From The Sadness of Christ:
But forasmuch as it liked him, not only to be called a man, but also for our salvation to take upon
him man’s nature too, and finally to incorporate us all in one body with himself, these I mean whom he
hath by his wholesome sacraments and faith regenerated and renewed, and therewithal vouchsafed to
make us partakers of such names as himself is customably called by, for scripture nameth all faithful
Christian folk both gods and christs, I cannot think we should do much amiss, if we stood always in fear
the time to be almost come that Christ the Son of Man shall be delivered unto sinners, as oft as we see
any likelihood that Christ’s mystical body, the Church of Christ I say, that is to wit, good Christian
people, shall like thralls be cast into sinful wretches’ hands. Which thing we have seen mishap (alas, the
more pity) in one place or other these many hundred years, while divers parts of Christendom, some by
the cruel Turks are assaulted, and some by sundry sects of heretics through inward division
dispiteously199 mangled and torn.
Saint Thomas realized the gravity of the issues involved went well beyond the validity of King Henry’s marriage.
