David Joris

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

Life 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. 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.

Works His writings, all in Dutch, flowed in a continuous stream from 1524 (though none is extant before 1529) and amounted to over 200 in number. His magnum opus was T Wonder Boeck (n.d. 1542, divided into two parts; 1551, handsomely reprinted, divided into four parts; both editions anonymous). Its chief claim to recognition is its use, in the latter part, of the phrase Restitutio Christi, which apparently suggested to Servetus his title Christianismi Restitutio (1553). In the first edition is a figure of the "new man," signed with the author's monogram, and probably drawn as a likeness of himself; it fairly corresponds with the alleged portrait, engraved in 1607, reproduced in the appendix to Alexander Ross's Pansebeia (1655), and idealized by P. Burckhardt in 1900. Another work, Verklaringe der Scheppenissen (1553) treats mystically the Book of Genesis, a favourite theme with Böhme, Swedenborg and others.