Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/314

 292 THE DECLINE AND FALL Lewis the Pious. A.D. 814-840 LotJiaire I. A.D. S40-856 [8i5] Le A'ii: n. A.D. 856-875 [A.D. 884] DiviBiou of the empire. A.D. ms though with less energy, in the subsequent associations of Lothaire and Lewis the Second ; the Carlovingian sceptre was transmitted from father to son in a hneal descent of four generations ; and the ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honour of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes who were already invested with their power and dominion. The pious Lewis survived his brothers, and em- braced the whole empire of Charlemagne ; but the nations and the nobles, his bishops and his children, quickly discerned that this mighty mass was no longer inspired by the same soul ; and the foundations were undermined to the centre, while the ex- ternal surface was yet fair and entire. After a war, or battle, which consumed one hundred thousand Franks, the empire was divided by treaty between his three sons, who had violated every filial and fraternal duty. The kingdoms of Germany and France were for ever separated ; the provinces of Gaul, between the Rhone and the Alps, the Meuse and the Rhine, were assigned, with Italy, to the Imperial dignity of Lothaire. In the pai'tition of his share, Lorraine and Aries, two recent and transitory kingdoms, were bestowed on the younger children ; and Lewis the Second, his eldest son, was content with the realm of Italy, the proper and sufficient patrimony of a Roman emperor. On his death without any male issue, the vacant throne was disputed by his uncles and cousins, and the popes most dexterously seized the occasion of judging the claims and merits of the candidates, and of bestowing on the most obse- quious or most liberal the Imperial office of advocate of the Roman church. The dregs of the Carlovingian race no longer exhibited any symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epithets of the bald, the .stavmierer, the fat, and the mnple, distinguished the tame and uniform features of a crowd of kings alike deserving of oblivion. By the failure of the collateral branches, the whole inheritance devolved to Charles the Fat, the last emperor of his family ; his insanity authorised the desertion of Germany, Italy, and France ; he was deposed in a diet, and solicited his daily bread from the rebels, by whose contempt his life and liberty had been spared. According to the measure of their force, the governors, the bishops, and the honestly transcribed it (A.D. 813, No. 13, &c. ; see Gaillard, torn. ii. p. 506, 507, 508), howsoever adverse to the claims of the popes. For the series of the Carlo- vingians, see the historians of France, Italy, and Germany; Pfeffel, Schmidt, Velly, Nluratori, and even Voltaire, whose pictures are sometimes just and always pleasing.