Robert Crowley (Robertus Croleus, Roberto Croleo, Robart Crowleye, Robarte Crole or Crule, c. 1517 – 18 June 1588), was a
stationer
Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...
,
poet,
polemicist
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topic ...
and
Protestant clergyman among
Marian exiles
The Marian exiles were English Protestants who fled to Continental Europe during the 1553–1558 reign of the Catholic monarchs Queen Mary I and King Philip.Christina Hallowell Garrett (1938) ''Marian Exiles: A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan ...
at
Frankfurt. He seems to have been a Henrician
Evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
in favour of a more reformed
Protestantism than the king and the
Church of England sanctioned. Under
Edward VI, he joined a
London network of evangelical stationers to argue for reforms, sharing a vision of his contemporaries
Hugh Latimer,
Thomas Lever
Thomas Lever (Leaver, Leiver) (1521–1577) was an English Protestant reformer and Marian exile, one of the founders of the Puritan tendency in the Church of England.
Life
He was from Little Lever, Lancashire. He graduated B.A. at St. John's Col ...
,
Thomas Beccon and others of England as a reformed Christian
commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
. He attacked as inhibiting reform what he saw as corruption and uncharitable self-interest among the clergy and wealthy. Meanwhile, Crowley took part in making the first printed editions of ''
Piers Plowman'', the first translation of the Gospels into Welsh, and the first complete
metrical psalter in English, which was also the first to include harmonised music. Towards the end of Edward's reign and later, Crowley criticised the Edwardian Reformation as compromised and saw the
dissolution of the monasteries as replacing one form of corruption by another. On his return to England after the reign of
Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...
, Crowley revised his chronicle to represent the Edwardian Reformation as a failure, due to figures like
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, KG, PC (20 March 1549) was a brother of Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII. With his brother, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England, he vied for control of ...
,
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Crowley's account of the Marian martyrs represented them as a cost mostly paid by commoners. The work became a source for
John Foxe's account of the period in his ''
Actes and Monuments''. Crowley held church positions in the early to mid-1560s and sought change from the pulpit and within the church hierarchy. Against the
Elizabethan Religious Settlement, Crowley was a leader in the renewed
vestments controversy, which eventually lost him his clerical posts. During the dispute he and other London clergy produced a "first
Puritan manifesto". Late in life Crowley was restored to several church posts and appears to have charted a more moderate course in defending it from
Roman Catholicism and from
nonconformist factions that espoused a
Presbyterian church polity.
Early life
Crowley was born in about 1517 in
Gloucestershire, possibly in
Tetbury, although
John Bale says that he was a native of
Northamptonshire, and
A. B. Emden's ''A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford'' says that Crowley was twenty on 25 July 1539. Crowley himself wrote in 1578 that he was then sixty-one years old.
Crowley began his studies at the
University of Oxford in about 1534, and was listed as a demy of
Magdalen College
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the ...
on 25 July 1539. He experienced an
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
conversion about this time which entailed religious convictions more in line with continental Protestant reformers, but quite at odds with the Church of England under
Henry VIII and the
Act of Six Articles
The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (commonly abbreviated as the Thirty-nine Articles or the XXXIX Articles) are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the ...
, known to those who chafed under it as "the whip with six strings". Magdalen was then "a hotbed of evangelicals," according to Brett Usher. Four of its members during this period became bishops under Elizabeth I, and with Crowley,
Lawrence Humphrey
Lawrence Humphrey (or Laurence Humfrey) DD (1525/7? – 1 February 1589) was an English theologian, who was President of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Dean successively of Gloucester and Winchester.
Biography
Humphrey was born at Newport Pagne ...
was a key leader in the
vestments controversy that took place during her reign. Most of the Magdalen evangelicals became exiles under Mary I, and their influence was purged from the college by
Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483 – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip.
Early life
Gardiner was b ...
in 1554.
Crowley received his
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
on 19 June 1540, and became Probationer Fellow on 26 July 1541 or 1542. In 1542 he became a
Fellow of Magdalen College, but he left the same year. Crowley's departure may have been due to a purge of evangelicals, or because, like
John Foxe, he objected to the necessity of taking
holy orders which entailed a vow of
celibacy
Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...
. It is known that Foxe, like many evangelicals, did not accept the rationale for mandatory clerical celibacy, and evidently Crowley did not either, as he married some years later. At this time Foxe also left the college, naming Crowley and the future bishop
Thomas Cooper in a letter to Magdalen's president,
Owen Oglethorpe
Owen Oglethorpe ( – 31 December 1559) was an English academic and Roman Catholic Bishop of Carlisle, 1557–1559.
Childhood and Education
Oglethorpe was born in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, England (where he later founded a school), the third so ...
, as being among his circle. Foxe described this group of his fellows as being persecuted by other members of the college, although – unlike Foxe and Crowley – Cooper did not leave the university, and while Oglethorpe himself was no evangelical, years later in Crowley's psalter's dedication letter to him, Crowley holds his former teacher in high regard.
From 1542 to about 1546 Crowley tutored for the Protestant household of Sir
Nicholas Poyntz (1510–1556/7) in
Iron Acton
Iron Acton is a village, civil parish and former manor in South Gloucestershire, England. The village is about west of Yate and about northeast of the centre of Bristol. The B4058 road used to pass through the village but now by-passes it jus ...
, Gloucestershire, his own home county. (Poyntz's aunt on his father's side, Lady Anne Walsh and wife of Sir
John Walsh of Little Sodbury, had taken in
William Tyndale as a tutor for their sons from 1521 to 1522/1523.) At the same time as Crowley, Foxe found a similar arrangement, following a pattern whereby promising, young, university-educated men who sought greater changes in the church were supported by members of the lesser nobility until political circumstances were more favourable for public and institutional engagement.
London publishing career under Edward VI
Political circumstances changed greatly with the death of the king. Reformist hopes for the church were high under the boy king,
Edward VI, whose uncle,
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, held the real reins of power as
Lord Protector during Edward's minority. Both were sympathetic to the reformist cause.
Perhaps anticipating the death of Henry VIII, Crowley had moved to London by the end of 1546, and according to
William Herbert's ''Typographical Antiquities'' he was possibly working as a proof-reader for an evangelical printer,
John Day, and perhaps later
William Seres
William Seres (died ) was an English Protestant printer, starting work in about 1546, and working in partnership with John Day for a few years. Day and Seres specialized in religious works, such as those by Robert Crowley, which were largely rel ...
as well. Seres and Day became partners in late 1547, and remained together until 1550. In 1547 they were working in Holborn Conduit in
St Sepulchre's parish at the sign of the Resurrection, but as
William Cecil's servant, Seres was able to acquire Peter College for his printing operation. This was a former
chantry
A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings:
# a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or
# a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...
at
St Paul's Cathedral, part of which became
Stationers' Hall
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in ...
in 1554. Between 1549, when he became a member of the
Stationers' Company, and 1551, when he was ordained, Crowley wrote eleven or twelve books, and edited, translated, or acted as printer or publisher of seven others (see below,
Crowley's status as a printer).
Crowley may have been involved in the preparation and publication of several books between 1546 and 1548; he certainly participated in the production of some of them. There were two editions of ''A Supplication of the Poor Commons'' c. 1546, which may have been written by
Henry Brinkelow alone or possibly in association with Crowley. One of these editions included a reprint of
Simon Fish
Simon Fish (died 1531) was a 16th-century Protestant rebel and English propagandist. He is best known for helping to spread William Tyndale's New Testament and for writing the vehemently anti-clerical pamphlet ''Supplication for the Beggars'' (' ...
's ''A Supplication of Beggars'' (c. 1529), which famously attacked the doctrine of purgatory as a politically and economically disabling deception inflicted on the English people. Both "supplications" presented socioeconomic and religious reform as two integral aspects of a single response to the major problems of the day. The other early imprint with some connection to Crowley was a treatise on the true, biblical meaning of the Lord's supper, with a rebuttal of
Thomas More's arguments in favour of the Catholic doctrines on that subject. This tract was printed in three editions, and is attributed to William Tyndale (it is also sometimes attributed to
George Joye
George Joye (also Joy and ) (c. 1495 – 1553) was a 16th-century Bible translator who produced the first printed translation of several books of the Old Testament into English (1530–1534), as well as the first English Primer (1529).
His lif ...
). It includes an introductory epistle, "To all the studious readers", that is signed by Crowley.
The first books that are unambiguously Crowley's issued from Day and Seres' press in 1548, when Seres became a freeman of the Stationers' Company. These were a refutation of
Nicholas Shaxton
Nicholas Shaxton (c. 1485 – 1556) was an English Reformer and Bishop of Salisbury.
Early life
He was a native of the diocese of Norwich, and studied at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1507. M.A. in 1510, B.D. in 1521 and D.D. in 1531. H ...
's sermon at
Anne Askew
Anne Askew (sometimes spelled Ayscough or Ascue) married name Anne Kyme, (152116 July 1546) was an English writer, poet, and Anabaptist preacher who was condemned as a heretic during the reign of Henry VIII of England. She and Margaret Cheyne ...
's burning in 1546, in which Shaxton recanted his evangelical beliefs, a refutation of
Miles Huggarde's arguments for
transubstantiation
Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις ''metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the ...
in a lost ballad called ', and ', which must have been written before December 1547, since it refers to the
Act of Six Articles
The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (commonly abbreviated as the Thirty-nine Articles or the XXXIX Articles) are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the ...
as being unrepeated. Crowley's response to Hogarde contains the only source for Huggarde's original poem, since Crowley quotes it in full in order to refute it passage by passage. ' addresses parliament on behalf of economically distressed commoners, and follows an established tradition of social complaint regarding the abuses of wealthy landlords, such as
rack-renting,
engrossing (the consolidation of several smaller strips into one hedged farm, separated from the rest of the common land), and
enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
. Appearing in two English editions and two Latin editions translated from the English by J. Heron and possibly published by
Stephen Mierdman, the full title is '. If the wealthy fail to reform themselves, Crowley warns that divine retribution will follow, and he looks to the crown to make things right. This is the pattern of a number of Crowley's subsequent Edwardian publications, and for that reason he has been associated with other social critics of the day, such as
Thomas Lever
Thomas Lever (Leaver, Leiver) (1521–1577) was an English Protestant reformer and Marian exile, one of the founders of the Puritan tendency in the Church of England.
Life
He was from Little Lever, Lancashire. He graduated B.A. at St. John's Col ...
,
Thomas Beccon, and
Hugh Latimer. Some influential 20th-century historians have referred to these men as constituting a "commonwealth party", but
G.R. Elton
Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (born Gottfried Rudolf Otto Ehrenberg; 17 August 1921 – 4 December 1994) was a German-born British political and constitutional historian, specialising in the Tudor period. He taught at Clare College, Cambridge, and w ...
succeeded in sweeping away this romantic designation. The existence of a "commonwealth party" is now widely rejected, and its supposed members are unlikely to be described in terms of a collective movement.
In 1549
Richard Grafton and Mierdman published Crowley's '. There is an introduction in English, and a dedicatory epistle to
Owen Oglethorpe
Owen Oglethorpe ( – 31 December 1559) was an English academic and Roman Catholic Bishop of Carlisle, 1557–1559.
Childhood and Education
Oglethorpe was born in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, England (where he later founded a school), the third so ...
, president of Magdalen College, Oxford at that time and when Crowley had been a student and fellow there. (Crowley's psalter is discussed in greater detail under the entry for
metrical psalters.)
Crowley's next publications included a large number of polemical social works, often poems, some of which appeared in several editions:
*' (1549)
*' (1549)
*'' (1550)
*' (1550)
*' (1550)
There are also two books of uncertain authorship published during this period which may have been Crowley's work:
* (1550?)
* (c. 1550)
Authorship of is speculatively attributed to Crowley by Barbara Johnson in ''Reading Piers Plowman and The Pilgrim's Progress: Reception and the Protestant Reader'' (Southern Illinois University Press, 1992). ''Vita fratrum medicantium'' is a lost medieval text that was printed around 1550, perhaps with Crowley's involvement. In his catalogue
John Bale names Peter Pateshull as its author and R. Kylington as the translator. Pateshull was an Augustinian divine at Oxford c.1387, whom Wycliffe had persuaded to preach against the Augustinian friars. His text is a commentary on
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen (german: Hildegard von Bingen; la, Hildegardis Bingensis; 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher ...
's prophecy against friars, which was enshrined as
proto-Protestant
Proto-Protestantism, also called pre-Protestantism, refers to individuals and movements that propagated ideas similar to Protestantism before 1517, which historians usually regard as the starting year for the Reformation era. The relationship be ...
lore in Foxe's ''Actes and Monuments''.
Next came Crowley's three editions of ''
Piers Plowman'' in 1550, as well as an edition of the prologue to John Wycliffe's translation of the Bible, which was written by
John Purvey and wrongly attributed to Wycliff by Crowley on John Bale's authority. A 1540
recension of this text had been printed as: ''The dore of holy scripture''. Crowley's version contains a signed note "To the reader". A running head reads: "The pathwaye to perfect knowledg", and Crowley's title page for the book reads: "The true copye of a prolog wrytten about two C. yeres paste by Iohn Wycklife (as maye iustly be gatherid bi that, that Iohn Bale hath writte
of him in his boke entitlid the Summarie of famouse writers of the Ile of great Brita
the originall whereof is founde written in an olde English Bible bitwixt the olde Testament and the Newe. Whych Bible remaynith now in ye Kyng hys maiesties chamber". Also in 1550 Crowley printed three books by the Welsh scholar
William Salisbury (or Salesbury) concerning the Welsh language, some anti-Roman Catholic polemics, and an ancient Welsh precedent for clerical marriage. In 1551 Crowley published a fourth Salesbury text, a Welsh translation of the epistle and gospel readings from the 1549
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
.
In 1551 Crowley printed a poetic work ; its title is: '. Two original long poems by Crowley were also printed by him that year: ' (a political-religious allegory) and '.
Crowley's status as a printer
There is some scholarly disagreement about whether or not Crowley actually operated or managed a press that he owned or leased. On the one hand, Olga Illston's "A Literary and Bibliographical Study of Robert Crowley" (M.A. Thesis, London University, 1953) is the basis for the Revised Short Title Catalogue (STC or RSTC) and current ESTC identification of
Richard Grafton, the King's printer, as the printer of many of Crowley's books under Edward VI. Illston demonstrates that the initial blocks used in Crowley's books between 1549 and 1551 belonged to Grafton, and she notes the frequent use of the same type in Grafton and Crowley imprints. This led to the STC revisers and other scholars, most notably John N. King, to conclude that Crowley never had his own press, but was only a bookseller. The revised STC generally follows Illston, although Illston attributed the printing of Crowley's Psalter to
Richard Jugge
Richard Jugge (died 1577) was an eminent English printer, who kept a shop at the sign of the Bible, at the North door of St Paul's Cathedral, though his residence was in Newgate market, next to Christ Church in London. He is generally credited as ...
with assistance from Grafton; the revised STC, King, and other sources identify
Stephen Mierdman as its printer.
Prior to Crowley's arrival in London, Grafton had been imprisoned three times for printing-related offences: twice in 1541 (for a "sedicious epistle of
Melanctons" and ballads defending
Thomas Cromwell), and then in 1543, for the
Great Bible
The Great Bible of 1539 was the first authorised edition of the Bible in English, authorised by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England. The Great Bible was prepared by Myles Coverdale, working ...
. The possibility arises, therefore, that Grafton used Crowley's imprint "as a conduit for radical publication, but at a safe remove", as R. Carter Hailey suggests in "Giving Light to the Reader: Robert Crowley's Editions of ''Piers Plowman'' (1550)" (PhD thesis, University of Virginia, 2001): 15 and "'Geuyng light to the reader': Robert Crowley's Editions of ''Piers Plowman'' (1550)", ''Publications of the Bibliographical Society of America'' 95.4 (2001): 483–502. This semi-surreptitious printing was an attempt, in King's estimation, by Protector Somerset and his supporters "to shape public opinion in secret" (''English Reformation Literature'', 96–7; repeated in King's "The Book-trade under Edward VI and Mary I", in Lotte Hellinga and J. B. Trapp, eds., vol. 3, 1400–1557, ''The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain''
ambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999 167–8). However, this argument for a connection to Somerset depends on tenuous links drawn between the Protector and Crowley via Grafton and/or Lady
Elizabeth Fane. (See below,
Crowley's patrons.)
On the other hand, Peter M. W. Blayney contends that the revised STC erroneously indicates that Grafton printed Crowley's works. Blayney believes that the revisers realised that the ornamental "A" in Crowley's ''The baterie of the Popes Botereulx'' (1550): A6r (STC 21613) "had once belonged to Grafton", but they did not know that "the person from whom Crowley borrowed it was almost certainly not Grafton but John Day, who apparently acquired it from Grafton in 1548 (STC 23004) and never returned it (2087.5, 6849.5, 7633.3, etc.)". Additionally, Blayney suggests that the STC revisers were misled by another fact:
:"In and after 1560, Grafton's son-in-law
Richard Tottel
Richard Tottel (died 1594) was an English publisher and influential member of the legal community. He ran his business from a shop located at Temple Bar on Fleet Street in London. The majority of his printing was centered on legal documents, but ...
used quite a lot of Grafton's old ornament stock. It has long been the received opinion that when
Mary Tudor deprived Grafton of his royal office, he immediately sold off his printing house and equipment to
Robert Caly – except, of course, for the various bits and pieces that Tottell allegedly used to set up shop in that same year. In fact, that is not what happened at all. What Grafton did with his printing house was to ''sublet'' it to Caly – and when
Elizabeth acceded in late 1558 he took it back and attempted to re-start his own career (STC 16291 of 1559 was really printed by Grafton, as the titlepage claims). By the end of 1559 he had realised that it wasn't going to work – and it was not until ''then'' that Grafton stopped paying the rent for his printing house and Tottell acquired his supply of ex-Grafton initials."
::(Peter W. M. Blayney, letter to R. Carter Hailey, 5 January 2001).
The appearance of Grafton's blocks in Crowley's books is, on this view, insufficient evidence from which to conclude that Crowley did not print them himself or, moreover, that he never had a printing house at all. Blayney believes that Crowley did have a press and printed the works that bear his name from 1550 to 1551, except for a few titles printed entirely or in part by Day and/or Mierdman:
:"The three 'Crowley' books of 1549 seemingly ''were'' printed for him by others: STC 2725 by Stephen Mierdman (only); 6087 and 6094 by John Day. Also by Day is 6096 (dated 1550), while the double-dated 6095 was either printed partly by Day or partly by Crowley himself or (more likely) by Crowley alone but with a few ornamental initials borrowed from Day. All the other Crowley books of 1550–51 that I've seen are the work of Crowley alone—as I assume are the only two I ''haven't'' seen, namely 2761.5 and 19897.3. Crowley also printed STC 25852 for
Robert Stoughton, but without putting his name on it."
::(Peter W. M. Blayney, letter to R. Carter Hailey, 5 January 2001)
Blayney's revised attributions are discussed and listed in Hailey's dissertation; they were later elaborated in Blayney's book, ''The Stationers' Company and the Printers of London, 1501-1557''.
Crowley's patrons
As discussed in the previous section, Crowley has been linked with Grafton, the King's Printer under Edward VI, and some speculate that through Grafton Crowley had some measure of support from Somerset and other reform-minded political elites. However, it is far from certain that Crowley had Somerset or other highly placed patrons supporting his various projects, and it is in any case tenuous to assume that the existence of direct or indirect support implies a unity of thought and purpose rather than a contingent, pragmatic alliance.
This is especially true in the case of Somerset, who fell from power just before Crowley's most prolific publishing period. Crowley cast Somerset in a less than positive light in alterations and continuations that he made in his 1559 revised and updated version of
Thomas Lanquet
Thomas Lanquet (also Lanket or Lanquette) (1521–1545) was an English chronicler.
He studied at Oxford, and devoted himself to historical research. He died in London in 1545 while engaged on a general history; it was a translation of the ''Chroni ...
and
Thomas Cooper's chronicle. Crowley's ''Philargyrie'' may also offer veiled criticism of some of Somerset's perceived military and political failings from 1547-1550. ''Philargyrie'' and other of Crowley's Edwardian works take the dim view of
John Bale and other reformers of Protestant elites like Somerset who benefitted financially from the Reformation, particularly the monastic dissolutions. (See the entry for
Somerset House.) Bale, for his part, appealed in the dedication of his ''Summarium'' for patronage from the king (and indirectly, it would seem, Protector Somerset), but no such support was forthcoming until Somerset had been succeeded by his rival,
John Dudley. In general, Crowley's work demonstrates a consistent and progressively emphatic scepticism toward and frustration with the nobility and clerical elites.
The argument in favour of the existence of aristocratic Edwardian patronage for Crowley was first made and is most extensively laid out in an unpublished dissertation by Frederica M. Thomsett where Crowley is connected with Somerset via Lady Elizabeth Fane. John N. King subsequently remarked in several articles, and in his ''English Reformation Literature'' (Princeton University Press, 1982) that Crowley had support from Somerset via the patronage of Lady Elizabeth Fane (or Vane), wife of Sir
Ralph Fane, one of Somerset's close supporters, who was executed shortly after Somerset in 1552. Following King in identifying Lady Fane as Crowley's patroness are J. W. Martin and, more recently, Graham Parry's contribution to ''The Cambridge History of Early Modern Literature'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
The evidence for Lady Fane's patronage is Crowley's dedication to her of his ''Pleasure and Payne, Heaven and Hell...'' (London, 1551), STC 6090, and
Andrew Maunsell
Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...
's record in ''The First Part of the Catalogue of English Printed Bookes'' (London: John Windet for Andrew Maunsell, 1595): 1.85r. Maunsell cites a lost 1550 Crowley imprint of ''Lady Elizabeth Vane her certain psalms of godly meditation in number 21, With 102 proverbs''. (See also
Joseph Ames, ''Typographical Antiquities'', 271.) Jennifer Loach, in ''Edward VI'' (Yale University Press, 1999): 62, notes that Lady Fane is Crowley's "only possible link, and a tenuous one, with Somerset". Nevertheless, the ''Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' entries on Lady Fane and Crowley have taken the Crowley-Fane-Somerset link as a fact, with the former stating that in the dedication to ''Pleasure and Payne'' Crowley called Lady Fane "his 'liberall parones'".
On the contrary, Crowley's dedication appears to be a customary bid for patronage rather than an indication of existing support, and Crowley does not call Fane "his" patroness at all. He writes: "After I had compiled thys little treatise (ryght vertuouse Lady) I thought it my duty to Dedicate the same unto youre Ladishyppes name, as to a ryght worthy Patrones of al such as laboure in the Lords harveste. Not for that I thyncke I have herein done any thyng worthy so liberall a Patrones, but for the worthynes of the matter..."
The rest of the dedication appears to be an oblique admonishment and exhortation to the Somerset circle that is in line with Crowley's other publications at this time and in the late 1540s. Crowley writes in the dedication to ''Pleasure and Pain'' that men in positions of power who have "long tyme talked" of the gospel have been more concerned with their own worldly gain and now need to "lyve the gospell". He further implies that failure to act on behalf of the gospel (i.e., the Reformation) and the poor commons, has caused or will soon cause God to "plage" these men and all England just as God punished Israel for its unfaithfulness. These warnings are in line with the rest of the book, which speaks prophetically of judgment to come if the godly commonwealth is not established. Since ''Pleasure and Pain'' was printed during the latter stages of Somerset's fall and shortly before his and Sir Ralph Fane's executions, it appears as less a bid for financial support than a plea for a changing of minds and policies. It is notable that Crowley's 1559 continuation of the Lanquet-Cooper chronicle looks back on this period—Somerset's fall, then Dudley's, and the accession of Mary—as precisely a time of judgement that befell England due to the failings principally of the secular leaders such as Somerset.
The only other evidence for a possible connection between Crowley and Somerset is a 1551 publication: (STC 21690.2). The title page continues: "Imprinted at London: By Robert Crowley for Robert Soughton
.e., Stoughton, although the revised STC points to Grafton as the printer. This work is dedicated to Lady Somerset,
Anne Seymour.
Other sources suggest a link between Crowley and key aristocratic backers of reformism, such as
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...
and
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester under Elizabeth. Crowley's associate John Day was long connected with Cecil. Some time between 1561 and 1564 Crowley was listed among twenty-eight "godly preachers which have utterly forsaken Antichrist and all his Romish rags", which was presented to Dudley.
Recently an argument has been propounded that Crowley and others like him were patronised by less elevated but still powerful figures, particularly after the reign of Edward VI. In an article for the ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs Variorum Edition Online'',
Brett Usher
Brett Usher (10 December 1946– 13 June 2013) was an English actor, writer and ecclesiastical historian. Although he appeared frequently on stage and television, it was as a radio actor that he came to be best known. His many radio roles ranged ...
has emphasised the importance of previously neglected work by T. S. Willin on Tudor merchants in London, particularly those associated with the
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...
, which was established early in the reign of Mary I and traces its roots to the
Company of Merchant Adventurers. At its inception,
Sir George Barne, then
Lord Mayor of London, was the principal figure in the Muscovy Company. Barne was praised by
Bishop Ridley and prior to becoming
bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...
, Robert Horne preached the funeral sermon for Barne's wife in 1559 after returning from exile on the continent. Barne's nephew and apprentice was
Nicholas Culverwell whose younger brother Richard left money at his death in 1586 to Crowley as well as
William Charke
William Charke (died 1617) was an English Puritan cleric and controversialist, known as one of those brought into the Tower of London to debate with the imprisoned Jesuit, Edmund Campion.
Life
Charke was a fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was ...
,
Walter Travers
Walter Travers (1548? – 1635) was an English Puritan theologian. He was at one time chaplain to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and tutor to his son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury.
He is remembered mostly as an opponent of the teaching o ...
,
John Field, Thomas Crooke, Nicholas Crane, Thomas Edmonds, William Cheston and Giles Sinclair.
Earlier, under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Merchant Adventurers included
Thomas Poyntz, brother of Lady Anne Walsh in whose house Crowley had served as tutor. Poyntz was the head of the Merchant Adventurer's house in Antwerp; it was there that he sheltered
William Tyndale as his sister had in England. John Foxe's 1563 biography of Tyndale concludes with an account probably written by Thomas Poyntz, and received from him or someone close to him. While Tyndale was with Poyntz in Antwerp, Richard Grafton was there as a merchant adventurer involved with Tyndale's project of publishing an English Bible.
John Rogers, the first martyr under Mary I, whose "Matthew's Bible" later combined translations by Tyndale and
Miles Coverdale
Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles (1488 – 20 January 1569), was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553). In 1535, Coverdale produced the first c ...
, served as chaplain to the English merchants in Antwerp. Some of these merchants, like Grafton, were probably involved in producing and smuggling copies of Tyndale's New Testament and other Protestant texts into England. Another figure in the network of evangelical merchants with ties to Crowley was "the immensely rich
John Quarles", who was "twice Master of the
Drapers' Company
The Worshipful Company of Drapers is one of the 110 livery companies of the City of London. It has the formal name The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of the Mystery of Dr ...
" and "a friend and patron of Robert Crowley". (See Brett Usher, "Backing Protestantism: the London godly, the exchequer and the Foxe circle", in David Loades (ed.), ''John Foxe: an Historical Perspective'' (Aldershot, 1999), p. 129; T. S. Willan, ''The Muscovy Merchants of 1555'' (Manchester, 1953), p. 118.)
Ordination and Marian exile
Crowley was ordained deacon on 28 September or 29 September 1551 by
Bishop Ridley, and referred to as "stationer of the Parish of St Andrew, Holborn". On 24 June the previous year, John Foxe had been ordained deacon by Ridley, after having taken up residence with the Duchess of Suffolk in the Barbican in order to be eligible. The anticipated reforms that would follow from the spreading influence of men like these were deferred by the death of the king and the accession of
Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...
after the ill-fated attempt to put
Lady Jane Grey on the throne.
Around 1553–1554, or 1555 at the latest, Crowley had left England. In 1557 records state he was a member of the Frankfurt congregation of English exiles and living in very crowded quarters with a wife and child. Local tax lists registered him as a "student", and expelled him at the same time as a poor and possessionless man.
According to ''A Briefe Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankeford in Germany'' (1575), which covers events from 1554 onward, in 1557 Crowley's signature appeared with those endorsing "the new discipline" at Frankfurt (i.e., the Genevan church order), which limited the pastoral authority of
Robert Horne over the congregation. Horne objected stridently as he was pushing for a more hierarchical system, and Crowley was among those who supported the
presbyterian system. However, it must be remembered that this framing of events comes from the ''Briefe Discourse of the Troubles'' which was first published eighteen years later, evidently in support of the Elizabethan presbyterian faction. (For further discussion of the significance of these events to later Elizabethan church politics, see the entry on the
Marian exiles
The Marian exiles were English Protestants who fled to Continental Europe during the 1553–1558 reign of the Catholic monarchs Queen Mary I and King Philip.Christina Hallowell Garrett (1938) ''Marian Exiles: A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan ...
.)
References
External links
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Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowley, Robert
1510s births
1588 deaths
People from Tetbury
Evangelical Anglican clergy
Archdeacons of Hereford
16th-century English Puritan ministers
English printers
16th-century English writers
16th-century male writers
Social critics