In the Act of Suppression as it was passed the preamble made mention of the corruption prevailing in communities less than a dozen strong, but the enacting clause adopted as a yardstick for good and evil the sum of £200 net income. The number twelve had been for centuries the traditional number of a perfect community, with the abbot as thirteenth; the Cistercians had given statutory force to it by making it the essential number for a new foundation, and the papal bull of 1528 to Wolsey had specified that the houses suppressed by him should contain less than twelve inmates. The sum of £200 may have been the notional dower for a community of thirteen, but it was more probably taken as a convenient round figure which would include a large number of houses, and the number twelve does not appear in the body of the act. In 1536 the two criteria were far from coincident: thus of the thirty-five Yorkshire houses seventeen had less than twelve inmates, but twenty-four had less than £200 of income. It was further enacted that those religious who might elect to persevere in their vocation were to be allotted to such of the greater monasteries as were observant; the rest could be dismissed with a dispensation and a small gratuity. The act reserved to the king the right of staying the suppression of any house he might choose to except from the list.