"4. A thousand marks being the sum estimated as sufficient to maintain an abbey under such management, the surplus revenue was then to be made over to a court, to be called the _Curia Centenariorum_, for the defence of the realm, and the maintenance in peace as well as war of a standing army; the said men of war, being in wages in the time of peace, to remain in and about the towns, castles, and fortresses, within the realm at the appointment of the lord admiral, as he should think most for the surety of the realm." A number of provisions follow for the organization of the court, which was to sit at Coventry as a central position, for the auditing the accounts, the employment of the troops, &c. The paper is of great historic value, although, with a people so jealous of their liberties, it was easy to foresee the fate of the project. It is among the _Cotton. MSS. Cleopatra_, E 4, fol. 215. [202] _Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 38. [203] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 523. [204] Confession of George Lascelles: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 774. [205] And for another reason. They were forced to sue out their pardons individually, and received them only, as Aske and Lord Darcy had been obliged to do, by taking the oath of allegiance, and binding themselves to obey the obnoxious statutes so long as they were unrepealed.--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 471. [206] Cromwell. [207] Robert Aske to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_, Royal Letters. [208] "Deum deprecantes ut dextram ense firmet caputque tuum hoc pileo vi Spiritûs Sancti per columbam figurati protegat."--Paulus III. Regi Scotiæ: _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 269. [209] "Nec tam muneris qualitatem quam mysterium et vim spiritualem perpendes."--Ibid. [210] Although the Doncaster petitioners had spoken of "their antient enemies of Scotland," an alliance, nevertheless, in the cause of religion, was not, after all, impossible. When James V. was returning from France to Edinburgh, in the spring of 1537, his ship lay off Scarborough for a night to take in provisions-- "Where certain of the commons of the country thereabout, to the number of twelve persons--Englishmen, your Highness's servants" [I am quoting a letter of Sir Thomas Clifford to Henry VIII.]--"did come on board in the king's ship, and, being on their knees before him, thanked God of his healthful and sound repair; showing how that they had long looked for him, and how they were oppressed, slain, and murdered; desiring him for God's sake to come in, and all should be his."--_State Papers_, Vol. V. p. 80.