CARLSTADT, KARLSTADT, or KAROL STADT 4s0-1.141). A tIerman reformer Nvhose real name was Andreas Bilden stein, and who was at first a friend, but later an opponent. of Luther. He was born at Earl stadt. Franconia; studied at the universities of Frfnrt I 1500-031. Cologne ( 1503 . and W it t en berg (1501), and in the last became a professor. .trst. in philos.phy and then in In 1510 hub was made D.D. and Arehdeaeon 44 All Saints Church in Wittenberg. It was then that he became a personal friend of Luther. In 1515 Carlstadt went to Rome to study ra Doll law and took the degree of I.L.D. to Witten berg in 1516, he openly broke with seholast and defended Ileuchlin, against whom a violent persecution raging. When Luther, On Oc tober :31, 1517, nailed his theses to the door of the town (du•el' of Wittenberg. Carlstadt supported him. In 1518 he published arguments asserting the snpreme authority of the Scrip tures, and declaring that in the silence of the Scripture appeals from the fathers of the Church must be made to reason. He participated in the Leipzig Disputation of 1510 au side of Luther, and in the bull against Luther (1520) Carlstadt was condemned. He was the first to appeal from the Pope to a general council. In 1521, by invitation of the king, he went to Den mark to teach the doctrines of the Reformation; but he returned after a few weeks. On Decem ber 20, 1521, lie married Anna von Alochau. About this time differences sprang up between Carlstadt and Luther, owing to the former's desire to break at once and entirely with the Old Church, whereas Luther would go more slow ly. While Luther was at the Wartburg (1521), Carlstadt took the lead, and. supported by the city government, and perhaps the majority of the citizens. restored the cup to the laity, abolished the fasting regulations, the elevation of the host, and auricular confession. These changes were very distasteful to the Elector, and so Luther left the Wartburg and opposed them in Wittenberg and restored the old order. Find ing his position uncomfortable, Carlstadt became pastor at Orlamfinde, in Thuringia (1523), where his radical Church reforms, joined to his well known independence of Luther, created a suspi cion that lie was associated with the Anabaptists, and that lie might be implicated in the sehemes of the peasant revolt. The Elector sent Luther to find out the true state of affairs; and when Luther preached against Carlstadt at Jena, the t WO l'efOl'Illet'S held a discussion upon the Real Presence. which Carlstadt NV:IS
the first to deny: and an open quarrel broke out between them. Carlstadt was 011k red ont of Saxony (15241. and wandered from place to place, preaching Protestantism, but his radical ism may have at times prompted the people lawlessly to destroy pictures and images in the churches, so that he' WaS :Well:sod of lawless ac tion himself. He was at Rothenburg when the Peasant War broke out (1525), and he acted as mediator with the peasants, hut in vain. Again suspected of provoking insurrection, he was pur sued and exposed to hardships and even danger to his life. In this extremity he appealed to Luther, who, on condition that he would not advocate his savramental views, used his influ mice so successfidly that lie was permitted to return to Saxony (1525i. where for same years he led a quiet life. But this quiet and, espe eially, lack of soul liberty were unendurable to his restless spirit, and he once more attacked Luther. The controversy upon the Lord's Sup per, ill which Zwingli agreed with ('arlstadt. grew liereer than over. and Carlstadt, who was no longer permitted to dwell in Saxony. fled to Friesland (1530), and thenee to Bern, and then to Zurich. where Zwingli kindly received him. se cured employment for him as proof-reader in the Fros•haner printing house, and later placed him in the spital. In 1534 he settled AS professor of theology in 13asel, remaining there until his death of the plague. December 21, 1541. Ili: diameter was very differently judged in his own times and since, according 10 whether t he svulpathies of the person speaking were with Luther or Zwingli. Thus the Lutherans con demn him as a radical and tactless zealot, aria immediately after his death accepted the tale that the devil had carried him till•, while the Swiss German and South German theologians ever speak very kindly of him. For his life. consult : J. C. ager ( Stut tga 1356) and Hermann Barge (announced) ; fur list of his works. H. W. liotermund, E•neuertes Andenkcn du .1/iinner die fur vnd gegen die Reformation. Lutheri gcarbritet haben, Vol. I (Bremen, 1314). Many of his letters are in J. G. Olearius. Seri niuni (Halle, 1671, 2d ed., 1693).