These dates are derived from the
Register of Abbott Cratfield, preserved among the Cotton MSS. Tiber,
B. ix.
My object in calling the attention of your readers to the state of
Lydgate's biography is, to draw forth new facts. Information of
a novel kind may be in their hands without appreciation as to its
importance.
I take this opportunity of noticing the different dates given of Myles
Coverdale's death.
Strype says he died 20th May, 1565, (_Annals of Reformation_, vol.
i. pt. ii. p. 43., Oxf. ed.), although elsewhere he speaks of his as
being alive in 1566. Neale (_Hist of Pur._, vol. i. p. 185.) says, the
20th May, 1567. Fuller (_Church Hist._, p. 65. ed. 1655) says he died
on the 20th of January, 1568, and "Anno 1588," in his _Worthies of
England_, p. 198., ed. 1662.
The following extract from "The Register of Burials in the Parish
Church of St. Bartholomew's by the Exchange" sets the matter at rest.
"Miles Coverdall, doctor of divinity, was buried anno 1568., the 19th
of February."
That the person thus mentioned in the register is Miles Coverdale,
Bishop of Exeter, there can be no doubt, since the epitaph inscribed
on the tomb-stone, copied in _Stow's Survey_, clearly states him to be
so. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to observe that the date mentioned in
the extract is the old style, and, therefore, according to our present
computation, he was buried the 19th of February, 1569.
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