Endnotes

INTRODUCTION

1. Karlstadt, Dialogue, b4r (chap. 9 below); Greengrass, Longman Companion, 231; Lindberg, European Reformations, 140; and Hillerbrand, Division of Christendom, 150. The latter two have published articles with more sensitive presentations of Karlstadt’s eucharistic theology: Lindberg, “Conception of the Eucharist According to Erasmus and Karlstadt,” 79–94; and Hillerbrand, “Andreas Bodenstein of Carlstadt,” 379–98. Euan Cameron more accurately describes Karlstadt’s position as arguing that Christ referred to (rather than pointed to) himself when he said, “This Is my body”; European Reformation, 163–64. Karlstadt’s inference concerning Christ’s gesture appears in English-language treatments of the eucharistic controversy as well; Barclay, Protestant Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, 38; Sasse, This Is My Body, 125; and Heron, Table and Tradition, 116.

2. Barge, Karlstadt, 2:170–71.

3. Karlstadt, Prove, F1r–v (chap. 7 below); and Karlstadt, Dialogue, b3r–b4r (chap. 9 below).

4. Luther, Das ander teyl wider die himlischen Propheten, in WA 18:145–57; and LW 40:155–68.

5. Westphal, Farrago confusanearum . . . opinionum, A4v, B3r–B4r.

6. Karlstadt, Abuse, a4r (chap. 10 below).

7. Zwingli, Sämtliche Werke, 3:335–56, 343–45; and Zwingli, Writings, 2:131, 137–38. In his classic work on the eucharistic controversy, Walther Köhler considered only Karlstadt’s travels in Switzerland and south Germany, and not the contents of his pamphlets, as an important influence on Zwingli; Zwingli und Luther, 1:67–69. For a reevaluation of Karlstadt’s influence on early Zwinglianism, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 91–114.

8. Müller, “Die Wittenberger Bewegung 1521 und 1522.”

9. The most recent overview in English of Karlstadt’s life is Goertz, “Karlstadt,” esp. 5–20. See also Steinmetz, Reformers in the Wings, 123–30; Bubenheimer, “Karlstadt”; and Bubenheimer’s longer article in German, with bibliography, “Karlstadt.” Zorzin, “Karlstadt,” devotes more attention to Karlstadt’s theology. The most detailed discussion in English of Karlstadt’s early career is Sider, Karlstadt, 6–20.

10. Although Melanchthon belonged to the faculty of arts rather than theology, he had matriculated in the theology faculty and gave lectures on the Greek text of the New Testament and so should be considered as one of the university’s theologians; Wengert, “Higher Education and Vocation,” 1–21.

11. Zorzin, Karlstadt als Flugschriftenautor, 19–37.

12. Luther, Ein Sermon von dem neuen Testament, in WA 6:353–78; and LW 35: 79-111; and the discussion of the mass in De captivitate Babylonica, in WA 6:502–26; and LW 36:19–57. On the formation of a common Wittenberg theology in the early years of the Reformation, see Kruse, Universitätstheologie und Kirchenreform, 301–5, 315–17; and Wengert, “Higher Education.”

13. For a more detailed discussion of this and Karlstadt’s other pamphlets from 1521, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 13–15, 19–23, 27–28.

14. Luther, Sermon von der würdigen Empfahung . . . gethan am Gründonnerstag, in WA 7:692–97.

15. The so-called Wittenberg Troubles are described in Preus, Carlstadt’s “Ordinaciones” and Luther’s Liberty; Sider, Karlstadt, 148–73; and, with an emphasis on Luther’s motivation, Edwards, Luther and the False Brethren, 6–33.

16. From the twelfth century on, it was the practice of the church to give only the bread to the laity. The right to lay communion in both kinds was one of the demands of the Hussites and so was closely associated with heresy by the beginning of the sixteenth century. Luther had condemned the church for denying communion in both kinds to the laity in his 1520 treatise On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, in WA 6:503–7; and LW 36:21–28. He argued that Germans should hear the words of institution in German and spoken audibly in his Treatise on the New Testament, in WA 6:362; and LW 35:90–91.

17. The condemnation of adoration as idolatry may have been sparked by the circulation in Wittenberg of Cornelis Hoen’s Most Christian Letter Discussing the Lord’s Supper; on this possibility, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 16–18. The letter is edited in Spruyt, Hoen and His Epistle on the Eucharist, 226–35. All but the final section is translated in Oberman, Forerunners of the Reformation, 268–78.

18. The theses for Karlstadt’s disputation are printed in Barge, Karlstadt, 1:484–91; and for Melanchthon’s disputation in Melanchthon, Opera, 1:477–81. Melanchthon also presented his understanding of the sacraments in the first edition of his Loci Communes, which was printed in the fall of 1521; Melanchthon, Opera, 21:208–11, 221–22.

19. The sermon is analyzed by Leroux, “Karlstadt’s ‘Christag Predig,’” 102–37.

20. In addition to the three works on the sacrament, Karlstadt published several other pamphlets between the summer of 1521 and the spring of 1522; Zorzin, Karlstadt als Flugschriftenautor, 93–96. Two of these, On the Removal of Images and the Circular Letter Regarding His Household, in which he defended his recent betrothal, are published in Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 100–132.

21. The contents of the pamphlet are known from the censors’ report, reprinted in Barge, Karlstadt, 2:562–66; and summarized in Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 31. Karlstadt’s differences with Luther have also been discussed by Simon, “Karlstadt neben Luther”; and Beinert, “Another Look at Luther’s Battle with Karlstadt.” Although he concentrates on later developments, Brecht, “Luther und Karlstadt,” also considers the implications of this earlier disagreement.

22. This is particularly true of The Meaning of the Term “Gelassen” and Where in Holy Scripture It Is Found, translated in Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 133–68. Karlstadt’s interest in German mysticism was not new; for its role in his theology as a whole, see Kriechbaum, Grundzüge der Theologie Karlstadts.

23. Technically, Karlstadt had been pastor of Orlamünde since his appointment as archdeacon of All Saints, since the position was incorporated into the chapter; that is, its revenues were used to support Karlstadt’s position in Wittenberg, with a small portion reserved to pay the salary of a vicar in Orlamünde who performed the pastoral responsibilities required of the parish priest. There were legal difficulties associated with Karlstadt’s move, however, because of both his obligations to lecture at the university and the existing contractual arrangements with his vicar in Orlamünde. These would eventually be used to force Karlstadt to leave Orlamünde. Sider explains the details and describes Karlstadt’s Orlamünde period; Karlstadt, 176–97.

24. For more detail on the publication of this and the later eucharistic pamphlets, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 54–76.

25. Zwingli, Sämtliche Werke, 2:111–20; and Zwingli, Writings, 1:92–98. On the importance of this idea for Zwingli and the south German/Swiss reformation more generally, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 48–51.

26. Luther, Formula Missae et Communionis, in WA 12:205–20; and LW 53:19–30.

27. Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 60–62. Hoen, in turn, drew on arguments against Christ’s bodily presence in the sacrament that had first been advanced by the Waldensians, Wyclif, and the Hussites: Spruyt, Hoen and His Epistle, 127–65.

28. For details on what follows, see Barge, Karlstadt, 2:94–143; Trappe, “Zwischen Reformation und Revolution”; and Joestel, Ostthüringen und Karlstadt.

29. Karlstadt and Müntzer had corresponded in the summer of 1524 but, as Karlstadt pointed out to Luther, he firmly rejected Müntzer’s appeal to violence; on the relationship between Karlstadt and Müntzer, see the documents translated in Pater, Karlstadt as Father of the Baptist Movements, 279–89.

30. The meeting is described in WA 15:334–41; an abridged English translation is in Sider, Karlstadt’s Battle with Luther, 38–48. Edwards puts Luther’s conflict with Karlstadt into the larger context of the disturbances caused by Müntzer’s revolutionary theology; Luther and the False Brethren, 34–59.

31. Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 84–85. On Reinhart, see Hoyer, “Martin Reinhart und der erste Druck hussitischer Artikel.”

32. On Westerburg and his Zurich contacts, see Pater, Karlstadt as Father of the Baptist Movements, 159–62.

33. The printing history of these pamphlets, including a description of the travels of both Westerburg and Karlstadt, is discussed in Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 143–46.

34. Kaufmann, Abendmahlstheologie der Strassburger Reformatoren, 217–37; Müsing, “Karlstadt und die Strasbourger Täufergemeinde”; and Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 68–69, 106.

35. WA 15:391–97; and LW 40:65–71.

36. WA 18:112–22; and LW 40:129–40.

37. WA 18:134–214; and LW 40:144–223.

38. On Karlstadt’s influence in Rothenburg, see Vice, “Valentin Ickelsamer’s Odyssey”; and Vice, “Ehrenfried Kumpf, Karlstadt’s Patron and Peasants’ War Rebel.”

39. Apology by Dr. Andreas Carlstadt Regarding the False Charge of Insurrection Which Has Unjustly Been Made Against Him, translated in Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 378–86. The pamphlet is striking for Karlstadt’s account of incidents in which he and his family were personally threatened by peasants involved in the revolt. Frederick the Wise had died in early May. His brother John succeeded him as elector.

40. Staehelin, Theologische Lebenswerk Johannes Oekolampads, 269–70; Köhler, Zwingli und Luther, 1:49, 61–63; and Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 92.

41. For a more detailed discussion of Karlstadt’s role in and influence on the early eucharistic controversy, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, chap. 5.

42. Zwingli, Sämtliche Werke, 4:464; Zwingli, Writings, 2:195. Pater’s analysis of Karlstadt’s influence on the Zurich Anabaptists should be used with caution, for he fails to recognize Zwingli’s much greater influence on them; Karlstadt as Father of the Baptist Movements, 144–69. And see Fast, “Dependence of the First Anabaptists on Luther, Erasmus and Zwingli.”

43. Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, appendix.

44. Billican, Renovatio Ecclesiae Nordlingiacensis, in Sehling, Evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des XVI. Jahrhunderts, 12/2:298–301.

45. On the differences—and the similarities—between Zwingli and Karlstadt and a discussion of Bugenhagen’s pamphlet, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, chap. 5. On Rhegius’s pamphlet, see ibid., chap. 6.

46. Pirckheimer implied this in his 1526 De vera Christi carne et vero eius sanguine, ad Ioan. Oecolampadium responsio, A6v–A7r; it came out more clearly in his 1527 De vera Christi carne et vero eius sanguine, aduersus conuicia Ioannis, qui sibi Oecolampadij nomen indidit, responsio posterior, A4v, C3r–v. Pirckheimer’s Responsio was an attack on Oecolampadius’ 1525 De Genvina . . . expositione. Oecolampadius responded to each of Pirckheimer’s pamphlets, and the debate continued well into 1527.

47. For a more detailed discussion of the following, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 98–110.

48. Oecolampadius used ideas first expressed by Erasmus and Hoen, both of whom influenced Karlstadt, but he also used arguments unique to Karlstadt in De Genvina . . . expositione; Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 97. In his response to Willibald Pirckheimer, Oecolampadius followed Karlstadt in asserting that if priests could not heal the sick, blind, and lame, although Christ had expressly given his disciples this power, they most certainly could not bring Christ’s body into the bread, for they had no express command to do so; Ad Pyrckhaimerum de re eucharistiae responsio, d8r.

49. Antwort dem Hochgeleerten Doctor Johann Bugenhagen . . . das Sacrament betreffend. Already at the time of the pamphlet’s publication, the author’s name was believed to be a pseudonym; for a discussion of the pamphlet and its author, see Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 125–27.

50. Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 130–31.

51. On Karlstadt’s four years in Saxony, see Barge, Karlstadt, 2:369–93.

52. In a letter to Luther asking for his intercession with the elector, Karlstadt described how both of his horses had died within the space of a week and he had had to sell some of his land in order to avoid poverty; 17 November 1526, in WA Br 4:131–32.

53. See Melanchthon’s letters to Caspar Aquila, 1 August 1527, in Melanchthon, Briefwechsel . . . Texte, 3:120–21, and to Joachim Camerarius, 8 August, in ibid., 3:125–27; and Karlstadt’s letter to the Silesians, 17 May 1528, in WA Br 4:571–73. Melanchthon told Camerarius that Karlstadt had left secretly to visit Silesia; 23 January 1528, Melanchthon, Briefwechsel . . . Texte, 3:263–64.

54. Karlstadt to Elector John, 12 August 1528, in Barge, Karlstadt, 2:584–86.

55. 24 September 1528, in WA Br 4:568–71.

56. Barge’s chapter on Karlstadt’s career in northwestern Germany and Switzerland, Karlstadt, 2:394–505, should be supplemented by Hasse, “Zum Aufenthalt Karlstadts in Zürich (1530–34)”; Schmidt, “Karlstadt als Theologe und Prediger”; Looß, “Karlstadt und der Bann”; and Burnett, “‘Kilchen ist uff dem Radthus’?” The rumors about the demon were reported to Heinrich Bullinger by Karlstadt’s Basel colleague Oswald Myconius, 14 January 1542, in Bullinger, Werke, pt. 2, Briefwechsel, 12:27–29.

57. Although dated, Barge’s Karlstadt is still the most detailed presentation of Karlstadt’s life and thought. The debate over Barge’s presentation of Karlstadt is described by Kruse, “Karlstadt als Wittenberger Theologe.”

58. Rupp, Patterns of Reformation, 49–153.

59. Sigrid Looß gives a detailed overview of recent research in “Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt.”

60. Representative of the early approach of social historians is Stayer, “From Monogenesis to Polygenesis.” More recent is Stayer, “Saxon Radicalism and Swiss Anabaptism.” The clearest statement of the East German approach to Karlstadt in English is Looß, “Radical Views of the Early Andreas Karlstadt.” Looß’s later publications do not have such a strong ideological framework.

61. In addition to the monographs of Sider, Karlstadt, and Pater, Karlstadt as the Father of the Baptist Movements, see Furcha, “Zwingli and the Radicals: Zwingli and Carlstadt.”

62. Preus, Carlstadt’s “Ordinaciones”; Edwards, Luther and the False Brethren; and Lindberg, “Conflicting Models of Ministry.”

63. See Bubenheimer’s major studies: “Scandalum et ius divinum”; Karlstadt als Theologe und Jurist; “Gelassenheit und Ablösung”; and “Luthers Stellung zum Aufruhr in Wittenberg.”

64. Hasse, Karlstadt und Tauler; Otto, Vor- und frühreformatorische Tauler-Rezeption, 241–54; Leppin, “Mystisches Erbe auf getrennten Wegen”; McNiel, “Karlstadt as a Humanist Theologian”; Zorzin, Karlstadt; idem, “Karlstadts ‘Dialogus vom Tauff der Kinder’”; Looß, “Wirksamkeit von Flugschriften des Andreas Bodenstein aus Karlstadt”; Leroux, “‘In the Christian City of Wittenberg’”; and Matheson, Rhetoric of the Reformation, 59–80.

65. Looß and Matthias, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt; and Bubenheimer and Oehmig, Querdenker der Reformation.

66. Luther, Sämtliche Schriften; Hertzsch, Karlstadts Schriften; Laube, Flugschriften der frühen Reformationsbewegung; and Laube, Flugschriften vom Bauernkrieg zum Täuferreich.

67. Karlstadt, Reformation Debate; Baylor, Radical Reformation; Sider, Karlstadt’s Battle with Luther; and Hendrix, Early Protestant Spirituality.

68. Lindberg, “Karlstadt’s Dialogue on the Lord’s Supper”; and Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 269–316.

69. Karlstadt, Reformation Debate, viii.

70. On Karlstadt’s knowledge of Hebrew, see Rüger, “Karlstadt als Hebraist.”

CHAPTER 1

1. The Augsburg/Oeglin imprint has a small woodcut of a priest administering communion in one kind to a kneeling layman on the left, with a woman holding a rosary kneeling on the right (fig. 1), while the Augsburg/Otmar imprint shows two kneeling angels holding a Gothic monstrance (fig. 2). The Strasbourg imprint has a border surrounding a more detailed woodcut showing a priest raising his right hand in blessing while with his left hand he offers the host on a paten to a kneeling man (fig. 3).

2. Demuth was Karlstadt’s uncle and an advisor to Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz. He had come to Wittenberg in early 1521 and with Karlstadt’s help was able to persuade Luther not to attack the archbishop in print; Barge, Karlstadt, 1:241.

3. In the mass, this verse was spoken by communicants immediately before receiving communion; Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church, 82–85.

4. An allusion to the relationship between spiritual communion, the mystic union of the believer with Christ and the church as his body, and sacramental communion, the physical reception of the sacrament. Spiritual communion was to be joined with sacramental communion, but it could occur at other times as well. Late medieval preachers commended spiritual communion to the laity as a substitute for the reception of sacramental communion, which would bring judgment if not received worthily; Burnett, “Social History of Communion and the Reformation of the Eucharist.”

5. Karlstadt also dedicated his pamphlet Berichtung dyesser red: Das reich gotis leydet gewaldt, und die gewaldtige nhemen oder rauben das selbig, to Demuth. The preface of that work is dated 29 July 1521; Barge, Karlstadt, 1:293n124.

6. Heiligenfresser, lit., “those who gobble holy things,” used mockingly of those whose ostentatious kissing of images was compared to eating them; Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch, 10:840.

7. “The rock is a refuge for the hedgehog.”

8. The Wittenberg imprint has in the margin “Scio quod non stabit in conspectus etiam hypocrita” (“I know that the hypocrite will not stand in his sight”; Job 13:16). Karlstadt’s Latin differs slightly from the Vulgate.

9. “To whom I swore in my wrath.” Karlstadt uses the Vulgate’s wording for Hebrews 4:3, which is citing Psalm 95:11.

10. The Strasbourg imprint omits, “you should be certain that Christ will hold to his word without failing and.”

11. In the Strasbourg imprint, this says “belief.”

12. The Wittenberg and Augsburg/Oeglin imprints have a marginal note: “cophinus Aegyptius” (Egyptian basket).

13. The Strasbourg imprint omits, “and with constancy.”

CHAPTER 2

1. Rumors about the unrest in Wittenberg had reached Nuremberg the previous month. On 9 October, Melanchthon wrote to Wenceslaus Link in Nuremberg to describe the situation in Wittenberg and to defend the demands for liturgical reform; Melanchthon, Briefwechsel Texte, 3:358–60, no. 173.

2. The preface of Forms is dated 11 November 1521; it was printed by the end of the month.

3. The missa de angelis was a setting of the ordinary of the mass commonly used in votive masses celebrated on a specific day of the week; Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office, 157, section 748. In Franconia, Karlstadt’s homeland, Corpus Christi brotherhoods promoted the endowment of angel masses with associated processions; Smith, Reformation and the German Territorial State, 19; and Haimerl, Processionswesen, 58–62.

4. Karlstadt refers to the belief that priests brought Christ’s body and blood down from heaven when they consecrated bread and wine on the altar, a belief he would sharply condemn four years later in his Dialogue, a4v (chap. 9 below). The “toad” may be Hinne Rode, who brought a copy of the Most Christian Letter of Cornelis Hoen to Wittenberg in the late summer/early autumn of 1521. This paragraph is a reaction to a sermon preached in early October by the Augustinian Gabriel Zwilling, who argued that it was idolatry to worship the signs of bread and wine; Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 15–18.

5. Belshazzar was slain the night after Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall, “mene, mene, tekel, parsin,” to mean that his days were numbered, his reign found wanting, and his kingdom would be given to the Medes and Persians.

6. An allusion to the scholastic teaching that the consecrated bread and wine are both sacramentum et res, the sign (bread and wine) and the thing signified (Christ’s body and blood); Peter Lombard, Sent. 4, dist. 8, cap. 4 (PL 192:857–58).

7. “Picard” was a common derogatory name for the Bohemian Brethren, a Hussite group who rejected the Utraquists’ reconciliation with Rome.

8. Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg was both the archbishop of Magdeburg and archbishop-elector of Mainz; in the latter position he was the primate of the German church. At least in part due to the influence of Wolfgang Capito, he had not yet taken a clear stance against the evangelical movement, which accounts for Karlstadt’s optimism concerning his support; Rummel and Kooistra, Correspondence of Wolfgang Capito, 1:xix–xx.

9. Bartholomaeus Bernhardi, a pastor in nearby Kemberg who had taught in Wittenberg’s arts faculty, was one of the first priests to marry, in May 1521. Karlstadt held a disputation defending clerical marriage in June and published the theses, Super coelibatu, monachatu et viduitate, in August. He published a vernacular pamphlet on the topic, Von Gelübden Unterrichtung, in November; Buckwalter, Priesterehe in Flugschriften der frühen Reformation, 79–81.

CHAPTER 3

1. Form (species or Gestalt) was the technical term in scholastic theology for the outward appearance (or accidents) of bread and wine that remained unchanged even after the inner essence was transformed into Christ’s body and blood through the consecration by the priest. As is clear from this pamphlet, Karlstadt rejects this belief, but he continues to use the traditional terms for the bread and wine.

2. Reich was a merchant whom Karlstadt may have met while in Leipzig for the disputation with Johannes Eck in 1519; Barge, Karlstadt, 1:274.

3. In the wake of a controversial sermon given by the Augustinian preacher Gabriel Zwilling on 6 October, the theology of the mass and the need for liturgical reforms became the subject of debate in Wittenberg; Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 18–25.

4. A reference to the canon of the mass, which was recited quietly so that bystanders could not hear what the priest said.

5. A reference to the elevation of the consecrated host.

6. According to the university commission’s report to the elector, one of the arguments used against private masses by the Wittenberg Augustinians was that “it is impossible even for a pious and spiritual priest to have the desire and love of celebrating the mass as often as he is bound and obligated to do so by endowments”; Melanchthon, Briefwechsel Texte, 1:360–70.

7. ungestaldt, lit., “unformed.”

8. Karlstadt alludes to the words of Qui Pridie, the prayer within the canon of the mass that contains the account of the institution of the sacrament; Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church, 74–75.

9. “It is not annihilated because it is followed by something,” an allusion to one of the possible understandings of transubstantiation, that the substance of the bread was annihilated and succeeded by Christ’s substantial body; McCue, “Doctrine of Transubstantiation,” 390–94.

10. The theology faculty of the Sorbonne.

11. The Parva logicalia, or “small logics,” was a series of treatises dealing with special problems in logic that were commonly used for dialectic instruction at late medieval universities; Dumitriu, History of Logic, 2:124–29.

12. An allusion to the complaints Karlstadt anticipates as the result of this pamphlet.

13. The Deeds of the Romans is a medieval collection of stories and fables.

14. Karlstadt may be referring to the Epiphany hymn of Prudentius, “Quicumque Christum quaeritis,” which links the twelve stones to the twelve apostles, lines 177–80: “Who when the waters rose on high / And now the Jordan’s bed was dry, / Set up twelve stones of memory, / Types of apostles yet to be”; in Pope, Hymns of Prudentius.

15. In the Wittenberg imprint, which has no section 17, this paragraph is not separately numbered but is part of section 16.

16. The doctrine of concomitance, that the body and blood are both present in the consecrated host, was used to justify communion in one kind.

17. Decretum III (De consecratione), dist. 2, chap. 13, in Friedberg, Corpus Iuris Canonici, 1:1318.

18. Decretum III (De consecratione), dist. 2, chap. 27, in Friedberg, Corpus Iuris Canonici, 1:1323.

19. This pamphlet was either never written or never published; see note 25 below.

20. A village near Wittenberg.

21. The passage refers to the Bereans, not the Thessalonians.

22. A misprint for Karlstadt’s second subpoint, perhaps mistakenly corrected, because it is followed by the second main point.

23. The Wittenberg imprint has Matt. 16; clearly a typographical error.

24. The Strasbourg imprint substitutes schlagen sich mit rütten for the more obscure steuppen sich, lit., “to punish oneself,” of the Wittenberg imprint.

25. This is probably the title of the unpublished pamphlet mentioned in note 19 above.

CHAPTER 4

1. The title page of the Sermon is reproduced in Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 128. Shirlentz had used the same border for his imprint of Karlstadt’s Sendbryff Andres Boden. Von Carolstatt, Erklerung Pauli. Ich bitt euch brüder das yhr alle sampt ein meinung reden welt, dated 10 December 1521 (VD16, B6188; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 75), and he would use it again for Karlstadt’s Predig oder homilien vber den propheten Malachiam gnant, which he published in 1522 (VD16, B6181; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 93).

2. The title page of the 1522 Augsburg/Ramminger imprint is reproduced in Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 168. The 1524 Augsburg/Ramminger imprint is reproduced here as fig. 4.

3. A reference to Karlstadt’s celebration of the mass in an evangelical manner on Christmas Day 1521.

4. The salutation and opening paragraph are omitted from the 1524 imprint.

5. In the 1524 imprint, “no one.”

6. “Their judges have been swallowed up at the rock.” Karlstadt’s Latin translation differs from that of the Vulgate (Ps. 140:6).

7. The text has a double negative—he can’t believe that he cannot or will not receive forgiveness—that is probably a misprint.

8. 1 Cor. 5:4: “When you are assembled, and my spirit is present”; Matt. 18:17: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church” (RSV).

CHAPTER 5

1. Here, as in all of his later pamphlets when he is speaking of the Catholic clergy, Karlstadt used the term Pfaffen, which from the beginning of the Reformation was used in a derogatory way.

2. According to Leviticus 16:14, the priest was to sprinkle not the curtain in the tabernacle, but the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant, seven times with the blood of the sacrificed bull.

3. The high priests who condemned Christ; John 18:13.

4. A play on the word Geistliche, which can mean either spiritual or clergy.

5. Karlstadt’s language suggests that he is conflating Genesis 6:4 and Matthew 11:12.

CHAPTER 6

1. In the late medieval church, the laity were encouraged to recite prayers during the mass, since they could not understand what was being said; Wieck, “Book of Hours,” esp. 502–3. Several of the early evangelical pamphlets on the mass reflect this practice by including prayers to be said at specific points in the mass; Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 44–47.

2. The (false) etymology of the Latin missa from the Hebrew word for a voluntary sacrifice came from Reuchlin’s Hebrew grammar. Karlstadt had already expressed his dislike of the term because of its etymology in 1521; Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 18–19.

3. Martin Luther.

4. Nicolaus Hausmann, the Zwickau pastor for whom Luther wrote his reform of the Latin mass, the Formula Missae et Communionis.

5. “What is raised up or offered,” what Karlstadt elsewhere calls a heave offering, e.g. Abuse, b4v (chap. 10 below). As with the etymology of “missa,” Karlstadt’s association of these offerings with the elevation of the consecrated host strengthened his opposition to the mass.

6. Wave offerings, so called because portions of the sacrificed animal were raised or waved in front of the altar, were one form of peace offering; Lev. 7:28–36. They were first prescribed for the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood; Exod. 29:22–28.

CHAPTER 7

1. In German mysticism, the ground of the soul was the inward part of the person where mystical union with God is possible. Karlstadt used the term ground more generally to mean the heart or affective faculties; Sider, Karlstadt, 211–12, 230–34.

2. St. John’s blessing originated in the twelfth century as a drink given at departure, especially of a group of soldiers; by the later Middle Ages, the cup was also drunk for other ceremonial occasions.

3. A play on the word Geistliche, which can mean either spiritual or clergy.

4. This pamphlet was never written, for none of Karlstadt’s later pamphlets address this issue.

5. Verwandeln, also used for the more technical term transubstantiate.

6. In Catholic sacramental theology, the words “This is my body” and “This is my blood” were the form that together with the matter of the elements (bread and wine) comprised the sacrament. The conversion of the elements occurred when the words of consecration were spoken by the priest; Lombard, Sent. IV, dist. 8, cap. 4 (PL 192:856).

7. “Little girl, I say to you arise.” Karlstadt inverts the word order of the original Aramaic.

8. The negation is not in the text, but its omission was probably a printing error since the sense of the argument requires it.

9. Karlstadt translates the Greek word koinonia as Gemeinschaft, which can also be translated as communion, community, or association. English Bible translations use communion, participation, or sharing; the Vulgate has communicatio.

10. “The container is understood as the content;” gloss of the medieval commentator Nicolaus de Lyra on 1 Corinthians 10:16; Nicolas of Lyra, Postilla super totam Bibliam, vol. 4, ee6v.

11. Karlstadt here follows the word order of the original Greek.

12. Karlstadt seems to have forgotten the point he started out to make with the opening phrase of the sentence.

13. Again, Karlstadt consciously inverts the word order, which is that of the Greek text in Luke 22:19, not 1 Corinthians 11:24.

14. The Leipzig theologian Hieronymus Dungersheim von Ochsenfurt. Students at Latin schools often doubled as the choir singing portions of the mass, and they received alms by singing the liturgical songs and responses outside of church.

15. “Believe, and you have eaten”; Augustine, Homilies on John, tractate 25.12 (PL 35:1602).

16. Karlstadt made the statement in Adoration, fol. A4v; chap. 2 above.

CHAPTER 8

1. I.e., Catholics and Lutherans; cf. the full title of Masses.

2. Karlstadt was referring not to the Waldensians, a heretical group that dated from the twelfth century, but to the Bohemian Brethren, a Hussite group commonly called the Waldensian Brethren in Germany. In Adoration, B3r, he had criticized the Picards (a derogatory term for the Hussites) for believing that the bread was only bread; above, chap. 2.

3. The medieval gloss interpreted Psalm 111 (Ps. 110 in the numbering of the Vulgate) as referring to the Eucharist; Biblia Latina cum Glossa Ordinaria. Karlstadt’s unusual translation of Psalm 111:5 was derived from Johann Reuchlin, who translated the word tereph as prey; Principivm Libri II Ioannis Revchlin de Rvdimentis Hebraicis, 207. The KJV translates the word as meat, and most modern English translations use the word food.

4. Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, pt. 3, q. 80, art. 3.

5. Karlstadt never wrote this pamphlet.

6. The more polemical tone of the conclusion suggests that Karlstadt added it after his arrival in Basel, just before the pamphlet was printed; Burnett, Karlstadt and Origins, 68.

7. An allusion to Luther’s refusal of Karlstadt’s repeated request for a public debate, which would have allowed the audience to judge between the positions defended by the two men.

8. Karlstadt believed that Luther was responsible for his banishment.

9. Doctor Martin Luther.

CHAPTER 9

1. Schrifftgelerten, also used as the first term in the phrase “scribes and Pharisees,” and so with the negative connotation of those who are experts concerning the letter but not the spirit of scripture.

2. A criticism of the unquestioned authority attributed to Luther and his Wittenberg colleagues by their followers.

3. The Bamberg imprint omits Jesus.

4. Karlstadt is comparing the celebration of Corpus Christi to that of Easter. The Basel imprint has fest (feast); the Bamberg imprint uses the more negative geprenge (pomp).

5. “Turn to some of the saints”; Job 5:1 (Vulgate).

6. This reading is from the Bamberg imprint; the Basel imprint gives the nonsensical “Ignorantes virtutes herbarum defacile.” The quotation is from Aristotle’s De sophisticis Elenchis, section 1: “Those who are not well acquainted with the force of names misreason both in their own discussions and when they listen to others”; McKeon, Basic Works of Aristotle, 208–9. The Latin translation, “Qui virtutes vocabulorum sunt ignari, de facile paralogizantur, id est decipiuntur,” was cited in the preface to the popular medieval dictionary of legal terms, Vocabularium utriusque iuris, which was frequently reprinted in the sixteenth century.

7. Meister von Hohen Synnen, an appellation of Peter Lombard. His definition of a sacrament as “a sign of a holy thing” in Sent. IV, dist. 1, cap. 2 (PL 192:839) derives from St. Augustine.

8. “This is a military, i.e., soldier’s, oath; it does not pertain to the subject.” In classical Latin one of the meanings of sacramentum was “a soldier’s oath.” Zwingli pointed out that the scholastic meaning of the word differed from the classical definition in his Exposition of the 67 Articles; Zwingli, Sämtliche Werke, 2:120; Zwingli, Writings, 1:98–99.

9. “This is a great mystery,” Ephesians 5:32.

10. “for good reason.”

11. The Bamberg edition omits Victus.

12. The Bamberg edition adds he.

13. The section that follows is transposed in Hertzsch, Schriften, where it appears on 2:40–41; see note 15 below.

14. “words of consecration.”

15. This is the end of the transposed section.

16. “The leaven of the Pharisees.”

17. The Bamberg edition adds our Lord.

18. Karlstadt confused the Thessalonians with the Bereans; Acts 17:11.

19. “This is my body” and “This bread is my body.”

20. I.e., Lutherans and Catholics; cf. the title of Against the Old and New Papistic Masses.

21. “See how that rustic weighs everything.”

22. “This is my body.”

23. “That is this body mine, which for you . . .” a very literal rendition of the Greek into Latin.

24. “Because the words are most clearly against us priests.”

25. “I told you before, Victus, that the peasant would hear and consider our words.”

26. “This is my body, which is given for you.”

27. Karlstadt deliberately follows the order of the Greek words.

28. Karlstadt uses the Latin terms articulos, pronomina, and genera nominum.

29. Latin: “This bread is this my body”; the German sentence uses the masculine article (der Brot), rather than the correct neuter (das Brot).

30. As would become clear over the course of the eucharistic controversy, Luther believed that God always worked through the external means of the word, whether preached or contained in scripture, and sacrament.

31. Both are Latin terms meaning “pledge” or “down payment.”

32. Misten (manure) is probably a derisive play on Messe (mass).

33. A Roman jurist who died in 82 bce.

34. Lit., lasset uns bey synnen; Karlstadt contrasts Paul’s manner with his previous statement that the pope’s teaching makes people foolish (unsinnig).

35. “Free me from the horns of the unicorns, and snatch my soul from the mouth of the lion”; Karlstadt’s Latin differs from that of the Vulgate (Ps. 21:22).

36. Verlassen, lit., “relinquish” or “forsake”; in German mysticism, a surrendering of self that was the first step on the soul’s path towards union with God. It is linked with the idea of Gelassenheit, or renunciation, a central concept in Karlstadt’s theology; Sider, Karlstadt, 208–10, 216–23.

37. “In the knowledge of himself he will justify many”; Karlstadt’s Latin differs slightly from the Vulgate.

38. The words of consecration were spoken in a low voice and so were inaudible to bystanders.

39. The Anakim were a people who inhabited Canaan; according to Numbers 13:32–33, the “sons of Anak” were giants.

40. I.e., the pope.

41. “You will do greater works than these.”

42. Fol. a4v of the Basel imprint is inserted here in Hertzsch, Schriften, 2:40–41, and in the English translations that follow him; see notes 13 and 15 above.

43. inn allen winckeln, a reference to the side altars on which private masses (winkelmessen) were said.

44. A ciborium is a container for the consecrated host.

45. The seven sons of Scaeva tried to cast out a demon in Jesus’ name in imitation of St. Paul, but they were attacked and overcome by the possessed man.

46. “Argument on the basis of similarity,” i.e. proving an argument using similar cases.

47. An untranslatable pun based on simili (similarity) and Semmel (a hard roll).

48. “It is allowed to invent.”

49. “It is legal to stone [someone].”

50. “Hoc est enim corpus meum” (“For this is my body”), the words of consecration as they are contained in the canon of the mass.

51. The text of both the Basel and the Bamberg editions says Gemser here, but this is obviously a misprint for Peter.

52. Karlstadt uses verwandelt, also the technical term for transubstantiation.

53. Three of these pamphlets—[1] Prove, [3] Exegesis, and [5] Masses—were already written and were published in Basel at the same time as the Dialogue. Karlstadt did not write separate pamphlets on the remaining topics, but in Abuse he discussed 1 Corinthians 11:26–29 [2] and argued that the sacrament did not forgives sins [6] and was not a deposit or pledge [4].

CHAPTER 10

1. In Adoration and Forms, both published in 1521, Karlstadt upheld the traditional belief that Christ was corporeally present in the elements.

2. Luther and his followers, and Karlstadt himself in his pamphlets from 1521.

3. The Nuremberg imprint omits “call false and.”

4. In the Nuremberg imprint, “unreasonable.”

5. The Nuremberg imprint omits “and.”

6. On Karlstadt’s use of the term ground, see Prove, n1 (chap. 7 above).

7. The Nuremberg imprint omits “upright and.”

8. The Nuremberg imprint omits “and he wrote surpassingly well.”

9. The Nuremberg imprint omits “in a shameful death.”

10. The Nuremberg imprint adds “our lord.”

11. Karlstadt, Dialogue, fols. d2v–d3r, g4r (chap. 9 above).

12. On the heave and wave offerings, see Masses, nn5–6 (chap. 6 above).

13. The Basel imprint gives the word in Greek letters; the Nuremberg imprint says, “Paul uses the word in the Greek language in many places.”

14. The Nuremberg imprint omits “and into his own ground.”

15. Arrabo and arra are both Latin words for pledge, deposit, or down payment.

16. The Nuremberg imprint omits “felt and.”

17. The Nuremberg imprint omits “he assures us.”

18. The Nuremberg imprint adds “for several hundred years.”

CHAPTER 11

1. Karlstadt was able to write only two of these pamphlets—this one, which responded to article 3, and On the New and Old Testament, which responded to article 10—although in each pamphlet he also discusses some of the other articles.

2. WA 18:139–42; LW 40:149–52.

3. Luther’s criticism of Karlstadt’s explanation of the words of institution from the Dialogue; WA 18:144–64; LW 40:154–74.

4. WA 18:166–72; LW 40:177–82. Luther also discussed the passage in On the Adoration of the Sacrament; LW 11:437–41; LW 36:282–87.

5. WA 18:172–75; LW 40:182–85.

6. Luther devoted a large portion of part 2 of Against the Heavenly Prophets to refuting five arguments advanced by “Frau Hulda,” or natural reason (WA 18:164; LW 40:174), against Christ’s corporeal presence in the sacrament. The first of these arguments was that if Christ’s body and blood were in the sacrament, then the bread, and not Christ himself, was crucified; WA 18:182–88; LW 40:192–98.

7. Luther addressed the second claim of reason, on the equation of the bread with Christ’s body; WA 18:188–91; LW 40:198–202.

8. Frau Hulda’s third argument; WA 18:192–93; LW 40:202–3.

9. Frau Hulda’s fourth argument; WA 18:198–200; LW 40:208–10.

10. Frau Hulda’s fifth argument; WA 18:200–204; LW 40:210–14.

11. Luther discussed Christ’s words concerning the cup, based on all three Gospels and Paul, WA 18:161–66; LW 40:171–76; he addressed Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25 specifically; WA 18:206–8; LW 40: 216–18.

12. Against Karlstadt’s claim that priests could not bring Christ down from heaven, WA 18:205; LW 40:216.

13. Against Karlstadt’s argument that Christ’s body is now immortal and so cannot be given for us; WA 18:204–5; LW 40:215–16. Luther elaborated on Karlstadt’s identification of “Peter the layman” in the Dialogue by calling him Peter of Naschhausen (WA 18:146, LW 40:156) or Peter Rültz of Orlamünde (WA 18:151; LW 40:161).

14. WA 18:203–4; LW 40:213–14.

15. Luther closed part 2 of Against the Heavenly Prophets with a warning against “Karlstadt and his prophets” because they taught without the calling to do so; WA 18:213; LW 40:222.

16. WA 18:210–12; LW 40:219–21. Luther alluded to Christ’s cry from the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” that is, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46).

17. WA 18:166; LW 40:177.

18. Luther discussed this passage in On the Adoration of the Sacrament, WA 11:435–36; LW 36:280–81.

19. WA 18:136–39; LW 40:146–49.

20. Here and throughout the pamphlet, Karlstadt repeats phrases for emphasis.

21. The bishop of Rome and Luther.

22. An untranslatable pun on the German schliessen, which can mean both to conclude and to shut.

23. Luther introduced this verse to support his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 10:16; WA 18:167–68 and LW 40:177–78.

24. Luther made this distinction in On the Adoration of the Sacrament; WA 11:437 and LW 36:282–83.

25. Prove, fols. B4r–C2r (chap. 7 above).

26. On Karlstadt’s translation of koinonia as Gemeinschaft, or fellowship, see chap. 7, note 8.

27. WA 18:202–3; LW 40:212–13.

28. Karlstadt has apparently forgotten that he had already referred readers to this earlier work; see note 25 above.

29. Luther said that Christians were all “one bread, one drink, and one spirit,” but he did not use the words “signified” or “figured”; On the Adoration of the Sacrament, WA 11:440–41; LW 36:286–87.

30. Lustgrebern, the translation of kibroth-hatta’avah; Numbers 11:34, one of the incidents alluded to in 1 Corinthians 10:6–11.

31. Luther’s portion of the following dialogue is taken from WA 18:167–71; LW 40:177–80.

32. The sequence of chapter numbers suggests that the printer omitted the name of the book of the Bible that Karlstadt cites here.

33. Exegesis, fol. c4v (chap. 8 above).

34. An allusion to Augustine’s “crede et manducasti”; see Prove, n13 (chap. 7, note 15 above).

CHAPTER 12

1. This full refutation of Luther’s Against the Heavenly Prophets was never published. In January Karlstadt had published his Anzeige etlicher Hauptartikel christlicher Lehre (Augsburg: Ulhart, 1525), translated as Several Main Points of Christian Teaching in Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 339–77.

2. WA 18:166; LW 40:177.

3. Theobald (or Diebolt) Billican (Gerlacher), who criticized Karlstadt in his description of liturgical changes in Nördlingen, Renovatio Ecclesiae Nordlingiacensis, published in February 1525; Sehling, Kirchenordnungen, 12/2:298–300; and Barge, Karlstadt, 2:244–51.

4. Or “transubstantiated” (verwandelt).

5. The “bad writing” was the pamphlet of Urbanus Rhegius, Wider den newen irrsal Doctor Andres von Carlstadt des Sacraments halb warnung (Augsburg: Ruff, 1524); reprinted in Walch, Luthers Sämtliche Schriften, 20:110–32. Luther’s views are addressed below.

6. WA 18:155; LW 40:165.

7. The words used in the canon of the mass for the consecration of the wine were based on but did not repeat verbatim any of the accounts in the Gospels and 1 Corinthians 11, and they contained additional phrases not found in those accounts; Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church, 74–75.

8. Karlstadt’s term for Luther.

9. The Zwickau pastor Nicolaus Hausmann, for whom Luther wrote his Formula Missae et communionis, published at the end of 1523; in WA 12:205 and LW 57:19.

10. Theobald Billican.

11. The repetition of a line in the original (omitted in this translation) is clearly a printing error.

12. WA 18:202–3; LW 40:212–13.

13. From Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ.

14. WA 18:203–4; LW 40:213–14.

15. Recipients, fol. b3v (chap. 1 above).

CHAPTER 13

1. This pamphlet was published with a preface by Luther in the summer of 1525. It is reprinted in WA 18:436–45, as well as in Hertzsch, Schriften, 2:105–18. There is an English translation in Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 378–86, with Luther’s preface, 395–98.

2. In addition to Luther’s preface, the Prüss imprint also contained an anonymous foreword and Frolockung eins christlichen bruders von wegen der vereynigung Zwischen D. M. Luther vnd D. Andres Carlostat sich begeben. The latter, attributed to Wolfgang Capito, was also published separately in 1526; Kaufmann, “Zwei unerkannte Schriften Bucers.” There is a modern edition of this pamphlet in Laube, Flugschriften von Bauernkrieg, 1:102–15.

3. The first pamphlet written for Luther was Entschuldigung D. Andres Carlstats des falschen namens der auffrür; see note 1 above.

4. In Zwingli’s two earliest works rejecting Christ’s corporeal presence in the Lord’s Supper, the Letter to Matthew Alber and the Commentary on True and False Religion, he used both scripture and the church fathers to defend his position. In his third published work, Subsidium sive coronis de eucharistia, he described a dream in which he realized that Exodus 12:11 (“It is the Lord’s Passover”) could be used to defend his figurative interpretation of “This is my body”; Zwingli, Sämtliche Werke, 4:483–84; and Zwingli, Writings, 2:209–10. The preface to Subsidium is dated 17 August, and it was available at the Frankfurt book fair, which ran from mid-August to mid-September. Karlstadt’s pamphlet was not yet printed on 12 September, when Luther wrote to the Elector on Karlstadt’s behalf; WA Br 3:572. It is likely that Luther received a copy of Zwingli’s Subsidium via Frankfurt just before he wrote this preface.

5. Lustgreber, a reference to Numbers 11:34–35.

6. Hermann Barge assumed that this “good friend” was Karlstadt’s brother-in-law Gerhard Westerburg, who took Karlstadt’s pamphlets to Basel to be printed in the fall of 1524; “Zur Chronologie und Drucklegung der Abendmahlsschriften Karlstadts,” esp. 329. It is equally possible that the instigator was Martin Reinhart, the Jena pastor who was responsible for publishing Abuse and Dialogue in Nuremberg and Bamberg, respectively.

7. Zwingli discussed Karlstadt’s ideas and used John 6:63 to justify his understanding of “This is my body” in the Letter to Matthew Alber Concerning the Lord’s Supper, written in November 1524 but not published until the following March, at which time it appeared in both the original Latin and in German translation; Zwingli, Sämtliche Werke, 3:335–36, 340–41, 343–45; Zwingli, Writings, 2:131, 135–38.

8. The high priest who condemned Christ.

9. The editors of WA suggest that Karlstadt may have been worried that readers would confuse his pamphlets with those of Johannes Draconites von Karlstadt. Alternatively, Karlstadt may have intended with this paragraph to forestall the unauthorized (re)printing of his works by his friends Martin Reinhart or Gerhard Westerburg. Karlstadt’s warning seems to have prevented the immediate reprinting of any pamphlets attributed to him, but Alejandro Zorzin has argued that Karlstadt’s dialogue on baptism, which could not be printed in Basel in 1525, was published anonymously two years later as Dialog vom fremden Glauben, Glauben der Kirche, Taufe der Kinder; “Zur Wirkungsgeschichte einer Schrift aus Karlstadts Orlamünder Tätigkeit.”

10. “Help, God, and preserve me.”