Saint Rimbert (or Rembert) (c. 830 - 11 June 888 in Bremen) was archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, in the northern part of the Kingdom of East Frankia from 865 until his death in 888.
[1] Little is directly known about Rimbert, much of the information available regarding his life comes from the Vita Rimberti, a hagiography written by an unknown author, likely produced some time in the 10th century.
[1] Rimbert furthermore obtained market, coinage and toll rights for the city of Bremen in 888 from Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia and thus considerably improved the financial state of the archbishopric.
The miracles attributed to him include calming stormy seas, restoring sight to the blind and in one instance, performing an exorcism on the son of Louis the German.
[6] Rimbert had enquired if this in meant that the cynocephali were capable of reason and therefore are 'arose from the line of Adam' making them human and eligible for Christian conversion.
[1] This however, bought Rimbert into an ideological conflict with Hincmar of Rheims who vehemently opposed both ideas of predestination, the humanity of the Cynocephali and questioned the value of the missionary work in Scandinavia.
[3] Rimbert needed to provide believable context for the forged documents that he and Ansgar used to claim the episcopal justification over Bremen as well as Hamburg.
[4] As such, Rimbert wove together in the Vita Ansgari justification for the continuation of the missionary work in Scandinavia and the authority that Ansgar had over Bremen, legitimising the episcopal see of Hamburg-Bremen.