Leonard Cox

, second Son of Laurence Cox (by Elizab. his Wife Daugh. of—Willey) Son of Job. Cox of Monmouth, was born in Monmouthshire, educated in Cambridge till he was Bach. of Arts, went to Oxon in 1528. where making some stay for the sake of study, was incorporated in the same Degree in the Year following, and intending to make a longer stay, he supplicated for the Degree of Master of Arts, but whether admitted it appears not. About the same time he was a Schoolmaster at Reading in Berks. and was there in much esteem when Joh. Fryth the Martyr was taken for a Vagabond, and set in the Stocks; to whom, for his learning and nothing else, he shewed singular courtesies, as I have already told you in John Fryth. Afterwards he travelled into France, Germany, Poland, and Hungary, taught there the Tongues, and became more eminent in Foreign Countries than at home; which Joh. Leland the Antiquarian-Poet seems to intimate in these Verses (u)(u) In Eucomiis, Tropheis, &c. illustr. & erudit. virorum in Anglia—Edit. 1589. p. 50. written to him.

Inclyta Sarmaticae Cracovia gloria gentis,

Virtutes novit, Coxe diserte tuas.

Novit & eloquii Phaenix utriusque Melancthon,

Quam te Phaebus amet, pieriusꝫ chorus.

Parga tuas cecinit, cecinitque Lutetia Laudes,

Urbs ergo doctos officiosa viros.

Talia cum constent, &c.

In the Year 1540. (32. Hen. 8.) I find that he was living at Carleon in his native Country, where I think he taught School, and the same Year to publish,

Commentaries on Will. Lily’s construction of the eight parts of Speech.—Besides which, he had before in the said Year, translated from Greek into Latin, Marcus Eremita de Lege & Spiritu, and from Lat. into English, The paraphrase of St. Paul’s Epistle to Titus, written by Erasmus Roterod. with whom he was well (w)(w) Vide Epist. Erasm. lib. 19. ep. 15. acquainted. Baleus tells (x)(x) In cent. 9. Script. Maj. Britan. num. 31. us that the said Cox was from his Youth instructed in all liberal arts, that he was a Grammarian, Rhetorician, Poet, Divine, and a Preacher of God’s word. Also that he had written against those, who in his time wrot of Justification by works, and that he was in high esteem among learned Men in Fifteen hundred and forty.Clar. 1540. All which works, besides Verses of divers kinds, and Epistles, were by him written before the end of that Year; as also Latin Verses occasionally set before Books that were published, particularly before John Palsgrave’s Lesclarcissement, an. 1530. He was living in the Reign of Ed. 6. but when, or where, he died, I cannot yet tell. He left behind him a Son named Francis Cox, who proceeded D. of D. as a Member of New Coll. in the Year 1594, and he a Son named William, who was a Divine of Chichester in Sussex.