Recounts the history of an exceptional ninth-century religious outlaw, Gottschalk of Orbais-a priest who developed a controversial, Augustinian-based theology of predestination that directly contradicted Carolingian beliefs, showing how the Carolingian Empire preserved order within the Frankish Christian church through coercive reform. This could be simply a story about the power of Carolingian bishops in suppressing dissenting voices, yet Gillis is able to demonstrate that Gottschalk had considerable agency.