Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/764

 GOTTSCHALE

682

QOTTWEIO

Butler, Lives of the iSainls; Schrodl in Kirchenlex,, s. v.; Hauck, Kirchengesch, DeuUchlands, III, 654; Acta SS,, June, II, 39.

Francis Mershman.

Gottschalk of Orbais, medieval theologian; b. about 805 ; d. after 866, probably 30 October, 868 (or 869), in the monastery of Hautvilliers near Reims; son of a noble Saxon coimt named Berno, who pre- sented him, when still a child, as an oblate in the Bene- dictine monastery of Fulda. When Gottschalk came of age, he felt no vocation for the religious state, and asked to leave the monastery. But his abbot, Ra- banus Maurus, following the prevailing opinion of the age, held that a child, who had been presented as an oblate by his parents, was bound to become a reli- gious, and in consequence, Gottschalk was made a monk against his will. Before receiving major orders he fled from Fulda and obtained dispensation from his vows at the CouncU of Mainz, in June, 829. Ra- banus Maurus, however, appealed to the emperor and defended his position in a special treatise: "De obla- tione pueroruni" (P. L., CVII, 419-440), whereupon Gottschalk was compelled to hve the hfe of a monk, but was granted the privilege of exchanging the mon- astery of Fulda for that of Orbais, in the Diocese of Soissons. In order to make his enforced life in the monastery more bearable, Gottschalk, who had bril- liant talents, gave himself to the study of theology. He found great pleasure in the works of St. Augustine, whose doctrine on grace and predestination attracted him in an especial manner.

If we may believe his opponents, Gottschalk misin- terpreted some difficult passages in the writings of St. Augustine and developed a false doctrine of double complete predestination for eternal salvation and for eternal reprobation. He left his monastery without permission, and under the pretence of a pilgrimage to Rome, travelled through Italy, spreading his doctrine wherever he went. In 840 Noting, the future Bishop of Brescia, informed Rabanus Maurus of the rapid spread of Gottschalk's doctrine in Upper Italy, and asked him to write a treatise against it. The treatise is found m P. L., CXII, 15.30-53. After his return from Italy, Gottschalk had himself ordained priest, not by the Bishop of Soissons, to whose diocese he be- longed, but by the chorepiscopus Richbold of Reims, and again returned to Italy. In 846 Rabanus Maurus warned Count Eberhard of Friuli against Gottschalk, who was enjoying the count's hospitality. Gott- schalk now returned to Germany by way of Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Noricum. On 1 October, 848, he ap- peared at the Council of Mainz, where his doctrine on predestination was condemned as heretical and he was delivered for punishment to his metropolitan, Hinc- mar of Reims. At a synod held in Quierzy in the spring of 849, he was obliged to burn his writings, was deposed from his priestly office because he had been ordained by a chorepiscopus without the consent or knowledge of his own bishop, and was whipped in ac- cordance with the rule of St. Benedict, which pre- scribes such punishment for refractory monks. He was then imprisoned for life in the monastery of Haut- villiers where he died obstinate and mentally de- ranged, after an imprisonment of about twenty years.

Most of Gottschalk's writings have been lost. There stUl remain two short treatises in defence of his doctrine on predestination, in the form of two confes- sions of faith (P. L., CXXI, 347-366); some frag- ments of a work against Rabanus Maurus (P. L., loc. cit. 36o-38) ; and some well-written poems (Traube, loc. cit. below).

It is doubtful whether Gottschalk's doctrine on pre- destination was heretical. There is nothing in his extant writings that cannot be interpreted in a Catho- lic sense. He, indeed, taught that God does not wish all men to be saved, and that Christ died only for those who were predestined to be saved; but these

doctrines are not necessarily heretical. He may have meant (and certain passages in his extant writings warrant the assumption) that, in consequence of God's foreknowing that some men will die in sin. He does not wish these to be saved; and that Christ's death was of no avail to those who will be damned for their sins. Gottschalk's doctrine concerning the Trinity scarcely admits a Catholic interpretation. He appears to hold that the one and common nature of the three Persons in God is merely an abstract uni- versal, which becomes individualized and receives concrete existence in the three Persons and that, hence, each Person has its own separate deity (see Hinckmar's "De una et non trina deitate" in P. L., CXXV, 473-618).

BoRRASCH, Der Mimch Gottschalk voji Orbais (Thorn, 1S6S); ScHHORS, Hinkmar (Freiburg im Br., 1884), 90-108; Idem in Kirchenlex., s. v. Gottschalk von Orbais; Freystedt in Zeit- schr. far Kirchengeschichte (Gotha, 1897). XXVIII, 1-22, 161- 182, 529-544; Gaudard, Gotleschalc moine d' Orbais. Tht:se (St. Quentin, 1889); Traube in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Antiquitales: Poet. Lat. Carol, (evi II, 707 sqq. ; Cellot, Historia Gotteschalci (Paris, 1655); Hurter, Nomenclator; Hefele, Concilien' geschichte, IV, 130, 186, 205.

Michael Ott.

Gbttweig (GoTTWEiH, Gottvicum, Gottvicense), .\bbet of, a Benedictine abbey situated on a hill of the same name, not quite four miles south of Krems, in Lower Austria. It was founded as a monastery for Canons Regular by Blessed Altmann, Bishop of Pas- sau. In 1072 the high altar of the church was dedi- cated, but the solemn dedication of the monastery did not take place until 1083. The charter of foundation, issued 9 September, 1083, is still preserved in the archives of the monastery. In 1094 the discipline of the Canons Regular at Gottweig had become so lax that Bishop ITlrich of Passavi. with the permission of Pope Urban II, introduced the Rule of St. Benedict. Prior Hartmann of St. Blasien in the Schwartzwald was elected abbot. He took with him from St. Bla- sien a mmiber of chosen monks, among whom were Bl. Wirnto and Bl. Berthold, who later became Abbots of Formbach and Garsten respectively. Under Hartmann (1094-1114) Gottweig became a famous abode of learning and strict monastic observance. He founded a monastic school, organized a library, and built at the foot of the hill a nunnery where Ava, the earliest German poetess (d. 1127), lived as a recluse. The nunnery, which was afterwards transferred to the top of the hill, continued to exist until 1557.

The history of CJottweig, as might be expected, had its periods of decline as well as prosperity. Dur- ing the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it declined so rapidly that from 1556 to 1564 it had no abbot, and in 1564 not a single monk was left at the monastery. At this crisis an imperial deputation arrived at Ciottweig, and elected Michael Herrhch, a conventual of Melk, as abbot. The new abbot (15G4-1604) restored the monastery spiritually and financially, and rebuilt it after it had been almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1580. Other famous abbots were: George Falb (1612- 1631) and David Corner (1631-1648), who successfully opposed the spread of Protestantism in the district; Gottfried Bessel (q. v., 1714-1749), who rebuilt the monastery on a grander scale after it had burnt down in 1718, and inaugurated an era of great intellectual activity ; and Magnus Klein ( 1 768-1 783), during whose rule Gottweig became a centre of learning. The chief employment of the Benedictines of Gottweig has al- ways consisted in parish work. Its present Abbot, Adalbert Dungel (b. 1842; abbot since 29 Sept., 1886), is also president of the Austrian Benedictine Congre- gation of the Inmiaculate Conception. To Gottweig belong (Dec, 1908) 65 priests, 5 clerics, 1 novice, 4 lay brothers, 31 parishes administered by Benedictines. 3 administered by secular priests, and 7 succursal churches. It has a library of 100,000 books and 1100 manuscripts, and valuable collections of coins, en- gravings, antiquities, and natural history.