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]