public affairs, and to receive his instructions. Disputes between them
are to be determined by the general assembly of the Empire. This body
is also to pronounce in case of their being guilty of acts of violence or
oppression and having failed to make satisfaction in accordance with the
remonstrances which it shall be the duty of their elder brother to address
to them. If either of the two die leaving several lawful sons, the people
shall make their choice among them, but there shall be no further
division of territory. If, on the contrary, the deceased leave no legitimate son, his apanage shall devolve on one of his brothers. Supplementary
provisions, derived, indeed, from the Divisio of 806, were added, forbidding the magnates to possess benefices in several kingdoms at once,
but allowing any free man to settle in any kingdom he chose, and to
marry there.
Such, in its main outlines, was the celebrated Divisio imperii of 817, which we may fittingly analyse, as its provisions were often to be appealed to during the struggle between the sons of Louis. Its object was to avoid every occasion of strife. Yet one of its earliest effects was to kindle a revolt, that of the young Bernard of Italy. He considered himself threatened, or his counsellors persuaded him that he was threatened, by one of the regulations of the act of Aix, laying down that after the death of Louis, Italy should be subject to Lothar in the same manner as it had been to Louis himself and to Charles. It is, however, difficult to see more in this article than a provision for the maintenance of the actual status quo. All our authorities agree in attributing the responsibility for the revolt less to Bernard himself than to certain of his intimates, the count Eggideus, the chamberlain Reginar (Rainier), and Anselm, Archbishop of Milan. The Bishop of Orleans, the celebrated poet Theodulf, was also counted among the young prince's partisans. The rebels' plan, it was said, was to dethrone the Emperor and his family, perhaps to put them to death, and to make Bernard sole ruler of the Empire. Ratbold, Bishop of Verona, and Suppo, Count of Brescia, who were the first to warn Louis of what was being plotted against him, added that all Italy was ready to uphold Bernard, and that he was master of the passes of the Alps. In reality, the rebellion seems in no sense to bear the character of a national movement, which indeed would hardly have been possible at this stage, and the numerous army, which the Emperor hastily assembled, found no difficulty in occupying the passes of Aosta and Susa. Louis in person put himself at the head of the troops concentrating at Châlon. Bernard was alarmed, and finding himself ill supported, made his submission, along with his chief partisans, to the Frankish counts who had pushed on into Italy, and surrendered himself into their custody. The prisoners were sent to Aix-la-Chapelle, and the assembly held in that town at the beginning of 818 condemned them to death. The Emperorgranted them their lives, but conmuted their punishment to that of blinding. Bernard and his friend Count
