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.