Gottschalk (Latin: Godescalc, Gotteschalchus) of Orbais (c. 808 – 30 October 868 AD) was a Saxon theologian, monk and poet. Gottschalk was an early advocate for the doctrine of two-fold predestination, an issue that ripped through both Italy and Francia from 848 into the 850's and 860's. Led by his own interpretation of Augustine's teachings on the matter, he claimed the sinfulness of human nature and the need to turn to God with a humility for salvation. He saw himself as a divine vessel calling all of Christianity to repent for decades of Civil War. His attempts of this new Christianisation of Francia ultimately failed, his doctrine was condemned as heresy at the 848 council of Mainz and 849 council of Quierzy. Following his conviction as a heretic Gottschalk remained stubborn to his ideology disobeying the ecclesiastical hierarchy, making him an "actual heretic in the flesh", for this disobedience Gottschalk was placed in monastic confinement; however the shockwaves his ideology sent around Western Christendom refused to stop reverberating, Gottschalk managed to win over more followers and the threat remained up until his death in 868. Early life Gottschalk was a child oblate at the monastery of Fulda under the tutelage of the Abbot Hrabanus Maurus of Mainz, during his time at the monastery he became close friends with Walafrid Strabo and Loup de Ferrières. In June 829, at the synod of Mainz, on the pretext that he had been unduly constrained by his abbot, he sought and obtained his liberty, withdrew first to Corbie. Priesthood Between 835 and 840 Gottschalk was ordained priest, without the knowledge of his bishop, by Rigbold, chorepiscopus of Reims. Gottschalk's time at the Monastery of Corbie would have been formative in his development in both intellect and missionary ideology, Corbie being the centre for preparing missionaries. Before 840 Gottschalk deserted his monastery and went to Italy, where he preached his doctrine of twin predestination, and entered into relations with Notting, bishop of Verona, and Eberhard, margrave of Friuli. He was however driven from Italy through the influence of Hrabanus Maurus, now archbishop of Mainz, who wrote two violent letters to Notting and Eberhard. Gottschalk travelled through Dalmatia, Pannonia and Noricum, while continuing to preach and write. Gottschalk was at Trpimir I of Croatia's court between 846 and 848, and his work De Trina deitate is an important source of information for Trpimir's reign. Gottschalk was