quality:correction
Death in Basel

When his strength began to fail, he finally decided to accept an invitation by Queen Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands (sister of his former student Archduke Ferdinand I and Emperor Charles V), to move from Freiburg to Brabant. In 1535, he moved back to the Froben compound in Basel in preparation (Œcolampadius having died, and private practice of his religion now possible) and saw his last major works such as Ecclesiastes through publication, though he grew more frail.

On July 12, 1536, he died at an attack of dysentery. "The most famous scholar of his day died in peaceful prosperity and in the company of celebrated and responsible friends." His last words, as recorded by his friend and biographer Beatus Rhenanus, were apparently "Lord, put an end to it" (Latin: domine fac finem, the same last words as Melanchthon) then "Dear God" (Dutch: Lieve God).

He had remained loyal to Roman Catholicism, but biographers have disagreed whether to treat him as an insider or an outsider. He may not have received or had the opportunity to receive the last rites of the Catholic Church; the contemporary reports of his death do not mention whether he asked for a Catholic priest or not, if any were secretly or privately in Basel.

He was buried with great ceremony in the Basel Minster (the former cathedral). The Protestant city authorities remarkably allowed his funeral to be an ecumenical Catholic requiem Mass.

As his heir or executor he instated Bonifacius Amerbach to give seed money to students and the needy; he had received dispensations (from Ferdinand Archduke of Austria, and from Emperor Charles V in 1530) to make a will rather than have his wealth revert to his order (the Chapter of Sion), or to the state, and had long pre-sold most of his personal library of almost 500 books to Polish humanist Jan Łaski. One of the eventual recipients was the impoverished Protestant humanist Sebastian Castellio, who had fled from Geneva to Basel, who subsequently translated the Bible into Latin and French, and who worked for the repair of the breach and divide of Western Christianity in its Catholic, Anabaptist, and Protestant branches.