He continually appealed to Christ with many prayers, and being most knowledgeable of the writings of sacred learning, he wrote something worthy of memory, so that it should be his greatest pledge, so much as God granted him the talent to do. And showing the laws of God to the whole people he prayed for justice, and was within God's grace. Nothing is more pleasing to God, nothing more welcome than for life among mortals to be corrected. Christ, being gracious towards the people many times for the sake of the ruler, never punished others for nothing.

This allusion to Henry's own theological writings is striking, since the principal publication attributed to the king was the Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, his tract of 1521 defending Catholic doctrine against the arguments of Martin Luther, for which he was rewarded by the Pope with the title Defender of the Faith. Praise for this work, which became an embarrassment to Henry after his break with Rome and adoption of limited religious reforms, might be thought injudicious in an address seeking favour with the Protestant Elizabeth. However, as Supreme Head of the Church of England Henry did intervene directly in the composition of decrees and publications defining the reformed doctrines of the new Church, although the king's emendations usually modified these texts in a conservative direction. Etheridge may be treading a path of deliberate ambiguity here.