RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Hoffmann Hoffmeister
Germany, where Emden became the center of his activity. In East Friesland he published his most important work, the Ordonnantie 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 Volkertszoon. 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 Miinster 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-j-) K. Holl.
Bibliography: The best biographies are W. I. Leendertz, Melchior Hofmann, Haarlem, 1883, and F. O. zur Linden, Melchior Hofmann, Haarlem, 1885. Consult: H. C. Vedder, Short Hist, of Baptists, pp. 88, 97, Philadelphia, 1891; A. H. Newman, in American Church History Series, ii., pp. 25-27, New York, 1894; idem, Hist, of Anti-Pedobavtism, pp. 254-271, Philadelphia, 1897; K. Rembert, Die Wiedertaufer im Herzogtum Jillich,. Berlin, 1899; G. Tumbtilt, Die Wiedertaufer, p. 30, Bielefeld, 1899; J. Kostlin, Martin Luther, i. 625, ii. 148, Berlin, 1903; Cambridge Modern History, ii. 314, 320, New York, 1904; A. Hulshof, Geschiedenis van de doopgezinde te Straatsburg, Amsterdam, 1905; ADB, xii.636; also the literature under Anabaptists.
HOFFMANN, (LUDWIG FRIEDRICH) WIL- HELM: Court preacher in Berlin and general superintendent of the Brandenburg consistory; b. at Leonberg (8 m. w.n.w. of Stuttgart), Wurttemberg, Oct. 30, 1806; d. at Berlin Aug. 28, 1873. He was educated at the seminaries of Schonthal and Tu-
bingen, and in 1829 became vicar of Heumaden, near" Stuttgart, but three years later was appointed a lecturer in the seminary of Tubingen. The following year he was made vicar at Stuttgart, and went to Winnenden in 1834 as deacon, where, together with the physician Zeller, he was active in the sanitarium at Winnenthal. In 1839 he was called to Basel as inspector of missions, and there reorganized the educational institutions, expanded the missionary territories of Basel in Asia, Africa, and North America, and reformed the missionary meetings of his congregation, increasing their interest by lectures on geography, history, and ethnology. At the same time he lectured at the university. From Basel he went to Tubingen as professor and superintendent of the seminary. In 1852 Frederick William IV- appointed him court preacher, and soon afterward made him general superintendent of the Brandenburg consistory. For two decades he held this position, for which his theological convictions, in which he was an adherent of Bengel, especially adapted him, since he regarded the union of the Lutheran and Reformed confessions as an indispensable requirement of the time. Here, too, he carried out the king's plan for the organization of a Domkanditatenstift, in which theological students should be enabled to continue their studies, gain practice in sermons and catechesis, and do practical work among the congregation of the cathedral. Among Hoffmann's numerous literary works special mention may be made of the following : Missionsstunden und Vortrage (3 vols., Stuttgart, 1847-53); Missionsfragen (Heidelberg, 1847) ; Die Epochen der Kirchengeschichte Indiens (Berlin, 1853) ; Die christUche Litteratur als Werkzeug der Mission (1859); and Deutschland einst und jetzt im Lichte des Reiches Gottes (1868). He also reedited Johann Albrecht Bengel's Erkldrte Offenbarung Johannes and, in collaboration with Heim, a preacher in Stuttgart, published Erbauliche Auslegung der grossen Propheten nach Auszugen aus den Schriften der Reformatoren. He likewise wrote a refutation of the Leben Jesu of David Strauss (Stuttgart, 1836), who had been his fellow student at Tubingen, and for thirteen years was the editor of the Baseler Missionsmagazin, besides being the author of numerous sermons and reports of missionary activity. (R. KoGELf.)
Bibliography: C. H. Hoffmann, Leben und Wirken des L. F. W. Hoffmann, Berlin, 1878 (by his son); Neue evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1873, nos. 43-49.
HOFFMANN, RICHARD ADOLF: German Protestant; b. at Konigsberg June 22, 1872. He was educated at the universities of Konigsberg and Halle, and after being assistant to Prof. A. H. E. Klopper from 1893 to 1897, became in the following year privat-docent for New Testament exegesis and dogmatic theology at Konigsberg, and professor of New Testament exegesis in 1907- He has written Die Abendmahlsgedanken Jesu Chrisli (Konigsberg, 1896) and Das M arkusevangelium und seine Quellen (1904).
HOFFMANNITES. See Friends op the Temple.
HOFFMEISTER, hof-mai'ster, JOHANNES: Augustinian; b. atOberndorf (43 m. s.w. of Stuttgart), Wurttemberg, c. 1510; d. at Giinzburg (30 m.
Hoffmeister Hofstede