[Sidenote: The English Bible, 1535] His first great work was the completion of the English Bible which was published by Christopher Froschauer of Zurich in 1535, the title-page stating that it had been translated "out of Douche and Latyn"-- the "Douche" being, of course, Luther's German version.

For the New Testament and for the Old Testament as far as the end of Chronicles, Tyndale's version was used; the rest was by Coverdale.

The work was dedicated to the king, and, as Cromwell had already been considering the advisability of authorizing the English Bible, this was not an unwelcome thing.

But as the government was as yet unprepared to recognize work avowedly based on German Protestant versions, [Sidenote: 1537] they resorted to the device of re-issuing the Bible with the name of Thomas Matthew as translator, though in fact it consisted entirely of the work of Tyndale and Coverdale.

[Sidenote: 1538-9] A light revision of this work was re-issued as the Great Bible, [Sidenote: October 11, 1538] and Injunctions were issued by Cromwell ordering a Bible of the largest size to be set up in every church, and the people to be encouraged to read it.