ALLEN, John, archbishop of Dublin in the reign of King Henry VIII., was educated in the university of Oxford; from whence removing to Cambridge, he there took the degree of bachelor of laws. He was sent by Dr Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, to the pope, about certain matters relating to the church. He continued at Rome nine years, and was created doctor of laws, either there ðr in some other university of Italy. After his return he was appointed chaplain to Cardinal Wolsey, and was commissary or judge of his court as legate a latere ; in the execution of which office he was suspected of great dishonesty, and even perjury. He assisted the cardinal in visiting, and afterwards suppressing 40 of the smaller monasteries, for the erection of his college at Oxford and that at Ipswich. The cardinal procured for him the living of ŋalby in Leicestershire, though it belonged to the master and brethren of the hospital of Burton-Lazars. About the latter end of the year 1525 he was incorporated doctor of laws in the university of Oxford. On the 13th of March 1528 he was consecrated archbishop of Dublin, in the room of Dr Hugh Inge, deceased; and about the same time was made chancellor of Ireland. He wrote, 1. Epistola de Pallii significatione activa et passiva, penned by him at the time when he received the archiepiscopal pall; <. De consuetudinibus ac statutis in tutoriis causis observandis. He wrote also several other pieces relating to the church. His death, which happened in July 1534, was very tragical; for being taken in a time of rebellion by Thomas Fitzgerald, eldest son to the earl of Kildare,; he was by his command most cruelly murdered, being brained like an ox, at Tartaine in Ireland, in the 58th year of his age. The place where the murder was committed was afterwards hedged in, overgrown, and unfrequented, in detestation of the fact.

Allen, Thomas, a famous mathematician of the 16th century, born at Utoxeter, in Staffordshire, on the 21st of December 1542. He was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, on the 4th of June 1561; and in 1567 took his degree of master of arts. In 1580 he quitted his college and fellowship, and retired to Gloucester Hall; where he studied very closely, and became famous for his knowledge in antiquity, philosophy, and mathematics. Having received an invitation from Henry, earl of Northumberland, a great friend and patron of the mathematicians, he spent some time at the earl’s house, where he became acquainted with those celebrated mathematicians, Thomas Harriot, John Dee, Walter Warner, and Nathaniel Torporley. Robert, earl of Leicester, had a particular esteem for Mr Allen, and would have conferred a bishopric upon him; but his love of solitude and retirement made him decline the offer. His great skill in the mathematics made the ignorant and vulgar look upon him as a magician or conjurer: the author of a book entitled Leicester’s Commonwealth has accordingly accused him of using the art of figuring, to procure the earl of Leicester’s unlawful designs, and endeavouring by the black art to bring about a match between him and Queen Elizabeth. But without pretending to point out the absurdity of the charge, it is certain that the earl placed such confidence in Alleιτ, that nothing material in the state was transacted without his knowledge; and the earl had constant information, by letter from Mr Allen, of what passed in the university. Mr Allen was very curious and indefatigable in collecting scattered manuscripts relating to history, antiquity, astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics: these collections have been quoted by several learned authors, &c. and mentioned to have been in the Bibliotheca A∏eniana. He published in Latin the second and third books of Claudius Ptolemy of Pelusium, Concerning the Judgment of the Stars, or, as it is commonly called, of the Quadripartite Construction, with an exposition. He wrote also notes on many of Lilly’s books, and some on John Bale’s work De Scriptoribus Μ. Britannice. Having lived to a great age, he died at Gloucester Hall on the 30th September 1632.