HOFFMANN, CHRISTOPH. See Friends of the Temple.

HOFFMANN, DANIEL: German Lutheran theologian; b. at Halle 1540; d. at Wolfenbüttel, Brunswick, 1611. About 1558 he studied at Jena. He was called by Duke Julius of Brunswick in 1576 to Helmstedt at the opening of the university as professor of ethics and dialectics, and in 1578 was transferred to the theological faculty. He became the most influential adviser of Duke Julius in the affairs of the churches and the university; he opposed the rise of the Philippists (q.v.) and humanists in Helmstedt, but at the same time assumed a peculiar position toward foreign Lutheran theologians, especially since he rejected the doctrine of ubiquity, and thus helped to separate the Lutheran State Church of the duchy of Brunswick from those Lutherans who accepted the Formula of Concord. In 1589 Duke Julius died, and the new duke, Henry Julius, immediately appointed the humanist J. Caselius and several of his friends as professors, who soon won such an influence that Hoffmann could assert his theological predominance only with great difficulty. He was especially incited against Caselius and his followers in 1597 by a ducal rescript in their favor, forbidding the public teaching of Ramus' philosophy as contradicting the statutes of the university. Adherence to Ramus meant likewise rejection of the study of Aristotle as pagan and dangerous to faith. Hoffmann and his adherents saw in the ducal prohibition of Ramism an attack on Christianity, and Hoffmann answered in a treatise consisting of 101 theses. Several colleagues of Hoffmann, especially Caselius himself, saw in the theses of Hoffmann a criticism of their academic labors. Again and again conferences were arranged to settle the dispute, even the sovereign was appealed to, but all attempts at reconciliation failed because of Hoffmann's violence and obstinacy. The petty university quarrel of Hoffmann is of theoretical and historical importance, because it is on the one side an echo of the medieval conflict between nominalism and realism, and, on the other side, a prelude of the later conflict between rationalism and supranaturalism. Because of the controversy Hoffmann was deposed and expelled from Helmstedt in 1601, but he was rehabilitated in 1603.

(Paul Tschackert.)

Bibliography: Malleus impietatis Hofmmanniano:, Frank-

fort, 1604; G. Thomasius, De controversies Hoff'manniana, Erlangen, 1844; G. Frank, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, i. 259, Leipsic, 1862; E. Schlee, Der Streit des Daniel Hofmann, Marburg, 1862; ADS, xii. 628-629.