CARLSTADT, Karlstadt, or Karolostadt (1480- 1541), whose real name was Andreas Rudolf Bodenstein, one of the boldest of the German Reformers, first the friend and afterwards the opponent of Martin Luther, was born at Carlstadt in Franconia, in 1480, thus being by three years Luther’s senior. In early life he was distinguished by a thirst for knowledge, and a restless disposition which led him to visit various countries and to pass from school to school. He went to Rome, aud there plunged into the scholastic philosophy and theology; and having obtained the degree of bachelor of divinity, he arrived, in 1504, at Wittenberg. Here he was appointed professor at the university, first in the philosophical faculty, and ultimately (in 1513) in the theological. After obtaining his degree of doctor in theology in 1510, he held a canonry and was chosen archdeacon. In 1511 he was appointed dean or rector of the university; and in the following year it fell to his lot to confer the degree of doctor on Luther. At this time their friendship appears to have begun. Carlstadt had already attained a high reputation for learning, eloquence, and logical power. For the purpose of studying the canon law he went a second time to Rome in 1515, returning to Wittenberg in the following year. In the storm of persecution which raged against Reuchlin, Carlstadt took the part of the persecuted scholar. He also adopted about this time the views of Luther; and in AprÙ 1517 he published a series of theses in which he asserted that the authority of Holy Scripture was above that of the fathers of the church, and that in the absence of Scripture decision an appeal must be made from the fathers to reason. It was at the end of October in the same year that Luther affixed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg, and Carlstadt strenuously supported him. In 1519 he undertook to hold a disputation with Dr Eck, one of the greatest scholars of the age, on grace and free wilL It took place at Leipsic in June, at the very time when the diet was sitting at Frankfort for the election of the emperor. Carlstadt as debater was not able to cope with Eck; and the discussions were tedious and almost fruitless. In the Papal bull against Luther, promulgated in 1520, Carlstadt was particularly named and condemned; and he was the first to appeal from the judgment of the Pope to a general council.

In 1521 he accepted an invitation from Christian II. of Denmark to teach the doctrines of the Reformation in that kingdom, but he made a very short stay there. Differences of opinion and petty jealousies were beginning to spring up between Luther and Carlstadt; and these ripened into bitter discussion and open hostility. Carlstadt’s impetuous temper led him to become the advocate of violent measures for the attainment of those ends which Luther and the other Reformers hoped to compass by persuasion. In consequence of the riotous agitation stirred up in Wittenberg by his speeches, writings, and manner of procedure during Luther’s confinement in the Wartburg, Luther declared openly against him. For the next two years he remained quiet. But in 1523, being compelled to leave Wittenberg, he retired to Orlamünde in Thuringia, and there got himself elected pastor by the people. His violent proceedings favoured the suspicion that he was associated with the Anabaptists, and was implicated in the schemes of Münzer, leader of the great peasant revolt. The elector of Saxony sent Luther to investigate the true state of things; and when Luther preached against Carlstadt at Jena they held a discussion on the “Real Presence,” which Carlstadt was the first to deny, and an open quarrel broke out between them. He was now ordered to leave the territories of the elector. For some time he wandered about from place to place, and at Rotenburg excited fresh tumults and instigated the people to destroy the images and pictures in the churches. Pursued as a promoter of the peasant insurrection, he was driven to strange shifts, and exposed to great hardships, bis life even being in danger. In his extremity he wrote to Luther, offering to prove his innocence, and entreating him to intercede for him with the elector, and get permission for him to return to Saxony. Luther listened to him, printed his defence, and succeeded ih inducing the elector to comply with his request. For several years Carlstadt led a quiet, retired life, engaged in farming and commerce. But he grew weary of this enforced suppression of his eager life and longings, and, allying himself with some of the fanatical teachers, he once more attacked Luther. The controversy, in which Zwingli took part in support of the views of Carlstadt on the Supper, grew fiercer than ever; and Carlstadt, the permission for his return to Saxony being now revoked, made his escape into Friesland. Thence he passed into Switzerland, where, through Zwingli’s influence, he was named first a deacon in the church of Zurich and then pastor at Altstetten. He afterwards returned to Zurich as archdeacon, and preached there with much success. In 1534 he settled as pastor and professor of theology at Basel, and this post he occupied till his death. To his exemplary Christian character and life at Basel testimony is borne by Grynaeus in a letter to Pitiscus, chaplain of the Elector Palatine. As Carlstadt was the first to assert several of the leading principles of Protestantism, so was he also the first to write against celibacy, and the first Protestant divine to take a wife. His writings, which were almost exclusively polemical, have fallen into oblivion. He died at Basel, December 24, 1541.