Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/419

 on the trial of Gardiner (, 1st ed.), and in the same year we find him engaged in a renewed and equally destructive visitation of Oxford (, iii. 384). During the same period he was upon the several commissions that were issued for revising the ecclesiastical laws, which at last resulted in the abortive code of the ‘Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum’ (, Cranmer, ii. ch. xxvi.;, iii. 351, 439). On the death of Edward, Cox was apprehended (5 Aug. 1553) on suspicion of being concerned in Northumberland's plot (Orig. Lett. p. 684; Grey Friars' Chron. p. 82). He spent a few weeks in the Marshalsea, and was deprived of all his preferments. In May 1554 he made his way to the continent, choosing Frankfort for his place of exile, where he arrived 13 March 1554–5. The English congregation in that city had adopted, by the advice of Whittingham, a form of service that differed widely from the prayer-book, and accepted the Calvinistic doctrine. Most of the morning prayers were omitted, the confession was changed for another, the responses were not repeated, the surplice was not worn. At the same time, with the view of making Frankfort, as the nearest to England, the head of the English church colonies, ministers were invited from the other congregations; and from Strasburg came Haddon, Lever from Zurich, from Geneva Knox. The celebrated ‘Troubles of Frankfort’ were now begun. Knox soon stood at the head of the party which desired further alteration, while the moderate party were supported by the exiles of Strasburg and Zurich. After the English service had been submitted by Knox to Calvin, and treated by Calvin with contempt, a compromise to last four months was effected by which the rival forms of worship were used alternately. Things were in this posture when, before the expiration of the four months, Cox arrived upon the scene. He immediately exhorted his countrymen to maintain the Book of Common Prayer as it had been established in the reign of Edward VI. Knox replied by attacking Cox as a pluralist. The rival parties were thenceforth distinguished by the names of Knoxians and Coxians, and became so embittered in their animosity as to require the interposition of the magistrates of the city to prevent them from coming to blows. The Knoxians at first obtained from these authorities a decision that the services should be after the French or Calvinistic model; but their triumph was brief. In one of Knox's sermons his adversaries discovered treason against the emperor. They accused him to the magistrates, and the state of Frankfort expelled him and his followers from its territory (26 March 1555). The English service of Edward was then restored (Troubles at Frankfort; ; ). It does not appear that Cox held any office in the church after this pacification. He apparently spent some time at Strasburg; but in a subsequent dispute which was waged at Frankfort with great bitterness between Horn, the deprived dean of Durham, and Ashley, an eminent member of the congregation, he was chosen by the magistrates to be one of the arbiters, and succeeded in bringing the contending parties to a tolerable agreement.

When Elizabeth came to the throne, Cox was at Worms. He returned to England; preached frequently before the queen; was appointed visitor of the university of Oxford (5 June 1559), and on 28 July 1559 was placed in the see of Ely. It was at first determined to give him the see of Norwich, and the change was made after he had been actually elected to that see. At Ely he remained twenty-one years. He refused to minister in the queen's chapel because of the crucifix and lights there, and justified himself in a letter to her majesty (, Ann. App. i. 23). He was considered severe towards the Romanists in his custody, especially in 1577 when Feckenham, the former abbot of Westminster, was his prisoner. John Leslie, bishop of Ross, was in his custody from 14 May till 17 Oct. 1571. In 1579 several accusations were brought against him and his wife by Lord North and others for covetous and corrupt practices (ib. App. bk. i.). He seems to have vindicated himself successfully, but he was compelled to cede a manor to his chief accuser North. He had already ceded much property belonging to his see to the crown (1562), and in 1575 Sir Christopher Hatton used the queen's influence to induce Cox to give him his palace in Holborn. Cox resisted, but ultimately yielded. Disgusted with the court, Cox petitioned for permission to resign his see, and this request was granted in February 1579–80. He received a pension of 200l. and the palace of Doddington. Cox died on 22 July 1581. Twenty years after his death an elaborate monument, erected to his memory in Ely Cathedral, was defaced, because, it was said, of his evil memory (, Cathedrals, iii. 359). Cox married twice: first while dean of Christ Church, and secondly about 1568. His second wife was Jane, daughter of George Auder, alderman of Cambridge, and widow of William Turner, dean of Wells. His children were John; Sir Richard of Brame, Ely; Roger; Joanna, widow of John, eldest son of Archbishop Parker; and Rhoda. The executors of his will, dated 20 April 1581, were Archbishop Grindal,