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Bible Encyclopedias
Hincmar
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or archbishop of Rheims, one of the most learned divines of his age, was born about A.D. 809, of a noble family, related to the counts of Toulouse, and was educated in the Monastery of St. Denys, near Paris. After finishing his studies he was summoned to the court of Louis le Debonnaire, to whom he faithfully adhered, and who employed him, after his restoration, in settling the ecclesiastical affairs of the empire; after this he retired to his monastery, whence he was again summoned into public life by being chosen archbishop of Rheims, A.D. 845. On the accession of Lothaire, an attempt was made to depose him from his see, without success. He was a zealous supporter of the rights of the Gallican Church. In 847 the controversy with Gottschalk (Godeschalcus) (q.v.) about predestination arose, and when the case of Gottschalk came before him, he drove it on with too great heat, and Gotteschalk by his means was condemned and punished with much and unjust severity. One of the most important events in Hincmar's life was his controversy in 862 with pope Nicholas I, one of the most learned men of the Roman Catholic Church. Rothadius, bishop of Soissons, and suffragan of Hincmar, deposed a priest of his diocese, who appealed to Hincmar as metropolitan, and was ordered by him to be restored to office. Rothadius, who resisted this order, was, in consequence, condemned and excommunicated by the archbishop. He appealed to the pope, who at once ordered Hincmar to restore Rothadius, or to appear at Rome either in person or by his representative, to vindicate the sentence. He sent a legate to Rome, but refused to restore the deposed bishop; whereupon Nicholas annulled the sentence, and required that the cause should have another hearing, and this time in Rome. Hincmar, after some demurral, was forced to acquiesce. The cause of Rothadius was reexamined, and he was acquitted and restored to his see. But perhaps more historically interesting is Hincmar's opposition to the temporal power of the mediaeval papacy. (See PAPACY).
Under the successor of Nicholas, Adrian II, the succession to the sovereignty of Lorraine on the death of king Lothaire was questioned; the pope favored the pretensions of the emperor Louis in opposition to those of Charles the Bold of France. Adrian addressed a mandate to the subjects of Charles and to the nobles of Lorraine, accompanied by a menace of the censure of the Church. To this Hincmar offered a firm and persistent opposition. He was equally firm, ten years later, in resisting the undue extension of the royal prerogative in ecclesiastical affairs. Louis III, in opposition to the judgment of the Council of Vienne, wished to bestow upon his favorite, Odoacer, the see of Beauvais; but Hincmar boldly remonstrated, and fearlessly denounced the attempt as an unjustifiable usurpation. He died A.D. 882. His works consist chiefly of Letters about local ecclesiastical affairs, and his treatise De Pradestinatione Dei et libero arbitrio, and small tracts on discipline. A former treatise of his, De Praedest., is lost. In the controversy with Gottschalk he maintained that "God wills the salvation of all men; that some will be saved through the gift of divine grace; that others are lost, owing to their demerit; Christ suffered for all; whoever does not appropriate these sufferings has himself to-blame." All his remains are to be found in the careful edition of his works edited by Sirmond, Opera, duos in tomos digesta, etc. (Paris, 1645, 2 vols. fol.). See Noorden, Hinkmar, Erzbischof v. Rheims (Bonn, 1863); Cave, Hist. Litt.; Mosheim, Ch. History, cent. 9:pt. 2, eh. 2, n. 52; Hagenbach, Hist. of Doctrines, 2, 50; Flodoard, Ecclesiae Remensis Hist.; Gallia Christiana, 9, 39; Hist. litter. de la France, 5, 544 sq.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. G neral, 24, 706 sq.; Neander, History of Dogmas, 2, 454; Riddle, History of the Papacy, 2; Milman, Lat. Christianity, 3, 51 et al; 4:84; Illgen, Zeitsch. f. d. Hist. Theol. 1859, p. 478; Hefele (Romans Cath.) in Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen- Lexikon, 5, 203.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Hincmar'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/h/hincmar.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
