One of the leading Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century, Miles Coverdale produced the first English Bible in the 1530s, thereby preparing the way for the later translators of the Bible, and opening up the relationship between the Bible and English literature. His influence can be strongly felt in the centuries of interaction between the Bible and English poetry.

Coverdale was born in York in 1488. No details are known of his parentage or early education. The current consensus on his ordination is that John Underwood, in Norwich in 1514, ordained him priest at the age of 26. Coverdale became an Augustinian friar and went to the house of his order at Cambridge; he was there in 1520, when Robert Barnes returned from Louvain t

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First published 14 December 2005

Citation: Coleman, David. "Miles Coverdale". The Literary Encyclopedia. 14 December 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1041, accessed 9 February 2010.]