English bishop and Reformer; born probably at Cover-dale, in Yorkshire, in 1488; was educated at Cambridge, and became an Augustine monk in 1514. He was one of the first Englishmen who adopted the doctrines of the Reformed Church of England (1526). He left the convent and became an evangelist, and then went to the Continent. In 1535 he published an English translation of the Bible, which was reissued in 1537 with the royal sanction. The version of the Psalms is that of the present Prayer-book. This was the first entire Bible ever published in English. It is not a direct translation from the original text, but only a rendering from the German and Latin versions. It has, nevertheless, great merits, and its influence on the Authorized Version, especially in rhythm and style, is easily recognized. He edited the “Great Bible,” or Cranmer’s Bible (1540). In 1551 he was appointed Bishop of Exeter. On the accession of Mary in 1553 he was deprived of his office and imprisoned for a year. He was then permitted to take refuge on the Continent, whence he returned in 1558. He died in London and was buried Feb. 19, 1568. He also translated from the works of Luther, Calvin, Bullinger, and other Reformers. See his “Writings and Translations,” edited for the Parker Society (2 vols., Cambridge, 1844–46).

  I myself, and so did many hundreds beside me, hear the reverend father, M. Doctor Coverdale, of holy and learned memory, in a sermon at Paul’s Cross, upon occasion of some slanderous reports that then were raised against his translation, declare his faithful purpose in doing the same; which after it was finished, and presented to King Henry VIII, of famous memory, and by him committed to divers bishops of that time to peruse, of which (as I remember) Stephen Gardiner was one; after they had kept it long in their hands, and the king was divers times sued unto for the publication thereof, at the last being called for by the king himself, they redelivered the book, and being demanded by the king what was their judgment of the translation, they answered that there were many faults therein. “Well,” said the king, “but are there any heresies maintained thereby?” They answered, There were no heresies that they could find maintained thereby. “If there be no heresies,” said the king, “then in God’s name let it go abroad among our people.” According to this judgment of the king, and the bishops, M. Coverdale defended his translation, confessing that he did now himself espy some faults, which if he might review it once over again, as he had done twice before, he doubted not but to amend, but for any heresy, he was sure there was none maintained by his translation.

  A fair estimate of Coverdale’s character is hardly possible on account of its striking contrast with that of Tyndale. He fell far behind the latter with respect to originality, boldness, knowledge of the original tongues of Scripture, and in the apparent motives leading to the work of translation. His intimate connection with a government, ordinarily so hostile to the Reformation, seems almost like truckling, compared with Tyndale’s independence, and not infrequent defiance. But, undoubtedly, the two men were differently constituted by nature, and the conception of the reform to be accomplished was, in the one case, wholly seized and operative at once; in the other, a slow product of discipline and growth. Coverdale was nearly sixty years of age before he reached Tyndale’s standard of ecclesiastical independence, and then no honors or emoluments of office could tempt him from the path of conscientious duty…. The influence of Coverdale’s labors upon the translation of 1611, as it would be natural to expect, was but slight. His translation stands outside of the lineal history of the latter. The most that it did was to furnish a few ecclesiastical words, some of which might perhaps have been better omitted altogether.

  Bishop Coverdale occupies among the English Reformers a somewhat analogous position to that of Coleridge among the English romantic poets. Each took a leading part in a movement mainly of German origin: each was conspicuous for the extent of his German culture and his personal sensitiveness to German influence. If Coleridge was a fragmentary Schelling, Coverdale, the translator of the Bible and singer of “Spiritual Songs,” may be said to have groped along the path of Luther. He was one of the first English translators of the German theologians; Bulliger, Osiander, Jan of Campen, Wermüller, Luther himself, all owed something to his industry. As he worked at his translation of the Bible, the Zürich Bible lay open before him, and counted for more, as Dr. Ginsburg has shown, than either Vulgate, Septuagint, or Hebrew…. Coverdale was the one English lyric poet of his century who drew what may be called by courtesy his inspiration, neither from Italy nor from France, but from the equally great and varied stores of the songs of Germany; and, however completely he may have failed, he deserves on this account a moment’s notice.

  The name of Coverdale will always be revered as that of a man who first made a complete translation of the Bible into English, but he was not a figure of marked historical interest. He was somewhat weak and timorous, and all through his life leaned on a more powerful nature. Barnes, Cromwell, Cranmer, and Grindal were successively his patrons. In the hour of trouble he was content to remain in obscurity, and left the crown of martyrdom to be earned by men of tougher fibre. But he was pious, conscientious, laborious, generous, and a thoroughly honest and good man. He knew German and Latin well, some Greek and Hebrew, and a little French. He did little original literary work. As a translator he was faithful and harmonious. He was fairly read in theology, and became more inclined to puritan ideas as his life wore on. All accounts agree in his remarkable popularity as a preacher. He was a leading figure during the progress of the reformed opinions, and had a considerable share in the introduction of German spiritual culture to English readers in the second quarter of the sixteenth century.

  It is curious to note that Coverdale’s style is less harmonious in his original writings than in his translations: his disposition was of the generous sort that delights in the embellishment of other men’s work.