The perception that Charlemagne’s, not chronograph but reign saw a large amount of administrative failings is highly refutable. Firstly, it is true that a new direction was not pursued in regards to administrative change, what one perceives instead is an ‘accentuation and intensification of the reforming theme evident in the pre-imperial years.’ This does not signify a failure for the hopes for a strong imperial administration. Merely because administrative reform continued in similar content does not justify disappointment and the quantity altered significantly anyhow. This greater administrative emphasis is evident in the reforms promulgated at a great assembly in October 802 at Aachen. Here Charlemagne placed on the agenda the restitution, modification and dissemination of the civil legislation and the ecclesiastical canons and decrees then in force. Secondly, there were some changes in administration unrelated to the continuous reform campaign initiated before 800 nevertheless. In March 802, Charlemagne sent missi throughout the empire who were to obtain from all free men an oath of fealty. This act alone is not where the innovation lies as Charlemagne himself had required of his Frankish subjects the same in 774. It is the hugely different terms of the oath which broadened the notion of fidelity to include religious obligations and public duties.