LOUIS THE PIOUS

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long as he lived. Upon his death succession to the imperial title,

and rule over the Empire's territories, were to pass to Lothar,
with these exceptions: To the second son, Pippin, was assigned
kingship over Aquitaine, Gascony, the region of Toulouse, and
part of Burgundy; to the third son, Louis, was given the kingdom
of Bavaria, with the outlying lands of Carinthia and Bohemia.
These two younger brothers, after their father had departed this
life, were to administer their portions under the constant protection, counsel, and aiding of Lothar; in general, they were to be
subject to his will, even in the matter of their marriages. Succession to the throne, in the kingdoms of both, was not to fall
automatically to their sons, not even to sons born of lawful
marriage; it was rather to be decided in each case by the people
of the land. The successors thus elected were to reign under the
guidance of their uncle, Lothar, as long as he should live.
By thus assuring the complete precedence of Lothar as
Emperor down the years Louis hoped to keep a united Empire,
standing as a bulwark of the Church. During his lifetime Lothar
was to remain and to work with him; Pippin was to rule Aquitaine
and to reside in that country; Louis, known to history as Louis
the German, was to rule Bavaria and to reside at the Bavarian
Court.
Unity in Empire, it was hoped, would thus draw together
all its peoples in a Christian bond. In or about this year of 817,
Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, a passionate upholder of unity
in things both spiritual and temporal, wrote to Louis, his Emperor,
of the glory of the brotherhood of all men in Christ and prayed
earnestly that, as all ideally should be one in Him by obedience
to the Catholic faith, so might all Christians be united in secular
usage of Christian law.
3
Thus, at any rate, by this Ordinance of Louis the Pious
peace was designed, and Agobard and his friends hoped that
it might last. It lasted but briefly; very soon interruption broke
from an unexpected quarter. In the autumn, when Louis returned from his sport of hunting in the Vosges to spend the
winter at Aachen, word arrived that Bernard, king of Italy, had