HOFMANN, MELCHIOR

born c. 1495, , Schwbisch-Hall, Swabia died 1543/44, Strassburg [now Strasbourg, Fr.] Hofmann also spelled Hoffmann German mystic and lay preacher noted for contributing a zealous eschatology to the religious doctrine of the Anabaptists, a Reformation movement that advocated adult baptism. A furrier by trade, Hofmann worked as a Lutheran lay missionary in Livonia (modern Latvia and Estonia), Sweden, and northern Germany. His fervour made him a competitor of the educated clergy, and he was forced from Wolmar (now Valmiera, Latvia) in 1524 and from Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) in 1526. For two years he preached among the Germans in Stockholm. Later he received an appointment as preacher at Kiel from Frederick I of Denmark. At a colloquy in Flensburg (1529), Hofmann alarmed Martin Luther by dissenting from the Lutheran doctrine of the Eucharist, and he was consequently banned from Denmark. Converted to Anabaptism in Strassburg, he developed his doctrines not only beyond Lutheranism but beyond Anabaptism as well; he predicted that the end of the world would occur in 1533 and that he himself would ride into Strassburg with Christ in the clouds to establish the New Jerusalem. Traveling to the Netherlands in 1530, Hofmann won converts, who became known as Melchiorites; but upon his return to Strassburg (1533), where he was unpopular with the Anabaptists, he was arrested and imprisoned. Hofmann died in prison, his prophecy unfulfilled. For a short time afterward, Melchiorite groups persisted in Europe and England but eventually disappeared. Hofmann's views especially influenced the Anabaptist Reformer Menno Simons.