JORIS, DAvin,.1501--56; b. Delft, Holland; the leader of an Anabaptist sect known by the name of Jorists or Davidists. Early showing a fondness for the art of glass painting, he was apprenticed to a glass painter, and soon displayed great aptitude in the work. To perfect himself in the art lie visited Belgium, France, and England. Return ing to Holland he married, and in 1524 settled at Delft, practicing his profession; but in 1530 he began to display unusual religious zeal against Romanism, and, while a proces sion was passing in Delft, he stopped the priests, accused them of deceiving the people by false teachings, and reproached them for worshiping images and pictures. He was arrested, imprisoned, and tried, but by the aid of a friend escaped severe punishment. Abandoning the common principles of the reformation, he became an adherent of Ana baptist views. At first he did not identify himself with that sect on account of their disorderly conduct, and their doctrine of using the sword to establish their authority; but in 1534 lie fully joined them by rebaptism. He was consecrated as bishop of Delft by Ubbo, and others. He showed great zeal in behalf of the Anabaptists; his influence was very great and his followers numerous. The Anabaptist leaders, jealous of his success, openly disavowed him. But at the convocation of Anabaptists in 1536, Joris fearlessly declared himself a divinely appointed leader, and soon afterward issued a pamphlet calling all parties to a peaceful union. The leaders were still more provoked, and most of the Anabaptistsforsook him. Those who adhered to him took the name of Jorists or Davidists. He professed to have visions and revelations, and interpreted the persecutions to which his followers were subjected as proofs of the divine favor. At' Delft, Harlem, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leyden, and other cities, many suffered death for their adherence to hini. His own mother died on the scaffold, a martyr to the doc
trines which her son was propagating. Joris left IIolland, and fled to the landgrave of Hesse, who refused him an asylum unless he came as a Lutheran. Suddenly in Basel, Switzerland, appeared in 1544 a man by the name of John of Bruges. He was a man of wealth, a communicant in the reformed church, and had come to reside there with his family. He was highly esteemed for his wealth and his virtues, and died peacefully with his family in 1556. This was David Joris. His son-in-law, Nicholas Blesdyck, reformed preacher, but an avaricious and unprincipled man, after his death denounced him as guilty of the most blasphemous errors. The clergy and university declared his opinions heretical, and his body was dug up and burned. Joris was a man of excessively fervid imagination, and in religion a mystic, believing that he had divine visions, and religion consist in the exclusion of all external objects from the thoughts, and the cultivation of silence, contemplation, and a peculiar, indescribable state of the soul. He rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, and held strange views concerning Christ. Hu believed that Joris was to establish internally and externally the eternal kingdom of Christ, which before was the kingdom of Christ only internally. He denied the doctrine of future judgment and the existence of angels. He held, like Manes, that the body only was defiled by sin. Of his 250 books and 1000 letters the most important is the Book of Miracles, under the title of Wonderboeck. A catalogue of his writings and a complete account of his life and work were published by prof. Nippolt of Heidelbem See DAVIDISTS.