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Hildebold
(died 3 September 818) was the
Bishop of Cologne
from 787 until 795 and the first
Archbishop of Cologne
thereafter.
A friend of
Charlemagne
, in 791 Hildebold was made the
archchaplain
and
chancellor
of the
Imperial Council
. At the request of Charlemagne,
Pope Adrian I
released Hildebold from the traditional episcopal requirement of residing in one's see. In 795, the pope raised Cologne to archiepiscopal status. The dioceses of
Utrecht
,
Liege
,
Munster
,
Minden
,
Osnabruck
, and
Bremen
were made suffragan. Hildebold began the construction of an extension of
Cologne Cathedral
that was only completed in 870, which in later times was called the Hildebold Cathedral.
In 805, he met the first
bishop of Munster
,
St Ludgar
.
Hildebold was the first witness to
Charlemagne's testament of 811
. Together with
Richulf
, he presided over the
Synod of Mainz
in 813 at
St. Alban's Abbey, Mainz
, and in the same year he prepared
Louis the Pious
to succeed his father. When Charlemagne died in 814, Hildebold donated to the construction of his tomb in
Aachen
. With
Pope Stephen IV
, he prepared the coronation of Louis in
Reims
.
Hildebold died on 3 September 818 and was buried in the
Abbey of St Geron
.
[1]
The friendship of Charlemagne and Hildebold has become something of a legend. It is said that they first met when Charlemagne was hunting in the forests outside Cologne.
[1]
After a long day hunting and in need of a rest, Charlemagne stopped at a small chapel. After a while the chapel filled with worshippers and Hildebold gave his sermon. Charlemagne was so impressed by Hildebold's sermon that he offered a sum of gold to his chapel. Believing Charlemagne was only a hunter and not the king, Hildebold rejected the offer and asked only for a small piece of leather from the next deer killed so he could bind his old prayer book. Charlemagne was so impressed by this modesty that he immediately fostered a friendship with the cleric.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Deborah H. Dluhy (1978). Charlemagne and the First Archbishop of Cologne: A Thirteenth-Century Wall Painting at St. Gereon.
Gesta
17 (2): 33?36
doi
:
10.2307/766857
JSTOR
766857
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