Hilduin (c. 785 – c. 855) was Bishop of Paris, chaplain to Louis I, reforming Abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, and author. He was one of the leading scholars and administrators of the Carolingian Empire. Background Hilduin was from a prominent Frankish family. Michael Lapidge suggests that he was the nephew of Queen Hildegard, and first cousin to Louis the Pious. This would account for his appointment to the prestigious Abbey of Saint-Denis, the burial site of the Frankish kings. Johann Peter Kirsch says Hilduin was educated at the palace school under Alcuin, As Alcuin was in Northumbria in 790, Lapidge suggests Waldo of Reichenau as a possible alternative. Waldo was abbot of Reichenau, to which Hilduin's family had ties. In 806 Waldo became abbot of Saint-Denis, near Paris. In either case, Hilduin acquired a good deal of erudition, and corresponded with Rabanus Maurus. Career Waldo of Reichenau died in March 814, and Hilduin, although a secular cleric and not a monk, succeeded him as abbot of Saint-Denis. To this was later added the Abbey of St-Germain des Prés, Abbey of St-Médard in Soissons, and the Abbey of St-Ouen. In July 818, Louis the Pious stopped at St-Denis on his way to military campaign in Brittany. Hilduin then accompanied him. Hincmar of Reims, who speaks of Hilduin with great respect, was one his students at the school of Saint-Denis. Dungal of Bobbio and possibly Otfrid of Weissenburg served under him. "Hilduin was concerned with the accurate production of manuscripts", and oversaw the scriptorium at Saint-Denis. The Abbey had a substantial library. Upon the death of Hildebold of Cologne in September 818, Louis the Pious appointed Hilduin as his archchaplain in 819, or, more probably, not until 822. He was one of the King's valued counselors, and became both wealthy, and influential regarding royal patronage. He was instrumental in the appointment of Walafrid Strabo of Reichenau as tutor to Louis's son Charles the Bald. In the war between Emperor Louis and his sons (830) Hilduin took the side of the latter. Thereby he lost his abbeys and was banished, first to Paderborn and then to the Abbey of Corvey (near Höxter on the Weser). Abbot Warin of that monastery received him kindly, in return for which Hilduin presented him with the relics of St. Vitus, which thereafter were profoundly venerated in Corvey. No later than 831, however, Hilduin regained Louis's