The Act of March 1536, which provided for the suppression of the lesser monasteries, was accompanied by another, which erected a ‘courte of Thaugmentacions of the Revenues of the Kinges Crowne’ to conduct the business of suppression and to administer the former monastic property. The responsibilities of the new court were greatly increased by the operation of the attainders and surrenders from 1537 onwards, which were confirmed by the Act of May 1539, and they received still further additions in 1540 and 1545, when the lands of the Knights of St John and of the non-academic colleges were confiscated.

The new court, the equivalent of a new ‘ministry’ in a modern scheme of government, was an extension of the administrative revolution which Cromwell had initiated, and was framed after the pattern of the existing court of the Duchy of Lancaster. It was controlled in London by a chancellor, Sir Richard Rich, the solicitor-general, and by a treasurer, Sir Thomas Pope, who was later to found Trinity College, Oxford; they were assisted by an attorney and a solicitor, and the work in the country was carried out by seventeen particular receivers, each allotted to a specified region, and ten auditors, each associated with one or more of the receivers. The salaries of all were to be on a generous scale, and the opportunities for advancing private fortunes were obviously promising.