| Miles Coverdale, maker of Bibles. |
On this day in 1535 the first complete printed English translation
of the Bible into was published. Because its translator Miles Coverdale had been on the lam in Europe for some years due to religious turmoil at home, the book was
printed on the continent. For many years
the exact printer and his location were in dispute, but has fairly recently been established to be Merten de Keyser in Antwerp.
The book was evidently financed
by leading Low Countries Reformers.
Coverdale himself was born in Yorkshire around 1488. He was ordained
a priest in Norwich, a hotbed of religious fervor. In 1514 he joined the scholarly convent of Austin friars at Cambridge where he was also allowed to pursue his studies at the University. He was a supporter of Prior Robert Barnes who was sympathetic
to the Reformation on the continent. Barnes was tried for heresy in 1526
and Coverdale was active in his defense.
He left the convent to resume preaching shortly thereafter, but was
forced to flee the country in as
pressure mounted against dissenters
in the English Church. Whether he had already begun his work on a Bible translation is unknown. But once in Europe, where making the Word of God available in the languages of the people was considered essential to Reform, he was undoubtedly encouraged
and financed in his efforts.
The title page of the Coverdale Bible.
The trouble for Coverdale was that
although scholarly by bent, he was far from well equipped to undertake such a massive translation. Although proficient in Latin, he was barely
competent in Greek and knew only
rudimentary Hebrew. That meant that he
had to rely on either Latin texts or other translations into
modern language instead of working from near original material. He
claimed to have consulted “five
soundry interpreters” in Latin, English and German as source texts.
His main sources were German texts
including Luther’s Bible and the Swiss-German
version Zürich Bible of Zwingli. That meant he was working from sources
several times removed from original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.
In fact Coverdale also drew heavily
on both the Latin Vulgate, a more recent
translation from the Greek made possible by the research of Erasmus and the early Humanists, and on the translation of
the New
Testament and a handful of Old Testament books into English by William
Tyndale which had been printed in
1525.
John Wycliffe, a supressed earlier translator, in his study.
He did not
claim to have used the infamous Wycliffe’s
Bible, translated into Middle English way back around 1390. That had circulated only hand to hand in
manuscript and had resulted in the execution several churchmen
over a number of decades who possessed or passed it along.
But
Coverdale helped himself to big chunks, barely disguised from
Tyndale. Tyndale himself ran afoul of the
Counter Reformation and was executed by strangulation as heretic
in 1536, the year after Coverdale’s version first appeared.
Obviously
things were getting dangerous in Europe for Bible
translators. On the other hand,
things were becoming more congenial back home in England.
Henry VIII, painted here in 1431, sponsored Coverdale's two Bible translations before turning on him.
Coverdale
had managed to dash back to Cambridge in 1531 to finish his bachelor’s
degree at the University and had managed to make it back to Antwerp with
his head still attached to his body.
Then in 1534 Henry VIII, the former Defender of the Faith—Catholicism—broke
with the Roman Church over certain domestic matters and
established a new national Church with himself at its head.
Originally
it was expected that the new Church would simply continue Catholic practice
and usage intact. But almost from the
beginning Reformers sought to make the church over in the manner of the Lutherans
and other Protestants. When Henry
decided to break up the Monasteries and appropriate their lands
and wealth for the Crown, he found more reason than ever to be sympathetic
of that trend.
Coverdale arrived back in England to
find himself a favorite of the King
in 1539. His Bible was printed for the first time in the country in folio and quarter-folio editions, carried the Royal license and was therefore the first officially approved Bible translation in English.
For better or worse Coverdale's fortunes were linked to his patron, Thomas Cromwell who fell from Henry VIII's favor.
He was already at that time editing
on yet another new version of the Bible
known as the Great Book. This version drew even more strongly on Tyndale than his first effort under the
sponsorship of Thomas Cromwell,
the king’s first minister. Henry was
so enthusiastic in fact that he ordered every
parish in England to procure a copy and keep chained but publicly
available in every chapel so the
any literate person would have direct
access to the Scripture in the vernacular.
Despite the success of the newer
version, Coverdale’s first version continued to be printed in new editions
through 1553.
But favor of the mercurial monarch was a hard thing to hold. In 1440 Coverdale’s friend and main sponsor
at court, Thomas Cromwell, the king’s
former first minister lost his head. Cromwell was also the leading voice for remaking the Church
of England along Protestant lines.
With the balance of power swinging back to the Anglo-Catholic party, Coverdale had to return to Europe for this
own safety.
He lived in impoverished exile in the German
states. From 1543 to 1547 he was a
pastor and schoolmaster at Bergzabern in the Palatinate Electorate.
Winds of change blew fortunate for
Coverdale when Henry’s son Edward VI assumed
the throne. He was made personal chaplain to the boy king and
then appointed Bishop of Exeter in
1653.
Coverdale prospered briefly as chaplain to the Boy King Edward VI and as Bishop of Exeter. The young king's heir, his very Catholic sister Mary, was not ammused.
When Henry’s daughter Mary, who had remained a good Catholic, assumed the throne in 1657,
Coverdale was ousted from his See and once again went into
exile. For the next several years he
bounced around Europe.
It was safe to return again 1654 but
unable to reclaim his Bishopric. He served a modest parish as Rector of St. Magnus’s, near London Bridge increasingly drawn to Puritanism.
He died, however, still in the good
graces of the Church of England.
The Anglican Church still has a soft
spot in its heart for the old maker of Bibles. It still uses his translation of the Psalter in the Book of Common Prayer.
Want to know what Coverdale’s work
sounded like? First here is the familiar
VIII
Psalm as he rendered it in The
Coverdale Bible:
The
Lord is my shepherde, I can wante nothinge. He fedeth me in a grene pasture, ād
ledeth me to a fresh water. He quickeneth my soule, & bringeth me forth in
the waye of rightuousnes for his names sake. Though I
shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no euell,
for thou art with me: thy staffe & thy shepehoke cōforte me. Thou preparest
a table before me agaynst mine enemies: thou anoyntest my heade with oyle,
& fyllest my cuppe full. Oh let thy louynge kyndnes & mercy folowe me
all the dayes off my life, that I maye dwell in the house off the LORD for
euer.
And here it is in the Book
of Common Prayer Psalter:
The
Lord is my shepherd therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green
pasture and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my
soul and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his Name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou shalt prepare
a table before me against them that trouble me thou hast anointed my head with
oil, and my cup shall be full. But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Not yet the majestic cadences of the King James Version but getting there.
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