Hincmar of Laon

Hincmar of Laon was nephew of Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, who at first patronized him, and had him elected bishop of Laon, about A.D. 856. , He soon showed an obstinate and refractory spirit; set at naught his uncle, who was his metropolitan; rebelled against his king, and scorned the decrees of synods, whose sentence of condemnation he for some time avoided by appealing to Rome; but at length he was summoned, heard, condemned, and deposed from his see of Laon. He was also imprisoned and his eyes cruelly put out, A.D. 871. Two years later, at the Council of Troyes, he obtained access to the pope, who reinstated him, assigned him a portion of the episcopal revenues, and permitted him even to resume his pontifical functions in part. He died about A.D. 880. He wrote many Letters, etc., which are lost; but a few may be found with his life, defense, etc., in Labbe, Concil. tom. 7 and in Sirmond's edition of the works of Hincmar of Rheims (q.v.). See Clarke, Succession of Sacred Literature, vol. 2; Cellot, Vie d'Hincmar de Laon; Biddle, Hist. of the Papacy, 2, 24-27; Neander,

Church Hist. 3, 364; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen Lex. 5, 208; Illgen, Zeitsch. f. d. Hist. Theol. 1858, p. 227.