Gottschalk, a German, was sold to the Catholic Church by his father in the Middle Ages. He appealed to a church court to win his freedom but was denied. After an unsuccessful attempt to escape, he was imprisoned in a monastery where, in his studies, he discovered the doctrine of predestination, thought to be heresy by the Medieval Church. When his senior captor asked him if he still thought he was free, Gottschalk said no. "But neither are you," he added. He was executed as a heretic.