John Cosin

Background

John Cosin was born at Norwich on the 30th of November 1594.

Education

John Cosin was educated at Norwich grammar school and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was scholar and afterwards fellow.

In 1628 he took his degree of D. D.

Career

On taking orders John Cosin was appointed secretary to Bishop Overall of Lichfield, and then domestic chaplain to Bishop Neile of Durham.

He first became known as an author in 1627, when he published his Collection of Private Devotions, a manual stated to have been prepared by command of Charles I, for the use of the queen's maids of honour. 1 This book, together with his insistence on points of ritual in his cathedral church and his friendship with Laud, exposed him to the suspicions and hostility of the Puritans; and the book was rudely handled by William Prynne and Henry Burton.

In October of this year he was promoted to the deanery of Peterborough.

A few days before his installation the Long Parliament had met; and among the complainants who hastened to appeal to it for redress was the ex-prebendary, Smart.

His petition against the new dean was considered; and early in 1641 Cosin was sequestered from his benefices.

Articles of impeachment, were, two months later, presented against him, but he was dismissed on bail, and was not again called for.

At the Restoration he returned to England, was reinstated in the mastership, restored to all his benefices, and in a few months raised to the see of Durham (December 1660).

At the convocation in 1661 he played a prominent part in the revision of the prayer-book, and endeavoured with some success to bring both prayers and rubrics into completer agreement with ancient liturgies.

He administered his diocese with conspicuous ability and success for about eleven years; and applied a large share of his revenues to the promotion of the interests of the Church, of schools and of charitable institutions.

Achievements

• Cosin occupies an interesting and peculiar position among the churchmen of his time. Though a ritualist and a rigorous enforcer of outward conformity, he was uncompromisingly hostile to Roman Catholicism, and most of his writings illustrate this antagonism.

Connections

John Cosin had married Frances (d. 25 March 1642), the daughter of Marmaduke Blakiston on 15 August 1626.

Spouse:

Frances