Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/374

 Coverdale death of Edward VI, Coverdale was deprived, 28 Sept. 1553, and John Voysey reinstated (, i. 378). He was required to find sureties (, iii. 149), and when the protestant prisoners drew up a declaration about a proposed disputation between them and some Roman catholic champions, Coverdale signed in order to signify his consent and agreement. Christian III of Denmark, at the instance of Dr. J. Macchabæus MacAlpinus, Coverdale's brother-in-law, wrote a letter, dated 25 April 1554, to Queen Mary on Coverdale's behalf. In her reply the queen stated that he was only charged with a debt due to her treasury (ib. iii. 149–51), but a second appeal from Christian (24 Sept.) brought permission for him to leave England for ‘Denmarke with two of his servants, his bagges, and baggage without any theire unlawfull lette or serche’ (extracts from Privy Council Register in Archæologia, xviii. 181). One of the two servants is supposed to have been his wife. He was cordially received by Macchabæus, and the king offered him a benefice which was not accepted. His books were included in the proclamation of 13 June 1555 (, Concilia, iv. 128). He went to Wesel in Westphalia, where there were many English refugees, and ‘preached there no longe time, till he was sent for by Woulgange, duke of Bypont, to take the pastoral charge’ of Bergzabern once more (Discourse of the Troubles at Franckford (1575), 1846, p. 184). It has been stated that he assisted in the preparation of the Genevan version. He was in that city in December 1558, when he signed the letter to those of Frankfort in congratulation at the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and praying that all private dissensions might henceforth be laid aside (ib. p. 188).

The first edition of the Genevan Bible came out in 1560, but Coverdale had returned to England before that date, as he preached at Paul's Cross on 12 Nov. 1559 (, Diary, p. 218), as well as on 28 April 1560, before the lord mayor, the aldermen, and a large congregation at the same place. In spite of his deprivation in the previous reign he assisted, with other bishops, at the famous consecration of Archbishop Parker on 17 Dec. 1559 (Account, ed. J. Goodwin, Camb. Antiq. Soc. 1841). Coverdale, although he himself was consecrated in surplice and cope (, Cranmer, i. 389), on this occasion appeared in a plain black gown. It is possible that it was owing to his scruples about vestments that he did not take the bishopric of Exeter again on the deprivation of Turberville in 1559. In 1563 he obtained the degree of D.D. from the university of Cambridge, and in the same year he got over an attack of the plague. On 3 March he was collated to the living of St. Magnus, close to London Bridge (, Repertorium, i. 398), by Grindal, who petitioned the queen to release Coverdale from the payment of first-fruits, which came to more than 60l. The request was ultimately granted (, Parker, i. 295–6). Grindal had a very high opinion of his piety and learning, and offered him other preferments, and endeavoured to obtain his appointment as bishop of Llandaff. His objections to vestments and other failings in uniformity were connived at (ib. 296; Life of Grindal, p. 171). On 10 April 1564 he was given power by the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University to admit Grindal as D.D. (Grindal, pp. 139–40), and in the same year he published his last book, the ‘Letters of Saintes and Martyrs.’ In 1566 the government determined to enforce a stricter observance of the liturgy, and Coverdale resigned his living. Many of those who attended the churches of other deprived London ministers ‘ran after Father Coverdale, who took that occasion to preach the more constantly, but yet with much fear; so that he would not be known where he preached, though many came to his house to ask where he would preach the next Lord's day’ (, Parker, i. 480). He preached on eleven occasions at the church of the Holy Trinity in the Minories between 1 Nov. 1567 and 18 Jan. following (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xii. 443). There is a considerable difference of opinion among the biographers as to the date of his death; but the register of burials of St. Bartholomew's places the burial on 19 Feb. 1568 (ib'. 1st ser. i. 379). He was eighty-one years old when he died, and ‘was a celebrated preacher, admired and followed by all the puritans; but the Act of Uniformity brought down his reverend hairs with sorrow to the grave. He was buried in St. Bartholomew's behind the Exchange, and was attended to his grave with vast crowds of people’ (, History of the Puritans, 1822, i. 153). In 1568–9 the ballad-printer, John Allde [q. v.], had license to print ‘An Epytaphe of the Lyf and Death of Master Coverdayle’ (, Transcript, i. 384). No copy of this ballad is known. His epitaph was copied by Fuller from the brass inscription on his marble tombstone (destroyed in the great fire of London) under the communion-table in the chancel (Church History, 1655, bk. viii. pp. 64–65). The church was pulled down in 1840 to make way for the new Exchange; but what were thought to have been the remains of Coverdale were carefully reburied on 4 Oct. in a vault in the south aisle of the church of St. Magnus (, Exhumation of the Remains of M. Coverdale, 1840), where the