ADDENDUM I
THE CHARTER
OF LOUIS THE PIOUS[194]
Aachen, 29 January A.D. 815
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD GOD AND
OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,
LOUIS, EMPEROR AUGUSTUS BY
ORDINATION OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE:
With respect to foundations dedicated to divine worship for
the love of God and His servants, wherever we have bestowed
appropriate tenures on such foundations we have believed that
our eternal reward would be meted to us at the seat of God. In
that light be it known to all our faithful supporters, both now
and hereafter, that the venerable man Adalhard, abbot of the
monastery of Corbie, which was erected in the region of Amiens
in honor of St. Peter and St. Stephen, brought to us the
immunity of our lord and father Charles, most pious Emperor of
pious memory, wherein we have found in writing how he and
his predecessors, the earlier kings of the Franks, had with divine
love and reverence for that holy place, always held the aforesaid
monastery under the most complete guardianship and protection
from harm. To substantiate that status, the aforesaid abbot
Adalhard asked us for the love of God and reverence for divine
worship likewise to add our authority to that pre-existent
authority. We freely acquiesce to his request and fully accord
in all respects, confirming the authority by this our command.
Wherefore we are issuing the order that no one of our loyal
subjects or anyone within the jurisdiction or any of our retainers
either present or future shall dare to enter into the churches or
lands or fields or other possessions of the aforesaid monastery
which at present it rightly and legally holds in possession in
whatever region or province under the authority of our imperium,
or any others which hereafter divine piety may determine to add
to the domain of that monastery, for the hearing of disputes or
levying of fines or tributes or the erection of buildings or the
exaction of bonds or the punishment of men, whether freemen
or serfs, living on its land, or collection of revenues or enforcing
illicit actions in ours or future ages; nor shall he in any way plot
to carry out any of the acts mentioned. And whatever the fisc
has been in a position to expect from the goods of the aforesaid
monastery, so much we turn over to the aforesaid monastery as
an everlasting income, so that in perpetuity it may be applied to
the augmentation of alms for the poor and stipends for the monks
serving God at that place, to the end that it may delight those
servants of God who are in a position to minister to Christ
therein, to pray that the mercy of the Lord be granted to us and
maintained on our behalf, and that of our wife and offspring,
and the stability of our whole empire. And that this authority
may, with the protection of the Lord, have power to continue
unaltered through ours and future ages, we have signed it with
our own hand and ordered it to be countersigned by the impress
of our seal.
Given the fourth kalends of February in the first year (by
the grace of Christ) of the imperium of lord Louis, most
supreme Augustus, Indiction VIII. Performed at the royal
palace at Aachen, auspiciously in the name of Christ, Amen.
