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GOTTSCHALK [GODESCALUS, GOTTESCALE], ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 279 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GOTTSCHALK [GODESCALUS, GOTTESCALE], (c. 808-867?) , See also:German theologian, was See also:born near See also:Mainz, and was devoted (oblatus) from See also:infancy by his parents, his See also:father was a Saxon, See also:Count See also:Bern,—to the monastic See also:life. He was trained at the monastery of See also:Fulda, then under the See also:abbot Hrabanus Maurus, and became the friend of Walafrid See also:Strabo and Loup of Ferrieres. In See also:June 829, at the See also:synod of Mainz, on the pretext that he had been unduly constrained by his abbot, he sought and obtained his See also:liberty, withdrew first to See also:Corbie; where he met See also:Ratramnus, and then to the monastery of Orbais in the See also:diocese of See also:Soissons. There he studied St See also:Augustine, with the result that he became an enthusiastic believer in the See also:doctrine of See also:absolute See also:predestination, in one point going beyond his See also:master—Gottschalk believing in a predestination to condemnation as well as in a predestination to salvation, while Augustine had contented himself with the doctrine of preterition as complementary to the doctrine of See also:election. Between 835 and 84o Gottschalk was ordained See also:priest, without the knowledge of his See also:bishop, by Rigbold, chorepiscopus of See also:Reims. Before 84o, deserting his monastery, he went to See also:Italy, preached there his doctrine of See also:double predestination, and entered into relations with Notting, bishop of See also:Verona, and See also:Eberhard, count of See also:Friuli. Driven from Italy through the See also:influence of Hrabanus Maurus, now See also:archbishop of Mainz, who wrote two violent letters to Notting and Eberhard, he travelled through See also:Dalmatia, See also:Pannonia and Norica, but continued See also:preaching and See also:writing. In See also:October 848 he presented to the synod at Mainz a profession of faith and a refutation of the ideas expressed by Hrabanus Maurus in his See also:letter to Notting. He was convicted, however, of See also:heresy, beaten, obliged to swear that he would never again enter the territory of See also:Louis the German, and handed over to See also:Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, who sent him back to his monastery at Orbais. The next See also:year at a provincial See also:council at See also:Quierzy, presided over by See also:Charles the Bald, he attempted to justify his ideas, but was again condemned as a heretic and disturber of the public See also:peace, was degraded from the priesthood, whipped, obliged to See also:burn his See also:declaration of faith, and shut up in the monastery of Hautvilliers. There Hincmar tried again to induce him to retract.

Gottschalk however continued to defend his doctrine, writing to his See also:

friends and to the most eminent theologians of See also:France and See also:Germany. A See also:great controversy resulted. See also:Prudentius, bishop of See also:Troyes, Wenilo of See also:Sens, Ratramnus of Corbie, Loup of Ferrieres and See also:Florus of See also:Lyons wrote in his favour. Hincmar wrote De praedestinatione and De una non trina deitate against his views, but gained little aid from Johannes Scotus.See also:Erigena, whom he had called in as an authority. The question was discussed at the See also:councils of Kiersy (853), of See also:Valence (855) and of Savonnieres (859). Finally the See also:pope See also:Nicolas I. took up the See also:case, and summoned Hincmar to the council of See also:Metz (863). Hincmar either could not or would not appear, but declared that Gottschalk might go to defend himself before the pope. Nothing came of this, however, and when Hincmar learned that Gottschalk had fallen See also:ill, he forbade him the sacraments or See also:burial in consecrated ground unless he would recant. This Gottschalk refused to do. He died on the 30th of October between 866 and 87o. Gottschalk was a vigorous and See also:original thinker, but also of a violent temperament, incapable of discipline or moderation in his ideas as in his conduct. He was less an innovator than a reactionary.

Of his many See also:

works we have only the two professions of faith (cf. See also:Migne, PalrologiaLatina, cxxi. c. 347 et seq.), and some poems, edited by L. Traube in Monumenta Germaniae historica: Poetae See also:Latini aevi Carolini (t. 707-738). Some fragments of his theological See also:treatises have been preserved in the writings of Hincmar, Erigena, Ratramnus and Loup of Ferrieres. From the 17th See also:century, when the Jansenists exalted Gottschalk, much has been written on him. Mention may be made of two See also:recent studies, F. Picavet, " See also:Les Discussions sur la libert6 au temps See also:GOTTSCHED 279 de Gottschalk, de Raban Maur, d'Hincmar, et de See also:Jean See also:Scot," in Comptes rendus de l'acad. See also:des sciences morales et politiques (See also:Paris, 1896) ; and A. Freystedt, " Studien zu Gottschalks Leben and Lehre," in Zeitschrift See also:fur Kirchengeschichie (1897), vol. xviii.

End of Article: GOTTSCHALK [GODESCALUS, GOTTESCALE], (c. 808-867?)

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