Library › St Gregory of Tours › History of the Franks

History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 1, Prologue

Purposing to record the wars of kings with hostile peoples, of the martyr with the heathen, and of the Churches with the heretics, I am fain first to make profession of my own belief, that whoso reads may doubt not that I hold the catholic faith. I have also deemed it well for the sake of those whose hearts fail them as the end of this world draws nigh, to set forth clearly by extracts from the chronicles or histories of those who went before us, how great is the number of the years since the world began. But first I beg indulgence of those who may read what I write, if haply in letter or in syllable I transgress the laws of Grammar, an art in which I am but ill versed. I have but this one thing at heart, to hold fast in singleness and conviction of heart all that of which the Church enjoins belief, knowing that one subject to sin may yet obtain mercy of our gracious Lord through simple faith alone.

Therefore do I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord, born of the Father, not made; I believe that He was always with the Father—not after lapse of times but before all time. For neither could the one be called Father if He had not a Son, nor the other Son if He had not a Father. And with execration do I renounce those who say that there was a time when He was not, and avow that they dwell apart from the fold of the Church. I believe this Christ to be the Word of the Father, by whom all things were made. I believe that this Word was made flesh, and that by His passion the world was redeemed; and I believe that not in His Godhead but in His manhood did He undergo this Passion. I believe that He rose on the third day, that He delivered man which was lost, that He ascended into heaven, and now sitteth at the right hand of the Father; and that He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son, and that He is not after or before them in time, but equal, and God ever consisting with the Father and the Son, in nature consubstantial, in omnipotence equal, in essence coeternal, so that He was never without the Father or the Son, nor ever younger than the Father or the Son. I believe that this Holy Trinity subsisteth in distinction of the Persons, so that the Person of the Father is one, of the Son one, and of the Holy Ghost one. But in this Trinity I confess one Godhead, one power, and one being alone. I believe that the blessed Mary, as she was virgin before childbirth, was virgin likewise thereafter. I believe that the soul is immortal yet hath no part in godhead. And all that was established by the three hundred and eighteen bishops of Nicaea I do faithfully believe. And as touching the end of the world, I believe that which I have been taught by those who have gone before me. First shall Antichrist come and bring in the circumcision, proclaiming himself Christ; next shall he set up his image in the Temple at Jerusalem to be worshipped, as we read that the Lord said: ‘Ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.’¹ But concerning that day the Lord Himself maketh all plain, saying: ‘But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father alone.’² And here I will make answer to the heretics who attack us and maintain that the Son is inferior to the Father seeing that He is ignorant of that day. Let them know therefore that by the name of Son is here meant the Christian people, of whom God thus speaketh: ‘I will be to them for a Father, and they shall be to Me for Sons.’³ Now if God had thus spoken of His onlybegotten Son, He would never have placed the angels before Him. For thus He saith: ‘Neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son’; showing that He spake these things not of His onlybegotten Son, but of His adopted people. But our end is Christ Himself, who of the fullness of His grace shall bestow on us eternal life if we be converted to Him.

After what manner the years of this world are counted the chronicles of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and of Jerome the priest plainly teach, setting them all forth in their order. And Orosius, also making most diligent inquiry into these things, set down the whole series of the years from the beginning of the world to his own day. Which Victorius did once again when he determined the dates of the Paschal feast. Therefore am I fain in my turn to follow the example of the aforesaid writers, and reckon the whole sum of years down to our own time, if the Lord shall lend me His aid. Which task I shall the more readily fulfil if I begin even from Adam.

Previous · Contents · Next