COX, Richard, a learned prelate, and principal pillar of the Reformation, was born at Whaddon in Buckinghamshire, in the year 1499. From Eton school he went to Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship in King’s College, of which he became a fellow in 1519. He was thence invited to Oxford by Cardinal Wolsey, and was there made one of the junior canons of Cardinal College. In 1525 he was incorporated bachelor, and the following year he took the degree of master of arts in the same university. In this situation he became remarkable for his learning and poetical abilities; but his attachment to the opinions of Luther rendered him hateful to his superiors, who stripped him of his preferment, and threw him into prison on a suspicion of heresy. Being, however, soon released, he was chosen master ofEton school, which flourished remarkably under his care. In 1537 he commenced doctor of divinity at Cambridge; in 1540 was made archdeacon of Ely; and in the following year be became prebendary of that cathedral, on its being founded of new by King Henry VIII. In 1546 he was made dean of Christ Church, Oxford. By the recommendation of Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Goodrich, to the latter of whom he had been chaplain, he not only obtained the above preferments, but was also chosen preceptor to Prince Edward,, on whose accession to the throne he became a favourite at court, was sworn of the privy council, and made king’s almoner. In 1547 he was elected chancellor of Oxford, in 1548 canon of Windsor, and the next year dean of Westminster. About this time he was appointed one of the commissioners to visit the university of Oxford; in which office his zeal for reformation was so excessive that he destroyed a number of curious and valuable books, for no better reason than because they were written by Roman Catholics. On the accession of Queen Mary he was stripped of all his preferments, and committed to the Marshalsea. He was, however, soon released, and immediately left the kingdom. Having resided some time at Strasburg with his intimate friend Peter Martyr, he returned to England on the death of Queen Mary, and, with other divines, he was appointed to revise the liturgy. He often preached before the queen; and in 1559 he was preferred to the see of Ely, which he continued to enjoy upwards of twenty-one years. He was, however, no favourite with the queen; the reason assigned for which was, his zealous opposition to her retaining the crucifix and wax candles on the altar of the royal chapel, and his strenuous defence of the marriage of the clergy, which her majesty always disapproved. He died on the 22d of July 1581, aged eighty-one. He was a man of considerable learning, a zealous and rigid bulwark of the church of England, and an implacable enemy of both Papists and Puritans. In a letter to Archbishop Parker, he advises him to proceed vigorously in reclaiming or punishing the Puritans, and not to be discouraged by the frown of the court favourites who protected them; assuring him that he might expect the blessing of God on his pious labours to free the church from their dangerous attempts, and to establish uniformity. This zealous reformer we find had not totally lost sight of the text, “Compel them to come in but a stronger proof of his implacability and self-importance appears in his letter to the lord treasurer Burghley, in which he warmly expostulates with the council for interposing in behalf of the Puritans, or meddling in affairs of the church, admonishing them to keep to their own sphere. ∙ Such language from a bishop would probably make a modem privy council stare. His works are, 1. Two Latin Orations on the Dispute between Dr Tresham and Peter Martyr, Lond. 1549, 4to; 2. Liturgy of the Church of England, in compiling, and afterwards correcting which, he was principally concerned; 3. The Lord’s Prayer in Verse, commonly printed at the end of David’s Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins; 4. Translation of the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistle to the Romans, in the new translation of the Bible in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; 5. Resolutions of some Questions concerning the Sacrament in the Collection of Records at the end of Burnet’s History of the Reformation; 6. Several Letters to the Queen and others, published in Strype’s Annals of the Reformation. He is also said to have been concerned in framing the declaration concerning the divine institution of bishops, and to have assisted Lyle in his Grammar.