Hincmar (; ; ; 806 – 21 December 882), archbishop of Reims, was a Frankish jurist and theologian, as well as the friend, advisor and propagandist of Charles the Bald. He belonged to a noble family of northern Francia.

Biography

Early life

Hincmar was born in 806 to a distinguished family of the West Franks. Destined to the monastic life, he was brought up at Saint-Denis under the direction of the abbot Hilduin (died 844), who, when appointed court chaplain in 822, brought him to the court of the emperor Louis the Pious. There he became acquainted with the political as well as the ecclesiastical administration of the empire. When Hilduin was disgraced in 830 for having joined the party of Lothair I, Hincmar accompanied him into exile at Corvey in Saxony. Hincmar used his influence with the emperor on behalf of the banished abbot, and not without success: for he stood in high favour with Louis the Pious, having always been a faithful and loyal adherent. He returned with Hilduin to Saint-Denis when the abbot was reconciled with the emperor and remained faithful to the Louis 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 Bald (see Capitularies of Charles the Bald), and received from him the abbacies of Nôtre-Dame at Compiègne and Saint-Germer-de-Fly.

Archbishop of Reims (845)

Archbishop Ebbo 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. In 845 Hincmar obtained through the king's support the archbishopric of Reims, and this choice was confirmed at the Synod of Beauvais (April 845). He was consecrated archbishop on 3 May 845; in 847 Pope Leo IV sent him the pallium.

As a participant in government and court ceremony and 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 his own 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 was not so scrupulous that he would not resort to disingenuous interpretation of texts.

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.

  • 5 March – commemoration in Benedictine Order calendar.

Bibliography

  • De divortio Lotharii regis et Theutbergae reginae

;Translations

  • Rachel Stone and Charles West, tr., The Divorce of King Lothar and Queen Theutberga: Hincmar of Rheims's De Divortio (Manchester, 2016)
  • Throop, Priscilla, trans., Hincmar of Rheims: On Kingship, Divorce, Virtues and Vices (Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2014) an English translation of De regis persona et regio ministerio, ad Carolum Calvum regem; De cavendis vitiis et virtutibus exercendis, ad Carolum Calvum regem; De divortio Lotharii regis et Theutbergae reginae; Ad proceres regni, pro institutione Carlomanni regis, et de ordine palatii.

References

Further reading

  • Rachel Stone and Charles West, ed., Hincmar of Rheims: Life and Work (Manchester, 2015)
  • Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. 2020. The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty, Chapter 6. Penguin Randomhouse.
  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes