Stephen Bateman (or Batman) was an author, translator, and religious controversialist whose works include a widely read encyclopedia, the first mythography published in England, and an important religious allegorical poem that has been cited by some critics as an influence on Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590-1596). Bateman also played a significant role in the antiquarian circle that was inspired by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Biographical information on Bateman is scarce and unreliable. He was born in Bruton, Somersetshire, and attended Cambridge, from which he seems to have received his LL.B. in 1534; later he received his D.D. Bateman served in the household of Archbishop Parker and as rector of Merstham and parson of Newington Butts, both in Surrey. In 1582 he was a chaplain in the household of Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. In 1583 he licensed a book for the press. He died in 1584.

Bateman entered Parker's household...