MELCHIOR

HOFMANN (c. 1498—1543-4)  , anabaptist, was born at Hall, in Swabia, before 1500 (Zur Linden suggests 1498) . His biographers usually give his surname as above; in his printed works it is Hoffman, in his manuscripts Hoffmann . He was without scholarly training, and first appears as a furrier at Livland . Attracted by Luther's doctrine, he came forward as a lay preacher, combining business travels with a religious mission . Accompanied by Melchior Rinck, also a skinner or furrier, and a religious enthusiast, he made his way to Sweden . Joined by Bernard Knipperdolling, the party reached Stockholm in the autumn of 1524 . Their fervid attacks on image worship led to their expulsion . By way of Livonia, Hofmann arrived at Dorpat in November 1524, but was driven thence in the following January . Making his way to Riga, and thence to Wittenberg, he found favour with Luther; his letter of the 22nd of June 1525 appears in a tract by Luther of that year . He was again at Dorpat in May 1526; later at Magdeburg . Returning to Wittenberg, he was coldly received; he wrote there his exposition of Daniel xii . (1527) .

Repairing to

Holstein, he got into the good graces of Frederick I. of Denmark, and was appointed by royal ordinance to preach the Gospel at Kiel . He was extravagant in denunciation, and developed a Zwinglian view of the Eucharist . Luther was alarmed . At a colloquy ofpreachers in Flensburg (8th April 1529) Hofmann, John Campanus and others were put on their defence . Hofmann maintained (against the " magic " of the Lutherans) that the function of the Eucharist, like that of preaching, is an appeal for spiritual union with Christ . Refusing to retract, he was banished . At Strassburg to which he now turned, he was well received (1529) till his anabaptist development became apparent . He was in relations with Schwenkfeld and with Carlstadt, but assumed a prophetic role of his own . Journeying to East Friesland, (1530) he founded a community at Emden (1532), securing a large following of artisans . Despite the warning of John Trypmaker, who prophesied for him " six months " in prison, he returned in the spring of 1533 to Strassburg, where we hear of his wife and child . He gathered from the Apocalypse a vision of " resurrections " of apostolic Christianity, first under John Hus, and now under himself . The year 1533 was to inaugurate the new era; Strassburg was to be the seat of the New Jerusalem .

In May 1533 he and others were arrested . Under examination, he denied that he had made

common cause with the anabaptists and claimed to be no prophet, a mere witness of the Most High, but refused the articles of faith proposed to him by the provincial synod . Hofmann and Claus Frey, an anabaptist, were detained in prison, a measure due to the terror excited by the Munster episode of 1533—1534• The synod, in 1539, made further effort to reclaim him . The last notice of his imprisonment is on the 19th of November 1543; he probably died soon after . Two of his publications, with similar titles, in 1530, are note-worthy as having influenced Menno Simons and David Joris (Weissagung vsz heiliger gotlicher geschri fft, and Prophecey oder Weissagung vsz warer heiliger gotlicher schrifft) . Bock treats him as an antitrinitaria.n, on grounds which Wallace rightly deems inconclusive . With better reason Trechsel includes him among pioneers of some of the positions of Servetus . His Christology was Valentinian . While all are elected to salvation, only the regenerate may receive baptism, and those who sin after regeneration sin against the Holy Ghost, and cannot be saved . His followers were known as Hofmannites or Melchiorites . See G . Herrmann, Essai sur la vie et les ecrits de M .

Hofmann (1852) ; F . O. zur Linden, M . Hofmann, ein Prophet der Wiedertaufer (1885); H .

Holtzmann, in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (188o); Hegler in Hauck's Realencyklopddie (19oo) ; Bock, Hist . Antitrin . (1776), ii.; Wallace, Antitrin . Biography (185o) iii., app. iii.; Trechsel, Prot . Antitrin. vor F . Socin (1839) i.; Barclay, Inner Life of Rel . Societies (1876) . An alleged portrait, from an engraving of 1608, is reproduced in the appendix to A . Ross, Pansebeia (1655) .

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