David Joris

David Joris (c. 1501– 25 August 1556, sometimes Jan Jorisz or Joriszoon) was an important Anabaptist leader in the Netherlands before 1540.

Joris was probably born in Flanders, the son of Marietje Jan de Gortersdochter and Georgius Joris de Koman, an amateur actor and shopkeeper. He was a disciple of Melchior Hoffman.

By trade David Joris was a glass painter or tinsel painter, having learned the art in Antwerp; in 1522 he painted windows for the church at Enkhuizen, North Holland. In 1524 he married Dirckgen Willems, and also took interest in the Reformation movement of Martin Luther. On Ascension Day 1528 he committed an outrage on the sacrament carried in procession; he was placed in the pillory, had his tongue bored, and was banished from Delft for three years.

In 1533 he accepted the ideas of the Anabaptists, and was baptized in Delft by Obbe Philips. According to the Mennonite Encyclopedia, "He was an influential figure in Anabaptism's consolidation period following the fall of Münster." He rejected the violence of Münster, but theoretically accepted polygamy (he is not known to have practiced it). After the Münster debacle, a number of diverse disciples of Hoffman gathered for counsel at Bocholt in 1536. Joris had some success in highlighting their common beliefs, while diffusing the ideas of those who wanted vengeance. He believed that God would take vengeance, but that the saints should not. He promoted compromise on the question of polygamy, stating he thought the number of wives a man had was not important, as long as the family obeyed God. The group made no decision on the issue. David Joris remained on the "mystic" edge of Anabaptism, leading by citing dreams, visions and prophecies. Against this is his rationalist approach to the topic of the devil and supernatural evil. David Joris anticipated the views of Thomas Hobbes, John Epps and John Thomas in interpreting the devil as an allegory. He adapted in his own interest the theory of three dispensations: the old, with its revelation of the Father, the newer with its revelations of the Son, and the final or era of the Spirit.

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