1536–1556 (David Joris’s later ministry) · event
Jorists: David Joris and the meaning of discipleship
The Jorists appear in the Dutch portion of the chart as a distinct movement whose teachings nonresistant witnesses examined against Scripture.
Also searchable as: Jorists · David Joris · Davidjorists · Davidites
The supplied chart places the Jorists beside other Dutch movements of the 1530s. Named for David Joris, this stream belonged to the unsettled years after Münster’s fall in 1535. GAMEO’s revised biography describes his efforts at Bocholt in 1536 to reconcile militant and peaceable factions, followed by increasing reliance on prophetic authority and spiritual interpretations of Christian practices.
Martyrs’ Mirror preserves a specific disagreement in Jacques D’Auchy’s examination, preceding his execution in 1559. D’Auchy rejects an interpretation attributed to Joris that replaces the actual breaking of bread with a spiritual meaning. Appealing to Acts 2:46 and Acts 20:7, he insists that the gathered believers really ate bread. This testimony concerns a particular doctrinal dispute, rather than documenting every follower’s life or convictions.
Joris moved to Basel in 1544 and died in 1556. His place in the chart helps explain distinctions early believers had to make; the proximity of chart lines does not establish that later nonresistant Mennonite branches descended from the Jorists.
Sources for this history: [1] [2] [3]
