Catalogue description Exchequer: Treasury of Receipt: Acknowledgements of Supremacy

Most of the records in this series are acknowledgements of royal supremacy over the Church of England and came to the Public Record Office from the Exchequer, Treasury of the Receipt.

These are of two principal types. The more numerous of the two is the acknowledgement as expressed by houses of religious and secular clergy. The second series is composed of the personal declarations made by archbishops and bishops of England and Wales. Also in the series are a few miscellaneous documents, most of which are related to the renunciation of papal supremacy and the acceptance of King Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church.

For interpretation of the signatures and other names on the acknowledgements, see Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, 7 (1846), app II, pp 279-306. For transcripts of the acknowledgements, see Foedera, ed T Rymer (London, 1712), xiv, pp 493-495. The bishop of Coventry and Lichfield's acknowledgement (E 25/36) is transcribed in Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, ed D Wilkins (London, 1737), iii, pp 781-782. The bishop of Winchester's recognition of royal supremacy (E 25/120/3) is translated in The Church Historians of England. Reformation Period. The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe (London, 1857), v, pt 1, pp 71-72.