Electors of Saxony Holy Roman Emperors Building Literature Theater Liturgies Hymnals Monuments Calendrical commemoration Gottschalk of Orbais (Latin: Godescalc, Gotteschalchus; c. 808 – 30 October 868) was a Saxon theologian, monk and poet.
Led by his own interpretation of Augustine's teachings on the matter, he claimed the sinfulness of human nature and the need to turn to God with a humility for salvation.
[1] Gottschalk was a son of Saxon count Bernus,[2] child oblate at the monastery of Fulda under the tutelage of the Abbot Hrabanus Maurus of Mainz.
In June 829, at the synod of Mainz, on the pretext that he had been unduly constrained by his abbot, he sought and obtained his liberty, withdrew first to Corbie.
[6] Before 840 Gottschalk deserted his monastery and went to Italy, where he preached his doctrine of twin predestination, and entered into relations with Notting, bishop of Verona, and Eberhard, margrave of Friuli.
[5] He was however driven from Italy through the influence of Hrabanus Maurus, now archbishop of Mainz, who wrote two violent letters to Notting and Eberhard.
Gottschalk returned to Francia after a decade of travels throughout Europe, during this time he had gained reputation for his teachings on predestination.
[12] Gottschalk was beaten by those present, before taking an oath never to return to Louis the Germans Kingdom of East Francia.
Ninth century heresies had largely been foreigners (Spanish or Greek), creating a great other for Carolingian theologians to use to define faith boundaries, the one exception was Gottschalk who continuously refused to renounce his beliefs.
[18] However, unlike Augustine, Gottschalk explicitly argued for double predestination based on the immutable sovereignty of God.
Gathered at this meeting were many notable including Archbishop Hincmar and King Charles the Bald the council was determined to prove Gottschalk's ideas incorrect and his readings of Augustine being wrong.
[26] Gottschalk was forced to burn the writings that he had taken to the council,[27] and was 'beaten nearly to death' on the command of lower ranking abbots not those in ecclesiastical office.
des sciences morales et politiques (Paris, 1896); and A. Freystedt, Studien zu Gottschalks Leben und Lehre, in Zeitschrsft für Kirchengeschichte (1897), vol.