Miles Coverdale
born 1488?, York, Yorkshire [now in North
Yorkshire], Eng.
died Jan. 20, 1569, London
bishop of Exeter, Eng., who translated (rather
freely; he was inexpert in Latin and Greek) the
first printed English Bible.
Ordained a priest (1514) at Norwich, Coverdale
became an Augustinian friar at Cambridge, where,
influenced by his prior, Robert Barnes, he
absorbed Lutheran opinions and later busied
himself in biblical studies. In 1528, as a
secular priest in Essex, he began preaching
against images and the mass. In 1529 he helped
William Tyndale translate the Pentateuch in
Hamburg and then apparently settled in Antwerp,
where he translated the Bible. He later returned
to England and took up the Reform cause,
translating tracts and editing the Great Bible
(1539). In 1540 Henry VIII’s religious policies
forced him to flee, and he settled in
Strasbourg. After Henry’s death he returned to
England, supported the new Protestant religious
line, and was made bishop of Exeter (1551).
Under the Roman Catholic Mary, Coverdale lost
his bishopric and was spared burning by
intercession from Denmark, where he then briefly
went. During 1555–57 he was in Bergzabern near
Strasbourg and thereafter until 1559 was in
Switzerland. In 1559 he returned to England and
helped consecrate Queen Elizabeth’s archbishop,
Matthew Parker. Yet his Puritanism, strengthened
by stays abroad, prevented him from resuming his
bishopric of Exeter. He declined all preferments
save a brief one (1564–66) at St. Magnus, Old
London Bridge, but he often preached sermons
that were highly esteemed.
