HOFMANN, RUDOLPH HUGO: German Lu theran; b. at Kreische (10 m. a. of Dresden) Jan. 3, 1825. He studied at the University of Leipsic 1843-47, and after being afternoon preacher in the university church at Leipsic in 1850-51 and pastor at Stormthal, near Leipsic, in 1851-54, was professor in the Ftlrstenschule at Meissen until 1862. In 1862 he was appointed associate professor of practical theology at Leipsic, and four years later became honorary full professor, while since 1871 he has been active professor of the same subject. He is also a privy ecclesiastical councilor and a cathedral canon, and in theology is an Evangelical Lutheran. He has written Das ZeicKen des Menschensohns am Himmel (Leipsic, 1849); Das Leben Jesu naeh den Apokryphen (1851); Symbolik (Leipsic, 1856); Die Lehre vom Gewn:ssen (1866); Predigten gehalten in der Universitditskirche zu Leipzig (1869); Schulbt'bel (Dresden, 1872); Zum System der praktischen Theologie (Leipsic, 1875); Predigten über das Vater unser(1881); Die freaenchristlichenLiebest4tigkeiten und die Gemeinde (1884); Rechtfertiggung der Schule der Reformation gegendberungerechtfertigtenAngrifen (1889); and Galiltia auf dein Oelberg (1896).

HOFMEISTER, hef-mai'ster (Gr. Oikonomos), SEBASTIAN: Swiss Reformer; b. at Schaffhausen 1476; d. at Zofingen (25 m. s.e. of Basel) Sept. 26, 1533. He became a Franciscan friar in Schaffhausen, and then went to Paris and studied classical languages and Hebrew for five years. In 1520 he returned to his native city, and in the same year became lector in the monastery of his order at Zurich and entered into close friendship with Huldreich Zwingli, whose influence upon him became decisive. He was removed to Constance and thence to Lucerne, and at the latter place began his reformatory activity. After having been accused of heresy and expelled from the town, he returned to Schaffhausen, where he became preacher of the principal church. He attacked the ecclesiastical abuses so forcibly that he won over a great number of the citizens to his cause, while at the same time he excited the opposition of another and stronger party.

In Jan., 1523, Hofmeister took part in the religious colloquy between Zwingli and Faber, vicargeneral of Constance, at Zurich, and was one of the presidents in the second disputation at Zurich in Oct., 1523, against the Anabaptists. The Romanists sent Erasmus Ritter of Bavaria to Schaffhausen to oppose Hofmeister's activity, but Ritter took the part of the Reformer. ~ In 1525, however, Hofmeister had to leave the city. He became preacher in Zurich after abandoning his antipedobaptist views, but in 1526 appeared again in Grisons as leader of an important religious colloquy at Ilanz. In 1528 he went to the disputation at Bern, where, upon the recommendation of Zwingli, he was retained and employed as professor of Hebrew and catechesis. But after a few months he went to Zofingen asPreacher. For the cause of the Reformation in Switzerland he wrote Ein treuwe ermanung an die Strengen, Edlen, festen, frommen and weisen Eidgenosaen, das sieh nit dureh ire falschen propheten verfiirt, sich wider die lere Christi setzend (1523).

(E. Blösch†.)

Bibliography: M. Kirchhofer, Seb. Wagner, penannt HofmeiSter, Zurich, 1808; C. Brunner, Due alte Zoflnoen und sein Chorherrenetift, pp. 58-59, Aarau, 1877; R. Stiihelin, Huldreich Zwingli, 2 vols., Basel, 1895-97; S. M. Jackson, Huldre%ch Zwingli, pp. 204, 253-255, New York, 1903; Sebaff, Christian Church, vii. 129-130. Hofmeister'a letters are in Zwingli, Opera, ii. 166, 348, vii. 146, 289.