Wir sind Bettler. Hoc est verum.

Martin Luther last words:

Virgilium in Bucolicis nemo potest intelligere, nisi fuerit quinque annis pastor.
Virgilium in Georgicis nemo potest intelligere, nisi fuerit quinque annis agricola.
Ciceronem in Epistolis nemo integre intelligit, nisi viginti annis sit versatus in republica aliqua insigni.
Scripturas sanctas sciat se nemo degustasse satis, nisi centum annis cum Prophetis, ut Elia et Elisaeo, Joanne Baptista, CHRISTO et Apostolis Ecclesias gubernarit.
Hanc tu ne Aenëida tenta,
Sed vestigia pronus adora.
Wir sind Bettler, Hoc est verum. 16 Februarij, anno 1546

Nobody can understand Vergil in his Bucolics, unless he has been a shepherd for five years.
Nobody can understand Vergil in his Georgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.
Nobody understands Cicero in his Letters, unless he has been engaged in public affairs of some consequence for twenty years.
Let nobody suppose that he has tasted the Holy Scriptures sufficiently unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the Prophets, like Elijah and Eliseo, John the Baptist, CHRIST and the Apostles.
Lay not your hand on the Aeneid,
but bow before it, adore its every trace.
We are beggars. That is true. February 16, 1546