Henry the eighth, by the grace of God king of England and France, defender of the faith and lord of Ireland, and on earth supreme head under God of the Church of England, to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, clergy, dukes, marquises, earls, barons, knights, gentlemen and other men of whatever sort, our subjects and liege men, wherever they may dwell throughout our kingdom and our dominions, greeting and increase of Gospel truth.

Seeing that you, most excellent citizens of mine and most dear to me, now audibly and with one common accord acknowledge me to be the one and only prince of this realm, on earth the sole summit after God of this Church of England, and its supreme head, in so far as the nature of divine and human right allows, and that the power over the ecclesiastical as well as the earthly commonwealth granted to me and to my predecessors by that same divine right, (but which for many centuries has been seized by the wickedness, fraud, deceits and cleverness of the sole bishop of Rome), belongs to me and to my successors, I cannot but be concerned, with the utmost care and thought of my mind, to take more and more account every day of my duty and office, which is to glorify God, to proclaim the true doctrine of the Christian religion and to preserve the peace and quiet of this state. In which respect, those words which are written in the sixth chapter of Wisdom come to my mind as follows:

From this it may easily be seen that the most exact account of their power will be required from kings, and that they will receive the most severe punishment if they have not conducted themselves as they ought to in the government of the commonwealth.