ALCOCK, JOHN (c. 1430-1500), English divine, was born at Beverley in Yorkshire and educated at Cambridge. He was bishop successively of Rochester, Worcester and Ely, and twice held the office of lord chancellor. He died at Wisbech Castle Oct. 1500. Alcock was one of the most eminent pre-Reformation divines; he was a man of deep learning and also of great pro ficiency 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) ; Galli contus Johannis Alcock episcopi Eliensis ad frates suos curatos in sinodo apud Barnwell (1498), a good specimen of early English print ing 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.