had ostensibly, perhaps sincerely, hoped to reconcile the conflicting parties. His mission may have been designed as one of peace, but the inevitable consequence of his appearance in the rebellious camp could not but be to the disadvantage of Louis. He seemed at least to befriend the son in his unnatural warfare against his father. Agobard, Bishop of Lyons, issued a fierce apology for the rebellious sons of Louis, filled with accusations of incontinence against the Empress Judith. Her beauty and the graces of her manner had even seduced the admiration of holy priests and bishops towards this Dalilah, who had dared to resume her royal dignity and conjugal rights after having taken the veil; to her he attributes all the weaknesses of the too easy monarch. In the words of the aristocratic Thegan, all the bishops were the enemies of Louis, especially those whom he had raised from a servile condition, or who were sprung from barbarous races. But there was one on whom Thegan pours out all his indignation. One was chosen, an impure and most inhuman man, to execute their cruel decrees, a man of servile origin, Ebbo, the Archbishop of Rheims. "Unheard-of words! Unheard-of deeds! They took the sword from his thigh; by the judgement of his servants he was clad in sackcloth; the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled— 'Slaves have ruled over us.'f Oh, what a return for his goodness! He made thee free, noble he could not, for that an enfranchised slave cannot be. He clothed thee in purple and in pall, thou clothedst him in sackcloth; he raised thee to the highest bishopric, thou by unjust judgement hast expelled him from the throne of e "Domina Palatii ludat pueriliter, spectantibus etiam aliquibus de ordine sacerdotali et plerisque conludentibus, qui secundum formam his ancestors. O Lord Jesus! where was thy destroying angel when these things were done?" Thegan goes on to quote Virgil, and says that the poet would want the combined powers of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid to describe the guilt of these deeds. The miseries of Louis were greater than those of Job himself. The comforters of Job were kings, those of Louis slaves. It is astonishing to find that this was the same Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, who undertook a perilous mission to the heathen Northmen, brought the Danish King to the court of Louis to receive baptism, and is celebrated by the monkish poet of the day in the most glowing strains for his saintly virtues.h This strange and sudden revolution, which had left the Emperor at the mercy of his son, was followed by another no less sudden and strange. No doubt the pride of many warlike nobles was insulted by this display of ecclesiastical presumption. The degradation of the Emperor was the degradation of the Empire. The character of Louis, however, could not but command the fond attachment of many. The people felt the profoundest sympathy in his fate; and even among the clergy there were those who could not but think these insults an ungracious and unchristian return for his piety to God, his tenderness to man, his respect for the ecclesiastical order.i A revulsion took place in the whole nation. The other sons of the Emperor, Pepin and Louis, had taken no part in this humiliation of their father, and expressed their strong commiseration of his sufferings, their reprobation of the cruelty and insult heaped upon him. The murmurs of the people were too loud to be mistaken. Leaving his father at St. Denys, Lothair fled to Burgundy. No sooner had he retired than the whole Empire seemed to assemble, in loyal emulation, around the injured Louis. A.D. 834. But Louis would not resume his power, and his arms, the symbol of his power, but with the consent of the Bishops. His subjects' reviving loyalty could not remove the ecclesiastical incapacitation. But bishops were not wanting among those who thronged to renew their allegiance. Louis was solemnly re-girt March 1. with his arms by the hands of some of these prelates, and, amid the universal joy of the people, the Pious resumed the Empire. So great was the burst of feeling, that, in the language of his biographer, the very elements seemed to sympathise in the deliverance of the Emperor from his unnatural son. The weather, which had been wet and tempestuous, became clear and serene. Once more the Empress Judith returned to court; and Louis might again enjoy his quiet hunting and fishing, and his ascetic usages, in the forest of Ardennes. Yet it was not a bloodless revolution. The armies of Louis and Lothair encountered near Châlons. That unfortunate town was burned by the victorious Lothair, whose savage ferocity did Aug. 834. ratio tamen hujusce rei et talis rerum in Soissons. Among these, Otgar of Mentz, who had been present at his penance m The empress was brought from Tortona by officious nobles, eager to merit the gratitude of the restored emperor. not spare even females. Not content with the massacre of a son of Duke Bernhard in cold blood, his sister was dragged from her convent, shut up in a wine-cask, and thrown into the Saône." A.D. 836. But the year after a pestilence made such ravages in the army of Lothair, that he was obliged to return into Italy. Before long he had to deplore the death of almost all his great Transalpine partisans, Wala, Count Hugo, Matfrid, Jesse of Amiens. During this time a Diet at Thionville had annulled the proceedings of that at Compiègne. In a Feb. 28. June, 835. solemn assembly at Metz, eight archbishops and thirty-five bishops condemned the acts of themselves and their rebellious brethren at that assembly. In the cathedral of Metz, seven archbishops chanted the seven prayers of reconciliation, and the Emperor was then held to be absolutely reinvested in his civil and religious supremacy. At a later Diet at Cremieux, near Lyons, Ebbo of Rheims (the chief chaplain, Fulco, the faithful adherent of Louis, who had defied the Pope in his cause, aspired to the metropolitan see) submitted to deposition." He was imprisoned in the abbey of Fulda. Yet Rome must be consulted before the degradation is complete, at all events before the successor is consecrated. Agobard of Lyons was condemned. The Archbishop of Vienne appeared not; he incurred sentence of deposition for his contumacy. The Archbishop of Narbonne, and other bishops, were deposed. A new division of the Empire took place at a later diet at Worms, in which Lothair received only Italy: the Transalpine dominions were divided between n❝ More maleficorum," says Nithard. No doubt the punishment of a witch. Apud Bouquet, p. 13. • Mentz, Treves, Rouen, Tours, Sens, Bourges, Arles, even Ebbo of Rheims. P Funck, p. 153, with authorities. the three other sons, Pepin, Louis, and Charles; the Empress Judith secured the first step to equality in favour of her son. May, A.D. 837. The few remaining years of the life of Louis were still distracted by the unallayed feuds in his family. A visit of devotion to Rome was prevented by a descent of the Normans, who had long ravaged the coasts of France. A new partition was made at Nimeguen; Charles was solemnly crowned. June, 838. Dec. 13, 838. The Empress Judith contrived to bring about a reconciliation between Lothair and his father, to the advantage of her own son Charles," and a division of interests between Lothair and his brothers, Louis of Bavaria and Pepin of Aquitaine. Pepin, King May 30, 839. of Aquitaine, died, and the claims of his children to the succession were disregarded. Judith knit still closer the alliance of the Emperor and the elder son. Yet one more partition. With the exception of Bavaria, with which Louis was obliged to be content, the Empire was divided between Lothair and the son of Judith. May 5, The death of Louis was in harmony with his life. In a state of great weakness (an eclipse of the sun had thrown him into serious alarm, and from that day he began to fail ), he persisted in strictly observing the forty days of Lent; the Eucharist was his only food. Almost his last words were expressive of forgiveness to his son Louis, who was in arms against him, and "bringing down his grey hairs in sorrow to t 9 Carta Divisionis, Bouquet, vi. 411; compare Funck, 158, 9. t Louis of Bavaria had not rushed into war without provocation. The Emperor r Astronomus, 1. ii. Nithard, p. had at least sanctioned the last partition, 14, lib. i. which left him a narrow kingdom, while • Annales Francorum, Fuldenses, Lothair and his younger brother shared Bertiniani, sub ann, the realm of Charlemagne. |