Richard Cox
- Born:
- c. 1500,, Whaddon, Buckinghamshire, Eng.
- Died:
- July 22, 1581, Ely, Isle of Ely [now in Cambridgeshire]
- Role In:
- Reformation
Richard Cox (born c. 1500, Whaddon, Buckinghamshire, Eng.—died July 22, 1581, Ely, Isle of Ely [now in Cambridgeshire]) was an Anglican bishop of Ely and a leading advocate in England of the Protestant Reformation.
Appointed dean of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1547, Cox was made dean of Westminster Abbey two years later. He had an important share in drawing up the Anglican prayer books of 1549 and 1552. As chancellor of the University of Oxford (1547–53), he introduced the work of such continental theologians as Peter Martyr Vermigli, and he sought to remove all traces of Roman Catholic influence from books, manuscripts, and ornaments of the university. Because of his anti-Catholic views, he was imprisoned for a short time upon the accession of the Roman Catholic queen Mary in 1553. Leaving England to seek refuge on the European continent the next year, Cox eventually arrived at Frankfurt. Trouble there between his supporters and those of religious Reformers John Knox and William Whittingham, who had adopted an extremely puritanical form of service, ended with Knox’s expulsion and a return to the use of the 1552 prayer book.
Cox returned to England upon Mary’s death in 1558 and was briefly bishop of Norwich, then bishop of Ely until his resignation in 1580. As bishop, Cox earned a reputation for intolerance for refusing to serve in the royal chapel because of the remnants of Roman Catholicism evident in its crucifix and devotional lights. He relinquished his see in a dispute with courtiers who coveted episcopal landholdings after Elizabeth I intervened in the conflict and ordered him to grant his palace in Holborn to her favourite, Christopher Hatton. Among Cox’s literary works are translations of the Gospels, Acts, and Romans for the Bishops’ Bible of 1568.
