The

The importance of this dogma cannot be overstated. It underlies the whole system of Christian truth. It determines the economy of grace. It is “the point,” says Meyer, “on which all Christian ideas and interests unite; at once the beginning and the end of all insight into Christianity.” Every sect or system that has denied to the Son and to the Holy Ghost equal rank and honor with the Father has made shipwreck of the faith. Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, Rationalists, whatever may have been their original purpose, have each by turns subverted every fundamental truth of the Gospel. Those who have no Trinity have no Saviour. Among standard English treatises on the Trinity minimize or lose sight of the unity. The name of tritheists was given a party in Alexandria which made a very sharp distinction between the three divine persons. During the reign of Justin II. (565-578), they held a disputation at Constantinople with the orthodox Patriarch John. The later history of the sect is unknown. Roscelin, the fatherof nominalism, was accused of tritheism by Anselm. He retracted after his views had been condemned by the Synod of Soissons (1093).