Predestination in the century before Gottschalk (Part 1).

Scholarship often regards the predestinarian ninth-century monk, Gottschalk of Orbais, as one who stood virtually alone promoting the sovereignty of God in a time when Semi-pelagian soteriology ruled supreme. An investigation of eighth and early ninth-century literature challenges that view. Some writings in the century before Gottschalk do reveal an influence of Pelagian and Semi-pelagian theology of grace, but the era also abounds with theological literature proclaiming the inability of human freedom to make salvific decisions and the priority of grace over free will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]