819-822 741-987 tiousness: the Court grew worse and worse. The compensations he had made to the injured were imperfect. Bera was pining in degraded poverty at Rouen, whilst the fawning dissolute Count Bernard plumed himself as Count of Barcelona. 822-823. Lothair possession of Lom bardy, ac by Wala. But the most grievous portion of his conduct. related to Italy. Deeply had Louis deplored his culpable injustice against King Bernard, and on behalf of Bernard's adherents he had acted mercifully they were recalled, and restored to their honours and lands. The restitution therefore of the Lombard kingdom to Bernard's son Pepin ought to have ensued as a necessary consequence; but the most subtle amongst the deceits by which the root of all evil tempts the righteous, the deceit imparting to selfishness the flavour of self-denial, and to covetousness the colour of liberality, the desire of family aggrandisement, the deceit which became the ruling passion of Louis, and from whence his most grievous punishments arose, the desire of encreasing his substance for his children, prevailed. Louis-le-débonnaire kept the rapine, and confirmed Lothair in the inheritance. Immediately after bewailing the death of sent to take King Bernard in the Council of Attigny, Louis despatched Lothair to take possession of Italy, companied selecting for him, as his minister and adviser, the very man whom he, Louis, had so terribly aggrieved. Yielding in the first instance to a panic suspicion, proceeding without law, punishing the untried Wala as a traitor, he now trusted Wala, equally untried, as the most faithful of subjects 741-987 and friends, placing him exactly in the position. where he would be most forcibly instigated to revenge, and most able to do harm. Lothair had been declared his father's consort 819-822 and successor in the Imperial dignity; but this 822-823 title was only inchoate: the benediction of the Roman Pontiff had not been bestowed, the concurrence of the Roman people had not been asked, nor was Lothair clearly acknowledged as having a legal right to any practical share in the Imperial Government. A burst of authority, a coup d'état, might render him a pageant, not an Emperor, or when confronted by his father, an Emperor possessing less direct power than his brethren, the kings of Bavaria and Aquitaine. They had substantive domains, he had none. But Italy was now given to him, a powerful and virtually independent kingdom: a fortress-kingdom; and there Louis-le-débonnaire installed him, as if he had sought to lend his selfish, deceitful son the means of edging him off the throne. Wala supported Lothair with the utmost strenuousness, aided him by his astute counsel, joined him in every thought, plan or scheme which could weaken the authority of his father. Against Louis, the stern, inflexible Wala entertained a mingled feeling of anger and contempt: they crossed the Alps, and the way rapidly opened for further enterprize. 741-987 822-823 § 43. Upon the partition of the Empire decreed at Aix-la-Chapelle, Louis, with the consent of his three sons, had resettled the affairs of 817 Rome. The Imperial rescript, which Canonists by which and Legists were used to quote by its initial débonnaire words, Ego Ludovicus, gave a new foundation The decree Louis-le enlarges Saint and con firms the elective franchise of people. Peter's to the Papal authority. The document exists in patrimony, the form of a grant addressed to Pope Pascal, who had succeeded to the Apostolic Chair upon the Roman the death of Pope Stephen. Romanists and Protestants have agreed in endeavouring to eliminate this Charter as far as possible from ecclesiastical history, though constituting one of the most important passages in the medieval annals of the Papal See till we reach the Hildebrandine age. Four copies are kept in the archives of the Vatican. In addition to the various donations made by the Patrician Pepin and the Emperor Charlemagne, Louis, their successor, confirms to Saint Peter the city and duchy of Rome, Corsica and Sardinia, and very many other territories in Campania, Calabria, Apulia and elsewhere, of which the greater part art still comprized in the Pontifical States, or have been claimed by the Papal See. The right of the Roman Clergy and people, and the Roman people alone, unmingled and uncontrolled, to elect the Pope, is acknowledged, renewed, and defended by the Cæsar. Without the confirmation of the Pontiff, the title of that Cæsar was incomplete; and yet Louis inserts an 822-825 express and stringent reservation of the Imperial 741-987 Supremacy over the dominions which he cedesa most complicated combination of authorities, being nevertheless perfectly intelligible when we examine the principles, concurrent though antagonistic, by which the keys of Saint Peter and the diadem of Augustus, the chair of the Pontiff and the wolf of the Republic, the Church and the Fourth Monarchy, were severally sustained. 823. at Rome Pascal. His name associated to that of in public acts. 825. Roman Lothair advanced to Rome. Pope Pascal and April 5, the Romans came forth to meet him. On Easter- Lothair crowned as day he received the Imperial crown before the altar Emperor of Saint Peter, was hailed as Cæsar and Augustus, by Pope and the Pope declared that henceforward he was to possess all the rights of the pristine Emperors. his father Lothair assumed the government vigorously. His name was associated with that of his father in public acts, Ludovicus et Lotharius, diviná providentia Imperatores Augusti. The Roman people shortly afterwards, Eugenius being Pon- people tiff, took the oaths of allegiance to Louis and oath of Lothair jointly; and thus was effected a third to hím. and complete partition of the Empire in this miserable reign-a partition under the disguise of an union-Louis-le-débonnaire, the father, holding his splendid Court at Frankfort or Aixla-Chapelle, Lothair, the rival son, at Pavia, having half and wanting all, preparing to deprive his father of whatever remained to him of majesty or power. take the fealty 824-987 CHAPTER II. LOUIS-LE-DEBONNAIRE AND HIS SUCCESSORS, TO THE FINAL French history, how employed by the French for political advocacy. Thierry's views upon this tendency. 824-987. § 1. VERY diligently have the French studied studied, their own History with reference to political discussion, and still more for the excitement, the extenuation or the advocacy of political action. They began even before the revival of literature. One of their most distinguished Historians has recently brought forward this tendency as a species of accusation against his fellow-countrymen the spirit of their historical system, he complains, is only a reflection of the spirit of party. If there be any guilt in such a partycourse, no culprit is more brilliant and successful than he. From Gregory of Tours downwards, French history has been treated as a vast repository of texts-materials presented for improvement by the political enquirer. Contradictory as the assertion may appear, France, that land of Revolutions, has been fed by historical traditions. Close and clear reasoners are the French people, reasoners who endeavour to guide themselves by inductions from facts and realities, unlike the Germans, so prone to become absorbed in the |