St. James:

I don’t think you are being overly sympathetic. I would like to think, and pray that Luther on his deathbed made his peace with God and the Church. Just as others have. I’ve mentioned before one priest who left the Church out of his inability to remain celebate, and came back on his deathbed. The famous historial Will Durant, another who left the Church and wrote some horrible things that he later recanted when nearing the end of his life he returned home to the Church. The problem is that both have books that continue to circulate and while their return to the Church is public knowledge, it does not remove their books which still contain the errors they promulgated.

As for Luther, Erik Erikson wrote a very compelling forensic psychiatric look at him, his bipolar like manic and depressive states, the problems he had with scruples. His self imposed penances, and wild fits. While it does not remove the fact that millions of souls have been filled with hatred for the Authentic Christ and His Church over the centuries, it does speak of the compassion we should have for Luther, and those who have been seduced by his false teachings, and the perversion of the Message of Christ by those who created the multitude of Protestant Churches since his time.