I 175. HLNCMAR OF KIIEIMS. 759
in Rheims, and was known to Hincmar. Ho had a vision after he had been four days at the point of death, which he related to his confessor, and the eonfessor to Hincmar, who for obvious reasons published it. Bernold regained his health, and was therefore a living witness to the accuracy of his story. In his vision he went to " a certain place/' i. c. purgatory, in which he found forty-one bishops, ragged and dirty, exposed alternately to extreme cold and scorching heat. Among them was Ebo, Ilincinar's predecessor, who immediately implored Bernold to go to their parishioners and clergy and tell them to offer alms, prayers and the sacred oblation for them. This he did, and on his return found the bishops radiant in countenance, as if just bathed and shaved, dressed in alb, stole and sandals, but without chasubles. Leaving them, Bernold went in his vision to a dark place, where he saw Charles the Bald sitting in a heap of putrefaction, gnawed by worms and worn to a mere skeleton. Charles called him by name and implored him to help him. Bernold asked how he could. Then Charles told him that he was suffering because he had not obeyed Hincmar' s counsels, but if Bernold would secure Hincmar's help he would be delivered. This Bernold did, and on his return he found the king clad in royal robes, sound in flesh and amid beautiful surroundings. Bernold went further and encountered two other characters — Jesse, an archbishop, and a Count Othar, whom he helped by going to the earth and securing the prayers, alms and oblations of their friends. He finally came across a man who told him that in fourteen years he would leave the body and go back to the place he was then in for good, but that if he was careful to give alms and to do other good works he would have a beautiful mansion. A rustic of stern countenance expressed his lack of faith in Bernold 's ability to do this, but was silenced by the first man. Whereupon Bernold asked for the Eucharist, and when it was given to him he drank almost half a goblet of wine, and said, " I could eat some food, if I had it." He was fed, revived and recovered. Hiucmar, in
760 FOUKTH PEK1OD. A. D. 590-1049.
relating this vision, calls attention to its similarity to those told in the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, the Ecclesiastical History of Bede, in the writings of St. Boniface, and to that of Wettin, which Walahfrid Strabo related.1 He ends by exhorting his readers to be more fervent in their prayers, and especially to pray for king Charles and the other dead.
3. The life of St. Remigius? the patron saint of Rheims. This is an expansion of Fortunatus' brief biography by means of extracts from the Gesta Francorum, Gregory of Tours, and legendary and traditional sources, and particularly by means of moralizing and allegorizing. The length of the book is out of all proportion to its value or interest. To the life he adds an Encomium of St. Remigius? The object of these two books is not to produce history or criticism, but an edifying work and to exalt the church of Rheims by exalting its patron. Perhaps also he would hint that the gift which Chlodwig made to Remigius might be acceptably imitated.4
4. Hincmar appears as a genuine historian in the third part of the Bertinian Annals? so called because first published from a MS. found in the convent of St. Bertin. These Annals of the West Prankish Kingdom begin with the year 741 and go down to 882. Hincmar wrote them from 861 to 882. He evidently felt the responsibility of the work he conducted, for he put every fact down in a singularly impartial manner, especially when it is remembered that he was himself an important part of contem porary history.6
5. Letters.7 These are fifty-five in number, and are upon
1 See \ 169, p. 732.
a Vita Sanctii Remigii, Migne, CXXV. col. 1129-1188. 3 Encomium ejusdern S. Remiyii, ibid. col. 1187-1198. * Lbert, 1. c. p. 256.
5 Annalium Bertinianorum pars tertia, Migne, CXXV. col. 1203-1302. Keprint (f Pertz, "Monum. Germ. hist. Script." I. 455-515. « Ebert, I. c. 367, 368. Epistolcs, Migne, CXXVL col. 9-280.