LUDOVICO THE PIOUS, King of the Franks, Emperor. - The dominant characteristics of the character and reign of the son (b. at Chasseneuil in 778) and successor of Charlemagne are the ecclesiastical influence and the weakness of authority. Although endowed with physical vigor and a solid Greek-Latin culture, acquired at the school of St. Benedict of Aniane, L. lacked the resoluteness indispensable to a man of government. Preferring monastic humility, he forgot the greatness of the imperial dignity to the point of accepting, at Attigny (822), the public confession of his repentance for the punishment inflicted on his nephew Bernard of Italy. He lent himself to the game of the court, and rivalries degenerated into open civil wars.
The structure of the Empire certainly remained similar to what it had been under the previous reign: identical geographical extent, same organization. But from the fact that Charlemagne's work had remained unfinished a crisis was born: Charlemagne had made himself protector of the Holy See; L., docile to the clergy that had educated him, had himself crowned by Stephen V (Oct. 816) and renounced all jurisdiction over Rome (privilege of 817); but later (824), under the influence of the "imperialist" Wala, abbot of Corbie, he withdrew the concessions previously made and demanded from the Pope an oath of fidelity. The bishops, however, affirmed the preeminence of the priesthood over the Empire and imposed a reform of the clergy (829).
The imperialist ideal of unity was opposed by the persistence of the practice of territorial partitions, by ambitions, by individual interests that reached the point of exasperation, and by regional particularisms: the Ordinatio of 817 had associated Lothair, the Emperor's firstborn, with the throne, and assigned Aquitaine and Germany to the two younger sons Pepin and Louis. To please his second wife Judith, married in 819, the Emperor made a fourth portion for the son he had by her, Charles (later called the Bald), in the territories already assigned to the other sons (829): these, with the help of Wala, who had been removed from the court to favor Bernard of Septimania, plotted against their father. Lothair for a moment even wrested power from him (830). But L. succeeded in removing him, and, in a third partition, took Aquitaine from Pepin to give it to Charles. L.'s sons rose a second time against their father and the forces of the two sides clashed in Italy. Abandoned by his soldiers at Retfeld (the "field of lies"), near Colmar, on June 24, 833, L. was taken prisoner by his own sons, despite the mediation efforts of Pope Gregory IV.
In the abbey of St. Medard at Soissons, before a diet presided over by Lothair, the Emperor was accused of having disturbed the peace and violated oaths; forced to a public confession, he had to divest himself of the royal garments and insignia, put on the garb of penitents and was confined in a prison (Oct. 1, 833). The excess of this humiliation changed the feelings of his sons Louis and Pepin toward their father; they restored him to the throne and helped him to repel Lothair in Italy, whose preeminence they did not view favorably.
Crowned anew in 835, L. reigned until his death, which occurred in 839. If on the one hand he still had to experience the hostility of his son Louis the German, on the other he was reconciled with Lothair and, after the death of Pepin, in 839 was able to proceed to a final partition. Louis, still in revolt, received nothing beyond what he had previously received; Lothair, made emperor, divided the rest of the Empire with Charles, following a line of demarcation formed by the Meuse, the Saône and the Rhône. A fragile solution, since to the rivalries of the princes were now added the tendencies toward autonomy of Italy, Aquitaine and Catalonia, and at the frontier the incessant incursions of the Saracens and the Normans.
Bibliography9 works
Guglielmo Mollat
LAW - Under Charlemagne there had been a coexistence of civil and religious powers with the predominance of the civil power over the religious one. Under Louis the situation is reversed: it is the Church that seeks supremacy and to place the authority of the State at its service. Louis cooperated with this action by promoting the religious and moral progress of Christendom through a general reform that was to repress abuses that had long existed in the Church. His legislative activity is preserved in capitularies that cover religious and civil matters; there also remain certain Misterium capitularies and a capitulary for the monastery of S. Croce in Poitou founded by the blessed Radegund. Two have been transmitted under the name of Capitula, since one contains canons drawn from various councils and the other fragments taken from Roman legislation. Some of these capitularies also concern Italy. In Louis's legislation the following principal reforms are advocated: the administration of ecclesiastical property henceforth belongs solely to the Church; bishops are to be freely elected; monasteries are authorized to choose regular abbots for themselves, with the system of commendation ceasing at least provisionally; abbots are obligated only to those military services that are sanctioned in the laws. In the moral sphere as well various reforms are promoted, especially regarding the chastity of bishops and the abduction of virgins (cf. Cap. I, pp. 275-85). The same spirit, which is sometimes manifested even in the same words, is found in the Admonitio ad omnes regni ordinis (ibid., pp. 303-307).
Bibliography3 works
Giuseppe Damizia