KARLSTADT, ANDREAS RUDOLF BODENSTEIN VON

born c. 1480, , Karlstadt, Bishopric of Wrzburg died Dec. 24, 1541, Basel, Switz. German theologian and early supporter of Martin Luther who later dissented from Lutheran views by pressing for more radical church reforms, particularly concerning the Eucharist. Educated at Erfurt and Cologne, Karlstadt was appointed professor of Thomistic philosophy at the University of Wittenberg in 1505. There he assisted his younger colleague Martin Luther in replanning theological studies around Augustine and the old Fathers of Roman Catholic tradition. With the opening of the indulgence controversy, in which Luther opposed the elaborate Catholic system for pardoning sinners and exempting them from purgatorial punishment, Karlstadt came to Luther's defense against Johann Eck in the Leipzig disputation of July 1519; Eck, however, was considered the victor. The papal bull issued by Leo X in 1520, threatening Luther with excommunication, also mentioned Karlstadt. In 1521 Karlstadt went to Denmark at the request of King Christian II, but the reformation he intended proved abortive, and he returned to Germany in June. He published numerous tracts on clerical celibacy, private masses, and communion by both bread and wine, so that by the end of 1521 he had gained a reputation as a radical Reformer. On Christmas Day, without vestments and with an abridged service, he administered communion to the laity. At Wittenberg in January 1522 the magistrates carried through practical reforms stemming in part from Luther's ideas and Karlstadt's initiative. But, because of his iconoclastic tract Von Abtuhung der Bylder (1522; On the Rejection of Images), Karlstadt was called in February by the elector Frederick the Wise to account for his part in the prevailing revolutionary ferment. Luther, who during the turmoil had been in the Wartburg, came out of hiding to urge restraint. In a series of masterful sermons stressing the need for care of the weaker brethren, Luther disputed Karlstadt's vehement impatience for further reform. Karlstadt soon fled and began to dress as a peasant, calling himself Brother Andreas and denouncing all academic degrees and distinctions. In 1523 he retired to Orlamnde and introduced his own program for reformation. Influenced by the mystic Johann Tauler, he published, from Jena, a stream of pamphlets full of mystical jargon. He dramatically encountered Luther again at Jena in August of the next year, when Luther tossed a golden coin at him in token of an open feud. As Luther left, Karlstadt preached against him amid pealing bells. Karlstadt had overextended himself, however, and his exile soon followed. His new series of bitter tracts seriously harmed Luther's cause by championing a merely symbolic presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The dispute over the Eucharist remained an open wound in the Reformation movement, and Karlstadt's tract Ob man gemach faren soll (Shall We Go Slowly?) was eagerly read by the radicals from whom the Anabaptists (those advocating the Baptism of adults) later arose. Luther, nevertheless, provided refuge for Karlstadt in Wittenberg (152529) after Karlstadt made certain retractions. After short stays in Holstein, Friesland, and Zrich, Karlstadt became professor of Old Testament theology at Basel in 1534. There he became involved in yet another controversy by demanding that the local clergy submit to university discipline and earn doctoral degrees in order to improve their credentials. Thus, in supporting the position of the university, Karlstadt reversed his earlier opposition to academic discipline and a learned ministry. A man of eccentric personality, Karlstadt persisted in his intense and outspoken style until his death during an outbreak of the plague. Additional reading Ronald J. Sider, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt: The Development of Thought, 15171525 (1974), analyzes his successive theological positions. Calvin Augustine Pater, Karlstadt as the Father of the Baptist Movements: The Emergence of Lay Protestantism (1984), thoroughly argues the revisionist thesis that Karlstadt was the first to postulate a Baptist theology.