himself was a somewhat clumsy manipulator, their actual exhibition was generally entrusted to his assistants. He was the possessor of a clear and graceful, if somewhat florid, style, which showed to special advantage in his numerous obituary notices or encomiums (collected and published in three volumes Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde, 1888). He also excelled as a speaker, particularly at gatherings of an international character, for in addition to his native German he could speak English, French and Italian with fluency.
See Memorial Lectures delivered before the Chemical Society, 1893–1900 (London, 1901).
HOFMANN, JOHANN CHRISTIAN KONRAD VON (1810–1877),
Lutheran theologian and historian, was born on the 21st
of December 1810 at Nuremberg, and studied theology and
history at the university of Erlangen. In 1829 he went to
Berlin, where Schleiermacher, Hengstenberg, Neander, Ranke
and Raumer were among his teachers. In 1833 he received an
appointment to teach Hebrew and history in the gymnasium of
Erlangen. In 1835 he became Repetent, in 1838 Privatdozent
and in 1841 professor extraordinarius in the theological faculty
at Erlangen. In 1842 he became professor ordinarius at Rostock,
but in 1845 returned once more to Erlangen as the successor of
Gottlieb Christoph Adolf von Harless (1806–1879), founder of
the Zeitschrift für Protestantismus und Kirche, of which Hofmann
became one of the editors in 1846, J. F. Höfling (1802–1853) and
Gottfried Thomasius (1802–1875) being his collaborators. He
was a conservative in theology, but an enthusiastic adherent of
the progressive party in politics, and sat as member for Erlangen
and Fürth in the Bavarian second chamber from 1863 to 1868.
He died on the 20th of December 1877.
He wrote Die siebzig Jahre des Jeremias u. die siebzig Jahrwochen des Daniel (1836); Geschichte des Aufruhrs in den Cevennen (1837); Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte für Gymnasien (1839), which became a text-book in the Protestant gymnasia of Bavaria; Weissagung u. Erfüllung im alten u. neuen Testamente (1841–1844; 2nd ed., 1857–1860); Der Schriftbeweis (1852–1856; 2nd ed., 1857–1860); Die heilige Schrift des neuen Testaments zusammenhängend untersucht (1862–1875); Schutzschriften (1856–1859), in which he defends himself against the charge of denying the Atonement; and Theologische Ethik (1878). His most important works are the five last named. In theology, as in ecclesiastical polity, Hofmann was a Lutheran of an extreme type, although the strongly marked individuality of some of his opinions laid him open to repeated accusations of heterodoxy. He was the head of what has been called the Erlangen School, and “in his day he was unquestionably the chief glory of the University of Erlangen” (Lichtenberger).
See the articles in Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie and the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie; and cf. F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century (1889) pp. 446-458.
HOFMANN, MELCHIOR (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 of
preachers 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 rôle 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 Münster 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 noteworthy as having influenced Menno Simons and David Joris (Weissagung vsz heiliger götlicher geschrifft, and Prophecey oder Weissagung vsz warer heiliger götlicher schrifft). Bock treats him as an antitrinitarian, 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 écrits de M. Hofmann (1852); F. O. zur Linden, M. Hofmann, ein Prophet der Wiedertäufer (1885); H. Holtzmann, in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (1880); Hegler in Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (1900); Bock, Hist. Antitrin. (1776), ii.; Wallace, Antitrin. Biography (1850) 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). (A. Go.*)
HOFMEISTER, WILHELM FRIEDRICH BENEDICT (1824–1877),
German botanist, was born at Leipzig on the 18th of
May 1824. He came of a family engaged in trade, and after
being educated at the Realschule of Leipzig he entered business
as a music-dealer. Much of his botanical work was done while
he was so employed, till in 1863 he was nominated, without
intermediate academic steps, to the chair in Heidelberg; thence
he was transferred in 1872 to Tübingen, in succession to H. von
Mohl. His first work was on the distribution of the Coniferae
in the Himalaya, but his attention was very soon devoted to
studying the sexuality and origin of the embryo of Phanerogams.
His contributions on this subject extended from 1847 till 1860,
and they finally settled the question of the origin of the embryo
from an ovum, as against the prevalent pollen-tube theory of
M. J. Schleiden, for he showed that the pollen-tube does not
itself produce the embryo, but only stimulates the ovum already
present in the ovule. He soon turned his attention to the
embryology of Bryophytes and Pteridophytes, and gave
continuous accounts of the germination of the spores and fertilization
in Pilularia, Salvinia, Selaginella. Some of the main facts of the
life of ferns and mosses were already known; these, together with
his own wider observations, were worked into that great general
pronouncement published in 1851 under the title, Vergleichende
Untersuchungen der Keimung, Entfaltung und Fruchtbildung
höherer Kryptogamen und der Samenbildung der Coniferen.
