Sentence:  The bishop of Chartres indignantly informed the king that his <WSD>diocesans</WSD> were dying like flies and eating grass like sheep, and indeed both the king and Fleury got a fright when their coaches were stopped in the Paris countryside by peasants crying out ‘Famine! Bread!' rather than ‘"Vive le Roi!''' 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An inhabitant of a diocese.