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 Ascham 1544 that he had been employed in that capacity for twelve years, the earliest extant letter from him of the kind cannot be dated earlier than 1541 (Epistt. viii. xxii.). But petty quarrels soon disturbed his academic career. He was working hard in 1639 to procure the election of his pupil Thomson to a vacant fellowship at St. John's (Epistt. v. vi, viii.), and his zeal in the matter, which proved successful, brought him into collision with his friend Redman, who was interesting himself in another candidate (Epist. xx.). Soon after this dispute Ascham paid a visit to his parents in Yorkshire, whom he had not seen for several years (Epist. ii.). At the time he apparently attended archery meetings at Norwich and York, and increased his enthusiasm for the sport, which he had practised habitually from youth (Toxophilus, p. 159). It is of interest to note that the statutes of St. John's, adopted in 1530 and reaffirmed in 1545, allowed him to pursue the recreation at Cambridge (Scholemaster, ed. Mayor, p. 258). While in Yorkshire he was seized with a severe illness — a quartan fever — which prevented his return to Cambridge for two years, and exhausted his pecuniary resources (Epistt. ix. x. xii.). His poverty compelled him to appeal for money to Robert Holgate, bishop of Llandaff, who had had some connection with St. John's (Epist, x.), and to Edward Lee, archbishop of York, of whom he requested employment either in epitomising books which the archbishop had not time to read, or in translating into Latin Greek patristic literature (Epist. ix.). Lee replied by awarding him an annual pension of forty shillings, and Ascham, to show his gratitude, set himself to translate into Latin Œcumenius's commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles to Titus and Philemon, gathered out of Cyril, Chrysostom, and other Greek fathers. At the close of 1541, while Ascham was apparently still in Yorkshire, the work was completed. It was published at Cambridge, after his return there, in 1542. He presented a copy to the archbishop (Epist. xiii.), but it did not satisfy his patron. Lee was displeased with the approval Ascham had bestowed on the married clergy, and there seemed some likelihood of his pension being discontinued. With the humility which invariably characterised Ascham whenever money matters were in question, he implored pardon, and promised to abandon theology for pure classics, and to translate Sophocles into Latin (Epist. xv.). In a second letter to the archbishop on the subject he declared that he was not self-opinionated, nor a seeker after novelties, as his lectures on Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero would plainly show, and that his knowledge of Christianity was solely derived from the Psalter and the Greek Testament (Epist. xvii.). On 13 Sept. 1544 the archbishop's death brought Ascham's pension to an end, and he contemplated seeking a new patron in George Day, the bishop of Chichester (Epistt. xvii. xxiv.). At the time he was involved in many misfortunes. His brother Thomas died early in the year, and shortly afterwards both his father and mother after nearly fifty years of married life. Dissensions in the university disheartened him. In a controversy as to the correct mode of pronouncing Greek he had played an active part. Cheke had attempted to introduce a system of pronunciation resembling that in use in England at the present time, and opposed to the continental practice. Ascham, having at first resisted the innovation, finally supported it; but to his chagrin Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, issued (15 May 1542) a decree, at the instance of Cheke's enemies, forbidding the teaching of the new pronunciation (Epist. xii.;, English Pronunciation of Greek, p. 5). His father had advised him to escape the contentions caused by the discussion of this and other questions by abandoning the university, and in July 1542 he appears, in pursuit of this counsel, to have supplicated for incorporation at Oxford, but he does not seem to have persisted in this application (, Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 114). He had also entertained proposals to become tutor to Lord Mountjoy's son (Epistt. xix. xx.), and about Lady-day 1544 he wrote to Redman that, deep as was still his interest in his Greek lectureship at St. John's, he longed for nothing more than foreign travel in the suite of an English ambassador (Epist. XX.). He was not, however, willing to forego very hastily his chances of preferment in the university, and, with his customary shrewdness, he wrote to Sir William Paget, secretary of state, early in the same year (Epist. xxii.), demanding his influence with the king to obtain for himself the regius professorship of Greek at Cambridge, soon to be vacated by Cheke on his appointment as tutor to Prince Edward.

But, fortunately for his future reputation, Ascham looked for advancement in one other direction. In 1543 and 1544 he was engaged on his famous treatise on archery, which he believed would secure him the favour of Henry VIII, and 'would be no doubtful sign of his love of his country nor a mean memorial of his humble learning' (Epist. xxii.). During 1544 he was seeing it through the press, and he desired permission to present it personally to the king before his departure