David Joris

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.

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.

David Joris remained on the "mystic" edge of Anabaptism, leading by citing dreams, visions and prophecies.

Anabaptist leader Nicolas van Blesdijk, the husband of his eldest daughter, became an opponent of Joris' teachings.

The Mennonite Encyclopedia divides Joris' religious career into "four overlapping phases: Sacramentarian (1524–1530); Melchiorite sympathizer (1531–1534) Anabaptist leader (1534–c.

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.