Miles Coverdale's translation of the Bible (the first complete English version to be published) placed him at the nexus of religious reform, politics, and English literature. As a Bible translator, Protestant reformer, bishop, and preacher, he helped shape the nascent English church. As a translator, he also helped shape the language of English literature, especially through his version of the Psalms, which, in the Book of Common Prayer, taught rhythms and images of poetic language to generations raised on its cadences. Though a secondary figure, Coverdale achieved several firsts through his translating: in addition to the first complete Bible, he produced the first metrical psalter in English, established the tradition of congregational singing, encouraged worship services in the vernacular, and helped introduce the genre of the marriage manual. His career not only spans the English Reformation but offers a paradigm of it. First an Augustinian friar, he passed...