Editing Rimbert (section)

==Forged foundations of Hamburg-Bremen==
Prior to Rimbert's election as Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen the [[Episcopal see|archiepiscopal see]] of Hamburg-Bremen had not technically existed. Ansgar himself had forged the bishopric of [[Hamburg]], claiming that he had been granted the position by [[Louis the Pious]] after he died, a claim uncontested by [[Louis the German]].<ref name=":1" /> Ansgar later became an archbishop, though only a missionary archbishop, and such his episcopal see, Hamburg, was only that of a bishop not Archbishop. When Ansgar died and Rimbert assumed the archbishopric in 865, he understood that Hamburg was not large enough for an archiepiscopal see and the Archbishop of [[Cologne]] threatened to assert jurisdiction over Bremen, an area Ansgar had exercised some influence though to which he and Rimbert had no claim.<ref name=":1" /> This is apparent as several of the accounts that Rimbert gives of the earlier bestowals of the [[Diocese|archdiocese]] are at odds with surviving documentary evidence.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref name=":1" />