Richard Coxe

was born, as ’tis (q)(q) In Cat. praeposit. soc. & schol. coll. Regal. Cant. MS. sub an. 1519. said, at Whaddon in Bucks. elected from Eaton School, Scholar of Kings Coll. in Cambridge, in 1519, where taking the Degree of Bach. of Arts, went to Oxon for preferment, was made one of the junior Canons of the Cardinal Coll. and in Decemb. 1525, was, with other Cantabrigians incorporated in the same Degree. About that time he supplicated that he might answer at the Austin Fryery (now called Disputations in Austins) and answer the Masters in formal disputations, which was granted conditionally that he also oppose at the said Fryery. This exercise being by him performed in order to the taking of his Masters Degree, he was licensed to proceed in Arts, 8. Feb. following, and accordingly did proceed in an Act celebrated 2. July 1526. Soon after being notoriously known to be a follower and abettor of the opinions of Luther, he was forced to leave Oxon, and some years after became Master of Eaton School near to Windsore, where by his diligent instruction, the boys profited much. About the Year 1537 he proceeded D. of D. at Cambridge, became Archdeacon of Ely, in the room, as it seems, of Tho. Thirlby promoted to the See of Westminster, and afterwards was incorporated at Oxon in the Degree of Doctor. In 1543. Jan. 8. he was made Dean of the new erected Cathedral of Osney near Oxon, and in 1546 when that See was translated to Ch. Ch. he was also made Dean there. In 1547 he was chosen Chancellour of the University of Oxford, being in great favour with the then K. Ed. 6. By which election it fell out, that as the Oxonians enjoyed one that had been partly educated in Cambridge, so it was with the Cantabrigians in former time by their election of John Bromyerd an Oxonian and an eminent writer in the Reign of Rich. 2. and since by their election of Dr. Thomas Ruthal in the Reign of Hen. 7. But what mad work this Dr. Coxe did in Oxon while he sate Chancellour, by being the chief Man that worked a reformation, I have elsewhere (r)(r) In Hist. & Antiq. Vniv. Oxon. lib. 1. p. 269. 270. 271. &c. told you. In 1548. July 16. he was installed Canon of Windsore in the place of Dr. Thomas Magnus, who resigned that dignity in 1547, and about that time was made one of the Privy Council, Almoner to the King and Dean of Westminster: But when Qu. Mary came to the Crown, he, among others, fled to Frankfort in Germany, where he shewed (s)(s) Brief discourse of the troubles begun at Frankford, 1554—Printed 1575. p. 38. 39. himself among the English Exiles a zealous Man for the Common Prayer, as used in the days of K. Ed. 6. against Joh. Knox a Scot and a violent Calvinist. When Qu. Elizabeth succeeded in the Empire, he was appointed the chief of the Protestant Divines to encounter those of the Rom. perswasion in a disputation, when that Queen was about to settle a reformation in the Church of England. But that disputation coming to nothing, he was made Bishop of Ely, to which See he was consecrated 21. Dec. 1559; yet, whether it was for his retiredness, or small hospitality, or the spoil he was said to make of his woods and parks, feeding his Family with powdered venison, he was but in little favour with the said Queen. At Cambridge he was esteemed a good Scholar, and a better Poet than Dr. Wal. Haddon, who call’d him Master, as having been either his Scholar or Servant. There goes under this Dr. Coxe’s names,

Oration at the beginning of the disputation of Dr. Tresham and others with Pet. Martyr.

Oration at the conclusion of the disputation—These two orations, which are in latine, were printed 1549. in qu. and afterwards among Pet. Martyrs works. Dr. Coxe also had a considerable hand in framing the first Liturgy of the Church of England, and a hand in the third an. 1559, and also turned into metre the Lords Prayer, at the end of the Psalmes of David, besides other works not yet remembred by publick Authors. He yielded up his last breath (22. Jul. 1581 in Fifteen hundred eighty and one, and was buried in the Cath. Church of Ely near to the monument of Bishop Goodrich. I find another Rich. Coxe who was living (and a writer) in the t [•] me of the former, but that Rich. Coxe which Joh. Leland the Antiquary and Poet doth so much (t)(t) In Encomiis, trophaeis, &c. ut supra. p. 89. celebrate for his faith and integrity in a copy of verses written to Thom. Legh of Adlington Esq. must be understood of Bishop Coxe before mention’d.