P031 Coverdale's Bible.

P031 Coverdale’s Bible.

Though the first edition was published without royal sanction, it was not suppressed, and in 1537, as already noticed, the regal license was obtained. In the same year another edition was printed in folio. In 1538 three editions of a Latin-English New Testament were published, the Latin being the Vulgate, and the English Coverdale’s. Two editions of his Testament, in English only, were published the same year, and two others in 1539.

After this there was no issue for ten years, when an edition of the Testament was published; in 1550 two of the Testament and one of the Bible; in 1553 one edition of the Bible, the last printed. In 1546 Coverdale’s Bible was prohibited by a stringent law, and all copies of it were ordered to be delivered and burned; but one of the first acts of Edward VI. was an abolition of all restrictions on the Bible.

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VII.

MATTHEW’S BIBLE.

John Rogers, Born (?) 1500, Died 1555. For principal contemporaries, see under Coverdale, page 28.

John Rogers, the real editor of the Bible commonly known as Matthew’s, was born about the year 1500, in a hamlet which has long since been absorbed by the city of Birmingham.

He was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he was graduated in 1525. About the same time he entered into holy orders. In 1532 he became rector of a Church in London. In 1534 he left England and went to Antwerp, where he was appointed chaplain to the "Merchant Adventurers," an old corporation of that city.

Here he became acquainted with Tyndale, and, probably, with Coverdale.

Here, also, his reformatory opinions were developed, and, as evidence of his entire breaking off from Rome, he married, probably about the year 1537.

It was in this year that the Bible of "Thomas Matthew" appeared. There is no question that Rogers was the real editor, but why the name of Thomas Matthew should be placed on the title is one of the mysteries of literature.