Karstadt’s Battle with Luther

Documents in a Liberal-Radical Debate

Edited by Ronald J. Sider

“On Christmas day, 1521, Karstadt celebrated the first public evangelical Eucharist of the reformation… [Karstadt was] dressed in a simple secular gown… For the first time in the Reformation the words of institution were spoken in German in a public service… The tension reached its peak when, instead of placing the bread in each communicant’s mouth, Karstadt allowed ordinary lay persons to take the bread and the cup in their own trembling hands. This innovation so terrified one frightened layman that he dropped his wafer and was too terror-stricken to pick it up” (pp.5-6) Luther was away in hiding for a year which left Andreas Bodenstein of Karlstadt in charge. When Luther returned he was furious at what had taken place and changed back many of the reformed practices to traditional Roman Catholic-esque ones. Such were the circumstances of the period of history that this book covers.

Venerating Past Saints

Martin Luther preached, Wednesday March 12th 1522,  saying:

Therefore I must admit that images are are neither here nor there, neither evil nor good, we may have them or not, as we please.¹

Pre-reformation, all church buildings would have had images of saints of the past and of course, many Anglican churches still have them in stained-glass form. Indeed, it’s part of every day life in the Orthodox tradition to venerate the odd past saint or two. And Luther says that in and of themselves these images of saints don’t matter.