Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.1
ATTRIBUTION:
Psalm. Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (trans. by Frederic H. Hedge).
Note 1. On the 16th of April, 1521, Luther entered the imperial city [of Worms]…. On his approach… the Elector’s chancellor entreated him, in the name of his master, not to enter a town where his death was decided. The answer which Luther returned was simply this.—Bunsen: Life of Luther.
I will go, though as many devils aim at me as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses.—Ranke: History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 533 (Mrs. Austin’s translation). [back]
