century b.c., and distinguished himself as one of the heads of the conservative faction.
ALCOCK, John, bishop, a native of Beverley in Yorkshire, educated at Cambridge, and doctor of laws 1461. In 1462 he was made dean of St. Stephen's, Westminster, and henceforth his promotion was rapid in church and state. The same year he was made master of the Rolls, and in 1470 sent as ambassador t o the king of Castile. In 1471 he was chosen bishop of Rochester, and in 1472 lord chancellor, during the illness of Stillington. He was again appointed to that high post in 1465, but only held the seals from April to September of that year, when Rotherham was reinstated. In 1476 he was translated to Worcester, and made president of the court of the Marches, in Wales. Edward IV. appointed him tutor to his son, but from this office he was of course dismissed by Richard III. After the battle of Bosworth, Henry VII. made him lord chancellor, and he exhibited great ability in solving the difficult questions respecting the attainders of several nobles and the king himself, which arose at that time. His wary dexterity commended him to Henry, who promoted him to Ely, in possession of which see he died in 1500. He was a man of considerable learning, and of great proficiency as an architect; and Henry so highly valued his talents, that he made him comptroller of all the royal buildings. Bishop Alcock built a charity at Beverley, where his parents were buried, and the hall of the episcopal palace at Ely; as also a chapel at the east end of the north aisle of Ely cathedral, where his own tomb is. But his chief works were the foundation of a grammar school at Kingston-upon-Hull, and Jesus college, Cambridge, which last he established out of an old nunnery of St. Radigund. He wrote a few works, of which the chief are, "Galli cantus ad Confratres suos curatos in Synodo apud Barnwell," 25th September, 1498, (with a print showing the bishop preaching to the clergy with a cock on each side, and in the front page, an allegory called "The Abbey of St. Sparteè"); some homilies, and a metrical paraphrase of the penitential psalms.—J. B., O.
ALCOCK, John, an eminent English musician, was a native of London, and born on the 11th of April, 1715. He received his education in the choristers' school of St. Paul's cathedral, and was afterwards articled to Stanley, the celebrated blind organist. In 1737, he was elected organist of St. Andrews' church, Plymouth, Devon; and a few years afterwards, of Reading in Berkshire. The latter situation he left in 1749, for the appointment of organist at Litchfield cathedral. In 1755, he took his degree of bachelor of music at Oxford; and in 1761 he resigned his situation as organist at Lichfield, for that of Sutton-Coldfield in Warwickshire. In addition to this latter appointment, he held the situations of organist of Tamworth in Staffordshire, and vicar-choral of Litchfield cathedral. He completed his graduation at Oxford, by taking his doctor's degree in 1765. Dr. Alcock died at Litchfield in March, 1806, at the great age of ninety-one, sincerely and deservedly lamented by his friends and professional brethren. Dr. Alcock's compositions consist of services, anthems, canons, glees, and psalm-tunes, all of which show him to have been an excellent contrapuntist, as well as a pleasing and scientific musician. He also claims the merit of having made a valuable collection of the ancient services and anthems of the church. These MSS. were consigned to the care of Dr. William Boyce, and form the groundwork of the collection now universally known as "Boyce's Cathedral Music."—E. F. R.
ALCON of Thebes, one of the few Greek sculptors who executed works in cast-iron. Pliny quotes a statue of Hercules as being from the hand of this artist. Most likely this Alcon is the same as Alcon the son of Nileus, a chaser of metals, who, according to Ovid, executed a beautiful vase in commemoration of the self-sacrifice of Methiocha and Menippe, the daughters of Orion. Although no date is known about Alcon, it seems evident that he belongs to a very early period of art in Greece.—R. M.
ALCUIN or ALCWIN, called also Albinus, the restorer of letters in the age of Charlemagne, was born in or near York about the year 732. Being of noble family, his education was intrusted to the care of Egbert, archbishop of York, whose cloister-school was then one of the most efficient and renowned in Europe. Alcuin's principal master in the school was Ælbert, whom he is said to have accompanied to Rome, by the desire of Egbert, for the purpose of purchasing books for the library of the monastery. On Ælbert's accession to the see in 766, Alcuin succeeded him in the presidency of the school, in which he continued till 782. The increased celebrity which his learning and success as a teacher of youth procured for the seminary, attracted to it numerous scholars from all quarters, and among other distinguished men who were then educated under his eye was St. Lutger, the apostle of the Saxons. On Ælbert's death in 781, Eanbald, a pupil and friend of Alcuin's, was appointed to the see, and Alcuin was despatched to Rome to obtain the pallium for the new archbishop. It was on his way back from Rome through Italy, that he met at Parma the Emperor Charlemagne, by whom he was earnestly pressed to settle in France, with the view of restoring the light of letters and arts to what was then a rude and semi-barbarous kingdom. Alcuin's ambition of usefulness could desire no nobler field of exertion, and he promised to return to the emperor after completing the commission which he had undertaken for Eanbald. He arrived at the court of Charlemagne in 782, and the magnanimous emperor himself became his first scholar. The imperial palace was transformed into an academy—the first of those palatine schools which long vied with the schools of the monasteries in usefulness and fame. Charles studied the holy scriptures, dialectics, and rhetoric, under the most learned master of the age; and his noble example was followed by his sons, his daughters, his sisters, and all his principal courtiers. A court life, however, and the scenes of war and disorder through which Alcuin had often to follow the movements of the emperor, were little congenial to the scholar's habits, who for fifty years had been accustomed to the simplicity and tranquillity of monastic life. He began to sigh for the quiet cloisters which he had forsaken at York, and Charles, in order to retain him in France, successively bestowed upon him the abbeys of Ferrières, St. Loup, and St. Jossa. In 790 he made a visit to England, from which he was again called back in 792, by the urgent solicitations of the emperor, to take part in repressing the heresy of the Adoptionists respecting the sonship of Christ, which had recently been put forward by Felix, a French bishop, and Elipand, bishop of Toledo. At a council convoked at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 794, Alcuin took the lead against Felix, and refuted the heresy by a triumphant display of scriptural and patristic learning. His arguments were embodied in a work, entitled "Liber Albini contra Hæresim Felicis." In 796 Alcuin became abbot of the monastery of St. Martin at Tours; and though now far advanced in life, he resolved to make that great abbey, which was enriched with magnificent domains, a model of discipline and intellectual activity. He restored among its numerous monks the strictness of the rule of St. Benedict. He added greatly to the riches of the library, by the purchase and transcription of books; and he founded a school for instruction in languages, science, and arts, which speedily became a rendezvous of students from all the kingdoms of Europe. Alcuin gave lessons himself in the holy scriptures, in the ancient languages, in grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, and astronomy. The seminary retained its celebrity throughout almost the whole of the middle ages. The most famous of its scholars was Raban Maurus, archbishop of Maintz; Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt; and Richbod, archbishop of Treves. Alcuin never quitted again his abbey of Tours. In 800 he was invited by the emperor to assist at his coronation at Rome; but he earnestly prayed that so fatiguing a journey might not be imposed upon his advanced age and many infirmities. "Have a pious compassion," he pleaded with his illustrious master; "permit repose to a man who is worn out with labours; suffer him to pray for you in his devotions, and to prepare himself, by confession and fasting, to appear before the Eternal Judge." He died on the 19th of May, a.d. 804, and was buried in the church of St. Martin. His writings were very numerous. The best edition of them is that of Froben, abbot of St. Emmeran, published at Ratisbon in 1777, two vols. folio. His letters to the emperor, whom he sometimes addresses with an affectionate familiarity, as his "dilectissimus David," are particularly interesting. Though not entirely free of barbarisms, his Latin style is one of the best of the middle ages. Alcuin has no claim to the praise of originality of mind or creative genius; nor did he even add much that was new to the existing stores of human knowledge. All that can be claimed for him is, that his superior talents and indefatigable industry enabled him to master all the learning of his age; and that his enlightened zeal in the interests of knowledge and culture, and a skill in the work of education fully equal to his zeal, made him one of the brightest lights of the period in which he lived, and one of the greatest benefactors of mediæval Europe.—P. L.
ALDABI, a Jewish rabbi of Spain who lived in the latter
