CARLSTADT (Karlstadt, Karolstadt), Andreas. - Famous German reformer, b. probably in 1481, and d. at Basel on 24 Dec. 1541. His real name was Andreas Rudolf Bodenstein; but he was called C. from the city of Carlstadt, where he was born. He did his studies at Erfurt and at Cologne. Ordained a priest, he was elected canon archdeacon of the collegiate church of Wittenberg; he was in Rome in 1515, where he obtained a doctorate in utroque iure. On his return to Wittenberg he found the city upheaved by Luther's doctrines, which at first he wished to oppose, but which he afterward embraced; indeed he worked with Luther for some time in complete harmony.
The theses that he published against the Obelisci of the professor of the University of Ingolstadt, Johann Eck, a strenuous defender of the Catholic Church in Germany, led him and Luther to the famous disputation of Leipzig (1519), where free will, the primacy of the Pope, Confession, Purgatory and indulgences were to be discussed. In the question of free will Eck's superiority and C.'s defective memory in recalling the texts of Sacred Scripture gave Eck an easy victory. Luther, who then disputed on the other points, although he drew attention by his fiery eloquence, had to confess that he had not been satisfied with the outcome of the disputation, and C. considered himself humiliated both before Eck and in regard to Luther. As a presumptuous man he wanted to be first in every initiative in which he took part; from this followed a secret rancor against Luther that he kept all his life.
He knew how to exploit the occasion when, in 1521, Luther was placed under the ban of the empire and, protected by the Elector Frederick, remained hidden in the castle of Wartburg, and Wittenberg was left at C.'s discretion. Together with the apostate G. Zwilling (also called Didymus) he suppressed the Mass, celebrated the Lord's Supper in lay dress, distributed Communion under both kinds, began a veritable iconoclastic campaign against every sort of sacred image and on 26 Dec. of the same year 1521 contracted a public marriage with Anna von Mochau. Meanwhile some of the so-called "prophets of Zwickau" or Anabaptists had arrived at Wittenberg, and among them Nicholas Storch, who began to preach the "new kingdom of Christ." C. at first seemed to hesitate, but then little by little embraced some of their doctrines, such as the uselessness of studies and of science for the ministers of the Lord.
Luther, when he learned all this, secretly abandoned his refuge of Wartburg on 1 March 1522, re-entered Wittenberg and with his prestige and his eloquence restored order. C. reluctantly had to yield. He retired for a short time to the countryside, lived like a simple peasant and entered into relations with Thomas Müntzer. In 1523, called by the inhabitants of Orlamünde, he went there as minister and with new enthusiasm began to propagate his doctrines, to destroy sacred images and to suppress schools. This produced some disturbances among the people, and since moreover his relations with the Anabaptists, ever more restless and troublesome to the civil authorities, were known, the Elector of Saxony drove him out of Saxony in 1524.
For some time he wandered through Germany. At the outbreak of the Peasants' War and on the occasion of the abuses and calamities that accompanied it, he, although he had taken no part in it, nevertheless, because of his relations with Müntzer, fell under the suspicion of the victors, so that, to save him from certain death, his friends lowered him in a basket from the window opened in the walls of Rothenburg.
In the grave and dangerous circumstances in which he found himself, he found no other remedy to save himself than to humble himself before Luther, to whom he wrote asking for protection and refuge. Luther granted it to him in 1526, keeping him hidden for some time and even baptizing his son. Not adapting, however, to that kind of hidden life, he fled in 1527 to Strasbourg, whence he passed to Zurich, well received by Zwingli. When the latter was killed in the battle of Kappel in 1531, C. was made minister of Allstedt and in 1534 accepted the office of professor at Basel, where he died of plague on 24 Dec. 1541.
C. was a fickle character: from a Catholic priest he became a Lutheran, and while still a Lutheran he embraced some Anabaptist doctrines, only to adhere definitively afterward to Zwingli. From Luther he tenaciously retained the doctrine of private judgment, indeed he used it against Luther himself, to whom he did not wish to be subject. In opposition to Luther's original will he inveighed against the cult of sacred images and with true iconoclastic fanaticism destroyed as many of them as he could; with the Anabaptists he not only condemned the Baptism of children, but professed the uselessness of profane studies, saying that the Bible alone was enough; with the Zwinglians he defended the purely symbolic presence of Christ in the Eucharist and dared to speak "of the flesh of the idol that the priests eat." There is therefore no cause for wonder if the Protestants themselves do not speak of him with much enthusiasm.
Bibliography6 works
Camillo Crivelli