reover, it
seems that the clergy {303} were stronger in the north even before the
inroads of the new doctrines. In the suppression of the lesser
monasteries Yorkshire, the largest county in England, had lost the most
foundations, 53 in all, and Lincolnshire the next most, 37. Irritation
at the suppression itself was greatly increased among the clergy by the
insolence and thoroughness of the visitation, in which not only
monasteries but parish priests had been examined. In resisting the
king in the name of the church the priests had before them the example
of the most popular English saint, Thomas Becket. They were the real
fomenters of the demonstration, and the gentlemen, not the people, its
leaders.

Rioting began in Lincolnshire on October 1, 1536, and before the end of
the month 40,000 men had joined the movement. A petition to the king
was drawn up demanding that the church holidays be kept as before, that
the church be relieved of the payment of first-fruits and tithes, that
the suppressed houses be restored except those which the king "kept for
his pleasure only," that taxes be reduced and some unpopular officials
banished.

Henry thundered an answer in his most high and mighty style: "How
presumptuous then are ye, the rude commons of one shire, and that one
of the most brute and beastly of the whole realm, and of least
experience to find fault with your prince in the electing of his
councillors and prelates!" He at once dispatched an army with orders
"to invade their countries, to burn, spoil and destroy their goods,
wives and children." [Sidenote: March 1537] Repression of the rising
in Lincolnshire was followed by the execution of forty-six leaders.

But the movement had promptly spread to Yorkshire, where men gathered
as for a peaceable demonstration, [Sidenote: October 1536] and swore
not to enter "this pilgrimage of grace for the commonwealth, save only
for the {304} maintenance of God's faith and church militant,
preservation of the king's person, and purifying the nobility of all
villein's blood and evil counsellors, to the restitution of Christ's
church and the suppression of heretics' opinions." In Yorkshire it was
feared that the money extorted from the abbeys was going to London; and
that the new treason's acts would operate harshly. Cumberland and
Westmoreland soon joined the rising, their special grievance being the
economic one of the rise of rents, or rather of the heavy fines exacted