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PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 253
from the Privy Council. (6.) The deprivation of
certain bishops whom they stigmatised as heretical,
Cranmer, Latimer, Hilsey, the Bishop of Rochester,
Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, and Longlands, their
own diocesan. These articles were accepted with
shouts of joy by the insurgents. The first act of
absolute violence occurred at Horncastle. It was
the murder of the Chancellor of Lincoln, who, as
Cromwell's mouthpiece to the clergy of the diocese,
was peculiarly obnoxious to them. A simultaneous
outbreak, possibly a preconcerted one, took place at
Lincoln. The bishop's palace was attacked and
pillaged, the city speedily became the head-quarters
of the insurgents, and here they awaited the king's
answer to the demands which they had transmitted
to him.
The duty of maintaining the peace of the county
rested with Lord Hussey, the chief of the Lincolnshire
nobles. On receiving the news of the insurrection
the king wrote to Lords Hussey and Shrewsbury
to do all they could in raising troops to overawe the
rebels. Hussey's sympathies were with the insurgents,
and he simply did nothing. Shrewsbury had anticipated
the king's commands, and done his best to
gather a force together. He remained at Nottingham.
In the meantime the Duke of Suffolk advanced with
great promptitude to Stamford, where he arrived on
the nth October. The rebels were reported to be
about 60,000 in number. But their very strength
proved their weakness. There had been no forethought,
no arrangement. The individuals composing
that formidable host had no provisions, except the