Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/805

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COXE
COXE
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his early education and training were obtained. He was graduated with distinction at the Uni- versity of the city of New Yorlf in 1838 and at the General theological seminary of the Episcopal church in 1841. He was an adherent of the Prot- estant Episcopal church from childhood, under the influence of maternal relatives and social con- nections. While still in college he became an author and con- tributor to pe- riodical litera- ture. He was ordained dea- con on 27 June, 1841, and priest on 25 Sept., 1842. He took charge of St. Ann's church, Morrisania, N. Y., shortly after his ordination to the diacon- ate, and thence removed in the spring of 1842 to Hartford, Conn., where he was rector of

St. John's from

1843 till 1854. He accepted the rectorship of Grace church, Baltimore, Md., in 1854, and two years later he was elected bishop of Texas, but declined. From an early period in his ministry he took part in the councils of his church. He was a member of the general convention in 1853, and of that which met in Richmond, Va., in 1859. In 1853 he moved an addition to the Litany, while Bishop Alonzo Pot- ter made a similar motion in the house of bishops, without any concert between them, which led, in connection with Dr. Muhlenberg's " Appeal to the Bishops," to the " Memorial Papers " and the adoption of additional prayers, and finally to the movement for the revision of the Prayer-Book. In 1863 he became rector of Calvary church, New York city, and soon afterward was elected assist- ant bishop of western New York. He was conse- crated in Trinity church, Geneva, N. Y., 4 Jan., 1865, and on the death of Bishop De Lancey, 5 April of the same year, he succeeded as the second bishop of western New York. In 1868 he gave his assent to the formation of a new diocese oiit of a portion of his jurisdiction, and eenti'al New York was committed to other hands. He has taken an active part in the board of mis- sions in behalf of the Greek mission and the exten- sion of the missionary episcopate in the United States. In the interest of the missionary work of the church he has travelled extensively abroad, and in 1872, when the charge of the churches in Hayti was placed in his hands, he visited that island, or- ganized churches, and ordained clergy. This over- sight he held until a bishop of Hayti was conse- crated in 1874. Bishop Coxe has made various valuable contributions to theological learning, bib- lical criticism, and church literature. He pub- lished several volumes of poems before receiving ordination. "Advent, a Mystery," appeared in 1837, followed by " Jonathan," the Lay of a Scold " (New York, 1838) ; and " Athwold " (1838), of which, after its suppression for forty years, a new and en- larged edition was recently published. " Athana- sion, and other Poems," appeared in 1842, " Hal- loween " in 1844, and " Saul, a Mystery," in 1845. In 1877 he published a poem entitled " The Ladye Chace." As early as 1845 he published his best- known volume of poems, the "Christian Ballads" (reprinted in Oxford, England, 1850). Soon after the English publication of the " Ballads " the au- thor visited at Freiburg, Germany, the distin- guished Hirscher, the precursor of Dr. Von Dol- iinger in the Old Catholic movement. On his re- turn to England in 1852 he published an account of this visit by the advice of Bishop Wilberforce. This led to his active participation in the forma- tion of the Anglo-Continental society. On his re- turn to this country he engaged on "the unpopular side of a conflict, of which the publication of re- vised editions of the Scriptures by the American Bible society was the subject. Hi"s " Apology for the English Bible" (1854) ultimately led to the suppression of those new and crude revisions made at great cost by that society. In 1867-'8 Bishop Coxe contributed to the " Union chreti- enne," a periodical published in Paris in the inter- est of Gallicanism by the Abbe Guettee, a series on the subject of "Anglican Orders." In 1869 he published an " Open Letter to Pius IX.," in answer to the brief convoking the Vatican council. This spirited letter was translated into various lan- guages, and has had a wide circulation on the con- tinent of Europe. In 1872 appeared in Paris his work, " L'episcopat de I'occident," a new pres- entation of the history of the Church of England and a refutation of Roman Catholic attacks. In 1873, in collaboration with Bishop Wilberforce and others, he engaged in a serial publication, issued in Oxford, England, in defence of Anglo-Catholic principles against either extreme. He had sympa- thized with the Oxford movement so far as it has moved within the bounds of Anglo-Catholicity ; but he had broken loose from it, as a party, after the defection of Dr. Newman, and in 1866 he had further clearly defined his position by the publica- tion of " The Criterion," which was republished in England. Bishop Coxe attended the second Lam- beth conference. He has taken an active part in opposition to the New Testament revision. Among his other wi'itings are " Sermons on Doctrine and Duty " (1855) ; " Thoughts on the Services " (1859) ; and " Apollos ; or. The Way of God." Besides these he has published a large number of tracts, editions and translations of foreign works, sermons, letters, lectures, and pamphlets. During 1885-'6 he was engaged in editing, with large additions and notes, an American edition of the Edinburgh " Transla- tions of the Ante-Nicene Fathers," edited by Drs. Roberts and Donaldson, of which the last volume was publish(Ml a few years later.


COX, William, journalist. He was a native of England, and died there about 1851. At an early age he came to the United States and obtained em- ployment on the New York " Mirror." He con- tributed, under the pseudonym of " An Amateur," a series of sketches satirizing the literary infirmi- ties of the time, which were afterward published as " Crayon Sketches " (New York, 1833), and gave their author an immediate reputation. He re- mained with the " Mirror " for some years, when he returned to England.


COXE, Eckley Brinton, engineer, b. in Philadelphia, 4 June, 1839 ; d. in Drifton, Pa., 13 May, 1895. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, where also he took a course in the scientific department. After spending six months in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania engaged in topographical geology, he went abroad in 1860. Two years were spent at the Ecole des mines in Paris, and a year in the Freiberg mining-school, after which he continued for nearly two years