«Επ' αυτού παραμένω στη θέση μου. Δεν μπορώ να κάνω κάτι άλλο. Ο Θεός ας με βοηθάει». /“On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.”

«Επ' αυτού παραμένω στη θέση μου.
Δεν μπορώ να κάνω κάτι άλλο.
Ο Θεός ας με βοηθάει». /

“On this I take my stand.
I can do no other.
God help me.”

However, since I am a man and not God, I cannot provide my writings with any other defense than that which my Lord Jesus Christ provided for His teaching. When He had been interrogated concerning His teaching before Annas and had received a buffet from a servant, He said: "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil." If the Lord Himself, who knew that He could not err, did not refuse to listen to witness against His teaching, even from a worthless slave, how much more ought I, scum that I am, capable of naught but error, to seek and to wait for any who may wish to bear witness against my teaching.

And so, through the mercy of God, I ask Your Imperial Majesty, and Your Illustrious Lordships, or anyone of any degree, to defeat them by the writings of the Prophets or by the Gospels; for I shall be most ready, if I be better instructed, to recant any error, and I shall be the first in casting my writings into the fire. . . .

Thereupon the Orator of the Empire, in a tone of upbraiding, said that his [Luther's] answer was not to the point, and that there should be no calling into question of matters on which condemnations and decisions had before been passed by Councils. He was being asked for a plain reply, without subtlety or sophistry, to this question: Was he prepared to recant, or no?

Luther then replied: Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted [convinced] of error by the testimony of Scripture or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning, I stand convicted [convinced] by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us.

On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.

Amen.

–Words attributed to Martin Luther, who appeared before Emperor Charles V in April 1521 to defend what he had taught and written. /

Λόγια που αποδίδονται στον Μαρτίνο Λούθηρο, ο οποίος παρουσιάστηκε ενώπιον του αυτοκράτορα Κάρολου Ε΄ τον Απρίλιο του 1521 για να υπερασπιστεί αυτά που είχε διδάξει και είχε γράψει.