ent with
decreeing, that the bishops should not thenceforth ordain any priests
or deacons without exacting from them a promise of celibacy; but they
enacted, that none, except those who belonged to collegiate or
cathedral churches, should be obliged to separate from their wives.
[FN [h] Hoveden, p. 455, 457. Flor. Wigorn. p. 638. Spellm. Concil.
fol. 13 A. D. 1076.]

[MN Revolt of Prince Robert.]
The king passed some years in Normandy; but his long residence there
was not entirely owing to his declared preference of that duchy: his
presence was also necessary for composing those disturbances which had
arisen in that favourite territory, and which had even originally
proceeded from his own family. Robert, his eldest son, surnamed
Gambaron or Curthose, from his short legs, was a prince who inherited
all the bravery of his family and nation; but without that policy and
dissimulation, by which his father was so much distinguished, and
which, no less than his military valour, had contributed to his great
successes. Greedy of fame, impatient of contradiction, without
reserve in his friendships, declared in his enmities, this prince
could endure no control even from his imperious father, and openly
aspired to that independence, to which his temper, as well as some
circumstances in his situation, strongly invited him [i]. When
William first received the submissions of the province of Maine, he
had promised the inhabitants that Robert should be their prince; and
before he undertook the expedition against England, he had, on the
application of the French court, declared him his successor in
Normandy, and had obliged the barons of that duchy to do him homage as
their future sovereign. By this artifice, he had endeavoured to
appease the jealousy of his neighbours, as affording them a prospect
of separating England from his dominions on the continent; but when
Robert demanded of him the execution of those engagements, he gave him
an absolute refusal, and told him, according to the homely saying,
that he never intended to throw off his clothes till he went to bed
[k]. Robert openly declared his discontent; and was suspected of
secretly instigating the King of France and the Earl of Britany to the
opposition which they made to William, and which had formerly
frustrated his attempts upon the town of Dol. And as the quarrel
still augmented, Robert proceeded to entertain a strong jealousy of
his two surviving brothers, William