Finally Jacques Boileau (Paris, 1712) set all doubt at rest, and the book is now accepted as a genuine
production of Ratramnus.
It remains but to add that in addition to learning, perspicuity and judgment Ratramnus had
remarkable critical power. The latter was most conspicuously displayed in his exposure of the
fraudulent character of the Apocryphal tale, De nativitate Virginis, and of the homily of
Pseudo-Jerome, De assumptione Virginis, both of which Hincmar of Rheims had copied and
sumptuously bound.
§ 175. Hincmar of Rheims.
I. Hincmarus, Rhemensis archiepiscopus: Opera omnia, in Migne, Tom. CXXV.-CXXVI., col. 648.
First collected edition by Sirmond. Paris, 1645.
II. Prolegomena in Migne, CXXV. Wolfgang Friedrich Gess: Merkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben
und Schriften Hincmars, Göttingen, 1806. Prichard: The life and times of Hincmar, Littlemore,
- Carl von Noorden: Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Rheims, Bonn, 1863. Loupot: Hincmar,
évêque de Reins, sa vie, ses oeuvres, son influence, Reims, 1869. Auguste: Vidieu: Hincmar
de Reims, Paris, 1875. Heinrich Schrörs: Hincmar, Erzbischof von Reims, Freiburg im Br.,
1884 (588 pages).
III. Cf. also Flodoard: Historia ecclesia, Remensis, in Migne, CXXXV., col. 25–328 (Book III.,
col. 137–262, relates to Hincmar); French trans. by Lejeune, Reims, 1854, 2 vols. G. Marlot:
Histoire de Reims, Reims, 1843–45, 3 vols. F. Monnier: Luttes politiques et religieuses sous
les Carlovingiens, Paris, 1852. Max Sdralek: Hinkmar von Rheims kanonistisches Gutachten
über die Ehescheidung des Königs Lothar II. Freiburg im Br., 1881. Du Pin, VII. 10–54. Ceillier,
XII. 654–689, Hist. Lit. de la France, V., 544–594 (reprinted in Migne, CXXV. col. 11–44).
Bähr, 507–523. Ebert, II. 247–257. Hefele: Conciliengeschichte, 2d ed. IV. passim.
Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, was born of noble and distinguished ancestry, probably in the
province of that name,^1381 in the year 806. His name is also spelled Ingumar, Ingmer and Igmar.
He was educated in the Benedictine monastery of St. Denis, near Paris, under abbot Hilduin. When
the latter was appointed (822) chancellor to Louis the Pious he took young Hincmar to court with
him. There his talents soon brought him into prominence, while his asceticism obtained for him
the especial favor of Louis the Pious. This interest he used to advance the cause of reform in the
monastery of St. Denis, which had become lax in its discipline, and when the Synod of Paris in 829
appointed a commission to bring this about he heartily co-operated with it, and entered the monastery
as a monk. In 830, Hilduin was banished to New Corbie, in Saxony, for participation in the
conspiracy of Lothair against Louis the Pious. Hincmar had no part in or sympathy with the
conspiracy, yet out of love for Hilduin he shared his exile. Through his influence with Louis, Hilduin
was pardoned and re-instated in his abbey after only a year’s absence. Hincmar for the next nine
or ten years lived partly at the abbey and partly at court. He applied himself diligently to study, and
laid up those stores of patristic learning of which he afterwards made such an effective use. In 840
Charles the Bald succeeded Louis, and soon after took him into his permanent service, and then
began that eventful public life which was destined to render him one of the most famous of
(^1381) Schrörs, l.c. p. 9.