In most areas Luther and Carlstadt agreed. Carlstadt was a personal friend and co-worker with Martin Luther. D'Aubigne says that Luther himself admitted that Carlstadt was his superior in learning (Fifield's History. Reference book ten, page 315). But in the matter of Christian freedom, and Christian rights and responsibilities, Luther and Carlstadt soon became embroiled in a conflict that was tempered only when Luther demanded that Carlstadt "get out of town." Carlstadt also strenuously opposed Luther on the Sabbath issue. Carlstadt observed the seventh day Sabbath and taught its observance
Karlstadt (both: kärl´shtät) (KEY), or Karolostadt (kä´rôlshtät´´) (KEY), was born in Carlstadt, Bavaria, in 1480. His original name was Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein.
As early as 1516, Carlstadt presented theses denying free will and asserting the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. He taught at first the theology of mediaeval scholasticism, but became under Luther's influence a strict Augustinian, and utterly denied the liberty of the human will. He wrote the first critical work on the Canon of the Scriptures, and anticipated the biblical criticism of modern times. He weighed the historic evidence, discriminated between three orders of books as of first, second, and third dignity, putting the Hagiographa of the Old Testament and the seven Antilegomena of the New Testament in the third order, and expressed doubts on the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. He based his objections to the Antilegomena, not on dogmatic grounds, as Luther did, but on the want of historical testimony. His opposition to the traditional Canon was itself traditional; he put ante-Nicene against post-Nicene tradition. This book on the Canon, however, was crude and premature, and passed out of sight.
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