Richard Cox ca.1500-1581

Richard COX ca.1500-1581

Biographical Note

Son of Richard Cox of Whaddon, Buckinghamshire. Studied at Eton and then from 1519 at King's College, Cambridge, where he became fellow in 1522 and received his BA in 1523/4. Junior canon of Cardinal College, Oxford 1525, MA 1526. Headmaster of Eton from 1529, where he gained a reputation for both humanist pedagogy and authoritarian discipline. He returned to Cambridge in 1535: BD 1535, DD 1537. He became a leading reforming theologian, and by the early 1540s he was chaplin to both Thomas Cranmer and the King. Under Edward VI he was chancellor of the University of Oxford, and under Mary I he fled to Frankfurt. Cox returned to England under Elizabeth I in 1559 where he became Bishop of Ely. He was forced to resigns see in 1580.

Books

Of his library, Heal says "The bishop's interesting inventory gives full details of his library, which was dominated by the writings of the fathers and by the controversial literature of the Reformation. The works of his friends in Switzerland, especially Bullinger and Gualter, had a prominent place on his shelves. In contrast, his earlier interests in humanist writing and teaching are barely reflected in his books". Cox's probate inventory (transcribed and edited as PLRE 1) includes ca.200 books.

Sources

• Heal, Felicity. "Cox, Richard (c. 1500–1581), bishop of Ely." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Leedham-Green, E. S. Richard Cox, Private Libraries in Renaissance England 1 (1992), 3-46.