It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians. . . and I am one of them.
Saint Cyprian
We are Christians too, but unfortunately many of benefit because our faith is weak and so is our will to follow the direction God gives us to find joy while we inhabit the earth.
That reads like something from a Robert Bolt play, or possibly one by Jean Anouilh.
A lot of profundity can found in the Fathers.
Absolutely.
And that bit from Cyprian’s Letter to Donatus reads like Robert Bolt or Jean Anouilh.
Except it’s neither Robert Bolt nor Jean Anouilh
It’s William Tunstall.
And he’s not translating, he’s versifying.
in the Marshalsea