Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles (c. 1488 – 20 January 1569), was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher, hymnist and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553).

Regarding his probable birth county, Daniell cites John Bale, author of a sixteenth-century scriptorium, giving it as Yorkshire.

In February 1526, Coverdale was part of a group of friars that travelled from Cambridge to London to present the defence of their superior, after Barnes was summoned before Cardinal Wolsey.

[2][4] Barnes had been arrested as a heretic after being accused of preaching Lutheran views in the church of St Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge on Christmas Eve.

[5] By the standards of the time, Barnes received relatively lenient treatment, being made to do public penance by carrying a faggot to St Paul's Cross.

[2] By Lent 1528, he had left the Augustinians and, wearing simple garments, was preaching in Essex against transubstantiation, the veneration of sacred images, and Confession to a Priest.

Celia Hughes believes that upon arriving there, he rendered considerable assistance to William Tyndale in his revisions and partial completion of his English versions of the Bible.

[7]: 100 [note 4] In 1531, Tyndale spoke to Stephen Vaughan of his poverty and the hardships of exile, although he was relatively safe in the English House in Antwerp, where the inhabitants supposedly enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

[8] However, in the spring of 1535 a "debauched and villainous young Englishman wanting money" named Henry Phillips insinuated himself into Tyndale's trust.

On the morning of 21 May 1535, having arranged for the imperial officers to be ready, Phillips tricked Tyndale into leaving the English House, whereupon he was immediately seized.

This second injunction firmly declared opposition to "pilgrimages, feigned relics, or images, or any such superstitions" whilst correspondingly placing heavy emphasis on scripture as "the very lively word of God".

[note 13] The laity were also intended to learn other core items of worship in English, including the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments.

[18] John Winchcombe, son of "Jack O'Newbury", a famous clothier, served as a confidential messenger to Coverdale who was performing an ecclesiastical visitation.

In the final years of the decade, the conservative clerics, led by Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, were rapidly recovering their power and influence, opposing Cromwell's policies.

For most of his reign he was being educated, whilst his uncle, Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, acted as Lord Protector of the Realm and Governor of the King's Person.

[2] Recognising the continuing unpopularity of the Book of Common Prayer in such areas, the Act of Uniformity had been introduced, making the Latin liturgical rites unlawful from Whitsunday 1549 onward.

[22] The direct spark of rebellion occurred at Sampford Courtenay where, in attempting to enforce the orders, an altercation led to a death, with a proponent of the changes being run through with a pitchfork.

[20] Shortly before, he had attempted to deter a Roman Catholic revival by switching the succession from Mary daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon to Lady Jane Grey.

[note 15] Historian Eamon Duffy reports that the news broke during a sermon by Bishop Coverdale, during which almost all the congregation walked out one by one (i.e., such was the anti-Protestant affinity of the locals of Devon and Cornwall.

Following an intervention by his brother-in-law, chaplain to King Christian III of Denmark-Norway, Coverdale and his wife were permitted to leave for that country.

Coverdale’s first wife, Elizabeth, died early in September 1565, and was buried in St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, on the 8th.

[2] After the summer of 1566, when he had resigned his last living at St Magnus, Coverdale became popular in early Puritan circles, because of his quiet but firm stance against ceremonies and elaborate clerical dress.

[7] Due to his opposition to official church practices, he died in poverty aged 80 or 81 on 20 January 1569, in London and was buried at St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange with a multitude of mourners present.

[28] When that church was demolished in 1840 to make way for the new Royal Exchange, his remains were moved to St Magnus, where there is a tablet in his memory on the east wall, close to the altar.

Coverdale's translation of the Psalms (based on Luther's version and the Latin Vulgate) have a particular importance in the history of the English Bible.

For example Coverdale's renderings are used in Handel's Messiah, based on the Prayer Book Psalter rather than the King James Bible version.

Celia Hughes believes that in the days of renewed biblical suppression after 1543, the most important work of Coverdale, apart from his principal Bible translation, was his Ghostly Psalms and Spiritual Songs .

[32] Coverdale’s first three hymns are based on the Latin Veni Creator Spiritus, preceding its other English translations such as that of 1625 by Bishop J. Cosin by more than ninety years.

Thus Hughes argues that he realised that for the less-privileged, his scriptural teaching could be learnt and retained more readily by song rather than by direct access to the Bible, which could often be prohibited.

However, his hymnbook also ended up on the list of forbidden books in 1539, and only one complete copy of it survives which is today held in Queen's College, Oxford.