C.S. Lewis on the Mystery of Schism

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from his correspondence with Fr. Giovanni Calabria:

That the whole cause of schism lies in sin I do not hold to be certain. I grant that no schism is without sin but the one proposition doees not necessarily follow the other. From your side, Pope Leo, from ours Henry VIII, were lost men...But what would I think of your Thomas More or of our William Tyndale? All the writings of the one and all the writings of the other I have lately read right through. Both of them seem to me most saintly men and to have loved God with their whole heart: I am not worthy to undo the shoes of either of them. Nevertheless they disagree and (what racks and astounds me) their disagreement seems to me to spring not from their vices nor from their ignorance but rather from their virtues and the depths of their faith, so that the more they were at their best the more they were at variance. I believe the judgement of God on their dissension is more profoundly hidden than it appears to you to be: for His Judgements are indeed an abyss.

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