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The Latin Poems/Book 2 · Musae Responsoriae
Chapter 24HerbL.2.24

Ad Fratres (Epigr. XXI)

The Scarcity of Brotherhood

The poet reflects on the irony of a world filled with labels and factions, yet lacking the true essence of brotherly love.

What a charming age! Brothers stand all around, and their own Papists and their own Cathars are everywhere. Everything is now so full of the Brother's goodness, since nothing could be rarer than brotherly love.

Read the original Latin

O saeclum lepidum! circumstant undique Fratres, Papicolisque sui sunt Catharisque sui. Sic nunc plena boni sunt omnia Fratris, amore Cum nil fraterno rarius esse queat.

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