Retinenda—Latin for Lutherans

For your Reformation celebration, here is a Latin translation of Luther’s great hymn, Ein feste Burg (“A Mighty Fortress”). Translated by Buttmann, a German philologist, it can be sung to the same tune as Luther’s original. According to this source the Latin version was first published in 1830 to commemorate the Augsburg Confession (1530).

Arx firma Deus noster est,
Is telum, quo nitamur;
Is explicat ex omnibus
Queis malis implicamur.
Nam cui semper mos,
Iam ter terret nos:
Per astum, per vim,
Saevam levat sitim;
Nil par in terris illi.

In nobis nihil situm est,
Quo minus pereamus:
Quem Deus ducem posuit,
Is facit ut vivamus.
Scin quis hoc potest?
Iesus Christus est,
Qui, dux caelitum,
Non habet aemulum:
Is vicerit profecto.

Sit mundus plenus daemonum,
Nos cupiant uorare;
Non timor est; uictoria
Nil potest nos frustrare.
Hem dux saeculi!
Inuitus abi!
In nos nil potes,
Iam iudicatus es;
Vel uocula te sternat.

Hoc uerbum non pessumdabunt,
Nec gratiam merebunt;
In nobis Christi Spiritus
Et munera uigebunt:
Tollant corpus, rem,
Mundique omnem spem:
Tollant! iubilent!
Non lucrum hinc ferent;
Manebit regnum nobis.