GOTTSCHALK [GODESCALUS, GOTTESCALE] (C. 808-867?), German theologian, was born near Mainz, the son of a Saxon noble who obliged him to enter the Benedictine monastery of Fulda, then under the abbot Hrabanus Maurus. In 829, at the synod of Mainz, on the pretext that he had been unduly con strained by his abbot, he obtained his liberty, withdrew first to Corbie and then to Orbais where his study of St. Augustine led him to support the doctrine of absolute predestination and the denial of liberty and responsibility. Between 835 and 84o Gott schalk was ordained priest, and went to Italy. Driven out through the influence of Hrabanus Maurus, now archbishop of Mainz, he travelled through Dalmatia, Pannonia and Norica, preaching and writing. In 848 he presented to the synod at Mainz a profession of faith and a refutation of the accusations by Hrabanus Maurus. He was convicted of heresy however, obliged to swear that he would never enter the territory of Louis the German, and handed over to Hincmar, archbishop of Reims.
The next year at a provincial council at Quierzy, presided over by Charles the Bald, Gottschalk attempted to justify his ideas, but was again condemned, was degraded from the priesthood, and shut up in the monastery of Hautvilliers. There Hincmar tried again to induce him to retract, but he continued to defend his doctrine, and a great controversy resulted. Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, Wenilo of Sens, Ratramnus of Corbie, Loup of Fer rieres and Florus of Lyons wrote in his favour. Hincmar wrote De praedestinatione and De una non trim deitate against his views, and called in Erigena. The question was discussed at the councils of Kiersy (8S3), of Valence (855) and of Savonnieres (859). Finally Pope Nicolas I. took up the case, and summoned Hincmar to the council of Metz (863) . Hincmar declared that Gottschalk might defend himself before the pope. Nothing came of this, and Gottschalk died without recanting. Of his many works we have only the two professions of faith (cf. Migne, Patrol. Lat., cxxi.), and some poems, ed. L. Traube in Mon. Germ. hist.: Poetae Latini aevi Carolini (t. 1896). Fragments of his theological treatises have been preserved in the writings of Hinc mar, Erigena, Ratramnus and Loup of Ferrieres.
From the 17th century, when the Jansenists exalted Gottschalk, much has been written on him. Mention may be made of F. Picavet's "Les Discussions sur la liberte au temps de Gottschalk, de Raban Maur, d'Hincmar, et de Jean Scot," in Comptes rendus de l'acad. des sciences morales et politiques (1896) ; and A. Freystedt's "Studien zu Gottschalks Leben and Lehre," in Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte (1897) . Further bibliography in Uberweg's Gesch. der Philosophic.