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George Cotes
Bishop of Chester
Church Roman Catholic
Installed6 July 1554
Term ended1556
Predecessor John Bird
Successor Cuthbert Scott
Orders
Consecration1 April 1554
by  Edmund Bonner
Personal details
Died1556
Coat of arms George Cotes's coat of arms
Arms: Argent, fretty Azure, on a canton Or a lion rampant Sable. [1]

George Cotes (or Cotys, Coates) (died 1556) was an English academic and Catholic Bishop of Chester during the English Reformation.

He had been a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford in 1522, [2] and then became a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1527. [3] He was Junior Proctor of Oxford University in 1531. [4] It was some years before he was elected Master of Balliol College, in which post he served in the years 1539–1545. [3]

With the accession of Queen Mary, he was chosen to succeed the former Carmelite John Bird, who had been deprived because he was married, as Bishop of Chester. [5] Cotes was consecrated on 1 April 1554 by bishops Stephen Gardiner of Winchester, Edmund Bonner of London, and Cuthbert Tunstall of Durham, and received papal provision on 6 July 1554. [5] However, he held the post for only a short period of time before he died in c. January 1556. [5]

During the Marian Persecutions he had Protestant George Marsh burnt at the stake as a heretic. [6]

Notes

  1. ^ "The Armorial Bearings of the Bishops of Chester". Cheshire Heraldry Society. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  2. ^ Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Colericke-Coverley
  3. ^ a b Masters of Balliol. Balliol College Archives & Manuscripts . Retrieved on 10 July 2016.
  4. ^ Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Colericke-Coverley
  5. ^ a b c Bishops of Chester. British History Online. Retrieved on 10 July 2016.
  6. ^ John Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Retrieved on 10 July 2016.

References

  • F. Sanders, 'George Cotes, Master of Balliol and Bishop of Chester', in Notes and Queries 1894 series 8-V (1894) 48–49.
  • F. Huskisson & E. Marshall, 'George Cotes, Master of Balliol and Bishop of Chester', in Notes and Queries series 8-V (1894) 153.
Academic offices
Preceded by Master of Balliol College, Oxford
1539–1545
Succeeded by
Church of England titles
Preceded by Bishop of Chester
1554–1556
Succeeded by