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 [i.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 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 has emphasised the importance of previously neglected work by T. S. Willin on Tudor merchants in London, particularly those associated with the Muscovy Company, 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, 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, Walter Travers, 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