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254 YORK.
few days' rations they had brought from their homes,
and when their scanty supplies were exhausted they
rapidly dispersed.
Suffolk now sent the king's answer to the articles
which had been sent from Horncastle. It was an
unflinching denial of all that they had asked. No
restoration of the suppressed houses need be looked
for. It was a most presumptuous act to attempt to
interfere with the king's prerogative of appointing
whom he would as his counsellors. The Statute of
Uses was above their comprehension. The subsidy
was granted by Parliament and must be paid. And
he concluded by commanding that the ringleaders
should be given up to be punished as they deserved,
and the rest to return to their homes and not imperil
their lives or incur the forfeiture of their goods by
wilful persistence in their rebellious action.
A debate was held. The wiser heads amongst
them saw that the enterprise had little or no chance
of success, though some hot-headed persons were
very anxious to attack Suffolk at all hazards. But
caution carried the day. Some of the most prominent
leaders, Abbot Makerell and his canons amongst them,
were given up, and a free pardon was given to the
others. Thus, "in less than a fortnight a rebellion
of 60,000 had subsided as suddenly as it had risen.
Contrived by the monks and parish priests, it had
beeii conducted without concert, without practical
skill."
But the spirit which stirred up this abortive rising
in Lincolnshire was dominant also in Yorkshire, and
in that great county the insurrection assumed more