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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 3, Prologue

I WOULD fain, if it be permitted, compare awhile the successes of the Christians who confess the blessed Trinity with the disasters befalling those who sought to rive it asunder. I will say nothing of the manner in which Abraham worshipped it at the oak, or Jacob proclaimed it in his blessing, or Moses knew it in the bush, or the people of Israel followed it in the cloud and saw it with dread in the Mount; I shall not describe how Aaron wore it in his ephod, nor how David prophesied it in his psalms, praying that a right spirit might be renewed within him, or that the Holy Spirit might not be taken from him, or, again, that he might be strengthened by the august Spirit of the Lord.¹ Herein also do I perceive a great mystery, inasmuch as that which the heretics maintain to be the less the prophetic voice declares original. But as I have said, I pass over these things, and come back to our own times. Arius, the first and wicked founder of this wicked sect, his bowels gushing forth into the privy, was delivered to hell fire; Hilary, blessed defender of the undivided Trinity, and for its sake driven into exile, was both restored to his own country and entered Paradise. Clovis, who confessed it, by its aid overcame these heretics, and extended his kingdom over all Gaul; Alaric, denying it, was punished by the loss of kingdom and people, and, what is more, of eternal life. For though the wiles of the enemy rob true believers of many things, yet the Lord restoreth them a hundredfold; but the heretics make no gain, while that which they possessed is taken from them. The death of Godigisel, Gundobad, and Godomar afforded proof of this, for they lost at one stroke their country and their souls. But as for us, we confess the Lord one and invisible, infinite, incomprehensible, glorious, everlasting, and eternal, one in Trinity by reason of the three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; we confess Him three in one, through equality of substance, of godhead, of omnipotence and power, who is one God, almighty and supreme, reigning world without end.

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