In the year 813 Charlemagne summoned the notables of the Empire to an assembly at Aix-la-Chapelle. He announced to them that he had arranged a definite settlement of the boundary question with Greece, Denmark, and the Moors, which gave great satisfaction to them. Thereupon he proclaimed his son Ludwig King of the Franks, and added that he also wished, with their consent, to invest him with the dignity of Roman Emperor. They gave their consent, but there were grief in the hearts and tears in the eyes of many of them. Upon the day fixed for the coronation Charlemagne appeared in the Cathedral imperially arrayed, and met the notables assembled there. He led his son Ludwig to the altar, where a throne had been placed. After they had offered prayer they arose, and Charlemagne made a solemn address to his son in which he bade him always to be mindful of the duties of a sovereign, closing with these words: “Compel malicious and dangerous disturbers by force to live in an orderly manner and pursue the right way. Be the consoler and defender of the cloisters and the poor. Select only wise, just, and firm counsellors. Never remove one except for proper reasons, and so conduct yourself that you may have no cause to blush before God or man.” When Ludwig had promised to follow these counsels the Emperor ordered him to take the crown from the altar and place it upon his head. This was done. The Emperor was a loyal adherent of the Church, but he did not care to have the ceremony performed by priestly hands, as he feared that it might open the way to future assumptions of a dangerous kind. Supported by his son, the venerable Emperor thereupon left for the palace. Ludwig went temporarily to Aquitaine, which had been assigned to him. The separation between father and son was a painful one, for neither felt that they should see each other again. The people were greatly troubled, particularly by a remarkable event which shortly occurred and so worked upon the popular fancy that they expected some dire calamity would follow. The colonnade connecting the palace and the minster was struck by lightning, the dome was injured, and the last words upon the altar, “Carolus princeps,” were effaced. But Charlemagne gave no attention to it. It was of little consequence to him. The year 814 opened. It was plain to all that the Emperor was growing weaker. On the twenty-seventh of January the last rites were administered by Bishop Heldebald in both forms, and early the next day Charlemagne passed away in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of his reign, with the words “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”