Blood of Christ

The Blood of Christ, also known as the Most Precious Blood, in Christian theology refers to the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ God primarily on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomplished thereby, or the sacramental blood (wine) present in the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, which most Christian denominations identify with the same blood of Christ shed on the Cross.

• Since Christ Himself said in reference to the bread: "This is My Body," who will dare remain hesitant? And since with equal clarity He asserted: "This is My Blood," who will dare entertain any doubt and say that this is not His Blood?... You have been taught these truths. Imbued with the certainty of faith, you know that what seems to be bread is not bread but the Body of Christ, although it seems to be bread when tasted. You also know that what seems to be wine is not wine but the Blood of Christ although it does taste like wine.
  • Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church, From a catechetical instruction given by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem for his successor John in the 4th century. As quoted in Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament-Eucharistic quotes

• Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine,

Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine:

Cujus una stilla salvum facere

Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

• • Lord Jesus, Good Pelican,

clean me, the unclean, with Your Blood,

One drop of which can heal

the entire world of all its sins.

• • • Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, Adoro Te Devote

• Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. The only fitting return that we can make to Him is to give blood for blood; and, as we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, gladly to lay down our lives for our Redeemer. What saint has ever won his crown without first contending for it? Righteous Abel is murdered. Abraham is in danger of losing his wife. And, as I must not enlarge my book unduly, seek for yourself: you will find that all holy men have suffered adversity. Solomon alone lived in luxury and perhaps it was for this reason that he fell. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.
  • Saint Jerome, Letter 22, p.39; as qtd. in "CHURCH FATHERS: Letter 22 (Jerome)", New Advent, translated by W.H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W.G. Martley. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.

• Of course the avaricious man of our day, be he landlord, merchant, industrialist, does not adore sacks of coins or bundles of banknotes in some little chapel and upon some little altar. He does not kneel before these spoils of other men, nor does he address prayers or canticles to them amidst odorous clouds of incense. But he proclaims that money is the only good, and he yields it all his soul. A cult sincere, without hypocrisy, never growing weary, never forsworn. Whenever he says, in the debasement of his heart and his speech, that he loves money for the delights it can purchase, he lies or he terribly deceives himself, this very assertion being belied at the very moment he utters it by every one of his acts, by the infinite toil and pains to which he gladly condemns himself in order to acquire or conserve that money which is but the visible figure of the Blood of Christ circulating throughout all His members.
  • Léon Bloy, Pilgrim of the Absolute (1947), pp. 89-90

• The Church of Rome has allied herself with the state, and now they both drink together the blood of Christ, one from a chalice, and the other from the ground where it was spilled by the sword…
  • Petr Chelčický, The Net of Faith (c. 1443). Chapter 91, Interpretation of Romans 13:5-7 (Conclusion)

• [The spider of sin] sleeps quietly, unseen by the human eye. How do we then bring him into the light? The answer is the stick of God's Law. It is the only means of revealing him. If we open up the Moral Law, it will cause his ugly head to appear... Later, if you are willing, we will lure him out into the open and with the help of God, spray him with the "gospel spray" of the blood of Jesus Christ.
  • Ray Comfort, God doesn't believe in atheists (2002)

• Do you believe in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation? Do you believe that the atoning blood removes the guilt of sin from the sin-stained soul? Ask the medium that. I have been asking that question all over the world for forty years: if there is any Spiritualist under the stars who believes that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, and if I can find one who does, I am willing to apologize for all that I have said. I have never met one yet.
  • A. C. Dixon, Heresies Exposed by William C. Irvine (3rd Edition, 1921)

• One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner’s part. That God’s wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. … The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon ‘the accursed tree,’ than when it was flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father’s business. … His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive[.]
  • Mary Baker Eddy (1867), Founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 23:3–6, 25:6–8, 44:28–29

• Wherever a saint has dwelt, wherever a martyr has given his blood for the blood of Christ,
  There is holy ground, and the sanctity shall not depart from it
  Though armies trample over it, though sightseers come with guide-books looking over it;
  From where the western seas gnaw at the coast of Iona,
  To the death in the desert, the prayer in forgotten places by the broken Imperial column,
  From such ground springs that which forever renews the earth
  Though it is forever denied.
  • T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

• As the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit, so the Spirit is the fountain of all spiritual life; and until He quickens us, imparts the principle of divine life to our souls, we can put forth no vital act of faith to lay hold upon Jesus Christ.
  • John Flavel, P. 319.

With the blood of Christ to wash away the darkest guilt, and the Spirit of God to sanctify the vilest, and strengthen the weakest nature, I despair of none. Too late! It is never too late. Even old age, tottering to the grave beneath the weight of seventy years and a great load of guilt, may retrace its steps and begin life anew. Hope falls like a sunbeam on the hoary head. I have seen the morning rise cold and gloomy, and the sky grow thicker, and the rain fall faster as the hours wore on; yet, ere he set in night, the sun, bursting through heavy clouds, has broken out to illumine the landscape and shed a flood of glory on the dying day.

• Thomas Guthrie, The Way to Life: Sermons (1862), P. 273 (The Christian's Triumph).

• Sin! Sin! Thou art a hateful and horrible thing, that abominable thing which God hates. And what wonder? Thou hast insulted His holy majesty; thou hast bereaved Him of beloved children; thou hast crucified the Son of His infinite love; thou hast vexed His gracious Spirit; thou hast defied His power; thou hast despised His grace; and in the body and blood of Jesus, as if that were a common thing, thou hast trodden under foot His matchless mercy. Surely, brethren, the wonder of wonders is, that sin is not that abominable thing which we also hate.
  • Thomas Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel Illustrated in a Series of Discourses (1856) (The Defiler) p. 546.

At this doctrine the long-faced hypocrite and the sanctimonious bigot will probably cry, blasphemy! Horrid perversion of God's word! Wicked wretch! He is not fit to live! &c, &c. But the wise and reflecting will consider, read, and pray. If God be not our Father, grandfather, or great grandfather, or some kind of a father in reality, in deed and in truth, why are we taught to say, "Our Father who art in heaven?" How much soever of holy horror this doctrine may excite in persons not impregnated with the blood of Christ, and whose minds are consequently dark and benighted, it may excite still more when they are told that if none of the natural blood of Christ flows in their veins, they are not the chosen or elect of God. Object not, therefore too strongly against the marriage of Christ, but remember that in the last days, secret and hidden things must come to light, and that your life also (which is the blood) is hid with Christ in God.

• • Hyde teaches that Jesus was married at Cana.
  • Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses 4:259-260 (no date given).

• Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn't come from God's Word, it comes from that cult-like, pagan religion. Now you say, "Pastor, how can you say such a thing? That is such an indictment of the Catholic Church. After all the Catholic Church talks about God and the Bible and Jesus and the Blood of Christ and Salvation."

  Isn't that the genius of Satan? If you want to counterfeit a dollar bill, you don't do it with purple paper and red ink, you're not going to fool anybody with that. But if you want to counterfeit money, what you do is make it look closely related to the real thing as possible.

  And that's what Satan does with counterfeit religion. He uses, he steals, he appropriates all of the symbols of true biblical Christianity, and he changes it just enough in order to cause people to miss eternal life.

  • Robert Jeffress, The Response, American Family Association prayer rally, Reliant Stadium, Houston, 2011-10-06, quoted in Tashman, Brian (8 October 2011), Jeffress Says Satan Is Behind Roman Catholicism 

• Now it is the blood of Jesus which saves, and it is the same blood which cleanses and sanctifies; and as we had to come lo Jesus to be plunged into the fountain, so we have to abide in Jesus by fellowship, to grow up into Christlikeness.
  • Abbott Eliot Kittredge, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 87.

• What in our lives could be more important than receiving the Body and Blood of Christ each week? Recall how, for many of us who participated in team sports or band, we had to practice before the next game or concert. Well, by going to Mass every week, we become better Christians and most certainly have a better understanding of Jesus’ “game plan” for each and every one of us, as well as for the human family. As in sports, if you continue to miss practice, you become less and less an effective member of the team. While Mass is much more than practice, I hope you get the point.
  • Jeffrey M. Monforton, Sunday Mass and Religious Freedom: A Bishop’s Defense (July 30, 2020)

• The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! "Father, the atheists?" Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace.
  • Pope Francis, as quoted in "Pope at Mass: Culture of encounter is the foundation of peace" at Vatican Radio (22 May 2013)

• As Cain was a wanderer and an outcast, not to be killed by anyone but marked with the sign of fear on his forehead, so the Jews ... against whom the voice of the blood of Christ cries out ... although they are not to be killed they must always be dispersed as wanderers upon the face of the earth.
  • Pope Innocent III, as quoted in Migne, Patrologia, CCXV, 1291. See The Talmud Unmasked by J. B. Pranaitis, p. 89

• You cannot undo your acts. If you have depraved another's will, and injured another's soul, it may be in the grace of God that hereafter you will be personally accepted, and the consequence of your guilt inwardly done away; but your penitence cannot undo the evil you have done. The forgiveness of God — the blood of Christ itself — does not undo the past.
  • Frederick William Robertson, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 217, as reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• The blood of Christ can cleanse away all sin. But we must "plead guilty" before God can declare us innocent.
  • J. C. Ryle, Knots Untied (1877), Ch. XII: "Confession", p. 261

• If you have nothing of the spirit of prayer, nothing of the love of the brotherhood, nothing of mortifying the spirit of the world, nothing of growth in grace, of cordial, habitual, persevering obedience to the Divine commands, how can it be that you have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ?
  • Gardiner Spring, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 295. As reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• On the national level, the Eucharist becomes for us the way to true unity: as was asserted by the Fathers of the Special Synod for Africa, we try to make clear how much the Blood of Christ by itself can realize the unity of the nation that has more than 50 ethnic peoples, ready to oppose each other and enter battle especially when they are manipulated by politicians for electoral reasons.
  • Paul Kouassivi Vieira, - H.E. Most. Rev. Paul Kouassivi VIEIRA, Bishop of Djougou (BENIN) (11 October 2005) Press Office of the Holy See

• Love divine, all loves excelling,
  Joy of heaven to earth come down,
  Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
  All thy faithful mercies crown;
  Jesu, thou art all compassion,
  Pure unbounded love thou art,
  Visit us with thy salvation,
  Enter every trembling heart.
  • Charles Wesley, "Hymn IX" of "Hymns for those that seek and those who have redemption in the blood of Jesus Christ", in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley Vol 4. (1868), edited by G Osborn, p. 219

• There is not a man or woman, who violates the covenants made with their God, that will not be required to pay the debt. The blood of Christ will never wipe that out, your own blood must atone for it; and the judgments of the Almighty will come, sooner or later, and every man and woman will have to atone for breaking their covenants. To what degree? Will they have to go to hell? They are in hell enough now. I do not wish them in a greater hell, when their consciences condemn them all the time. Let compassion reign in our bosoms. Try to comprehend how weak we are, how we are organized, how the spirit and the flesh are continually at war.
  • Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 3:247 (March 16, 1856)

• The Gospel that we preach is the power of God unto salvation; and the first principle of that Gospel is, as I have already said, faith in God, and faith in Jesus Christ His Son our Savior. We must believe that he is the character he is represented to be in the holy Scriptures. Believe that he told the truth when he said to his disciples, "Go ye forth and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." We must believe that this same Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world, that is for the original sin, not the actual individual transgressions of the people; not but that the blood of Christ will cleanse from all sin, all who are disposed to act their part by repentance, and faith in his name. But the original sin was atoned for by the death of Christ, although its effects we still see in the diseases, tempers and every species of wickedness with which the human family is afflicted.
  • Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 13:143 (July 11, 1869)

• Frank: Mam, can I go now and make the Collection? I want to go to the Lyric to see James Cagney.
  Grandma Sheehan: You can't make the Collection until you've had a proper First Communion breakfast at my house. Mam. Will you look at him? The manners of a pig. He eats like a Presbyterian. Is it a millionaire you think I am? An American? Is there any more tea in the pot, Mam? - Aye. - I could do with a cup. You all right, Frankie? - What's the matter, Frankie? What's wrong with that child? [Frank runs out tp the backyard and vomits] Look what he did! He's thrown up the body and blood of Jesus. What am I to do? I have God in me backyard! I'm taking you to the priest. That was a dreadful thing you did in my backyard.
  • Angela's Ashes (film)

• [Teacher is putting pieces of newspaper on the boys tongues]
  Teacher: And what do I have here, Clohessy?
  Clohessy: Pieces of the Limerick Leader, sir!
  Teacher: No! The body and blood of Christ. If you don't pay anymore attention, it'll be the last rites. You'll be getting, not your holy communion. Irish is the language of Patriots. And English of traitors and informers. But Latin, ah boys, Latin. That the holy martyrs spoke before expiring in the foaming mouths of ravenous lions. Yes, it's Latin that gains the entrance to heaven itself. But there are boys in this class, who will never know sanctifying grace. And why? Because of greed. Those greedy little blackguards are talking even now, about the money they'll get from the collection. They'll go from house to house in their little suits like beggars. And will they take any of that money and send it to the the poor black babies in Africa as they should? Oh, no. It's off to the cinema the first communion boys will go, to wallow in the disgusting filth spewed across the world by the devil's henchman... in Hollywood. Isn't that right McCourt?
  McCourt: 'tis sir.
  Teacher: Don't speak you! Can't you see that God is on your tongue? Where is God, boys?
  Class: On his tongue, sir.
  • Angela's Ashes (film)

• Caleb: "Drink of this, for it is my blood." You know, I always loved the story of the Last Supper. The body and blood of Christ becoming rich, red wine. I recall, as a boy, though, I couldn't help but think: what would happen if you were at the Last Supper, and you ordered the white? A nice oaky Chardonnay or White Zin. I mean, would he make that out of his lymph or some-all? Never did bring it up. Suppose there was a reason why I never spent too long in one parish. Just looking for answers. Just looking for the Lord in the wrong damn places. Then you showed me the light.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Season 7

• Peter: Come on, you're worryin' about nothin'.
  Lois: Oh? Remember when you got drunk off the communion wine at church?
  [cutaway to a priest giving a sermon at church]
  Priest: And so the Lord God smote poor Job with festering boils all over his body...
  God: [sitting in one of the pews] Aw, man, I hate it when he tells this story.
  Priest:...yet, miraculously, Job was still able to maintain his dignity.
  Peter: [He is seen drinking lots of communion wine, he coughs] Woah, is that really the blood of Christ?
  Priest: Yes.
  Peter: Man, that guy must've been wasted 24 hours a day, eh?
  [cut back to the kitchen]
  Lois: And then there was that time at the ice cream store...
  [cutaway to the family at an ice cream store]
  Peter: Aw, butter rum's my favorite! [licks and passes out immediately]
  [cut back to the kitchen]
  Brian: And remember you had an Irish coffee the day we went to see Philadelphia?
  [cutaway to a movie theater. Everyone is sobbing, except for Peter who stares blankly, then claps his hands]
  Peter: I got it. That's the guy from Big. Tom Hanks! That's it, aw, funny guy, Tom Hanks! Everything he says is a stitch!
  Hanks: [on screen] I have AIDS.
  [Peter laughing]
  • Family Guy/Season 1

• Sunday morning at church
  St John: Haven't you read your King James Bible?
  Dennis: Of course, of course. Nearly finished it, but don't tell me what happens in the end!
  • Goodness Gracious Me (TV & radio), Series Three, Episode One

• Vicar: Hello, there.
  Dennis: Hello, my old chappie. Dennis Cooper. Table for four, please!
  Charlotte: Yes, please. Not too near the band.
  • Goodness Gracious Me (TV & radio), Series Three, Episode One

• Communion
  Vicar: Blood of Christ.
  St John: No, no, no. I'm driving.
  • Goodness Gracious Me (TV & radio), Series Three, Episode One

• Charlotte: Haven't you got any vol-au-vents?
  Vicar: This is not an hors d'œuvre; this is the body of Christ.
  Charlotte: Er, I think I'll wait for the main course then, thanks!
  • Goodness Gracious Me (TV & radio), Series Three, Episode One

• Sara: So, it looks like our historians have made a discovery.
  J. R. R. Tolkien: According to this map, the blood of Christ is hidden right smack in the middle of no-man's land.
  Rip: Great, right at the center of the bloodiest battle in human history.
  Stein: Even if we were to make it through the terrain unscathed, there's still the issue of the blood's precise location.
  Nate: That's the good news. Just as the Spear acted as a divining rod for its pieces, it glows when it's close to Jesus' blood.
  Stein: But one cannot simply walk into the middle of a war zone.
  • Legends of Tomorrow

• Devereaux: If you was my daughter, I'd tar the living shit outta you.
  Ruth Langmore: And if I was your daughter, I'd slit my throat first.
  • Ozark (TV series), The Precious Blood of Jesus [2.02]

• "The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son Cleanseth Us from All Sins." - Inscription
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (musical)

• Robert Thorn: Yes, Father?
  Father Brennan: We haven't much time. You must listen to what I have to say.
  Robert Thorn: All right. What is it?
  Father Brennan: You must accept Christ as your saviour. You must accept him now.
  Robert Thorn: Forgive me, Father, but I understand that you have a matter of some urgent personal business?
  Father Brennan: You must take communion. Drink the blood of Christ and eat his flesh. Only if he is within you can you defeat the son of the devil.
  Robert Thorn: I see.
  Father Brennan: He's killed once, he'll kill again. He'll kill until everything that's yours is his.
  Robert Thorn: Father, would you mind...
  Father Brennan: Only through Christ can you fight him. Accept the Lord Jesus. Drink his blood. I've locked the door, Mr. Thorn.
  Secretary: Yes?
  Robert Thorn: Would you send for a security guard?
  Father Brennan: I beg you, Mr. Thorn. Listen to what I have to say.
  Secretary: Ambassador Thorn?
  Father Brennan: I was at the hospital, Mr. Thorn, the night your son was born. I witnessed the birth.
  Secretary: Sir?
  Father Brennan: I beg you.
  Robert Thorn: [into the intercom] All right. Stand by. [to Father Brennan] What do you want?
  Father Brennan: To save you, Mr. Thorn. So Christ will forgive me.
  Robert Thorn: What do you know about my son?
  Father Brennan: Everything.
  Robert Thorn: And what is that?
  Father Brennan: I saw its mother.
  Robert Thorn: You saw my wife.
  Father Brennan: I saw its mother.
  Robert Thorn: You're referring to my wife!
  Father Brennan: Its mother, Mr. Thorn.
  Robert Thorn: If this is blackmail, then come out and say it! What are you trying to say?
  Father Brennan: His mother was a ja- [security guards burst into the office]
  Security Guard: Everything all right, sir?
  Secretary: You sounded strange. The door was locked.
  Robert Thorn: I want this gentleman escorted out of here.
  Security Guard: Ok, let's go.
  Father Brennan: Accept Christ each day. Drink his blood.
  • The Omen

• Robert Langdon: This is an old wives' tale.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: The original one, in fact!
  Robert Langdon: There's virtually no empirical proof!
  Sir Leigh Teabing: He knows as well as I do, there's much evidence to support it!
  Robert Langdon: Theories. There are theories.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Notice how Jesus and Mary are clothed. [Zooms out on the screen, to show Jesus and Mary in the same frame. They are wearing blue on their outside arms and a bright colour on their inside arms; their clothing illuminates as the rest of the picture darkens, to heighten Teabing's point.] Mirror images of each other!
  Robert Langdon: The mind sees what it chooses to see.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: And venturing into the even more bizarre, notice how Jesus and Mary appear to be joined at the hip and are leaning away from each other, as if to create a shape in the negative space between them. Leonardo gives us...the chalice! [he highlights the area, which resembles a triangle pointing down]
  Robert Langdon: Hmm.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Yes. Ooh, and Robert, er, notice what happens when these two figures [laughs briefly] change position. [He brings a representation of Mary over to Jesus' left side, so it looks like she has her head on His shoulder.]
  Sophie Neveu: Just because Da Vinci painted it doesn't make it true.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: No. But history, she does make it true! Now, listen to this. It's from the Gospel according to Philip.
  Sophie Neveu: Philip?
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Yes, it was rejected at the Council of Nicea, along with any other gospels that made Jesus appear human and not divine. [reading from a book] "And the companion of the Saviour was Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her on -"
  Sophie Neveu: [interrupting] But this says nothing of marriage!
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Well, actually, um, Robert...?
  Robert Langdon: Actually, in those days, the word "companion" literally meant "spouse".
  Sir Leigh Teabing: [crossing the room to another book on a lectern] And this is from the gospel of Mary Magdalene herself.
  Sophie Neveu: She wrote a gospel?
  Robert Langdon: She may have.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Robert, will you fight fair?
  Robert Langdon: She may have.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: [reading] "And Peter said, 'does He prefer her to us?' And Levi answered, 'Peter, I see you contending against a woman like an adversary. If the Saviour made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her?!'" [To Sophie] Yes. And then, my dear, Jesus goes on to tell Mary Magdalene that it's up to her to continue His Church. [He sits down and illuminates figures on the screen.] Mary Magdalene. Not Peter. The Church was supposed to be carried on by...a woman. Few realise that Mary was descended from kings, just as her husband was. Now, my dear, the word in French for "holy grail".
  Sophie Neveu: Le Sangrine.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: From the Middle English, "Sangreal", of the original Arthurian legend. [He writes the word on the screen, using his tablet.] Now, as two words. [He divides it into two four-letter words.] Can you translate for our friend?
  Sophie Neveu: Sang Real, it means "royal blood".
  Sir Leigh Teabing: When the legend speaks of the chalice that held the blood of Christ, it speaks, in fact, of the female womb that held Jesus' royal bloodline.
  Sophie Neveu: But how could Christ have a bloodline, unless...
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Mary was pregnant at the time of the Crucifixion. [He gets up.] For her own safety, and for that of Christ's unborn child, she fled the Holy Land and came to France. And here, it is said that she gave birth to a daughter, Sarah.
  Sophie Neveu: They know the child's name?
  Robert Langdon: A little girl.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Yes.
  Robert Langdon: If that were true, it's adding insult to injury.
  Sophie Neveu: Why?
  Robert Langdon: The Pagans found transcendence through the joining of male and female.
  Sophie Neveu: People found God through sex?
  Robert Langdon: In Paganism, women were worshipped, as a route to Heaven, but, the modern church has a monopoly on that, in salvation through Jesus Christ.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: And he who keeps the keys to Heaven rules the world.
  Robert Langdon: Women, then, are a huge threat to the Church. The Catholic Inquisition soon publishes what may be the most blood-soaked book in human history.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: The Malleus Maleficarum! [He throws a book at Langdon, who catches it.]
  Robert Langdon: The Witches' Hammer.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: It instructed the clergy on how to locate, torture and kill all free-thinking women.
  Robert Langdon: Over three centuries of witch-hunts, fifty thousand women are captured and burned alive at the stake.
  Sir Leigh Teabing: Oh, at least that! Some say millions! Imagine then, Robert, that Christ's Throne might live on in a female child? [To Sophie] You asked what would be worth killing for. Witness the greatest coverup in human history. This is the secret the Priory of Sion has defended for over twenty centuries. They are the guardians of the royal bloodline, keepers of the proof of our true past. They are the protectors of the descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.
  • The Da Vinci Code (film)

• George Hodgson: One summer when I was seven, my parents sent me to live with two aunts in Oxfordshire. I did not want to go. The elderly have that effect on children. But they loved me. And I grew to love them. They were papists I came to find. Devout. Each Sunday they would leave me with a housemaid while they attended a Catholic Mass. I was frightened for them. I had been told they were doing some great, unforgivable thing. Then one morning, they took me with them. I was shaking. The service was not the howling spectacle of sin I had imagined, but was beautiful. The singing sounded delivered by angels themselves. When it came time for the Eucharist, I found myself moved to step forward. My aunts were surprised, but pleased, I could see. I took the wafer on my tongue. Drank from the chalice. I felt clean. With the body and blood of Christ within me I felt forgiven of every poor weak or selfish thing within my soul. It was a perfect moment in a whole imperfect life. The next week when it came time to dress, I, I pretended to be ill. They knew I was pretending. To this day, I don't know why I did it. They never asked me to join them again. We never spoke of it. It was the last and only time I stepped into a papist church. But tonight when I close my eyes I'm there. If I were a braver man, I would kill Mr. Hickey. Though it would mean my death, too. But I am hungry. I am hungry and I want to live.
  • The Terror (TV series)

• Bonvisi: My friend, you are looking at your herring as if you hate it.
  Thomas More: There's nothing wrong with the herring. But, of Cardinal Wolsey, I will say only this. He has brought his fall on himself. He has drawn it all on himself. Land, money and titles. He's always had a greed for ruling over other men.
  Thomas Cromwell: The Cardinal's a public man. Would you have him shrink from a public role?
  Thomas More: Oh, I think it's a little late to read the Cardinal a lesson in humility. His real friends have tried long ago and been ignored.
  Thomas Cromwell: And you count yourself a real friend, do you? I'll tell him. And by the blood of Christ, Lord Chancellor, he'll find it a consolation as he sits in exile and wonders why you slander him to the King.
  Bonvisi: Gentlemen, please...br>Thomas Cromwell: No, let's have this straight. Thomas here says, "I'd spend my life in the church if I had a choice. I'm devoted to things of the spirit. I care nothing for wealth. The world's esteem is nothing to me." So how is it I come back to London and find you've become Lord Chancellor? Lord Chancellor. What's that? A fucking accident?
  Thomas More: You're no friend of the Church, Thomas. You're a friend to one priest only. And he's the most corrupt in Christendom.
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Encyclopedic article on Blood of Christ on Wikipedia