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
I wish, if it is agreeable, to make a brief comparison of the
successes that have come to Christians who confess the blessed
Trinity and the ruin which has come to heretics who have tried to
destroy the same. And let us omit how Abraham worshipped the Trinity
at the oak,[51] and Jacob preached it in his blessing, and Moses
recognized it in the bush, and the people followed it in the cloud
and dreaded the same in the mountain, and how Aaron carried it on
his breastplate, or how David made it known in the Psalms, praying
to be made new by a right spirit and that the holy spirit should
not be taken from him and that he be comforted by the chief spirit.
And, for my part, I consider this a great mystery, namely that the
voice of the prophet proclaimed as the chief spirit that which the
heretics assert to be the lesser. But passing over these, as we
have said, let us return to our times. For Arius, who was the first
wicked inventor of this wicked sect, was subjected to infernal fires
after he had lost his entrails in a privy. But Hilarius, the blessed
defender of the undivided Trinity, though sent into exile for its
sake, was restored both to his native land and to Paradise. King
Clovis confessed it, and crushed the heretics by its aid and extended
his kingdom over all the Gauls; Alaric, on the other hand, who
denied it, was deprived of kingdom and people, and what is more, of
eternal life itself. And to true believers, even if through the plots
of the enemy they lose something, the Lord restores it a hundred
fold, but heretics do not gain any advantage, but what they seem to
have is taken from them. This is proved by the deaths of Godegisel,
Gundobad,[AF] and Godomar, who at the same time lost their country
and their souls. But we confess one God, invisible,[52] infinite,
incomprehensible, glorious, always the same, and everlasting, one
in Trinity in respect to the number of persons, that is, the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit; we confess him also triple in unity in
respect to equality of substance, deity, omnipotence or power, the
one greatest omnipotent God ruling for eternal centuries.
[AG]1. Now on the death of king Clovis, his four sons, namely,
Theodoric, Chlodomer, Childebert and Chlothar, received his kingdom
and divided it among them in equal parts. Theodoric had already at
that time a handsome and valiant son named Theodobert. And since they
were very brave and had abundant strength in their army, Amalaric,
son of Alaric, king of Spain, asked for their sister in marriage,
and they kindly granted his request, and sent her into the Spanish
country with a great quantity of beautiful things.
[2. Quintianus, ex-bishop of Rodez, is rewarded for his faithfulness
to the Franks by being made bishop of Clermont. 3. The Danes plunder
the coast of Theodoric’s kingdom. 4. Hermenfred becomes sole king of
the Thuringi by Theodoric’s help.]
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