LOUIS THE PIOUS 25

end. For this end, then, the Empire, in his own desire at the beginning of his reign, was to be a different unity, a unity standing
in its secular might behind the Church which directed and blessed
its work. Not the person, not the force of the Emperor, but the
Church was to Louis the center and the mainspring of the state.
This conception held within itself its own dangers. It made
possible the sacrifice of the independence, the responsibility,
and the dignity of the Crown to the will of the bishops administering Frankish dioceses. Through their zeal for the Church and her
authority-in the best of them, desire for her holiness and faithful
following of discipline, in the less worthy of them, desire for
their own power and wealth among Frankish men-these
ecclesiastical leaders might demand from a ruler, crowned by God
but beset by problems to which he was not equal, the prey of
conflicting impulses, in doubt of his own conscience, a surrender
by no means in keeping with his high dedication.
2
The reign opened in comparative peace. The Emperor called
his nephew, Bernard, king of Italy, to his Court, welcomed him,
and confirmed his right to rule. Envoys from Constantinople again
acknowledged the imperial title of the king of the Franks. Barbarian risings at first caused little trouble; the tradition imposed
by Charles still held its power of control. For the peoples of
Saxony and Frisia Louis relaxed the iron Frankish law in force
during his father's reign, and was rewarded long afterward by
Saxon gratitude in the hour of crisis.
Soon, however, from the North, Viking pirates began to descend in raids upon the monastery of Noirmoutier, so conveniently
placed at the river's outlet to the sea, so rich in booty; at last,
about 819, its monks began to despair of their home. In 820 some
damage was done by these Northmen also on the coasts of
Flanders and Aquitaine, and wealth of plunder was carried away.
Still it was sixteen years later, in 837, when, in spite of distress in
his Court affairs, the menace compelled Louis to take serious
action. In Denmark, meanwhile, a long rivalry of rule brought a
Danish king, Harald, time after time to ask the aid of Frankland
against the sons of that Godfrid who had irritated the peace of