Gottschalk from Orbais

Gottschalk von Orbais (also: Gottschalk der Sachse or Godescalcus ) (* around 803, † around 869 in the Abbey of Hautvillers ) was an early medieval scholar, monk and poet. He developed the doctrine of the gemina praedestinatio , the double predestination, based on Augustine . Because of her, he got into a dispute with the Archbishop of Mainz Rabanus Maurus and Archbishop Hinkmar von Reims and was finally sentenced to life imprisonment and constant silence.

Life

Childhood and youth in the monastery

Gottschalk came from a Saxon noble family (son of "Count Berno") and was, probably at the age of six or seven, handed over by his parents to the Fulda monastery ( Benedictines ) as an oblate , whereby his inheritance also came into the care of the monastery. He received extensive training there. There is much to suggest that Gottschalk also spent two years in Reichenau Monastery and made friends there with Walahfrid, among others .

Dispute about profession

When it came to the religious vows (profession), usually between the ages of 16 and 18, Gottschalk refused to take the vow. As a free Saxon he claimed to be able to decide his own fate and wanted to leave the monastery. In doing so, he denied the legitimacy of his status as oblatus , although the custom of placing children in the custody of monasteries without being asked was common back then and well into the 12th century. Gottschalk also demanded that his inheritance be returned to him and was supported by his relatives. His then abbot and teacher Rabanus Maurus (Hrabanus) refused to give in to this request. Thereupon Gottschalk appealed to the Synod of Mainz in 829 . This decided in his favor. However, Hrabanus performed a compulsory profession and held Gottschalk in the monastery.

Gottschalk then called another synod and also the king. Because of the scarce sources, there is no generally accepted view in research as to how definitively his fate was decided. Kurt Flasch and other experts are of the opinion that Hraban was ultimately approved and Gottschalk was only allowed to change monastery. Gangolf Schrimpf, on the other hand, argues that it is also possible that Gottschalk was actually released from the forced vow and possibly even lived for some time as a layman outside the monastery walls.

In-depth studies

It is certain that Gottschalk reappeared as a monk a few years later in the west of the Franconian Empire . This is certainly attested for the Orbais monastery ; a stay in Corbie is also likely .

After his ordination, Gottschalk deepened his studies, among other things, with regard to the writings of the church fathers , with a focus on the teaching of Augustine . He also wrote poetry and studied grammar. He also corresponded with friends from his youth (e.g. Walahfrid) and important scholars such as Ratramnus von Corbie on poetic and philosophical-theological questions.

Doctrine of predestination

His argument with Augustine finally led him to an extremely radical conception of the so-called predestination (the predestination by God), with which he also came out in writing and word. He made use of the probably first in Isidore of Seville to place expression of gemina praedestinatio , so the double predestination . In short, this view takes the position that God not only selected the redeemed before they were born , but also predestined those who will find no grace before him (cf. the rigid doctrine of grace of late Augustine).

Having theological debates on such issues was rather unusual at the time. But Gottschalk wanted to put his own thoughts on the side of the official Augustin interpretation of his time. This contradicted official Christian theology - also because of its sometimes impetuous character - since the assumption of a double predestination ultimately calls into question the meaning of a secular church organization. In the scientific literature on this topic it is controversial whether Hraban, who was the first to react to Gottschalk's revival of the Augustinian doctrine of grace, deliberately falsified his theorems or was simply theologically overwhelmed. In any case, he misrepresented the statements of his former pupil and also tried to draw inconsistent conclusions from them. This led to the first allegations against Gottschalk, including that he discouraged people, whereupon they would turn away from God and the Church and run into disaster.

Missionary trips in Italy and the Balkans

Around 838, Gottschalk first went to Italy and later to the Balkans . There he preached the doctrine of double predestination and was very popular. Perhaps a mere coincidence, namely the fact that two monks from the vicinity of Hraban noticed this on their way back from Rome, set in motion a chain of events which, in Albert Hauck's words, made Gottschalk "the first medieval martyr of Augustinism " . Because Hrabanus Maurus, who in the meantime (847) had become Archbishop of Mainz , took the reports of Gottschalk's work in Italy as an opportunity to deal with him again. Because of the scarce sources, research cannot say exactly whether the monk, who has meanwhile been regarded by Hraban as a heretic , turned to the Balkans because the archbishop and so-called preceptor Germaniae intervened with his Italian host, or whether Gottschalk was planning to do so anyway. What is certain, however, is that Hraban intrigued against him in Italy and also began to blacken Gottschalk with his supreme lord of the church in the now West Franconian Empire , Archbishop Hinkmar von Reims .

Imperial Synod in Mainz and Synod of Quierzy

After returning from his missionary journey in the Balkans, Gottschalk had no reservations about defending the gemina praedestinatio in 848 before the Mainz Imperial Synod in the St. Alban Abbey in Mainz , chaired by Rabanus Maurus . Without his arguments being properly acknowledged, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and constant silence, forced to burn his own writings, and then publicly scourged half to death. This condemnation and its execution were serious violations of law, because the synod in the East Franconian Empire had no canonical authority to do so. Then he was handed over to Archbishop Hinkmar of Reims.

Even before the Synod of Quierzy in 849, Gottschalk stuck to his interpretation of the Augustinian doctrine of predestination. He asked for a divine judgment ( ordal ) - that is, he wanted to bathe successively in barrels with boiling water, fat and oil to prove the truth of his teaching, which Hinkmar refused. Instead, after a previous public scourging, he was forced to burn his own writings in the presence of King Charles the Bald . Eyewitnesses assure that Gottschalk only threw his work into the fire when he was more dead than alive and out of his mind from the pain.

Furthermore, a formal error in his ordination was invoked in order to be able to accuse him of spreading heretical teachings as well as unauthorized preaching and the unauthorized dispensing of the sacraments. Gottschalk was stripped of his priesthood and was imprisoned for life in the Hautvillers monastery .

Processing of the proceedings against Gottschalk

Because of the harshness of the judgment and the dubious actions of Gottschalk's leading opponents, Hraban and Hinkmar, vigorous protest arose among many theologians, especially in the Western Reich. There were violent disputes with churchmen from the south-western part of the empire, which ultimately threatened to lead to a schism because it became clear that other theologians also supported Gottschalk's interpretation. The king felt compelled to intervene and instructed Hinkmar to obtain expert opinions on the doctrine of predestination. The majority of the reviewers came to a judgment that was devastating for Hraban and Hinkmar: Gottschalk was said to have argued entirely in the spirit of Augustine.

New arguments about the doctrine of predestination

One of the few expert opinions speaking against Gottschalk came from Johannes Scotus Eriugena , who brought up the early Augustine, who defended human free will against the Manichaeans and had given evil no substantial existence. The fatal core of Augustine's late philosophy and theology to which Gottschalk had focused his attention was thus omitted.

At this report, the dispute flared up all over again, so that Hinkmar was finally compelled to publicly deny that he had commissioned it. For those theologians who had previously sided with Gottschalk now attacked Eriugena and accused him of heresy. Hinkmar had set off an avalanche that threatened to overrun him. The Church of the Southwest went on the attack; a church schism threatened. The supposed new culprit Eriugena was under the personal protection of Charles the Bald and was therefore unassailable. Gottschalk still managed to have a say in the debates because helpful monks stood by him in Hautvillers, provided him with writing and reading materials and, despite strict prohibitions, provided messenger services.

Theologically, too, Hinkmar was initially unable to get the dangerous situation under control. He tried his hand at smaller works on Augustine in order to better steer the debate in his favor. Hraban had died in the meantime and could no longer do it for him. When the Pope himself, who showed tendencies towards the position of the late Augustine, began to accept the matter, the matter of the Archbishop of Reims seemed almost lost, especially since Gottschalk's sympathizers had succeeded in writing a letter from the condemned monk, asking for papal support Opinion on his case, to be brought out of the monastery and to Rome. Hinkmar was asked by the Pope to submit to a papal investigation with Gottschalk into what had happened since 848. However, by ignoring, clever tactics and delaying, Hinkmar managed to thwart the organization of this meeting until the Pope had died. His successors were not interested in the problem of gemina praedestinatio , whereupon the monk, who had been incarcerated for years, gradually fell into oblivion.

It was not until 1100 that Anselm of Canterbury reopened this discussion by trying to show that predestination and human free will are compatible.

Late years and death

On the basis of the scanty evidence from his last years, some researchers have suspected that Gottschalk fell ill with some kind of dungeon psychosis at some point . It is said that he refused to groom himself and was also unwilling to change clothes. However, it should be borne in mind that these testimonies come from his opponents. Nonetheless, Gottschalk's nature makes these behaviors seem possible, because he was considered excessively proud, occasionally stubborn and not very pragmatic. At the same time, he was ascribed an irrepressible passion for faith and truth as well as intellectual honesty, deep piety and high cognitive and philological competence. Some of the most beautiful verses that Medieval Latin literature has to offer came from his pen.

It is said that on his deathbed Hinkmar asked Gottschalk to swear off at least some of his sentences so that he could give him the final unction . Gottschalk did not follow this request. For a person of the early Middle Ages, this refusal probably meant a very strong faith if he dared to come before God without the holy sacraments. Gottschalk died around the year 869 after twenty years in prison. He was buried without a Christian burial.

Works

Several Latin hymns in classical meter have come down to us by Gottschalk. The poems can be found in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica . In addition, he wrote theological treatises and grammatical writings, which - as far as found so far - in 1945 by D.-C. Lambot ( Œuvres théologiques et grammaticales de Godescalc d'Orbais ; Löwen 1945). He was one of the most important grammarians and Augustine connoisseur of his time.

Remembrance day

October 30th in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

Web links

• Literature by and about Gottschalk von Orbais in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gottschalk von Orbais in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• The Gottschalk Homepage - Gottschalk's biography and works as well as a selection of secondary literature

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Gottschalk from Orbais. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 275-276.
• W. Berschin: Greco-Latin Middle Ages. From Hieronymus to Nikolaus von Kues. Bern / Munich 1980.
• Victor Borrasch: The monk Gottschalk of Orbais. His life and his teaching. Thorn 1868.
• Kurt Flasch : Philosophical Thinking in the Middle Ages. Stuttgart 1996.
• Kurt Flasch: Freedom of Will: 850–1150. In: J. Fried: The occidental freedom from the 10th to the 14th century. The interdependence of idea and reality in a European comparison. (= Constance working group for medieval history. Lectures and research. Volume XXXIX). Sigmaringen 1991.
• Albert Freystedt: The synodal struggle in the predestination dispute of the 9th century. In: D. Adolf Hilgenfeld (Hrsg.): Journal for Scientific Theology. 36th year / volume 2; NF Volume 1; Leipzig 1893.
• Albert Freystedt: The scientific struggle in the predestination dispute of the 9th century. In: D. Adolf Hilgenfeld (Hrsg.): Journal for Scientific Theology. 36th year / volume 1; Leipzig 1893.
• Albert Freystedt: Studies on Gottschalk's life and teachings. [Journal of Church History Volume 18]; 1898.
• Friedrich .:  Gothschalk, monk of the 9th century . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 493-497.
• Horst Fuhrmann : Forgers among themselves: on the dispute between Hinkmar von Reims and Hinkmar von Laon. In: M. Gibson, J. Nelson (Eds.): Charles the Bald: Court and kingdom. Oxford 1981.
• David Ganz: The debate on predestination. In: M. Gibson, J. Nelson (Eds.): Charles the Bald: Court and kingdom. Oxford 1981.
• Dieter Geuenich: The personal development of the monastery community in Fulda up to the year 1000. In: G. Schrimpf (Hrsg.): Fulda monastery in the world of the Carolingians and Ottonians. (= Fulda studies. Series of publications of the Theological Faculty. Volume 7). Frankfurt am Main 1996.
• Raymund Kottje : Hrabanus and the law. In: Raymund Kottje, Harald Zimmermann: Hrabanus Maurus. Teacher, abbot and bishop. (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences and Literature. Humanities and social science class. Individual publications, Volume 4). Wiesbaden 1982.
• Raymund Kottje: On the relationship between Hinkmar von Reims and Hrabanus Maurus. In: M. Gibson, J. Nelson (Eds.): Charles the Bald: Court and kingdom. Oxford 1981.
• Maria Christine Mitterauer: Gottschalk the Saxon and his opponents in the predestination dispute. Dissertation . Vienna 1956.
• M. Sandmann: The sequence of abbots. In: Karl Schmid et al. (Ed.): Monk lists and monastery convent of Fulda at the time of the Carolingians. (= Münster medieval writings. Volume 8 / 1–3). Munich 1978.
• M. Sandmann: Hraban as a monk, abbot and archbishop. In: Winfried Böhne (Ed.): Hrabanus Maurus and his school. Festschrift of the Rabanus-Maurus-Schule 1980. Fulda 1980.
• G. Schrimpf: The work of JS Eriugena in the context of the Wissenschaftsverst. its time. An introduction to the periphyseon. In: C. Baeumker (Ed.): Contributions to the history of the philosophy of the Middle Ages. (= Texts and studies NF Volume 23). Münster 1982.
• G. Schrimpf: The ethical implications of the dispute between Hraban and Gottschalk about the doctrine of predestination. In: Winfried Böhne (Ed.): Hrabanus Maurus and his school. Festschrift of the Rabanus-Maurus-Schule 1980. Fulda 1980.
• Nikolaus Staubach : The image of the ruler of Charles the Bald. Forms u. Functions of monarchical representation in the early Middle Ages. Part 1, Münster 1981.
• Nikolaus Staubach: Rex Christianus. Court culture and rulership propaganda in the empire of Charles the Bald. Part II: The foundation of the 'religion royale'. In: Ulrich Ernst, Joachim Gaus, Christel Meier (eds.): Pictura et Poesis. (= Interdisciplinary studies on the relationship between literature and art. Volume 2). Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1993.
• Klaus Vielhaber: Gottschalk the Saxon. In: Max Braubach, Werner Holtzmann, Richard Nürnberger (Hrsg.): Bonn historical research. Volume 5, Bonn 1956.
• Klaus Vielhaber:  Gottschalk the Saxon. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 685 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Marie-Luise Weber: The poems of Gottschalk von Orbais. New York 1992.
• Jürgen Weitzel : Normality as a question of the fate of Gottschalk von Orbais. In: Dieter Simon: Religious Deviance. Studies of social, legal, and theological responses to religious deviation in the Western and Eastern Middle Ages. In: Studies on European Legal History. (= IUS COMMUNE - Publications of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History Frankfurt am Main SH. Volume 48). Frankfurt am Main 1990.
• Klaus Zechiel-Eckes : Florus of Lyon as a church politician and publicist. Studies on the personality of a Carolingian "intellectual" using the example of the dispute with Amalarius (835–838) and the dispute over predestination (851–855). In: Raymund Kottje, Hubert Mordek (Ed.): Sources and research on law in the Middle Ages. Volume 8, Stuttgart 1999.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Poetae Latini medii aevi 3: Poetae Latini aevi Carolini (III). Published by Ludwig Traube . Berlin 1886, pp. 707-737 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
2. ↑ Poetae Latini medii aevi 4,2.3: Poetae Latini aevi Carolini (IV). Part 2: Rhythmi aevi Merovingici et Carolini. Part 3: Supplements . Published by Karl Strecker . Berlin 1923, pp. 934–936 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
3. ↑ Poetae Latini medii aevi 6: Supplements to the Poetae aevi Carolini part 1 . Edited by Karl Strecker  (†) with the support of Otto Schumann  (†). Weimar 1951, pp. 86-106 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
4. ↑ Gottschalk von Orbais in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints