Menno's contemporaries
Melchior Hoffman (c. 1495-1543)
Born
in Swabia in Southern Germany Melchior Hoffman (also spelled as 'Hofmann'
or 'Hoffmann') was one of the founders of Anabaptism in the Netherlands.
A furrier by trade, he emerged as a self-taught Lutheran evangelist. He
experienced opposition wherever he preached and traveled from country
to country.
In Strasbourg he was first acquainted with the Anabaptists and was baptized there in 1530. During the same year Hoffman traveled from Strasbourg to Emden (Northern Germany) with a message of apocalyptic spirituality. Here he found ready response, baptized many people and sent lay preachers into the Netherlands.
Hoffman believed that Strasbourg would be the spiritual Jerusalem and
that he himself was Elijah, chosen to proclaim this event. Upon returning
to Strasbourg in 1533 he was imprisoned, which he felt to be a necessary
precondition to the coming of the kingdom. Hoffman remained in prison
until his death in 1543. His prophecies remained unfulfilled but his influence
cannot be underestimated. Hoffman had helped to plant the seeds of Anabaptism
in the Netherlands.