Melchior, on his return journey to Strassburg from his journey northwards, proclaimed the end of 1533 as the date of the second advent and the inauguration of the reign of the saints.

Owing to the excitement among the poorer population of the town consequent upon Hoffmann's preaching, the prophet was arrested and imprisoned in one of the towers of the city wall.

But 1533 came and went without the Lord or His saints appearing, while poor Hoffmann remained confined in the tower of the city wall.
Meanwhile the new Anabaptism spread and fermented along the Rhine, and especially in Holland.

In the latter country its chief exponent was a master baker at Harleem, by name Jan Matthys, who seems to have been a born leader of men.

While preaching essentially the same doctrines as Hoffmann, with Matthys a Holy War, in a literal sense, was placed in the forefront of his teaching.