domain; spelling modernised.public domain
In the gameHis translator describes the method of the Oxford treatise. First Vermigli sets out the whole case for transubstantiation, the best the schoolmen had. Then he gives his own reasons, and then he answers their arguments one by one.
“Except we use tropes and figurative manners of speaking in scripture, the heretics be sure of the over hand.”
Peter Martyr Vermigli, A Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (Oxford, 1549; English trans. Nicholas Udall, London, 1550), EEBO-TCP, public domain; spelling modernised.public domain
In the gameHis opponents said that if Scripture may speak in figures, heretics will twist everything. Vermigli turned it round. The Bible says the rock was Christ and the seed is the word, and a reader who takes every figure literally hands the heretics the win.
“We shall therefore begin at the opinion of transubstantiation, partly because it is of the grosser sort, and partly because it is but of a late time…”
Peter Martyr Vermigli, A Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (Oxford, 1549; English trans. Nicholas Udall, London, 1550), EEBO-TCP, public domain; spelling modernised.public domain
In the gameAccused of teaching something new, he pointed at the doctrine he was answering. The word transubstantiation was defined at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, twelve centuries after the apostles.
The charge turns round. Transubstantiation was defined in 1215. Vermigli began with it at Oxford partly because it was the newer doctrine in the room.
“For the Lord’s body wherein he arose must needs be in one place: but his truth is dispersed, and spread abroad in all places.”
Augustine, Tractates on John 30, as quoted in Peter Martyr Vermigli, A Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (Oxford, 1549; English trans. Nicholas Udall, London, 1550), EEBO-TCP, public domain; spelling modernised.public domain
In the gameVermigli answered with Augustine. Christ’s risen body is a real human body, so it is in one place, at the right hand of the Father. What reaches every table is his truth and his Spirit, not his flesh spread everywhere.
Jewel gives this very saying of Augustine’s in his Apology: Christ’s Godhead is everywhere, but his body must be in one place.
