Coverdale, MILES

Coverdale, MILES, translator of the Bible, was born in Yorkshire in 1488. He made his studies at Cambridge, was admitted priest at Norwich in 1514, when he joined the Austin Friars at Cambridge, and probably imbibed his liking for the new doctrines from Robert Barnes, who became prior about 1523, and whose Protestantism led to his being tried and ultimately burned in 1540. Before long Coverdale went abroad. According to Foxe he was at Hamburg with Tyndale in 1529. His own translation of the Bible appeared in 1535, with a dedication by himself to Henry VIII., and secured the royal license in the quarto and folio editions of 1537. The Psalms of this translation still form the psalter in the Book of Common Prayer, and many of the finest phrases in our authorised version of 1611 are directly due to Coverdale. The original issue of the book is a folio volume, 'faithfully and truly translated out of Douche and Latyn into English,' printed in German black letter, in double columns, with woodcuts and initials, and containing the Apocrypha. Its place of publication is very uncertain, and attempts have even been made to degrade Coverdale from its translator to a mere proof-reader. In the prologue to his own second edition (1550) he states that the translation was his own work, although not at his own cost, and that it was made 'out of five sundry interpreters,' most likely the Vulgate, Luther's version, the Zürich or German-Swiss Bible of 1531, and Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament. In 1538 Coverdale was sent by Cromwell to Paris to superintend in Regnault's press another English edition of the Scriptures. Francis I. had granted a license, but in spite of this, before the printing was finished, an edict was issued prohibiting the work. Many of the sheets were burned, but the presses and types were saved and hastily carried over to London, whither also some of the workmen soon came. Grafton and Whitchurch, the noted printers of that day, were thus enabled to bring out in 1539, under Coverdale's superintendence, the 'Great Bible,' which was presented to Henry VIII. by Cromwell. The second 'Great Bible,' known also as 'Cranmer's Bible' (1540), was also edited by Coverdale, who found it expedient to leave England on the fall of his patron Cromwell. While abroad he married, received the degree of D.D. from Tübingen, and acted as Lutheran pastor for some years at Bergzabern, in Rhenish Bavaria. In March 1548 he returned to England, was well received through Cranmer's influence, and in 1551 was made Bishop of Exeter, discharging the duties with great diligence and zeal. On the accession of Mary he was deprived of his see, but was suffered to leave the country, at the earnest intercession of the king of Denmark, whose chaplain, Dr Macchabæus (MacAlpine), was Coverdale's brother-in-law. From Denmark he passed to Wesel in Westphalia and to Geneva, where he may have assisted in the preparation of the famous Geneva version (1560), the favourite Bible of the Puritans. Returning to England in 1559, he did not resume his bishopric, but was made D.D. by Cambridge in 1563, and the following year was collated by Grindal to the living of St Magnus, near London Bridge, which he resigned from growing Puritan scruples about the liturgy in 1566. He continued, however, to preach, but died early in 1568, and was buried in St Bartholomew's Church, and on its demolition in 1840 to make room for the New Exchange, was reburied in the south aisle of the church of St Magnus. The tercentenary of his Bible—the first complete English translation of the Scriptures—was celebrated October 4, 1835, when medals were struck in honour of the venerable translator. Most of Coverdale's works, including his letters, were edited for the Parker Society by Rev. George Pearson (2 vols. 1844-46). See Memorials of Myles Coverdale (1838), H. R. Tedder's article in the Dictionary of National Biography (vol. xii. 1887), and F. Fry's The Bible by Coverdale (1867).