JOHN

See also:

• JOHN ALCOCK (c. 1430–1500)
• ALCOCK, SIR RUTHERFORD (1809–1897)

ALCOCK (c. 1430–1500)  , English divine, was born at Beverley in Yorkshire and educated at Cambridge . In 1461 he was made dean of Westminster, and henceforward his pro-motion was rapid in church and state . In the following year he was made master of the rolls, and in 1470 was sent as ambassador to the court of Castile . He was consecrated bishop of Rochester in 1472 and was successively translated to the sees of Worcester (1496) and Ely (1486) . He twice held the office of lord chancellor, and exhibited great ability in the negotiations with James III. of Scotland . He died at Wisbech Castle on the 1st of October 1500 . Alcock was one of the most eminent pre-Reformation divines; he was a man of deep learning and also of great proficiency as an architect . Besides founding a charity at Beverley and a grammar school at Kingston-upon-Hull, he restored many churches and colleges; but his greatest enterprise was the erection of Jesus College, Cambridge, which he established on the site of the former convent of St Radigund . Alcock's published writings, most of which are extremely rare, are: Mons Perfectionis, or the Hill of Perfection (London, 1497); Gallicontus Johannis Alcock episcopi Eliensis ad,frates suos curatos in sinodo apud Barnwell (1498), a good specimen of early English printing and quaint illustrations; The Castle of Labour, translated from the French (1536), and various other tracts and homilies . See J . Bass Mullinger's Hist. of the University of Cambridge, vol. i .