yeth down his life for
his sheep. He did what he taught; he showed what he commanded. The good
shepherd laid down his life for his sheep; that in our sacrament he
might change his body and blood, and satisfy, by the nourishment of his
flesh, the sheep which he had redeemed. Here is shown to us the way,
concerning the contempt of death, which we should follow; the character
is placed before us to which we should conform. [In the first place, we
should of our pity sacrifice our external good for his sheep; and at
last, if it be necessary, give up our own life for the same sheep. From
that smallest point we proceed to this last and greater. But since the
soul by which we live is incomparably better than the earthly substance
which we outwardly possess, who would not give for the sheep his
substance, when he would give his life for them? And there are some who,
whilst they love their earthly substance more than the sheep, deservedly
lose the name of shepherd: of whom it is immediately added, But the
hireling who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the
wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. He is called not a
shepherd, but a hireling, who feeds the Lord's sheep not for inward
love, but with a view to temporal wages. He is a mercenary who seeks
indeed the place of shepherd, but seeks not the gain of souls.]

(The sentences between brackets are not in MS. No. 1512.)

To Thomas all things yield and are obedient:
Plagues, diseases, death, and devils, {213}
Fire, air, land, and seas.
Thomas filled the world with glory.
The world offers obeisance to Thomas[77].

[Footnote 77:

Thomae cedunt et parent omnia:
Pestes, morbi, mors, et daemonia,
Ignis, aer, tellus, et maria.
Thomas mundum replevit gloria.
Thomae mundus praestat obsequia.
]

_Eighth Lesson._

In good truth, the holy Thomas, the precious champion of God, was to be
worthily glorified. For if the cause, yea, forasmuch as the cause makes
the martyr, did ever a title of holy martyrs exist more glorious?
Contending for the Church, in the Church he suffered; in a holy place,
at the holy time of the Lord's nativity, in the midst of his
fellow-priests and the companies of the religious: since in the agony of
the prelate all the circumstances seemed so to concur, as perpetually to
illustrate the title of the sufferer, and reveal the wickedness of his
persecutors, and stain their name with never