COVERDALE, MYLES, is supposed to have been born in 1488, in the district of Coverdale, in the parish of Coverham, near Middleton, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and to have derived his name from the district of his birth. He studied in the monastery of the Augustines at Cambridge, of which the celebrated Dr. Robert Barnes was prior at that time; was admitted to priest's orders by John, Bishop of Chalcedon, at Norwich in 1514; and took the degree of Bachelor of Canon Law at Cambridge about 153o. We then lose sight of him until when he published, on the 4th of October, his translation of the Bible. It will be seen hereafter, that Coverdale must have been on the Continent during this period engaged in the translation and printing of the Scriptures, and that he was admitted to the degree of D.D. at Tiibingen whilst there. Two other editions of Coverdale's versions appeared in 1537, and the so-called Mathewe's Bible [CRANNIER], which was edited by John Rogers in the same year, also embodies Coverdale's version from the end of Chronicles to the end of the Apocrypha, with the exception of Jonah, which is translated by Tyndale. In 1538 Coverdale was engaged in Paris under the direction of Cromwell, Earl of Essex, in carrying through the press another edition of the Bible with annotations, etc., which was suddenly interrupted by an order from the inquisition. He succeeded, however, in removing the greater part of the im pression, together with the type, to London, where he finished it in April 1539, and it was presented to Henry VIII. by Cranmcr. In 154o, when his protector Cromwell and his friend Dr. Barnes were executed, Coverdale again went to Germany, took up his abode at Bergzabern in the Duchy of Deux ponts, where, possessing a knowledge of the Ger man language, he obtained a pastoral charge and kept a school, by which he supported himself. After spending eight years in exile and in poverty, Coverdale was recalled to England in 154S, shortly after the accession of Edward VI., when he married Elizabeth Macheson, a person of Scotch extraction, and was appointed, through the exertions of his friend Cranmer, one of the king's chaplains, and almoner to the queen Catherine. He published a
new edition of his Bible in 155o, of which a re issue with a new title page appeared in 1553, and was consecrated Bishop of Exeter on the 13th of August 1551. This honourable position he did not, however, long enjoy, as at the death of Edward (1553) and the accession of Mary, he, together with other protestant bishops, was deprived of his bishopric and imprisoned, and was only released through the personal intercession of the King of Denmark with the Queen in 1555, when he retired to Denmark. He was subsequently appointed preacher to the exiles in Friesland, and thence in vited by the Duke of Deux-ponts to his former charge at Bergzabern. Three years afterwards (155S) we find him at Geneva, where he joined the exiles in the letter they addressed to their fellow exiles at Basle, Strasburg, Frankfort, etc., entreat ing them to submit to an amicable agreement on their return home, in such matters of religion as should be agreed upon by authority, and where he also assisted in that translation of the Bible into English which is called the Geneva version, the New Testament of this version having appeared in 1557. [GENEVA VERSION]. He returned from his second exile towards the end of 155S, assisted, on the 17th December, with bishops Barlow, Scory, and Hodgkin, at the consecration of Archbishop Parker, took the degree of D.D. at Cambridge in 1563, was presented in 1564 to the living of St. Magnus, London Bridge, which he resigned in 1566, and died in February 1569, at the age of eighty -one. He was buried on the 19th of February in St.. Bartholomew's Church, which stood behind the Exchange, and when this church was taken down in 1S4o to make room for the New Exchange, Coverdale's remains were removed to St. Magnus, the church in which he officiated towards the end of his life.