Background
Robert Crowley thought to have been born in Gloucestershire, about 1518 in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
Robert Crowley thought to have been born in Gloucestershire, about 1518 in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
Robert graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1542.
In 1547 Robert Crowley addressed to Parliament a plea, Information and Petition against the Oppressors of the poor Commons of this realm, which attacked the landlords and the industrialists of the day. He specifically opposed the eviction of the poor from their holdings in order to create enclosures for sheep. In 1549 he began printing books in London, including his own Way to Wealth (1550) and Pleasure and Pain (1551). In 1551 Crowley, who supported Protestant reforms in the Church, began preaching. When Mary Tudor ascended to the throne in 1553, he fled to Germany, remaining there until the Catholic queen's death in 1558. In 1559 he was made archdeacon of Hereford. He later served as parson of St. Peter the Poor in London and in 1563 became prebendary of St. Paul's Cross. In 1566 Crowley refused to wear vestments in his services, banning them as the "conjuring garments of popery. " His tract A Brief Discourse against the Outward Apparel and Ministering Garments of the Popish Church (1566) is considered the first distinct expression of nonconformity. For his refusal to use vestments Crowley was imprisoned. He resigned his archdeaconry in 1567 and lost his prebended stall in 1568. Crowley died in London, June 18, 1588.
In 1557 records state Robert Crowley was a member of the Frankfurt congregation of English exiles.
