Hincmar of Reims

Hincmar (806 – 21 December 882), 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 northern Francia.

Destined to the monastic life, he was brought up at Saint-Denis under the direction of the abbot Hilduin (died 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.

After the death of Louis the Pious (840) Hincmar supported Charles the Bald (see Capitularies of Charles the Bald), and received from him the abbacies of Nôtre-Dame at Compiègne and Saint-Germer-de-Fly.

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 Thionville (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.

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