CHARLES THE GREAT 17

tion of the events following his arrival: "With all his army, his

bishops and abbots, his dukes and counts, Charles, the Emperor,

held Council in his Palace. There he bade them all to give assurance

of loyalty towards this son of his; there he asked them all, from

the greatest to the most humble: Was it their pleasure that he,

Charles, should give share in the name and dignity of Emperor

to Louis?"

All willingly assented. On the next Sunday, September 11,

arrayed in his imperial robes, the crown upon his head, Charles

walked in procession of state to the Palace Chapel which he

himself had built, and to its high altar of the Lord Christ. On

this had been laid by his command a second crown of gold. For

a long time father and son knelt in prayer. Then, in the hearing

of a great congregation, the Emperor commanded his son to love

and fear God, to guide and defend the churches of his realm, to

show all kindness to his sisters and brothers, to honor his bishops

and priests as fathers, to care for his subjects as sons, to turn the

proud and evil into the way of salvation, to comfort the religious,

and to protect the poor. When Louis had declared his readiness

to obey, his father required him to take that imperial crown of

gold from the altar and to place it upon his head. Mass was now

chanted as the two crowned Emperors knelt in thanksgiving for

this new accession; then all returned to feast with joy.

Another record-which, indeed, seems more probably true-

has it that Charles himself crowned his son and thus dedicated

him to a sharing in the imperial dignity. At any rate, no Pope,

no bishop, was called upon to celebrate this ritual of coronation.

Charles, Emperor and King, himself imparted to his heir by, as

he firmly believed, the will of divine disposing, that authority

and character which God had impressed upon his own soul. To

him this kingly character here approached that of the priest.

Louis saw his father no more after this September of 813.

During the next few months Charles lived, so far as was possible

for him, in his accustomed way at Aachen. He had now arranged

the affairs of his realm; Italy was placed in this same year under

the royal tenure of his grandson, Bernard, son of Pippin. In

October the king and his Court, as usual, went hunting through

the forest which lay near at hand. As of old, he appeared in his