had amassed immense
riches; and agreeably to the usual progress of human wishes, he began
to regard his present acquisitions but as a step to further grandeur.
He had formed the chimerical project of buying the papacy; and though
Gregory, the reigning pope, was not of advanced years, the prelate had
confided so much in the predictions of an astrologer, that he reckoned
upon the pontiff's death, and upon attaining, by his own intrigues and
money, that envied state of greatness. Resolving, therefore, to remit
all his riches to Italy, he had persuaded many considerable barons, and
among the rest Hugh, earl of Chester, to take the same course; in hopes
that, when he should mount the papal throne, he would bestow on them
more considerable establishments in that country. The king, from
whom all these projects had been carefully concealed, at last got
intelligence of the design, and ordered Odo to be arrested. His
officers, from respect to the immunities which the ecclesiastics now
assumed, scrupled to execute the command, till the king himself was
obliged in person to seize him; and when Odo insisted that he was a
prelate, and exempt from all temporal jurisdiction, William replied,
that he arrested him, not as bishop of Baieux, but as earl of Kent. He
was sent prisoner to Normandy; and notwithstanding the remonstrances and
menaces of Gregory, was detained in custody during the remainder of this
reign.

{1083.} Another domestic event gave the king much more concern: it was
the death of Matilda, his consort, whom he tenderly loved, and for
whom he had ever preserved the most sincere friendship. Three years
afterwards he passed into Normandy, and carried with him Edgar Atheling,
to whom he willingly granted permission to make a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land. He was detained on the continent by a misunderstanding which broke
out between him and the king of France, and which was occasioned by
inroads made into Normandy by some French barons on the frontiers.
{1087.} It was little in the power of princes at that time to restrain
their licentious nobility; but William suspected, that these barons
durst not have provoked his indignation, had they not been assured of
the countenance and protection of Philip. His displeasure was increased
by the account he received of some railleries which that monarch had
thrown out against him. William, who was become corpulent, had been
detained in bed some time by sickness; upon which Philip expresse