Coverdale, Miles, translator of the English Bible, born in Yorkshire; his translation was the first issued under royal sanction, being dedicated to Henry VIII.; done at the instance of Thomas Cromwell, and brought out in 1535, and executed with a view to secure the favour of the authorities in Church and State, displaying a timid hesitancy unworthy of a manly faith in the truth; both he and his translation nevertheless were subjected to persecution, 2500 copies of the latter, printed in Paris, having been seized by the Inquisition and committed to the flames (1487‒1568).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Coventry, Sir John * Coverley, Sir Roger de