John Alcock (Bishop)

Tomb of John Alcock ( Worcester Cathedral )

John Alcock (* around 1430 in Beverley ; † October 1, 1500 at Wisbech Castle , buried in Ely ) was an English cleric .

Life

Alcock was born to Sir William Alcock. He received his education at the Grammar School in Beverly. This was followed by studies at Cambridge University , at the end of which he received his doctorate in 1459 as a Doctor of Cannon Law . In 1461 he took over the position of Dean of Westminster Abbey . The following year he became the third highest judge in England as a Master of the Rolls . On December 16, 1468 he was given the benefices assigned to St Paul's Cathedral via Browneswood and those via North Alton. From 1469 he also worked as a judge. In 1470 the Crown sent him to the court of Castile as an ambassador .

On January 8, 1472 Pope appointed him Sixtus IV. To the Bishop of Rochester . The post of Master of the Rools returned to Alcock. He remained one of Edward IV's most important advisers . So he held the office of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal between September 20, 1472 and June 18, 1473 . From June 10 to September 29, 1475, Alcock took over the office of Lord Chancellor for the first time on behalf of Thomas Rotherham , Bishop of Lincoln . He held this again from October 1485 to March 1487. In 1476 he was made Bishop of Worcester . Even after Henry VII came to power , he remained in an influential position. The king elevated him to Grand Chancellor on October 7, 1485 and Alcock took over the opening sermon of the new king's first parliament on November 7 of the same year. In 1486 Alcock took over the bishopric of Ely . As such, he carried out the baptism of Arthur Tudor , the king's eldest son. He also remained closely connected to his alma mater . He preached there and lived at Peterhouse College from 1491 to 1493 and founded Jesus College in the building formerly used by the St. Rhadegund Monastery . Alcock is considered to be an important representative of the church, who raised the church's reputation even before the Reformation through his modesty and prudent and exemplary behavior. He took care of the repair and construction of several churches and schools. After his death he was buried in Ely Cathedral. Only a few of his numerous writings have survived into modern times.

Works

• Spousage of a Virgin to Christ. 1486.
• Mons Perfectionis. London, 1497, 1499, 1501.
• Sermons upon the Eighth Chapter of Luke. Etc.
• Gallicontus Johannis Alcock episcopi Eliensis ad, frates suos curatos in sinodo apud Barnwell. 1498.
• The Abbey of the Holy Ghost. 1496-1531.
• The Castle of Labor (translated from French), 1536.

literature

• James Bass Mullinger:  Alcock, John (1430-1500) . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 1:  Abbadie - Anne. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1885, pp 236 - 237 (English).
• Alcock, John . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 1 : A-Androphagi . London 1910, p. 524 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
• Alcock, John . In: John Venn , John Archibald Venn (eds.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 1: From the earliest times to 1751 , volume 1 : Abbas-Cutts . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1922, pp. 12 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• RW Dunning: Alcock, John . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 344.
• EB Fryde, DE Greenway, S. Porter, I. Roy: Handbook of British Chronology . 3rd, corrected edition. Cambridge University Press, New York / Cambridge 1996, ISBN 0-521-56350-X .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Frederick Maurice Powicke, Edmund Boleslav Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. 2nd edition, London 1961, p. 88.
2. ^ Frederick Maurice Powicke, Edmund Boleslav Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. 2nd edition, London 1961, p. 268.
3. ^ Frederick Maurice Powicke, Edmund Boleslav Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. 2nd edition, London 1961, p. 280.
4. ^ Frederick Maurice Powicke, Edmund Boleslav Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. 2nd edition, London 1961, p. 245.

predecessor	Office	successor
William Morland	Master of the Rolls 1471-1472	John Morton
Thomas Rotherham	Bishop of Rochester 1472–1476	John Russel
Lawrence Booth	Lord Chancellor of England 1475	Thomas Rotheram
John Carpenter	Bishop of Worcester 1476–1486	Robert Morton
Thomas Rotheram	Lord Chancellor of England 1485–1487	John Morton
John Morton	Bishop of Ely 1486–1500	Richard Redman