ALCOCK, JOHN. - An English bishop and promoter of humanism before FISHER (v.) and COLET (v.), born at Beverley in 1430, died at Ely in 1500. He attended the University of Cambridge and was among the most eminent men of his time in England. He was bishop of Rochester (1472), then of Worcester (1476), and finally of Ely (1486). Tutor to the young Edward V, he was removed from this position by the Protector Gloucester; however, Henry VII appointed him Controller of Public Works and Lord Chancellor of the kingdom. Besides his virtues and his writings on preaching and asceticism, he is also known as a patron of the arts and a skilled architect. He is buried in a splendid chapel of his own design and construction in Ely Cathedral. He restored the episcopal palace of Ely and many churches, founded the grammar school at Hull, and Jesus College, Cambridge.
Among his numerous works in Latin and English, the best known are: *Spousage of a Virgin to Christ* (1480), *Mons perfectionis* or *The Hill of Perfection*, *The Castle of Labour*, translated from the French (1491), and a treatise that is part serious and part humorous, in whose title he alludes to his own name: *Galli cantus ad confratres suos*.