English Puritan, social reformer, and Christian Socialist prominent in the vestiarian disputes (over the alleged “Romishness” of the vestments worn by Anglican clergy) of Elizabeth I's reign. His writings include The Way to Wealth (1550), in which he attributed the government's failure to stop enclosure of common land to the organized resistance of the rich. Other works include An informacion and Peticion agaynst the oppressours of the pore Commons of this Realme (1548), remarkable for its attack on the “more than Turkish tyranny” of the landlords and capitalists of that day; A briefe discourse against the outwarde apparell and Ministring garmentes of the popishe church (1566); and three works in verse.

Crowley, who was educated at, and later fellow of, Magdalen College, Oxford, also published tracts from his own printing office but abandoned printing when ordained in 1551. During the reign of the Catholic queen Mary I, he was in exile at Frankfurt am Main. After Elizabeth I's accession he was incumbent of various London parishes, though in 1566 his objection to surplices (he forbade his choir to wear them) caused his deprivation and imprisonment.