Melchior Hoffman

He began his career as an outspoken proponent of Lutheranism but evolved his own theological voice influenced by late medieval mysticism, Joachimite apocalypticism, and the Anabaptist movement.

After a short stay in Lübeck he made his way to Denmark, where he found favour with King Frederick I, and was appointed by royal ordinance to preach the Gospel at Kiel.

[1] Because of the prophecy of an old man foretelling six months in prison for him, he returned in the spring of the following year to Strasbourg, where there is reference to his wife and child.

He gained from his study of Apocalypse the belief that the Lord would return there in 1533 and received a vision of "resurrections" of apostolic Christianity, first under John Hus, and now under himself.

Under examination, he denied that he had made common cause with the Anabaptists and claimed to be no prophet but a mere witness of the Most High, but nevertheless refused the articles of faith proposed to him by the provincial synod.

As a consequence of the terror inspired by the rebellion and its savage suppression, Hoffman, together with Claus Frey, another Anabaptist, was detained in prison.

Menno Simons accepted this view, probably received from the peaceful Melchiorites Obbe and Dirk Philips, and it became the general belief of Dutch Anabaptists in the first century of their existence.

Two of his publications with similar titles from 1530—"Weissagung aus heiliger gotlicher geschrift" (Prophecy from Holy and Divine Scripture) and "Prophecey oder Weissagung vsz warer heiliger gotlicher schrifft" (Prophecy from True, Holy and Divine Scripture)—are noteworthy as having influenced Menno Simons and David Joris.