20 Jan 1569 A.D. Bishop of Exeter, Miles Coverdale, Died. English Reformer, Augustinian,
Cambridgensian, Reformed Churchman, Colleague of William Tyndale, Godparent to
John Knox’s Child at Baptism in Geneva, Bible translator, Refuser of
Elizabeth’s “imposed non-adiaphoristic adiaphoras,” and Co-Consecrator of
Elizabeth’s 71st Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker
Dr. Rusten tells
the story.
Rusten, E.
Michael and Rusten, Sharon. The One Year
Christian History. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003. Available at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Year-Christian-History-Books/dp/0842355073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393302630&sr=8-1&keywords=rusten+church+history
Mr.
Coverdale was born in York in 1492. He graduated from Cambridge. He was
ordained in 1514 as an Augustinian friar. As a Cambridge don and friar, he was
associated with Prior Robert Barnes (later murdered), Tyndale (murdered),
Cranmer (murdered) and Latimer (murdered).
Mr. Coverdale survived the hate-engine of the Anglo-Italian Inquisitors
in the English Church and Royalty.
In 1528,
he preached against the Mass, auricular confession, images and relic worship
and more. He was forced to leave England and the Augustinian community.
A friend
describes Coverdale in those days before expatriation:
“Under the mastership of Robert Barnes he drank in good learning with a
burning thirst. He was a young man of friendly and upright nature and a very
gentle sprit, and when the Church of England revived, he was one of the first
to make a pure profession of faith of Christ. Other men gave themselves in
part, he gave himself wholly to the propagating the truth of Jesus Christ’s
gospel and manifesting his glory.”
From
1528-1535, he worked with William Tyndale in Hamsburg and Antwerp. In Oct 1535, while Tyndale was incarcerated
in Belgium, Coverdale produced an OT edition in Marburg, Germany…a work
incorporating some of Tydnale’s previous work.
Coverdale
wrote the dedication of the translation to Henry VIII and his fellow
fornicator, the adulteress Queen Anne Boleyn.
Coverdale wrote:
“Considering now, most gracious prince, the inestimable treasure, fruit
and prosperity everlasting that God giveth with His Word, and trusting in His
infinite goodness that He would bring my simple and rude labour herein to good
effect, therefore, as the Holy Ghost moved men to do the cost hereof, so was I
boldened in God to labour in the same…I do with all humbleness submit mine
understanding and my poor translation unto the spirit of truth in your grace,
so make I this protestation, having God to record in my conscience, that I have
neither wrested nor altered so much as one word for the maintenance of any
manner of sect, but have with a clear conscience purely and faithfully
translated this out of five sundry interpreters, having only the manifest truth
of the scriptures before mine eyes.”
Today’s
Bibles still have many, many words and phrases from Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s
Bibles, including chapter headings.
Thomas
Cromwell liked Coverdale’s work. He
deputed Coverdale to Paris to oversee the publication of English Bibles for all
9000 English parishes. But, the English
Anglo-Italians and other Continental Romish Inquisitors had the publication
suppressed.
Mile
Coverdale returned to England when Elizabeth 1 acceded to the thone. The former bishop of Exeter turned exile
turned translator died on 20 Jan 1569. The man who had suffered exile, privation and
other sufferings, refused to submit to Elizabeth’s imposed-adiaphora.
Sources
Hoglund.
K. “Coverdale, Miles.” WWCH. 177.
Mozley. Coverdale
and His Bibles. London: Lutterworth, 1953.
Rowden,
Harold H. “Coverdale, Miles (1488-1569). NIDCC. 267-8.
No comments:
Post a Comment