Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims
Encyclopedia
Hincmar archbishop of Reims
, the friend, advisor and propagandist of Charles the Bald
, was one of the most remarkable figures in the ecclesiastical history of the Carolingian
period. He belonged to a noble family of the north or north-east of Francia.
(d. 844), who brought him in 822 to the court of the emperor Louis the Pious
. When Hilduin was disgraced in 830 for having joined the party of Lothair I
, Hincmar accompanied him into exile at Corvey
in Saxony
, but returned with him to Saint-Denis when the abbot was reconciled with the emperor, and remained faithful to the emperor during his struggle with his sons.
, and received from him the abbacies of Nôtre-Dame at Compiègne
and Saint-Germer-de-Fly
.
(Diedenhofen) for having broken his oath of fidelity to the emperor Louis, whom he had deserted to join the party of Lothair. After the death of Louis, Ebbo succeeded in regaining possession of his see for some years (840-844), but in 844 Pope Sergius II
confirmed his deposition. It was in these circumstances that Hincmar succeeded, and in 847 Pope Leo IV
sent him the pallium
.
One of the first cares of the new prelate was the restitution to his metropolitan see of the domains that had been alienated under Ebbo and given as benefice
s to laymen. From the beginning of his episcopate Hincmar was in constant conflict with the clerks who had been ordained by Ebbo during his reappearance. These clerks, whose ordination was regarded as invalid by Hincmar and his adherents, were condemned in 853 at the council of Soissons, and the decisions of that council were confirmed in 855 by Pope Benedict III
.
This conflict, however, bred an antagonism of which Hincmar was later to feel the effects. During the next thirty years the archbishop of Reims played a very prominent part in church and state. His authoritative and energetic will inspired, and in great measure directed, the policy of the west Frankish kingdom until his death.
As an expert on government and court ceremonial, an aggressive advocate of ecclesiastical privilege Hincmar took an active part in all the great political and religious affairs of his time, and was especially energetic in defending and extending the rights of the church and of the metropolitans in general, and of the metropolitan of the church of Reims in particular. In the resulting conflicts, in which his personal interest was in question, he displayed great activity and a wide knowledge of Canon law
, but did not scruple to resort to disingenuous interpretation of texts.
, whose predestinarian
doctrines claimed to be modelled on those of St Augustine
. Hincmar placed himself at the head of the party that regarded Gottschalk's doctrines as heretical, and succeeded in procuring the arrest and imprisonment of his adversary (849). For a part at least of his doctrines Gottschalk found ardent defenders, such as Lupus of Ferrières
, Prudentius of Troyes
, the deacon Florus, and Amolo of Lyons. Through the energy and activity of Hincmar the theories of Gottschalk were condemned at the second council of Quierzy
(853) and Valence
(855), and the decisions of these two synods were confirmed at the synods of Langres and Savonnières, near Toul (859).
To refute the predestinarian heresy Hincmar composed his De praedestinatione Dei et libero arbitrio, and against certain propositions advanced by Gottschalk on the Trinity he wrote a treatise called De una et non trina deitate. Gottschalk died in prison in 868.
, king of Lorraine (r. 855-869), who had repudiated his wife Theutberga
to marry his concubine Waldrada, engaged Hincmar's literary activities in another direction. At the request of a number of great personages in Lorraine he composed in 860 his De divortio Lotharii et Tetberge, in which he vigorously attacked, both from the moral and the legal standpoints, the condemnation pronounced against the queen by the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle (February 860).
Hincmar energetically supported the policy of Charles the Bald
in Lorraine, less perhaps from devotion to the king's interests than from a desire to see the whole of the ecclesiastical province of Reims united under the authority of a single, sympathetic sovereign, and in 869 it was he who consecrated Charles at Metz
as king of Lorraine.
. The exact date and the circumstances of the composition of the collection are still an open question, but it is certain that Hincmar was one of the first to know of their existence, and apparently he was not aware that the documents were forged. The importance assigned by these decretals to the bishops and the provincial councils, as well as to the direct intervention of the Holy See, tended to curtail the rights of the metropolitans.
Rothad, bishop of Soissons, one of the most active members of the party in favour of the pseudo-Isidorian theories, immediately came into collision with his archbishop. Deposed in 863 at the council of Soissons that was presided over by Hincmar, Rothad appealed to Rome. Pope Nicholas I
, supported him zealously, and in 865, in spite of the protests of the archbishop of Reims, Arsenius, bishop of Orte and legate of the Holy See, was instructed to restore Rothad to his episcopal see.
Hincmar experienced another check when he endeavoured to prevent Wulfad, one of the clerks deposed by Ebbo, from obtaining the archbishopric of Bourges with the support of Charles the Bald
. After a synod held at Soissons, Pope Nicholas I
pronounced himself in favour of the deposed clerks, and Hincmar was constrained to make submission (866).
He was more successful in his contest with his nephew Hincmar, bishop of Laon, who was at first supported both by the king and by his uncle, the archbishop of Reims, but soon quarrelled with both. Hincmar of Laon refused to recognize the authority of his metropolitan, and entered into an open struggle with his uncle, who exposed his errors in a treatise called Opusculum LV capitulorum, and procured his condemnation and deposition at the Synod of Douzy (871). The bishop of Laon was sent into exile, probably to Aquitaine, where his eyes were put out by order of Count Boso
. Pope Adrian
protested against his deposition, but it was confirmed in 876 by Pope John VIII
, and it was not until 878, at the council of Troyes, that the unfortunate prelate was reconciled with the Church.
A serious conflict arose between archbishop Hincmar on the one side and Charles and the pope on the other in 876, when Pope John VIII, at the king's request, entrusted Ansegisus, archbishop of Sens
, with the primacy of the Gauls and of Germany, and created him vicar apostolic. In Hincmar's eyes this was an encroachment on the jurisdiction of the archbishops, and it was against this primacy that he directed his treatise Dejure metro politanorum. At the same time he wrote a life of St Remigius, in which he endeavoured by audacious falsifications to prove the supremacy of the church of Reims over the other churches. Charles the Bald, however, upheld the rights of Ansegisus at the synod of Ponthion.
, whom he crowned at Compiègne
(December 8, 877). During the reign of Louis, Hincmar played an obscure part. He supported the accession of Louis III
and Carloman
, but had a dispute with Louis, who wished to install a candidate in the episcopal see of Beauvais without the archbishop's assent.
To Carloman, on his accession in 882, Hincmar addressed his De ordine palatii, partly based on a treatise (now lost) by Adalard, abbot of Corbie (c. 814), in which he set forth his system of government and his opinion of the duties of a sovereign, a subject he had already touched in his De regis persona et regio ministerio, dedicated to Charles the Bald at an unknown date, and in his Instructio ad Ludovicum regem, addressed to Louis the Stammerer on his accession in 877. In the autumn of 882 an irruption of the Normans
forced the old archbishop to take refuge at Épernay
, where he died on 21 December 882.
, of which the first part was written by Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, the best source for the history of Charles the Bald. He also wrote a great number of letters, some of which are extant, and others embodied in the chronicles of Flodoard
.
Hincmar's works, which are the principal source for the history of his life, were collected by Jacques Sirmond
(Paris, 1645), and reprinted by Migne
, Patrol. Latina
, vol. cxxv and cxxvi. See also Carl von Noorden
, Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Reims (Bonn, 1863), and, especially, Heinrich Schrör's, Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Reims (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1884). For Hincmar's political and ecclesiastical theories see preface to Maurice Prou's edition of the De ordine palatii (Paris, 1885), and the abbé Émile Lesne, La hiérarchie épiscopale en Gaule et en Germanie (Paris, 1905).
Archbishop of Reims
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reims is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese around 250 by St. Sixtus, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese around 750...
, the friend, advisor and propagandist of Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
, was one of the most remarkable figures in the ecclesiastical history of the Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
period. He belonged to a noble family of the north or north-east of Francia.
Early life
Destined to the monastic life, he was brought up at Saint-Denis under the direction of the abbot HilduinHilduin
Hilduin was Bishop of Paris, chaplain to Louis I, reforming Abbot of the Abbey of St. Denis and an author.-Background:...
(d. 844), who brought him in 822 to the court of the emperor Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
. When Hilduin was disgraced in 830 for having joined the party of Lothair I
Lothair I
Lothair I or Lothar I was the Emperor of the Romans , co-ruling with his father until 840, and the King of Bavaria , Italy and Middle Francia...
, Hincmar accompanied him into exile at Corvey
Corvey Abbey
The Imperial Abbey of Corvey was a Benedictine monastery on the River Weser, 2 km northeast of Höxter, now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany....
in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, but returned with him to Saint-Denis when the abbot was reconciled with the emperor, and remained faithful to the emperor during his struggle with his sons.
840–877. Reign of Charles the Bald
After the death of Louis the Pious (840) Hincmar supported Charles the BaldCharles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
, and received from him the abbacies of Nôtre-Dame at Compiègne
Compiègne
Compiègne is a city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.The city is located along the Oise River...
and Saint-Germer-de-Fly
Saint-Germer-de-Fly Abbey
Saint-Germer-de-Fly Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey located in the village of Saint-Germer-de-Fly, in Picardy in the Oise département of France. Only the late Romanesque-early Gothic church remains, now the village parish church. It is regarded as one of the earliest manifestations of the...
.
Archbishop of Reims (845)
In 845 he obtained through the king's support the archbishopric of Reims, and this choice was confirmed at the synod of Beauvais (April 845). Archbishop Ebbo, whom he replaced. had been deposed in 835 at the synod of ThionvilleSynod of Thionville
The Synod of Thionville was an important synod of ecclesiastic dignitaries of the Carolingian Empire in 835.Three years after the sons of the emperor rose in rebellion against their father, Emperor Louis the Pious, in 830, Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, had turned against him and on 13 November, 833,...
(Diedenhofen) for having broken his oath of fidelity to the emperor Louis, whom he had deserted to join the party of Lothair. After the death of Louis, Ebbo succeeded in regaining possession of his see for some years (840-844), but in 844 Pope Sergius II
Pope Sergius II
Pope Sergius II was Pope from January 844 – January 24, 847.On the death of Gregory IV the archdeacon John was proclaimed pope by popular acclamation, while the nobility elected Sergius, a Roman of noble birth. The opposition was suppressed, with Sergius intervening to save John's life...
confirmed his deposition. It was in these circumstances that Hincmar succeeded, and in 847 Pope Leo IV
Pope Leo IV
Pope Saint Leo IV was pope from 10 April 847 to 17 July 855.A Roman by birth, he was unanimously chosen to succeed Sergius II. When he was elected, on 10 April 847, he was cardinal of Santi Quattro Coronati, and had been subdeacon of Gregory IV and archpriest under his predecessor...
sent him the pallium
Pallium
The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...
.
One of the first cares of the new prelate was the restitution to his metropolitan see of the domains that had been alienated under Ebbo and given as benefice
Benefice
A benefice is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The term is now almost obsolete.-Church of England:...
s to laymen. From the beginning of his episcopate Hincmar was in constant conflict with the clerks who had been ordained by Ebbo during his reappearance. These clerks, whose ordination was regarded as invalid by Hincmar and his adherents, were condemned in 853 at the council of Soissons, and the decisions of that council were confirmed in 855 by Pope Benedict III
Pope Benedict III
Pope Benedict III was Pope from September 29, 855 to April 17, 858.Little is known of Benedict's life before his papacy. He was educated and lived in Rome and was cardinal priest of S. Callisto at the time of his election. Benedict had a reputation for learning and piety. He was elected upon the...
.
This conflict, however, bred an antagonism of which Hincmar was later to feel the effects. During the next thirty years the archbishop of Reims played a very prominent part in church and state. His authoritative and energetic will inspired, and in great measure directed, the policy of the west Frankish kingdom until his death.
As an expert on government and court ceremonial, an aggressive advocate of ecclesiastical privilege Hincmar took an active part in all the great political and religious affairs of his time, and was especially energetic in defending and extending the rights of the church and of the metropolitans in general, and of the metropolitan of the church of Reims in particular. In the resulting conflicts, in which his personal interest was in question, he displayed great activity and a wide knowledge of Canon law
Canon law (Catholic Church)
The canon law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. It lacks the necessary binding force present in most modern day legal systems. The academic...
, but did not scruple to resort to disingenuous interpretation of texts.
Gottschalk and predestinarianism
His first encounter was with GottschalkGottschalk (theologian)
Gottschalk of Orbais was a Saxon theologian, monk and poet who is best known for being an early advocate of the doctrine of two-fold predestination...
, whose predestinarian
Predestination
Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...
doctrines claimed to be modelled on those of St Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
. Hincmar placed himself at the head of the party that regarded Gottschalk's doctrines as heretical, and succeeded in procuring the arrest and imprisonment of his adversary (849). For a part at least of his doctrines Gottschalk found ardent defenders, such as Lupus of Ferrières
Lupus Servatus
Lupus Servatus, also Servatus Lupus , in French Loup , was a Carolingian Benedictine abbot of Ferrières, member of Charles the Bald's court and noted theological author of the ninth century...
, Prudentius of Troyes
Prudentius of Troyes
Prudentius was bishop of Troyes, and a celebrated opponent of Hincmar of Reims in the controversy on predestination.-Life:Aragon was since 415 West-Gothic and in 812 became Frankish...
, the deacon Florus, and Amolo of Lyons. Through the energy and activity of Hincmar the theories of Gottschalk were condemned at the second council of Quierzy
Councils of Quierzy
Several councils were held at Quierzy, a royal residence under the Carolingians, but now an insignificant village on the Oise in the French Department of Aisne in Picardy. The synod of September 838, ordered the monks of the abbey of Saint-Calais in the Diocese of Le Mans to return to their...
(853) and Valence
Valence, Drôme
Valence is a commune in southeastern France, the capital of the Drôme department, situated on the left bank of the Rhône, south of Lyon on the railway to Marseilles.Its inhabitants are called Valentinois...
(855), and the decisions of these two synods were confirmed at the synods of Langres and Savonnières, near Toul (859).
To refute the predestinarian heresy Hincmar composed his De praedestinatione Dei et libero arbitrio, and against certain propositions advanced by Gottschalk on the Trinity he wrote a treatise called De una et non trina deitate. Gottschalk died in prison in 868.
Lothar II of Lorraine
The question of the divorce of Lothair IILothair II of Lotharingia
Lothair II was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga, daughter of Boso the Elder. He is the namesake of the Lothair Crystal, which he probably commissioned, and of the Cross of Lothair, which was made over a century after his death but...
, king of Lorraine (r. 855-869), who had repudiated his wife Theutberga
Teutberga
Teutberga was a Frank and daughter of Boso the Elder. Therefore she was a Bosonid. She married Lothair II, a prince of the Carolingian dynasty, the imperial family of Francia...
to marry his concubine Waldrada, engaged Hincmar's literary activities in another direction. At the request of a number of great personages in Lorraine he composed in 860 his De divortio Lotharii et Tetberge, in which he vigorously attacked, both from the moral and the legal standpoints, the condemnation pronounced against the queen by the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle (February 860).
Hincmar energetically supported the policy of Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
in Lorraine, less perhaps from devotion to the king's interests than from a desire to see the whole of the ecclesiastical province of Reims united under the authority of a single, sympathetic sovereign, and in 869 it was he who consecrated Charles at Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
as king of Lorraine.
Episcopal conflicts
In the middle of the ninth century there appeared in Gaul the collection of 'false decretals' commonly known as the Pseudo-Isidorian DecretalsPseudo-Isidore
Pseudo-Isidore is the pseudonym given to the scholar or group of scholars responsible for the Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals, the most extensive and influential set of forgeries found in medieval Canon law. The authors were a group of Frankish clerics writing in the second quarter of the ninth century...
. The exact date and the circumstances of the composition of the collection are still an open question, but it is certain that Hincmar was one of the first to know of their existence, and apparently he was not aware that the documents were forged. The importance assigned by these decretals to the bishops and the provincial councils, as well as to the direct intervention of the Holy See, tended to curtail the rights of the metropolitans.
Rothad, bishop of Soissons, one of the most active members of the party in favour of the pseudo-Isidorian theories, immediately came into collision with his archbishop. Deposed in 863 at the council of Soissons that was presided over by Hincmar, Rothad appealed to Rome. Pope Nicholas I
Pope Nicholas I
Pope Nicholas I, , or Saint Nicholas the Great, reigned from April 24, 858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority and power, exerting decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe.He...
, supported him zealously, and in 865, in spite of the protests of the archbishop of Reims, Arsenius, bishop of Orte and legate of the Holy See, was instructed to restore Rothad to his episcopal see.
Hincmar experienced another check when he endeavoured to prevent Wulfad, one of the clerks deposed by Ebbo, from obtaining the archbishopric of Bourges with the support of Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
. After a synod held at Soissons, Pope Nicholas I
Pope Nicholas I
Pope Nicholas I, , or Saint Nicholas the Great, reigned from April 24, 858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority and power, exerting decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe.He...
pronounced himself in favour of the deposed clerks, and Hincmar was constrained to make submission (866).
He was more successful in his contest with his nephew Hincmar, bishop of Laon, who was at first supported both by the king and by his uncle, the archbishop of Reims, but soon quarrelled with both. Hincmar of Laon refused to recognize the authority of his metropolitan, and entered into an open struggle with his uncle, who exposed his errors in a treatise called Opusculum LV capitulorum, and procured his condemnation and deposition at the Synod of Douzy (871). The bishop of Laon was sent into exile, probably to Aquitaine, where his eyes were put out by order of Count Boso
Boso of Provence
Boso was a Frankish nobleman from the Bosonid-family, who was related to the Carolingian dynasty, who rose to become King of Provence ....
. Pope Adrian
Pope Adrian
Pope Adrian or Pope Hadrian may refer to:*Pope Adrian I *Pope Adrian II *Pope Adrian III *Pope Adrian IV , English pope*Pope Adrian V Pope Adrian or Pope Hadrian may refer to:*Pope Adrian I (c. 700-795)*Pope Adrian II (792–872)*Pope Adrian III (died 885)*Pope Adrian IV (c. 1100–1159), English...
protested against his deposition, but it was confirmed in 876 by Pope John VIII
Pope John VIII
Pope John VIII was pope from December 13, 872 to December 16, 882. He is often considered one of the ablest pontiffs of the ninth century and the last bright spot on the papacy until Leo IX two centuries later....
, and it was not until 878, at the council of Troyes, that the unfortunate prelate was reconciled with the Church.
A serious conflict arose between archbishop Hincmar on the one side and Charles and the pope on the other in 876, when Pope John VIII, at the king's request, entrusted Ansegisus, archbishop of Sens
Ansegisus, archbishop of Sens
Ansegisus was a Benedictine monk, Abbot of St. Michael's, at Beauvais, and in 871 became Archbishop of Sens.After Charles the Bald was crowned Emperor by Pope John VIII, he asked the Pope to appoint Ansegisus papal legate and primate over Gaul and Germany...
, with the primacy of the Gauls and of Germany, and created him vicar apostolic. In Hincmar's eyes this was an encroachment on the jurisdiction of the archbishops, and it was against this primacy that he directed his treatise Dejure metro politanorum. At the same time he wrote a life of St Remigius, in which he endeavoured by audacious falsifications to prove the supremacy of the church of Reims over the other churches. Charles the Bald, however, upheld the rights of Ansegisus at the synod of Ponthion.
877-882. Reigns of Louis the Stammerer, Louis III and Carloman
Although Hincmar had been very hostile to Charles' expedition into Italy, he figured among his testamentary executors and helped to secure the submission of the nobles to Louis the StammererLouis the Stammerer
Louis the Stammerer was the King of Aquitaine and later King of West Francia. He was the eldest son of Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orléans. He succeeded his younger brother in Aquitaine in 866 and his father in West Francia in 877, though he was never crowned Emperor...
, whom he crowned at Compiègne
Compiègne
Compiègne is a city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.The city is located along the Oise River...
(December 8, 877). During the reign of Louis, Hincmar played an obscure part. He supported the accession of Louis III
Louis III of France
Louis III was the King of France, still then called West Francia, from 879 until his death. The second son of Louis the Stammerer and his first wife, Ansgarde, he succeeded his father to reign jointly with his younger brother Carloman II, who became sole ruler on Louis's death...
and Carloman
Carloman
Carloman is the name of several members of the Frankish ruling family. It is also one translation of the Bulgarian name "Kaliman":* Carloman, father of Pepin I Carloman is the name of several members of the Frankish ruling family. It is also one translation of the Bulgarian name "Kaliman":*...
, but had a dispute with Louis, who wished to install a candidate in the episcopal see of Beauvais without the archbishop's assent.
To Carloman, on his accession in 882, Hincmar addressed his De ordine palatii, partly based on a treatise (now lost) by Adalard, abbot of Corbie (c. 814), in which he set forth his system of government and his opinion of the duties of a sovereign, a subject he had already touched in his De regis persona et regio ministerio, dedicated to Charles the Bald at an unknown date, and in his Instructio ad Ludovicum regem, addressed to Louis the Stammerer on his accession in 877. In the autumn of 882 an irruption of the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
forced the old archbishop to take refuge at Épernay
Épernay
Épernay is a commune in the Marne department in northern France. Épernay is located some 130 km north-east of Paris on the main line of the Eastern railway to Strasbourg...
, where he died on 21 December 882.
Works
Hincmar was a prolific writer. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of several theological tracts; of the De villa Noviliaco, concerning the claiming of a domain of his church; and he continued from 861 the Annales BertinianiAnnales Bertiniani
Annales Bertiniani, or The Annals of St. Bertin, are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the monastery of St. Bertin, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus continuing the Royal Frankish Annals , from which, however, it has circulated...
, of which the first part was written by Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, the best source for the history of Charles the Bald. He also wrote a great number of letters, some of which are extant, and others embodied in the chronicles of Flodoard
Flodoard
-Biography:He was born at Épernay, and educated at Reims in the cathedral school which had been established by Archbishop Fulcon .As canon of Reims, and favourite of the archbishops Herivaeus and Seulfus -Biography:He was born at Épernay, and educated at Reims in the cathedral school which had...
.
Hincmar's works, which are the principal source for the history of his life, were collected by Jacques Sirmond
Jacques Sirmond
Jacques Sirmond was a French scholar and Jesuit.Simond was born at Riom, Auvergne. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Billom; having been a novice at Verdun and then at Pont-Mousson, he entered into the order on the 26 July 1576...
(Paris, 1645), and reprinted by Migne
Jacques Paul Migne
Jacques Paul Migne was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely-distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a universal library for the Catholic priesthood.He was born at Saint-Flour, Cantal and studied...
, Patrol. Latina
Patrologia Latina
The Patrologia Latina is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1844 and 1855, with indices published between 1862 and 1865....
, vol. cxxv and cxxvi. See also Carl von Noorden
Carl von Noorden
Carl Friedrich Johannes von Noorden was a German historian who was a native of Bonn. He studied in Bonn, Marburg and Berlin, and in 1868 became a professor of history at the University of Greifswald. While in Bonn, he was a student of Heinrich von Sybel...
, Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Reims (Bonn, 1863), and, especially, Heinrich Schrör's, Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Reims (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1884). For Hincmar's political and ecclesiastical theories see preface to Maurice Prou's edition of the De ordine palatii (Paris, 1885), and the abbé Émile Lesne, La hiérarchie épiscopale en Gaule et en Germanie (Paris, 1905).