Hincmar , a Gallican prelate, born in Aqui-taine about 806, died in Epernay, Dec. 21, 882. He was brought up from childhood in the monastery of St. Denis, near Paris, where he became a monk under the reformed rule which he was himself instrumental in introducing. He was in high favor with Louis le Debon-naire, to whom he remained faithful in his adversity. In 845 he was consecrated archbishop of Rheims in place of Ebbonius, who was a partisan of the emperor Lothaire. His election was contested at Rome by Lothaire, but as Ebbonius did not urge his claim, Hinemar was confirmed. He showed much firmness in resisting the abuses of the kingly power and in restoring discipline in the church; and he was in such favor with Charles the Bald, that contemporary writers speak of him as ruling both church and state during that prince's reign. In 848 he presided over the council of Quierzy-sur-Oise, in which the Benedictine monk Go-descalchus (Gottschalk) was at his instigation sentenced to be degraded from the priesthood, publicly whipped, and imprisoned for life.

This sentence, which Hinemar caused to he executed in presence of the king, excited much indignation. The most illustrious prelates of Gaul and Germany blamed its severity, and condemned both Hinemar and Rabanus Mau-rus, archbishop of Mentz, for falling themselves into a doctrinal error on the very matter of predestination on which they had condemned Godescalchus. A doctrinal exposition drawn up by Hinemar, and approved in 853 by a second council held at Quierzy, was censured by the archbishop of Lyons, and by the council of Valence in January, 855, Hinemar himself being present. In 852 he obtained a decree from the council of Soissons for ever excluding from preferment all persons ordained by Ebbonius. Among these was Wulfadius, elected in that year archbishop of Bourges. This decree and its execution by Hinemar were openly censured by Pope Leo IV. and annulled in 866 by Nicholas I. This pontiff also cancelled the sentence of two councils held by Hinemar at Soissons deposing Rothrad, bishop of that city, and condemning him to perpetual reelusion. In 864, however, Hinemar having refused to give episcopal consecration to an unworthy favorite of the king, the pope sustained his action.

In 869 Hinemar made a vigorous opposition to Adrian II., when that pope interfered to prevent Charles the Bald from taking possession of Lorraine, after the death of the younger Lothaire. To the orders and menaces of the pope Hinemar replied by denying his right of intervention. In 871 Hinemar presided at the council of Douzy, which sentenced his nephew Hinemar, bishop of Laon, to deposition and imprisonment. No appeal to Rome was permitted; and two years afterward the prisoner's eyes were put out with a red-hot iron. Hinemar showed much courage in reproving the royal officers for their oppressive conduct, and reproached the king himself with conniving at their excesses. In 882 one of his last acts was to oppose Louis III. in his wish to have his favorite Odoacer consecrated bishop of Beauvais. On the advance of the Normans toward Rheims, Hinemar, taking with him the shrine and body of St. Remi, fled to Epernay, where he died. He did much for the welfare of the people, suppressed abuses and immorality, completed the cathedral of Rheims, founded there two famous schools, endowed their professorships, and established a public library.

Sirmond published a complete edition of Hinemar's works (2 vols. fol., Paris, 1645). - See Flodoard's Historta Eeclesioe Rhemensis (2 vols., Rheims, 1854, with French translation); Noorden's Hinkmar, Erzbischof von Rheims (Bonn, 1863); and J. C. Prichard's "Life and Times of Hinemar, Archbishop of Rheims" (London, 1849).