Within his own realms the imperial office was to make a
difference in the spirit rather than the forms of government. The Empire raised
to a higher power the dignity and the responsibilities which belonged to him as
a king. He conceived himself bound to provide more carefully than ever for the
maintenance of ecclesiastical and the betterment of secular law. His subjects
were to realise that through their allegiance to him they were God's subjects,
bound to observe the law of God as a part of the law of the Empire; he on his
side was to be, to the best of his power, a moral censor, an educator, a
religious missionary, a protector of the clergy, a defender of the faith.
When we turn from this noble dream to follow the history
of the Carolingian Empire, the contrast between the real and the ideal is almost
grotesque. Within a generation the Frankish realm is partitioned after the
Merovingian fashion; all that remains as a guarantee of unity is the imperial
title attached to one of several kingdoms, and the theory that the kings are
linked in fraternal concord for the defence of Church and State against all
enemies. Contemporaries laid the blame on the weakness of Lewis the Pious and
the ambition of his sons. These causes undoubtedly accelerated the process of
disruption; but others more impersonal and more gradual in their operation were
at work below the surface of events.
