MELCHIOR HOFFMANN. — Anabaptist, b. c. 1500 at Schäwbisch-Hall, d. 1543 at Strasbourg. A modest furrier, Hoffmann was so struck by Lutheran doctrine that he abandoned his trade to improvise as a lay preacher of the Reformation. He thus traveled through nearly all of Germany, Flanders, and even Livonia—where he is recorded in 1523—boldly blending Luther’s teachings with his own eschatological and social views.
By interpreting the early writings in his own way, he came to predict the imminent end of the world; in the social sphere, moreover, he proclaimed a kind of communism, thereby gaining fanatical followers who indulged in devastation and plunder, especially of religious institutions. Particularly numerous were his followers in Holland, where they took the name Melchiorites.
He subsequently broke away from Lutheranism to join the Anabaptists and thus incurred persecution from the Lutherans. Having moved to Strasbourg in 1533, he was arrested there and spent the last ten years of his life in prison.