ASCHAM, ROGER

(ca. 1515-1568)

Englishhumanistand teacher. A poor boy from Yorkshire, educated at Cambridge University at a time when enthusiasm forGreeklanguage andCiceronianeloquence was colored by growing commitment to religious reform based on the Bible, he first attracted the patronage of the royal court in 1545 by presenting to KingHenry VIIIhis patriotic and erudite dialogueToxophilus/Lover of the Bowin praise of the traditional English military art, archery. In 1548 the court appointed him tutor to Princess Elizabeth. He retained favor at court under Edward VI and even the Catholic Mary I (despite his Protestant sympathies) as Latin secretary, and the accession of his former pupil as QueenElizabeth Iconfirmed his tenure in office. His treatise on education,The Scholemaster, published in 1570 by his widow, became an influential statement of Renaissance educational ideals as developed in England.