07. Miles Coverdale

The origin of Miles Coverdale is very obscure, no other person being known of that surname. He was a native of Yorkshire, and born in 1488. It is said that he graduated as Bachelor of Canon Law, at Cambridge, in 1531. He afterwards received a Doctor's degree from Tubingen and Cambridge. He was an Augustine friar, and enjoyed the powerful protection of the lord Crumwell while he was the prime minister of England. He was an eminent scholar; and was put upon the work of translating the Bible by some influential patrons, who also paid the cost of publication. The first edition purports to be faithfully translated out of the German and Latin, and is dedicated to Henry VIII. and his queen, Anne Boleyn. It is dated 1535; but the place where it was printed is uncertain. It is a mistake to suppose, as many have done, that he acted in concert with either Tyndale or Rogers. That he was skilled in the Hebrew and Greek tongues is certain, though he professes to translate from the German and Latin, in which languages he had five versions before him. His work was "set forth with the Kynge's most gracious license;" and was warmly favored by the potent Crumwell, and by Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury.

But notwithstanding all this favor, his book could not displace the labors of the martyred

Tyndale, which received and retained such a decided preference, that Coverdale himself repeatedly edited impressions of the rival translation. Cranmer gave a decided preference to Rogers's publication of his own and Tyndale's labors, and entreated the Vicar-General Crumwell to exert himself to procure the King's consent, that it may be "read of every person, without danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted to the contrary, until such time that we, the Bishops, shall set forth a better translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday." The license was fully conceded; and thus, almost before the ashes of Tyndale had had time to cool, his labors received the warm sanction and approbation of the great men who had denied him all countenance or support, and who ten years before were quite indignant at his efforts. This translation will never be suppressed again. It may be corrected and improved, and at times it may be denounced and burned; and after seventy years, King James's fifty learned men may spend three or four years in making it, as they say, "more smooth and easy, and agreeable to the text." But the work has been substantially the basis of all the subsequent editions of the Bible in English unto this day.

Grafton, who printed Rogers's Bible just mentioned, commenced the next folio edition, of two thousand five hundred copies, at Paris, in 1538. The reason for executing the work at that place was the high perfection to which the art of printing was then carried there. But when the edition was nearly completed, the Inquisition pounced upon it, and had nearly succeeded in destroying it. The printed sheets, however, were rescued and carried to London. Also the printing presses and types were purchased; and even the workmen removed with them; so that in two months more the entire volume was completed at London. At the end of these copies is found the inscription,—"The Ende of the New Testament, and of the whole Byble, fynished in Apryll anno 1539. It is the Lord's doing." The work was accomplished at the procurement and expense of the Lord Chancellor Crumwell. Thus after a struggle of fifteen years' continuance, since Tyndale left England, his Bible obtains a secure footing upon his native soil. Crumwell, as "vicegerent unto the King's Highness," issued his injunctions, that a copy of this book should be conveniently placed in every parish-church, at the joint expense of the parson and the parishioners; and no man should be in any way discouraged from reading, or hearing it read—but contrariwise, that every person should be stirred up and exhorted to the diligent study of the Word of God. In another of the injunctions, the clergyman in every church is required to make, or cause to be made, one sermon, every quarter of the year at least, wherein he shall “purely and sincerely declare the very gospel of Christ.” The issuing of such an injunction gives a deplorable view of the qualifications of the ministry, and of the miserable plight of the people as to religious instruction, at that day. An old historian, Strype, thus speaks of the interest excited by those old folios, usually secured by a chain to a reading-desk attached to one of the pillars in the churches,—“It was wonderful to see with what joy this book of God was received, not only among the learneder sort, but generally all England over, among all the vulgar and common people; and with what greediness the Word of God was read, and what resort to places where the reading of it was! Every body that could, bought the book, or busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if they could not themselves. Divers more elderly people learned to read on purpose; and even little boys flocked, among the rest, to hear portions of the Holy Scripture read:"

Thus was brought to pass that memorable saying of Tyndale's to the mitred Abbots of Winchcombe and Tewksbury,—"If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that drives the plough to know more of the Scriptures than you do!" All this was gall and wormwood to Stephen Gardiner, and the other popish clergy, who, as Foxe says, "did mightily stomach and malign the printing of this Bible."

During the next year, 1539, the printing and circulation of the Bible went on with great activity. The King himself, in a public proclamation, urged upon his subjects, "the free and liberal use of the Bible in their own maternal English tongue," as the only means by which they could learn their duty to God or man.