COVERDALE, MILES. - English religious writer, b. at Coverdale (Yorkshire) in 1488, d. in February 1568. He was an Augustinian friar at Cambridge, where he came into contact with R. Barnes and T. Cromwell. He broke away from Catholicism, traveled extensively abroad and published in Zurich (1535) the first complete Bible in the English language, whose second edition (1537) was the first published in England. He was bishop of Exeter from 1551 until 1553, when Queen Mary ascended the throne. The following year he obtained permission to leave England. In 1558 he was in Geneva, whence he returned to England and died there.

C. was not a man of profound humanistic culture and made use, for his translations, of Latin and German texts, and he demonstrates that he possessed, especially in the book of Psalms, uncommon literary gifts. In 1539 he prepared a new edition known under the name of The Great Bible, which became customary for use in the English churches. The edition of 1540, preceded by a preface by Thomas Cranmer, is commonly called the Cranmer Bible.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: W. Whittingham, A brief discours off the troubles begonne at Frankford, [Geneva or Zurich?] 1575 (other edd. at London 1642 and 1846); N. Pocock, Troubles connected with the Prayer-Book of 1549... (Camden Society, new series, 37), London 1884.

Amata Martorelli

@incollection{ec4_coverdale_miles, author = {Martorelli, Amata}, title = {Coverdale, miles}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {794--795}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/coverdale-miles} }

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Coverdale, Miles

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