Gottschalk (redirected from Godescalc)

Gottschalk or Gottschalck (both: gôt`shälk), d. c.868, German theologian; son of the count of Saxony. He was placed as a boy in the monastery of Fulda (c.822). He did not wish to be a monk but was forced by Rabanus Maurus Magnentius, his superior, to remain. In 829 a synod freed him of his vows, but he went to the monastery of Orbais, where he was ordained a priest. He soon began to teach an extreme doctrine of predestination, holding that God had selected in advance whom God would save and whom God would condemn. His views, which he apparently derived from St. Augustine, created great interest. He preached in Italy and elsewhere. Rabanus and Hincmar worked to suppress him, and Gottschalk was condemned in 848 and 849, deposed from the priesthood, and imprisoned in the monastery of Hautvilliers.

---

Gottschalk 

Place of birth unknown; died in 1066. Prince of the Obodrites from 1031 (actually from 1044).

Gottschalk was the founder of an early-feudal state of the Polabian Slavs, the Wendish State, which existed from the 1040’s to the first third of the 12th century. He pursued independent policies, using the support of the archbishop of Bremen and of the Danish king to counter the threat of the dukes of Saxony. He tried to create an independent Slavic church. Gottschalk was killed by nobles of his tribe, who had allied themselves with the Saxon feudal lords.

REFERENCE

Koroliuk, V. D. “Gosudarstvo Gotshalka (XI v.).” In Slavianskii sbornik.[Moscow] 1947.