ABSTRACT
In 781 the two-year-old Louis the Pious was crowned and anointed king of Aquitaine by Pope Hadrian I, at the same time as his elder brother Pippin was made king of Italy. Frankish monasticism at the beginning of the ninth century was very diverse, owing to the reception of different forms of monasticism in Gaul during the Gallo-Roman and Merovingian periods. On Louis' accession to the Empire in 814, the monastic reform begun in Aquitaine was extended to include the entire Frankish kingdom. By the beginning of the ninth century therefore, the Frankish monasteries and communities of canons were following a variety of rules and customs. In order to promote his new regulations and see that they were introduced into the Frankish monasteries, Louis the Pious appointed special inspectors or missi whose duty was to inspect the monasteries and instruct the brethren in the aims of the reform.
