A.D. 1074. CONSPIRACY AGAINST WILLIAM. 157 that had happened to him, and stated to him that it was his fixed purpose to assume the monastic habit. On this the bishop received him with all humility, and, sending him to Aldwin, of whom mention has been made above, said : " It is my prayer and my command, that you will receive this my son, and, elothing him in the monastic habit, will teach him to observe the monastic rule of life." Àldwin on receiving him, submitted him to the regular probation, and when he had passed through that state conferred upon him the monastic habit, and so trained him by precept and example, that after his own decease, by order of bishop William, he succeeded him as prior of the ehurch of Durham, which for twenty years, less twelve days, he zealously governed. But in the year when Ranulph was made bishop, who succeeded WiLliam, Alexander the Eighth, king of the Seots, having asked the assent of Henry, king of the English, thereto, he was chosen bishop of the ehurch of Saint Andrew. In the same year in which pope HBdebrand held the above-named council, Boger, earl of Hereford, son of WiBiam, earl of the East Angles, eontrary to the eommand of king WiBiam, gave his sister in marriage to earl Bodulph. The nuptials being celebrated with the utmost magnificence, amid a large concourse of nobles at a place in the province of Grantebridge,62 which is called Ixning, a great number there entered into a conspiracy against king William, and eompeBed earl Waltheof, who had been intercepted by them by stratagem, to join the conspiracy. He, however, as soon as he possibly could, went to Lanfranc, the archbishop of Canterbury, and received absolution from him at the holy sacrament, for the crime that he had, although not spontaneously, committed ; by whose advice, he also went to king WiBiam, who was at the time staying in •Norway, and disclosing to him the whole matter from beginning to end, threw himself entirely upon his mercy. In the meantime, the chiefs above-mentioned, being determined to promote the success of this conspiracy, repaired to their castles, and began, with their supporters, to use all possible endeavours in encouraging the rebellion. But the venerable Wulstan, the bishop of Worcester, with a great body of soldiers, prevented the earl of Hereford from fording the river Severn and meeting earl Bodulph, with his army, at the place 62 Cambridge.