THE CIVIL WAR IN DEVON. 57 



quiet them. The attempt however had no better 

 fortune than before : the rioters barricadoed the en- 

 trance to the town, and although they at first made 

 a shew of conference, the gentlemen were denied 

 admission, which was only afTected by burning a 

 barn, in which some of the malcontents had posted 

 themselves. After this, the magistrates returned to 

 Exeter, leaving the people still more exasperated 

 than hitherto. Their excitement was, in the main, 

 fostered and kept alive by artifices of the Romish 

 priests, who had been expelled their monasteries, 

 or were deprived of their benefices onr efusing to con- 

 form to the new state of things ; yet some reports 

 of temporal grievances also contributed to fan the 

 flame : among these was one not altogether so ter- 

 rific in our day, " that the people would be compelled 

 to pay an excise for whatever they ate or drank." 

 Nor can it be denied, but that the lower orders at 

 that time endured many oppressions, and some of 

 no ordinary severity ; which Somerset, although his 

 inclination lay with them, was without the power to 

 relieve. 



Soon after the affair at Crediton, disturbances 

 broke out in a fresh quarter. A gentleman, named 

 Walter Raleigh, had attempted to remonstrate 

 with a woman of St. Mary Glyst, near Exeter, whom 

 he met on the highway, carrying a rosary of beads 

 in her hand. The devotee took this so ill— as to 

 publish what he had urged on her with so many 

 unwarranted additions, that the people flew to arming 

 themselves, and put their village in a posture of 

 defence. Mr. Raleigh narrowly escaped an attack 

 made on him ; and being assisted by a few sailors 

 in his train, found sanctuary in a chapel : he was 

 subsequently taken prisoner, and kept some time in 

 rigid confinement in the tower of St. SidwelFs 

 Church. 



Sir Peter Carew, who headed a deputation from 

 the justices at Exeter, to these misguided men, suc- 

 ceeded, not without a musket being levelled at him, 



VOL. vn.-~1836. H 



