Library › St Gregory of Tours › History of the Franks
History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 5, 44. Of Chilperic’s Writings
About the same time, King Chilperic wrote an ordinance enjoining that in the Holy Trinity we should make no distinction of Persons, but call it only God, declaring it unseemly that in the case of God we should speak of a Person, as if He were man in the flesh; moreover, he affirmed that the Father is the same as the Son, and the Holy Ghost is the same as the Father and the Son. ‘Even so’, said he, ‘did He appear to the prophets and the patriarchs, so did the law itself proclaim Him.’ After he had ordered these arguments to be recited to me, he said: ‘This is my will, that such be thy faith, and that of the other doctors of the Church.’ I made answer to him: ‘Most pious king, thou must abandon this vain belief, and follow that which the apostles, and after them the Fathers of the Church, have handed down to us, that which Hilary and Eusebius taught, that which thou thyself didst confess in thy baptism.’ Then was the king wroth and said: ‘It is clear enough that in this matter I have strong enemies in Hilary and Eusebius.’ I replied: ‘Thou shouldst well perceive that neither God nor His saints be against Thee. But know that in their Persons the Father is different from the Son, and the Son from the Holy Ghost. It was not the Father who was made man, nor the Holy Ghost, but the Son, that He who was the Son of God might for man’s redemption be held the Son of man and of a Virgin. It was not the Father who suffered, nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son, that He who was incarnate in the world might Himself be offered for the world. And that which thou sayest with regard to persons is not to be understood corporeally, but spiritually. Therefore in these three Persons is one glory, one eternity, one power.’ Then he was angered, and said: ‘I will set forth these things to others wiser than thou, who will be of my mind.’ I retorted: ‘He who should be minded to follow that which thou dost propose will never be a wise man, but a fool.’ Thereat he gnashed his teeth, but held his peace. Not many days afterwards Salvius, bishop of Albi,1 arrived; and the king caused these opinions to be recited to him, begging him to express his agreement. But as soon as Salvius heard them, he rejected them with such abhorrence that if he could have reached the paper on which such things were written he would have torn it to pieces. So the king desisted from his purpose.
This king wrote books in verse, in which he tried to imitate Sedulius, but his verses in no wise conformed to any laws of metre. He also added certain letters to our alphabet, the ω of the Greeks, and the ae, the, wi, to be represented by the following signs: ω Ψ Z Δ. And he sent letters to all the cities in his kingdom, ordering that they should so be taught to boys, and that old books should be erased with pumice-stone and rewritten with the new characters.
Notes
- Cf. ch. 33 (50), below, and VII. 1.