Pope Gregory IV

[laughs] Incredible.

Named after Pope Gregory IV.

He, there's basically a castle there.

It's called, uh, Castle Julius II today, and it overlooks this walled hamlet.

Hallows just means holy ones, the saints, a day to honor all the saints and martyrs.

Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel to all the saints and a later pope, Gregory IV, helped fix that 1st of November date across the church.

And the night before All Hallows Day, the 31st of October, became All Hallows Eve, All Hallows Even, which, shortened and worn smooth over centuries of use, becomes Halloween.

Halloween.

Louis the Pious, heir to Charlemagne, Emperor of the Franks, God's chosen on earth and the most powerful person in Western Europe, would be made to strip off his badges of office, his imperial clothes, and don the habit of a simple monk, prostrating himself on the ground and begging for forgiveness.

To add lustre to the occasion, Lothair arranged for Gregory IV, the Pope in Rome, to support this event, which was to take place just north of our city of Paris, in Soissons, the place where Clovis over 300 years before had established his presence on the scene and founded the Kingdom of the Franks.

And to preside over the ceremony was chosen an old friend and playmate of Louis the Pious, Ebo, Bishop of Reims.

We can only imagine the feelings of the Emperor as he was standing in front of his three sons and his old friend and librarian Ebo, while he was forced to take his sword, the symbol of his power and legacy, and throw it on the ground.

So there's just s- there's so much scandal here that they think that Louis should just give the grown-up sons what they want, and they're trying to put demands on him to make sure that they get what they felt that they were promised.

They even bring Pope Gregory IV up to, um, appeal to Louis to settle things in an appropriate manner.

And overnight, so they, they all meet in this big field called the Field of Lies, uh, retrospectively.

And yeah, Louis wakes up one morning to find that his entire army has gone over to the other side of the field to escape.