Did Martin Luther finally recant on his deathbed? I came across this question over on the Catholic Answers discussion forums in 2007. Here's a very similar 2007 question from the Catholic Answers forums:
I've heard a couple times that Luther supposedly repented and re-entered the Church on his deathbed but I cannot find this document anywhere (true or not).Obviously, Lutherans (all Protestants) are not going to accept this (not that that would have anything to do with it being true or not). I am curious if there is any evidence behind such 'rumors'. Can anyone speak to this?
Reverend father, will you die steadfast in Christ and the doctrines you have preached?" Yes," replied the clear voice for the last time. On February 18, 1546, even as he lay dying in Eisleben, far from home, Martin Luther was not to be spared a final public test, not to be granted privacy even in this last, most personal hour. His longtime confidant Justus Jonas, now pastor in Halle, having hurriedly summoned witnesses to the bedside, shook the dying man by the arm to rouse his spirit for the final exertion. Luther had always prayed for a "peaceful hour": resisting Satan—the ultimate, bitterest enemy—through that trust in the Lord over life and death which is God's gift of liberation from the tyranny of sin. It transforms agony into no more than a brief blow.
But now there was far more at stake than his own fate, than being able to leave the world in peace, and trust in God. For in the late Middle Ages, ever since the first struggle for survival during the persecutions of ancient Rome, going to one's death with fearless fortitude was the outward sign of a true child of God, of the confessors and martyrs. The deathbed in the Eisleben inn had become a stage; and straining their ears to catch Luther's last words were enemies as well as friends.
As early as 1529, Johannes Cochlaeus, Luther's first "biographer," had denounced Luther in Latin and German as the seven-headed dragon, the Devil's spawn. Slanderous reports that he had died a God-forsaken death, miserable and despairing, had circulated time and again. But now the end his friends had dreaded and his enemies had longed for was becoming reality. Who now would lay claim to Luther and fetch him, God or the Devil? While simple believers imagined the Devil literally seizing his prey, the enlightened academic world was convinced that a descent into Hell could be diagnosed medically—as apoplexy and sudden cardiac arrest. Abruptly and without warning, the Devil would snip the thread of a life that had fallen to him, leaving the Church unable to render its last assistance. Thus, in their first reports, Luther's friends, especially Melanchthon, stressed that the cause of death had not been sudden, surprising apoplexy but a gradual flagging of strength: Luther had taken leave of the world and commended his spirit into God's hands. For friend and foe alike his death meant far more than the end of a life.
Shortly after Doctor Martinus died at about 3:00 A.M. on February 18, Justus Jonas carefully recorded Luther's last twenty-four hours, addressing his report not to Luther's widow, as one might expect, but to his sovereign, Elector John Frederick, with a copy for his university colleagues in Wittenberg. Had Luther—born on November 10, 1483, as a simple miner's son—died young, history would have passed over his parents' grief unmoved. But now his death was an affair of state. The day after his birth—the feast of St. Martin—he had been baptized and received into the life of the Church as a simple matter of course, but now there was open dispute over whether, having been excommunicated by the pope, he had departed from this world a son of the Church.
In the last days before his death Luther had been the cheerful man his friends knew and loved. He had successfully completed a difficult mission: a trip from Wittenberg to Eisleben to mediate in a protracted quarrel between the two counts of Mansfeld, the brothers Gebhard and Albert. Hours had been spent sitting between the parties, listening to the clever reasoning of administrative lawyers—a breed he had despised ever since his early days as a law student in Erfurt. After two tough weeks of negotiation, the parties had narrowed their differences and a reconciliation had finally—though only temporarily—been achieved. So there was reason to be cheerful. Luther had suspected that he would die in Eisleben, the place of his birth. But this did not worry him, although he was quite sure he had little time left: "When I get home to Wittenberg again, I will lie down in my coffin and give the worms a fat doctor to feast on." By highlighting the skeleton within the human body, late medieval art had urgently reminded everyone that health, beauty, and wealth were only a few breaths away from the Dance of Death. The "fat doctor" was well aware of this, not as a moralistic horror story, but as a reality of life poised on the brink of eternity [Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, pp. 3-5).
Here's an excerpt in English of what Justus Jonas wrote via Google A.I.
On Wednesday, February 17th, however, the Lords and Counts, and all of us, asked Dr. Martin himself that he would not go into the large room for the negotiations before noon, but rather rest. He then lay in his small chamber on a leather pallet and also walked about and prayed in the chamber. Nevertheless, in the evening and morning, he sat at the table in his chair in the large room. During that last supper (before he peacefully passed away in God shortly before three o'clock the next morning), he spoke many important words and discourses about death and the coming eternal life, saying among other things: "Ah, dear God, twenty years is a short time, yet in that short time, the world becomes desolate."
-snip-
Not long after these words, he stood up and went into his small chamber. His two young sons, Martinus and Paulus, and Master Coelius soon followed him. Following his custom, he lay by the window in the chamber to pray. Master Coelius went back down, and Joannes Aurifaber of Weimar came up. The Doctor said, 'I feel so unwell and anxious, as before, around my chest... When he felt a tightness or pain in his chest, the Countess gave him some unicorn (shaved horn). He asked if he should take it, and the Doctor said yes. Meanwhile, Johannes, before going to the Countess, hurried down to call Dr. Jonas and Master Coelius, who had been away for no longer than it takes to say two Our Fathers, and they quickly ran back up.
When we came up, he complained bitterly of the pain in his chest. Following his usual habit as he did at home, we immediately rubbed him well with warm cloths, which he found helpful, and he said he felt better. Count Albrecht himself then came running with Master Johannes, bringing the unicorn. The Count asked, "How are you, dear Herr Doctor?" To which the Doctor replied, "There is no need for worry, gracious Lord; it is beginning to improve." Then Count Albrecht himself shaved the unicorn for him.
After the Doctor felt some relief, the Count left him again, but one of his councilors, Conrad von Wolframsdorf, remained with us—Dr. Jonas, Master Coelius, Johannes, and Ambrosius—to stay by his side.. The doctors requested that he be given the shaved unicorn horn again in a spoonful of wine. Conrad von Wolframsdorf first took a spoonful himself so that the Doctor would be less hesitant to take it.
Around nine o’clock, he lay down on the daybed and said: "If I could slumber for half an hour, I hope everything would be better." He then slept softly and naturally for an hour and a half until half past ten. We—Dr. Jonas, Master Michael Coelius, along with his servant Ambrosius and his two young sons, Martin and Paul—remained by his side.
When he woke up exactly at ten o’clock, he said: "See, are you still sitting here? Shouldn’t you go to bed?" We answered: "No, Herr Doctor, we shall stay awake and watch over you." With that, he desired to get up and rose from the daybed. He went into the chamber right next to the room, which was protected from all drafts with windows. Although he did not complain of anything there, as he stepped over the threshold of the chamber, he said: "As God wills, I am going to bed. Into Your hands I commend my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
When he went to bed, which was well-prepared with warm boards and cushions, he lay down, shook hands with all of us, said goodnight, and spoke: "Dr. Jonas and M. Celi, and you others, pray for our Lord God and His Gospel, that it may go well with it; for the Council of Trent and the wretched Pope are very angry with it." Dr. Jonas, his two sons, Martinus and Paulus, his servant Ambrosius, and other servants remained with him in the chamber that night. [
Throughout these twenty-one days, lights were kept in the chamber every night, but that same night the little room was also kept warm. He slept well, with natural snoring, until the clock struck one. Then he woke up and called his servant Ambrosius to heat the room. But as it had been kept warm all night and Ambrosius the servant returned, Dr. Jonas asked him if he felt weak again. He replied: "Ah Lord God, how I am in such pain! Ah dear Doctor Jonas, I believe I shall remain here in Eisleben (where I was born and baptized). Upon this, Dr. Jonas and Ambrosius the servant answered: "Ah, Reverend Father, God our heavenly Father will help through Christ, whom you have preached." Then he went through the room into the small chamber without help or being led by the hand. As he stepped over the threshold, he spoke these words as if he were going to bed: "In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum, Redemisti me Domine DEUS veritatis" (Into your hands I commend my spirit, You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth). He also walked back and forth once or twice in the small chamber, then lay down on the daybed and complained that the pressure around his chest was very hard, but it still spared his heart.
Then, as he had requested and as was the custom in Wittenberg, he was rubbed with warm cloths, and cushions and pillows were warmed for him, for he said it helped him greatly when he was kept warm. Before all this, and as the Doctor lay down on the daybed, Master Coelius came running quickly from his room next to ours, and soon after him, Johannes Aurifaber. Then they hurriedly called the host, Johann Albrecht, the town clerk, and his wife were awakened, as were the two medical doctors in the city who, because they lived nearby, all came running within a quarter of an hour.
First came the host with his wife, followed by Master Simon Wild, a physician, and Dr. Ludwig, a medical doctor. Shortly thereafter, Count Albrecht arrived with his consort, the Countess, who brought various spices and refreshments and tirelessly devoted herself to reviving him with all kinds of restorative measures. But in the midst of all this, the Doctor said, "Dear God, I am in great pain and anxiety; I am passing away, I will surely remain here in Eisleben." Then Dr. Jonas and Master Coelius comforted him and said, "Reverend Father, call upon your dear Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, the only mediator; you have had a great, good sweat, and God will grant that it becomes better."
He answered and said, "Yes, it is a cold death-sweat; I will give up my spirit, for the illness is increasing." Thereupon he began and said:
"O my heavenly Father, a God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you God of all comfort, I thank you that you have revealed to me your dear Son Jesus Christ, in whom I believe, whom I have preached and confessed, whom I have loved and praised, whom the wretched Pope and all the godless shame, persecute, and blaspheme. I pray you, my Lord Jesus Christ, let my soul be commended to you [(He spoke {this} so soulfully) that he was actually, without a doubt, humbling himself before God, as if he were to say: "What a poor creature am I compared to You, You great, infinite, and eternal Majesty!"] O heavenly Father, though I must leave this body and be torn away from this life, yet I know for certain that I shall remain with you forever, and no one can pluck me out of your hands."In him, the saying of John in chapter 8 was truly fulfilled: "Truly, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death eternally." This verse from John 8 was his last handwriting, which he also wrote in a Bible as a remembrance for people; and that same handwriting of his came to Elrich Hans Gasman, the Rentmeister of Hohnstein, in the front of a house postil. Our dearest, beloved father also interpreted this saying as follows: (Never see death.)
How unbelievable this speech is, and contrary to public and daily experience! Nevertheless, it is the truth. When a person considers God's word in their heart with earnestness, believes it, and falls asleep or dies over it, they sink and depart thither before they realize or become aware of death; and they are certainly blessed in the Word, in which they have thus believed and considered from within. Under this was written Doctor Martinus Luther, 1546. Occurred on the 18th day of February.
As he had now departed in the Lord, and Count Albrecht, his consort, the one from Schwarzenburg, etc., together with us, were terrified, and still cried out that one should not cease with rubbing and refreshing, everything was done that was humanly possible. But the body became colder and more death-like.
And after the dead body had thus lain on the small resting-bed for three-quarters of an hour, one prepared nearby, from many feather beds, three under-beds and cloths on top, right by the resting-bed, into which he was lifted, in the hope (as we all wished and prayed) that God might still grant grace.
There came, before it was day, around four o'clock, the Serene, High-born Prince and Lord, Lord Wolff, Prince of Anhalt; the Noble, High-born Counts and Lords, Philippus and Johans Jörg, brothers; Count Volradt, Count Hans, and Count Wolff, also brothers, Counts and Lords of Mansfeld, and other lords, and members of the nobility.
The body was left lying on the bed from four until after nine o'clock, which is five full hours. During that time, many honest citizens came and looked upon the dead body with hot tears and weeping. Afterward, he was dressed in a new white Swabian smock, and the body was laid in the chamber on a bed and straw until a tin coffin was cast and he was placed inside. While he lay in the coffin, many of the nobility—both men and women, several hundred in number—who had mostly known him, as well as a very large crowd of people, saw him.
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