COVERDALE, MILES

Coverdale, Miles: translation

( 1488-15 68 )

   British reformer and Bible translator

   Miles Coverdale was born in Coverham, Yorkshire, educated at Cambridge University, ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1514, and later joined the Augustinian monastic order. He absorbed a Protestant perspective in the 1520s and in 1528 left his order and moved to the Continent, where he began his long career as a Bible translator. He initially worked with William Tyn-dale, who had already published an English New Testament, on a translation of the Pentateuch. Following his mentor's arrest and execution in 1535, he continued the effort, and in 1538 brought out a new English translation of the entire Bible, based on both the Latin and Martin Luther's German version.

   He later worked with Thomas Cromwell on a revised translation, known as the Great Bible or (after additional editing) Cranmer's Bible (1540), and then pastored a Lutheran church near Strasbourg.He remained in France until Henry VIII died, then returned in 1548 amid great fanfare. Edward VI named him his chaplain, and in 1551 he became bishop of Exeter.

   Coverdale was targeted by Queen Mary I as part of her program to return England to the Roman Catholic fold. He was arrested but saved from the fate of many of his colleagues probably through the intervention of the Lutheran king of Denmark. Mary allowed him to accept exile, eventually in Geneva. Surviving Mary, he returned to England, but Elizabeth I did not restore his episcopal position. Her new Anglican way did not have room for those perceived to be too Reformed or too much tied to Roman Catholicism.

   In 1564, he received a parish, St. Magnus, in London, but was forced out two years later for being too attached to the beliefs and practices he absorbed in Geneva. He died two years later at the age of 81. His body was eventually (1840) interned at St. Magnus.

   See also Bible translations.

   Further reading:

   ■ Miles Coverdale, Memorials of the Right Reverend Father in God Myles Coverdale (London: S. Bagster, 1838)

   ■ William Dallmann, Miles Coverdale (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1925)

   ■ Francis Fry, The Bible of Coverdale (London: Willis & Sotheran, 1867)

   ■ James FF Mozley, Coverdale and his Bibles (London: Lutterworth, 1953)

   ■ George Pearson, ed., Remains of Myles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1846).

COVERDALE, Miles: translation

Miles Coverdale was a translator of the Bible and bishop of Exeter. He was most likely born in York. After becoming an Augustinian friar, he went on to be educated at Cambridge. Later in life he received further education from the universities at Wittenberg and Tübingen. Although he had taken holy orders, by 1528 he had rejected priest's vestments, which he would continue to do through­out his life, and began preaching against the Mass, confession, and image wor­ship. He soon left England for Europe and in 1534 received a commission from a merchant in Antwerp for a translation of the entire Bible into English, which he completed in 1535. He relied on various sources for his work, including the Vulgate, the Zurich translation of 1531, Martin Luther's* translation, and the work of William Tyndale,* whom he had assisted with his translation of the Pentateuch.The first Coverdale Bible was transported to England, where it met with approval; in 1539 Coverdale revised his work, thus forming the basis for the Great Bible, which would be distributed in churches throughout England.

Coverdale went once more into exile in 1540 after his supporter Thomas Cromwell was executed. Around this time he married Elizabeth Macheson, a Scottish exile, and they traveled first to Denmark and then to Germany, where Coverdale was appointed assistant minister and headmaster of the town school in Bergzabern. After the death of Henry VIII,* Coverdale returned to England, where he enjoyed royal favor. In August 1551 he was appointed bishop of Exeter, an office he held until Mary I* ascended the throne. When she attempted to imprison him on charges of unpaid debts, the king of Denmark appealed on Coverdale's behalf, and he was released into exile once more. He returned to England during the reign of Elizabeth I* and remained there until his death in 1569. His work has been widely recognized as the first complete English trans­lation of the Bible and helped form the basis for the King James,* or Authorized Version, in 1611.

J. F. Mozley, Coverdale and His Bibles, 1953.