that the ‘Holy Ghost moved other men to do the cost.’ He was not the projector but the sole worker. He made little or no use of the original texts. The cancelled continental title announces that the Bible was translated ‘out of Douche and Latyn,’ and Coverdale expressly states that he had ‘with a clear conscience purely and faithfully translated this out of five sundry interpreters.’ These are supposed to have been the Vulgate, the Latin of Pagninus, Luther, the Zurich or German-Swiss, and Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament (J. Eadie, English Bible, 1876, i. 281). Dr. Ginsburg shows how Coverdale chiefly relied upon the Zurich Bible of 1531 (Ecclesiastes, 1861, app. ii., and in Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, 1862, i. 567–9), whence he translated the headings of the chapters. Most of the notes are also from this source (J. Eadie, i. 286, &c.) Many quaint renderings are given by Eadie (ib. 298–301). The New Testament, chiefly based on Tyndale, is superior to the Old Testament, but the translation has considerable literary merit, and many charming touches in the authorised version belong to Coverdale. The first edition was soon absorbed, and, although it did not secure the royal license, was not formally suppressed. Convocation passed an apparent slight upon the version in June 1536 by praying the king for a new translation. The quarto and folio editions were issued by Nicolson in 1537, ‘newly ouersene and corrected,’ and for the first time ‘set forth with the kynges moost gracious licence.’ In the following year the same printer produced two editions of a Latin and English New Testament, in order that readers might be able to compare the Vulgate and English versions. The latter, which is by Coverdale, differs from his former translation, and follows the Latin text. The first of these two editions is a handsome well-printed volume, but so full of blunders that when Coverdale received it in July 1538, while superintending the printing of the ‘Great Bible’ at Paris, he put into the press in that city a more accurate edition, which was finished in November. Nicolson produced another edition in spite of Coverdale's remonstrances, and placed the name of John Hollybush on the title-page. It differs from the first issue, but is also very incorrect. In 1537 John Rogers brought out a Bible under the name of Thomas Matthew. It was based largely upon Coverdale and was also printed abroad, probably at Paris.
Cromwell determined to proceed with a new Bible, and Coverdale and Grafton the printer went over to Paris about May 1538 to carry on the work in the press of Regnault. Francis I at the request of Henry granted a license (Strype, Cranmer, ii. 756). Writing on 23 June 1538, Coverdale and Grafton inform Cromwell that they are sending two copies of what was afterwards known from its size as the ‘Great Bible’ of 1539, and state that they ‘folowe not only a standynge text of the Hebrue, with the interpretation of the Caldee and the Greke, but we set, also, in a pryvate table the dyversite of redings of all textes, with suche annotacions, in another table, as shall douteles delucidate and cleare the same’ (State Papers, Henry VIII, 1830, i. 575–6). The text is really that of Rogers revised. Coverdale remained in Paris during the year, and other letters to Cromwell supply details connected with the progress of the ‘Great Bible’ (ib. 578, 588, 591). Before the printing was finished, however, an edict was issued (see Cotton. MS. Cleop. E. v. f. 326, in British Museum) forbidding the work. The Englishmen fled, many sheets were publicly burned, but presses, types, and workmen and some sheets were brought over to England. In the ‘Athenæum,’ 20 May 1871, are a couple of despatches which passed on the subject between the English and French governments. In April 1539 the volume was completed ‘by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum,’ and was presented to the king by Cromwell, who appears to have been at the entire cost of its production. Coverdale was also the editor of the second ‘Great Bible,’ or ‘Cranmer's,’ 1540 (issued six times in 1540–1), and its reprint of 1562 (Fulke, Defence of Translations, Parker Soc. 1843, pp. 68, 548).
Besides some publications which cannot be ascribed to him with certainty, and the ‘Goostly Psalmes,’ which possibly belong to a later period, Coverdale translated Luther's exposition on the twenty-second Psalm, and a sermon by Osiander, both printed by Nicolson in 1537. He returned from Paris early in 1539, and applied to Cromwell for a continuation of the royal license to Nicolson for bibles and testaments (Remains, 498). In February and March he was at Newbury helping to carry into effect the ‘Injunctions set forth by the authority of the king against English books, sects, or sacramentaries, also with putting down the day of Thomas Becket’ (ib. 498–502, and Strype, Mem. i. i. 530–2). On the execution in 1540 of Cromwell and of Barnes, Coverdale found it necessary to leave England. Shortly afterwards he married an excellent woman named Elizabeth Macheson. Her sister was the wife of Dr. Joannes Macchabæus MacAlpinus or McAlpine, who helped to translate the first Danish bible. Lorimer says the wife of McAlpine was an English-woman. This practical protest against the
