History of the FranksGregory, Bishop of Tours, Saint
History
History of the Franks
Gregory, Bishop of Tours, Saint
France -- Church history -- To 987; France -- History -- To 987; Franks -- History -- To 768
And permission to bury
them was obtained from the princes only with difficulty. This man
was faithless, headlong in avarice, greedy for other men’s property
beyond limit, swearing to all and fulfilling his promises to none.
His wife and sons were sent into exile and his property confiscated.
A great quantity of gold and silver and of valuables of different
sorts was found in his stores. Moreover what he had concealed
underground from a consciousness of wrongdoing did not remain hidden.
He often made use of soothsayers and lots, desiring to learn the
future from them, but was always deceived.
[11. Gunthram and Childebert settle their differences amicably.
12. Ursio and Bertefred are dislodged from their stronghold and
slain. 13. Baddo is allowed to go free. Dysentery is severe in Metz.
Wiliulf’s wife marries a third time. 14. Bishop Egidius of Rheims
makes his peace with Childebert.]
[EQ]15. Now at that time in Spain king Richared was influenced by
the divine mercy and summoned the bishops of his religion and said
to them: “Why are quarrels continually going on between you and the
bishops who call themselves Catholic, and when they do many miracles
by their faith why can you do nothing of the sort? Therefore I beg
you let us meet with them and examine the beliefs of both sides and
find out what is true; and then either let them take our plan and
believe what you say or else you recognize their truth and believe
what they preach.” This was done and the bishops of both sides
gathered and the heretics expounded the doctrines that I have often
described them as advocating. Likewise the bishops of our religion
made the replies by which, as I have pointed out in the previous
books, the heretics have been often defeated. And above all the king
said that no miraculous cure of the infirm had been done by the
bishops of the heretics, and when he recalled to mind how in his
father’s time the bishop who boasted that he could restore sight to
the blind by his faith which was not the true one had touched a blind
man and [thus] condemned him to perpetual blindness and had come
off in confusion--I have told this story more fully in the book of
_The Miracles_--he summoned God’s bishops to him separately. And by
questioning them he learned that it was one God that was worshiped
with distinction of three persons, namely, the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, and the Son was not inferior to the Father nor the Holy Ghost,
nor the Holy Ghost inferior to the Father nor the Son, but they were
equal and alike all-powerful, and in this Trinity they confessed the
true God. Then Richared perceived the truth and ending the argument
he placed himself under the Catholic law, and receiving the sign
of the blessed cross together with baptism he believed in Jesus
Christ son of God, equal to the Father and the Holy Ghost, reigning
for ages of ages. Amen. Then he sent messengers to the province of
Narbonne to tell what he had done and bring the people to a like
belief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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