George Cotes | |
---|---|
Bishop of Chester | |
Church | Roman Catholic |
Installed | 6 July 1554 |
Term ended | 1556 |
Predecessor | John Bird |
Successor | Cuthbert Scott |
Orders | |
Consecration | 1 April 1554 by Edmund Bonner |
Personal details | |
Died | 1556 |
Coat of arms |
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]