Gottschalk of Orbais lived during the Carologinian era (c. 715–c.888 CE; p. 2). Born sometime before 814, his family (or some caretaker) gave him “as a child oblate to Fulda” (25). “During his pueritia or before he was of the age of understanding,” explains Matthew Bryan Gillis, “Gottschalk was allegedly forced by Hrabanus to take the monastic vow and tonsured against his will” (25).
He would challenge the legality of his vow and eventually win his case. From that moment on, he would be a man marked by conviction. Once, in order to prove his theology, he offered to undergo an ordeal. He proposed four barrels be filled with various liquids (water, oil, lard, pitch) under which fire would burn. Then he would dip his entire body into each barrel. If he lived, he considered his theology as vindicated (see 129–131). [Read more…] about Review of “Heresy And Dissent in the Carolingian Empire” (Matthew Bryan Gillis)
