A native of Norfolk, England, Allen was elected fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1536.
He became, according to John Strype, a great proficient in the Ancient Greek and Latin tongues, an eminent divine, and a learned minister of the gospel.
He was in exile during the reign of Mary I; but Elizabeth I, on coming to the crown, appointed him one of her chaplains, gave him a commission to act under her as an ambassador, and promoted him to the see of Rochester, which however he did not live to fill.
He translated into English De Authoritate Verbi Dei by Alexander Ales and in 1543 works of Philip Melanchthon while he was abroad.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Rose, Hugh James (1857).