Right as a man hath sapiences three –
Memorie, engyn, and intellect also –
So in o beynge of divinitee,
Thre persones may ther right wel bee.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Second Nun’s Tale. Cecilia tries to explain the difficult concept of the three-persons-in-one-God Trinity doctrine to Tiburtius. Just as man has three mental faculties, memory, imagination and intellect, so there may be three persons in one divine being, she says.