of emperor. The two other sons, Pépin and Louis, entered,
notwithstanding their childhood, upon immediate possession, the one of
Aquitaine and the other of Bavaria, under the superior authority of
their father and their brother, the joint emperors.

Charlemagne had vigorously maintained the unity of the empire, for all
that he had delegated to two of his sons, Pépin and Louis, the
government of Italy and Aquitaine with the title of king. Louis the
Debonair, while regulating beforehand the division of his dominion,
likewise desired, as he said, to maintain the unity of the empire. But
he forgot that he was no Charlemagne.

It was not long before numerous mournful experiences showed to what
extent the unity of the empire required personal superiority in the
emperor, and how rapid would be the decay of the fabric when there
remained nothing but the title of the founder.

In 816 Pope Stephen IV came to France to consecrate Louis the Debonair
emperor. Many a time already the popes had rendered the Frankish kings
this service and honor. The Franks had been proud to see their King,
Charlemagne, protecting Adrian I against the Lombards; then crowned
emperor at Rome by Leo III, and then having his two sons, Pépin and
Louis, crowned at Rome, by the same Pope, kings respectively of Italy
and of Aquitaine. On these different occasions Charlemagne, while
testifying the most profound respect for the Pope, had, in his relations
with him, always taken care to preserve, together with his political
greatness, all his personal dignity. But when, in 816, the Franks saw
Louis the Pious not only go out of Rheims to meet Stephen IV, but
prostrate himself, from head to foot, and rise only when the Pope held
out a hand to him, the spectators felt saddened and humiliated at the