THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
w.n.w. of Augsburg) Aug. 21 or 22, 1547 It is uncertain where he received his education, and when and where he entered the Augustinian order. About 1527 he lived in Mainz, and was designated as an Augustinian when he was matriculated at the University of Freiburg, Dec. 15, 152S. From 1533 he was prior in the monastery of the imperial city of Colmar. The monastery was much demoralized, and Hoffmeister took great pains to effect better conditions. The Evangelical faith threatened to enter its doors, and the prior inflicted the severest punishments upon monks who deserted their faith. He perceived that deficiency in preaching was one of the great causes of the decline of the Roman Catholic Church, and by his own example attempted reforms. In 1542 he became provincial of the Augustinians in the Rhenish-Swabian province. There were only eleven monasteries left, with less than forty monks, and Hoffmeister tried his best to keep them from the Lutheran heresy. In the mean time his efficiency and activity in preaching had become known. He was called to preach in the cathedral of Worms during the session of the diet in 1545. Shortly after his return to Colmar, the emperor summoned him to take part in a colloquy at Regensburg. But he was little adapted for peaceful negotiations, and religious disagreement was intensified by personal differences and mutual lack of respect. During his sojourn in Regensburg Hoffmeister preached in the cathedral, and at the solicitation of the emperor continued his activity there even after the colloquy. In 1546 he was appointed vicar-general over all Augustinian monasteries of Germany; but his main interest was devoted to the politics of the emperor. After his activity in Regensburg he preached for two months at Munich. On Jan. 15, 1547, he went to Ulm, and a few months later to Dillingen. Shortly before his death the emperor called him to the Diet of Augsburg, but he died on the way thither.
Hoffmeister's first published work was Dialogorum libri duo, quibus aliquot ecclesim dogmata Lutheranorum et verbis et sententiis roborantur (Freiburg, 1538), in which he tried to show that the " innovators " not only disagreed among themselves, but that they defended the Roman doctrines by some statements in their writings. A second treatise, written in still more vehement language, was directed against Luther's Schmalkald Articles, Wahrhafftige Entdeckung und Widerlegung deren Artikeln die M. Luther auffdas Concilium zu schicken und darauff beharren furgenommen. Mit vorgesetzter Anzeig wer das Condi fliehe oder hindere (Colmar, 1539). The Council of Colmar, although it was Roman Catholic, confiscated the publication because it feared serious trouble in consideration of the growing Evangelical sentiment; but Hoffmeister was not discouraged. The colloquies at Hagenau, Worms, and Regensburg induced him to treat the Augsburg Confession as he had done the Schmalkald Articles. In this way originated his treatise, Judicium de articulis confessionis fidei anno MDXXX Ccesar. M. Augustas exhibitis, quatcnus scilicet a Catholicis admittendi sunt out reiiciendi (published after his death, Mainz, 1559; German, Constance, 1597). In the hope of winning the Protestants by
a real betterment of conditions which he expected from the council, Hoffmeister made at times sweeping concessions, and with great frankness expressed himself on the conditions of his Church. Another polemical treatise of Hoffmeister is entitled Canonea sire claves aliquot, ad inter pretandum sacras Bibliorum scripturas (Mainz, 1545). He also published Loci communes rerum theologicarum (Ingolstadt, 1547) , a comprehensive compilation of passages from the Church Fathers, which has been frequently edited, and several series of sermons.
(T. Kolde.)
Bibliography: A. Hohn, Chronologia provincial Rheno- Suericos ordinis S. Augustini, Wiirzburg, 1744; H.
Rocholl, Einfilhrung der Reformation in Kolmar, Colmar, 1876; A. von Drussel, in AM A, 3d class, i., 1 (1878), 137 sqq.; idem, ZKG, iii (1879), 484; N. Paulus, Der Augustinermunch Johann Hoffmeister, Freiburg, 1891; G. Bossert, in Blatter fur wiirttembergische Kirchengeschichte, 1894, p. 70, 1895, p. 172; J. Schlecht, Johann Hoffmeister als Dichter, in Katholik, lxxvii. 2, pp. 188 sqq.