Stephan Roth (1492–1546), a Saxon Christian humanist, a graduate of Leipzig University, who served as rector of the Latin school in his native Zwickau from 1517. He hired capable teachers and introduced the teaching of Greek, thus transforming the school into a centre of humanism. He worked with similar success between 1521 and 1523 as the rector of the Latin school in Jáchymov, where, apparently thanks to his efforts, Greek began to be taught even earlier than at Prague University. If Latin and Greek dramas were performed in the hall of the Jáchymov town hall, we can name Roth, a passionate humanist and convinced Protestant, as the initiator. He was also one of Karlstadt’s adherents. Roth then went to Wittenberg University, where he became a student of Luther and Melanchthon. From 1528, he worked as a city scribe in Zwickau. Roth’s significance for Jáchymov lies in his pioneering activity at the Latin school, thanks to which Jáchymov became one of the important centres of Lutheran humanism and education.
