Konstantinos IX slept with open doors and with no guard to keep watch outside, and often all his valets went away. A man might easily have got in to see him and and out again with no obstruction. When people reproached him for laxity over guards, he was not annoyed, but he rejected his critic's judgement about God as misguided. Konstantinos felt himself emperor through God and guarded by Him alone. With this perfect guard, he said, he scorned a more imperfect human one. Michael Psellos often tried to change his mind. He made comparisons between an emperor and helmsmen, builders or soldiers, all of whom trust God but also use other safeguards. Such precautions were even more appropriate for an emperor. But Konstantinos was not to be persuaded by any argument