HOFFMANN, HEINRICH: German Protestant; b. at Magdeburg Mar. 24, 1821; d. at Halle May 20, 1899. He studied theology at Berlin and Halle. For several years he was prevented by ill health from taking up pastoral work, but in 1852 he accepted a call to Berlin as assistant at the Church of St. Matthew. In 1854 he was called to the Neumarkt parish, Halle, where he labored till his retirement in 1895. He was particularly successful

310

in meeting the difficulties due to the strong following of the Friends of Light (see Free Congregations In Germany, § 1), and later to the rapid increase in the population of his parish. He reapportioned the parish, increased the number of clergy, and erected the splendid new Church of St. Stephen. His theology was Christocentrie on a Lutheran basis. He excelled as a pulpit orator and, besides many single sermons, published several collections that have been frequently reprinted. To be mentioned are: ZwBV Festpredigten (Halle,. 1862); Der Heilaweg (1864); Sande urud Erlfung (1873); Unterm Kreuz (1884); Kreuz and Krone (1891); Die Bergpredigt (1893); Eins iat Not (1895); and Die letzte Nock und der Todealag den Herrn Jeeu (1898).

Bibliography: The principal work is M. BBhler and H. Hering, Heinrich Hoffmann, . Lobe., Wirksn and

Predigt, Halle, 1900. His Letters were edited by M. Hart, ib. 1902 and biographical material is found also in Aus dem Tapebuch, ed. M. Hart, ib. 1900.

HOFFMANN (HOFMANN), MELCHIOR: German mystic and Anabaptist; b. at Schwgbisch-Hall

(35 m.. n.e. of Stuttgart), Württemberg,

Earlier toward the end of the fifteenth Preaching. century; d. at Strasburg about 1543,

He was a leather dresser by trade; in the pursuit of his calling he went to Livonia and, in 1523, advocated there the doctrines of Luther and of the Wittenberg Reformation.

With this teaching Hoffmann blended a strain of mysticism that later assumed predominance in his beliefs. He is the type of the untrained lay preacher of the Reformation period who, by sheer force of religious fervor, vehemence of speech, and directness of appeal, presented a formidable competition to the educated clergy. The lack of preachers of the latter type in Livonia made Hoffmann's success the more emphatic. Driven from W ohnar in the autumn of 1524, he made Dorpat the scene of. his labors, where an attempt on the part of the archiepiscopal authorities to seize him led to an iconoclastic uprising (Jan. 10, 1525). Hoffmann's activity was regarded askance by a faction.of the Reformers, but he succeeded in obtaining a letter of approval from Luther and Bugenhagen, and with augmented authority engaged in a feud with the official clergy, against whom he upheld the divine nature and origin of the preacher's mission, advocating also a prophetic interpretation of the Scriptures. Forced finally to leave Dorpat, in 1526 he became preacher among the Germans of Stockholm. There he published a commentary on Dan. xii. which, with other writings, revealed a growing departure from the Lutheran position. The dogmas of justification and predestination were still retained, but eschatological ideas came into the foreground, centering in a belief in the speedy approach of the end of the world. With much labor he evolved his own scheme of the Last Day, and passed from the attitude of preacher to that of prophet, whose. mission was to announce the coming of the Lord. The year 1533 was set for the end of things.'

I In his eschatol which was not marked by~, ty, Hoffmann followed Franciscan Spirituals the ·?aborites (see Huss, John, Hussites), Nicholas storo&, and others

A. H. N.

In 1527 Hoffmann left Stockholm, for Holstein.

There he preached for two years openly at odds

with Luther. Frederick 1. of Denmark,

Doctrine however, after subjecting his doctrines

of the to a test, permitted him to continue

Lord's his mission labors, and assigned Kiel

Supper. as his special field. As the result of a prolonged controversy with Armsdorf at Magdeburg and with the Sleswick preacher

Marquard Schuldorp, in the course of which Hoff

mann formally abjured the Lutheran theory of the

Lord's Supper, Frederick I. ordered a public dis putation to be held at Flensburg (Apr. 8, 1529), at which the Lutheran party was represented by

Bugenhagen. Hoffmann expounded, not without

skill, his conception of the Lord's Supper, the kernel of which was that the bread is not the body of Christ but is a seal, sign, and memorial of the body of the Savior. In receiving the bread the communicant through faith receives the Word, and

with it the spiritual body of Christ, into his heart.

The origins of his doctrine are to be found in the early form of the Lutheran doctrine and in Carl stadt; the principal sources, however, are in his own mystical thought. He attempted, too, to distinguish between his theory and that of Zwingli.

Banished from Denmark as a result of the dis putation, Hoffmann arrived at Strasburg, where at first he was welcomed by Butzer on

joins the account of his opposition to Luther,

Ana- but soon lost favor.$ During 1529 and baptista. 1530 he issued a number of writings the most important of which, an in terpretation of Revelation, reveals his doctrine in completely developed form. The history of the

Church is divided into three periods: the first ex tended from the Apostles to the establishment of the power of the papacy; the second was marked by the unrestrained might of the papacy; the third, beginning with the Reformation, was marked by the final revelation and the substitution of the,Spirit for the letter. Two witnesses of the final day were to appear and were to fall before the power of the papacy united with the followers of the letter; then was to follow the disappearance of truth, the destruction of the spiritual Jerusalem by the Turks, and the final appearance of Christ. Hoffmann now drew nearer to the Anabaptists, for whom he de manded in 1530 the exclusive possession of a church in the town. Hoffmann was arrested and compelled

to leave Strasburg' but his experiences only hastened his entrance into the ranks of the Anapabtists, to whom he brought enthusiasm and courage at a time when their power in South Germany was already broken. The impetus which he lent to the move ment was not without appreciable influence in pre paring the way for the excesses of John of Leyden

(see Anabaptists, II., § 2; Münster, Anabaptists In.) From 1530 to 1533 he appeared alternately in

East Friesland and in the Strasburg region. His la

bors were the most important factor in transplanting

Anabaptist doctrines from the south to the north of

' On his way to Strasburg, in cooperation with Carlstadt he Propagated anti-Lutheran views in East Friesland, where Lutheranism and Zwmg banism were in open conflict. There he gained an influence that was momentous in consequences, A. H. N.

311

Germany, where Emden became the center of his activity. In East Friesland he published his most important work, the Ordonnanlie Gottes, the basic principle of which is the bond that exists between God and man. Toward the end of 1530 he went to Holland, where the Anabaptist teachings had already been disseminated by Jan Volkertezoon. The preaching of the two established an Anabaptist community in Holland which exercised a historic influence in later times.

In 1533 he came once more to Strasburg. It was the year set for the final catastrophe, and Strasburg

was to be the new Jerusalem. In May Later the authorities caused him to be ar-

Years. rested, in which act he saw but the

fulfilment of his own prophecies. Before his judges he asserted that he had never preached opposition to authority, and disavowed whatever was illegal in Anapabtist teaching. Yet it was quite apparent that, however submissive to authority he may have been, the effect of his teachings was revolutionary. In June Butzer and other leaders of the Strasburg Church disputed with him on his doctrine of the body of Christ (he maintained that the material body of the Savior was not derived from the virgin, but that the eternal Word had been made flesh in the womb of Mary by a special act of God), the freedom of the will, and infant baptism. Hoffmann held fast to his views, so that even the passing of the date fixed for the destruction of the world did not shake him. The number of "Melchiorites" in Strasburg, on the lower Rhine, in Westphalia, and in Holland continued to grow. While he was personally irreproachable in character, his chiliastic hopes inspired the outrages of the fanatics of Münster who, until the capture of that city, possessed his hearty sympathy. Kept under restraint by the authorities, Hoffmann refused to abjure his millennial expectations, though in his later years he showed himself more in sympathy with the Strasburg Church. The Melchiorites remained a separate faction among the Anabaptists for some time, and spread as far as Holland and England, but in Germany disappeared ultimately among the other Anabaptist parties. The influence of Hoffmann may be traced in the writings of Menno Simon and other Anabaptist writers. See Anabaptists, II., § 2.

(A. Hegler†) K. Holl.

Bibliography: The best biographies are W. 1. Leenderts, Melchior Hofmann, Haarlem, 1883, and F. 0. our Linden, Melchior Hofmann, Haarlem, 1885. Consult: H. C. Vedder, Short Hist. of Baptiste, pp. 88, 97, Philadelphia, 1891; A. H. Newman, in American Church History Series, ii., pp. 25-27, New York, 1894; idem, Hist. of Anti-Pedo baptism, pp. 254-271, Philadelphia, 1897; K. Rembert, Die Wiedertdufer im Herzogtum Jilieh, Berlin, 1899; G. Tumbitlt, Die Wiedertaufer, p. 30, Bielefeld, 1899; J. Köstlin, Martin Luther, i. 625, ii. 148, Berlin, 1903; Cam bridge Modern History, ii. 314, 320, New York, 1904; A. Hulshof, Geschiedenis roan de dooppesinds to Shaaaeburp. Amsterdam, 1905; ADB, xii.838; also the literature under Anabaptists.