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See also: English translator of the See also: Bible and See also: bishop of Exeter, was See also: born of See also: Yorkshire parents about 1488, studied philosophy and See also: theology at Cambridge, was ordained See also: priest at Norwich in 1514, and then entered the convent of See also: Austin friars at Cambridge
.
Here he came under the influence of the See also: prior, Robert See also: Barnes, made the acquaintance of See also: Sir See also: Thomas More and of Thomas
See also: Cromwell, and began a thorough study of the Scriptures
.
He was one of those who met at the See also: White
See also: Horse See also: tavern to discuss theological questions, and when Barnes was arrested on a See also: charge of See also: heresy, See also: Coverdale went up to See also: London to assist him in See also: drawing up his defence
.
Soon afterwards he See also: left the convent, assumed the habit of a secular priest, and began to preach against confession and the worship of images
.
In 1531 he graduated bachelor of See also: canon See also: law at Cambridge, but from 1528 to 1534 he prudently spent most of his See also: time abroad
.
No corroboration has, however, been found for See also: Foxe's statement that in 1529 he was at See also: Hamburg assisting Tyndale in his See also: translation of the See also: Pentateuch
.
In 1534 he published two See also: translations of his own, the first Dulichius's Vom See also: alien and newen Gott, and the second a Paraphrase upon the Psalms, and in 1535 he completed his translation of the Bible
.
The venture seems to have been projected by See also: Jacob See also: van Meteren, who apparently employed Coverdale to do the translation, and Froschover of Zurich to do the printing
.
No perfect copy is known to exist, and the five or six which alone have title-pages give no name of publisher or place of publication
.
The See also: volume is dedicated to the See also: king of
See also: England, where Convocation at See also: Cranmer's instance had, in See also: December 1534, petitioned for an authorized English version of the Scriptures
.
As a See also: work of scholarship it does not See also: rank particularly high
.
Some of the title-pages See also: state that it had been translated out of " Douche " (i.e
.
See also: German) " and Latyn ": and Coverdale mentions that he used five interpreters, which are supposed to have been the Vulgate, the Latin version of Pagninus, See also: Luther's translation, the Zurich version, and Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament
.
There is no definite mention of the See also: original See also: Greek and See also: Hebrew texts; but it has considerable See also: literary merit, many of Coverdale's phrases are retained in the authorized version, and it was the first See also: complete Bible to be printed in English
.
Two fresh See also: editions were issued in 1537, but none of them received official sanction
.
Coverdale was, however, employed by Cromwell to assist in the production of the See also: Great Bible of 1539, which was ordered to be placed in all English churches
.
The work was done at See also: Paris until the French See also: government stopped it, when Coverdale and his colleagues returned to England early in 1539 to complete it
.
He was also employed in the same See also: year in assisting at the suppression of superstitious usages, but the reaction of 1540 drove him once more abroad
.
His Bible was prohibited by proclamation in 1542, while Coverdale himself defied the Six Articles by marrying See also: Elizabeth Macheson,
See also: sister-in-law to Dr See also: John MacAlpine
.
For a time Coverdale lived at
See also: Tubingen, where he was created
D.D
.
In 1545 he was pastor and schoolmaster at Bergzabern in the duchy of Pfalz-See also: Zweibrucken
.
In See also: March 1548 he was at
See also: Frankfort, when the new English See also: Order of Communion reached him; he at once translated it into German and Latin and sent a copy to See also: Calvin, whose wife had befriended Coverdale at Strassburg
.
Calvin, however, does not seem to have approved of it so highly as Coverdale
.
Coverdale was already on his way back to England, and in See also: October 1548 he was staying at Windsor See also: Castle, where Cranmer and some other divines, inaccurately called the Windsor Commission, were preparing the First See also: Book of See also: Common Prayer
.
His first See also: appointment had been as almoner to See also: Queen See also: Catherine Parr, then wife of See also: Lord Seymour; and he preached her funeral See also: sermon in See also: September 1548
.
He was also See also: chaplain to the See also: young king and took an active See also: part in the reforming See also: measures of his reign
.
He was one of the most effective preachers of the time
.
A sermon by him at St See also: Paul's on the second See also: Sunday in Lent, 1549, was immediately followed by the pulling down of " the See also: sacrament at the high altar." A few See also: weeks later he preached at the penance of some Anabaptists, and in See also: January 1550 he was put on a commission to prosecute Anabaptists and all who infringed the Book of Common Prayer
.
In 1549 he wrote a dedication to See also: Edward for a translation of the second volume of See also: Erasmus's Paraphrases; and in 1550 he translated See also: Otto Wermueller's Precious See also: Pearl, for which See also: Protector See also: Somerset, who had derived spiritual comfort from the book while in the Tower, wrote a preface
.
He was much in See also: request at funerals: he preached at Sir See also: James Wilford's in
See also: November 1550, and at Lord Went-worth's before a great concourse in See also: Westminster Abbey in" March 1551
.
Perhaps it was his gift of oratory which suggested his appointment as bishop of the refractory men of See also: Devon and See also: Cornwall
.
He had already, in See also: August 1549, at some See also: risk, gone down with Lord See also: Russell to turn the See also: hearts of the rebels by preaching and persuasion, and two years later he was appointed bishop of Exeter by letters patent, on the compulsory retirement of his predecessor, Veysey, who had reached an .almost mythical age
.
He was an active prelate, and perhaps the vigorous Protestantism of the West in Elizabeth's reign was partly due to his persuasive See also: powers
.
He sat on the commission for the reform of the canon law, and was in See also: constant attendance during the parliaments of 1552 and 1553
.
On Mary's accession he was at once deprived on the score of his See also: marriage, and Veysey in spite of his age was restored
.
Coverdale was called before the privy council on the 1st of September, and required to find sureties; but he was not further molested, and when Christian III. of See also: Denmark at the instance of Coverdale's See also: brother-in-law, MacAlpine, interceded in his favour, he was in See also: February 1555 permitted to leave for Denmark with two servants, and his baggage unsearched; one of these " servants " is said to have been his wife
.
He declined Christian's offer of a living in Denmark, and preferred to preach at Wesel to the numerous English refugees there, until he was invited by Duke Wolfgang to resume his labours at Bergzabern . He was atSee also: Geneva in December 1558, and is said to have participated in the preparation of the Geneva version of the Bible
.
In 1559 Coverdale returned to England and resumed his preaching at St Paul's and elsewhere
.
Clothed in a plain black See also: gown, he assisted at See also: Parker's consecration, in spite of the facts that he had himself been deprived, and did not resume his bishopric, and that his original appointment had been by the uncanonical method of letters patent
.
Conscientious objections were probably responsible for his non-restoration to the see of Exeter, and his refusal of that of See also: Llandaff in 1563
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He objected to See also: vestments, and in his living of St See also: Magnus close to London See also: Bridge, which he received in 1563, he took other liberties with the See also: Act of Uniformity
.
His bishop, See also: Grindal, was his friend, and his vagaries were overlooked until 1566, when he resigned his living rather than conform
.
He still preached occasionally, and always See also: drew large audiences
.
He died in February 1568, and was buried on the 19th in St Bartholomew's behind the See also: Exchange
.
When this See also: church was pulled down in 1840 to make
See also: room for the new Exchange, his remains were removed to St Magnus
.
Coverdale's See also: works, most of them translations, number twenty-six in all; nearly all, with his letters, were published in a collected edition by the Parker See also: Soc., 2 vols., 1846
.
An excellent account is given in the See also: Diet
.
Nat . Biog. of his See also: life, with authorities, to which may be added R
.
W
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See also: Dixon's Church See also: History, Bishop and Gasquet's Edward VI. and the Book of Common Prayer; Acts of the Privy Council; Letters and Papers of See also: Henry VIII.; Lit
.
Rem. of Edward VI
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(
See also: Roxburghe See also: Club) ; Whittingham's Brief Discourse of Troubles at Frankfort; See also: Pocock's Troubles connected with the Prayer
.
Book (See also: Camden Soc.)
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(A
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