Turpin

Tilpin, also called Turpin, was a Frankish cleric, the first archbishop of Rheims in the second half of the eighth century, regarded as one of the most important bishops of his time. Born before 748 or 751, he died on 1 September 794 at Rheims. In his more than forty years of episcopate he practised exemplary pastoral care and took part in reforms.

His origin cannot be established precisely; it is known that he served near Paris before becoming abbot of Saint-⁠Denis. An epitaph written by his successor Hincmar states that Turpin served about forty years as bishop at Rheims. It is supposed that at first he was auxiliary bishop beside Bishop Milo and took the office of archbishop only after Milo's death. He is known for the internal reorganisation of the Church in general and of the diocese of Rheims in particular. Rheims regained in his time its status as a metropolitan see, and he was the first bishop permitted to bear the title of archbishop. He took part in the Synod of Rome of 769, where the relation between the pope and the patriarch of Constantinople was discussed. He is regarded as the founder of the scriptorium of Rheims. In 779 Pope Hadrian I granted him the pallium for the Church of Rheims in a letter; it was later discovered that the letter had been forged or tampered with in the middle of the ninth century.

Until the seventeenth century the Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi was ascribed to him, and legends about him arose from this. It is now known that the work, called the Pseudo-⁠Turpin, was written only around the middle of the twelfth century, so it cannot be his. His tomb is in the cathedral of Rheims. After a long vacancy of the see, he was succeeded by Wulfar in 812. He is remembered as a saint in the Western tradition; the source shows no feast day and no synodal canonization.