If less formal, self-motivated learning is accepted as a definition, adult education can be traced back to sixteenth century England, not merely to nineteenth century England as Verner, Trevelyan, and others have contended. The two factors which gave the greatest impetus to adult education in the sixteenth century were the Protestant Reformation and printing. The Reformation established a value system that required literate adults, while the development of printing provided the means to disseminate information to adults who were literate. Other major factors in the origin of adult education are the contributions of several scholars, lecturers and teachers, the Society of Antiquaries, and Gresham College. Three men, Robert Recorde, John Dee, and Thomas Hood, contributed to the education of adults through teaching in English and the popularization of mathematics and science, especially the applied principles needed by navigators and builders. The Society of Antiquaries (1572-1604) promoted the study of English history and the collection of items related to English antiquities. Gresham College began in 1596 and provided lectures in London by the most renowned scholars of the day. It was more an extension of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge than a competitor of them, and drew audiences from the middle as well as upper classes. Just as the sixteenth century was a new era, with the dawn of printing, the late twentieth century may be the dawn of new forms of adult education because of the rise of electronic information processing. (KC)