ABSTRACT
In reformation history-writing Roger Ascham has never been thought of primarily as a theologian or Protestant reformer. Ascham was a serious religious thinker with a high stake in the theological reform movement that remapped notions of sin and salvation in early modern Christendom. Pursuant to the First Commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods in my sight. Ascham argued that the practice of adoration and elevation in the Mass ran counter to what had been prescribed by God. Second Commandment, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Third Commandment, The Sabbath day, that thou sanctify it. The final commandment that Ascham dealt with in the tract was Thou shalt not kill. The work highlights the extent of Luther's influence not just on the rhetoric and arrangement of Ascham's theological argument but also on the very basis of the terms on which it was debated.
