[1] The evidence of MSS. is overwhelming against the form Jornandes.
The MSS. exhibit Jordanis or Jordannis; but these are only
Vulgar-Latin spellings of Jordanes.
[2] The terms of the dedication of this book to a certain Vigilius
make it impossible that the pope (538-555) of that name is meant.
JORDANUS (JORDAN CATALANI) (fl. 1321-1330), French Dominican missionary
and explorer in Asia, was perhaps born at Séverac in Aveyron, north-east
of Toulouse. In 1302 he may have accompanied the famous Thomas of
Tolentino, via Negropont, to the East; but it is only in 1321 that we
definitely discover him in western India, in the company of the same
Thomas and certain other Franciscan missionaries on their way to China.
Ill-luck detained them at Tana in Salsette island, near Bombay; and here
Jordanus' companions ("the four martyrs of Tana") fell victims to Moslem
fanaticism (April 7, 1321). Jordanus, escaping, worked some time at
Baruch in Gujarat, near the Nerbudda estuary, and at Suali (?) near
Surat; to his fellow-Dominicans in north Persia he wrote two
letters--the first from Gogo in Gujarat (October 12, 1321), the second
from Tana (January 24, 1323/4)--describing the progress of this new
mission. From these letters we learn that Roman attention had already
been directed, not only to the Bombay region, but also to the extreme
south of the Indian peninsula, especially to "Columbum," Quilon, or
Kulam in Travancore; Jordanus' words may imply that he had already
started a mission there before October 1321. From Catholic traders he
had learnt that Ethiopia (i.e. Abyssinia and Nubia) was accessible to
Western Europeans; at this very time, as we know from other sources, the
earliest Latin missionaries penetrated thither. Finally, the _Epistles_
of Jordanus, like the contemporary _Secreta_ of Marino Sanuto
(1306-1321), urge the pope to establish a Christian fleet upon the
Indian seas. Jordanus, between 1324 and 1328 (if not earlier), probably
visited Kulam and selected it as the best centre for his future work; it
would also appear that he revisited Europe about 1328, passing through
Persia, and perhaps touching at the great Crimean port of Soldaia or
Sudak. He was appointed a bishop in 1328 and nominated by Pope John
XXII. to the see of Columbum in 1330. Together with the new bishop of
Samarkand, Thomas of Mancasola, Jordanus was commissioned to take the
pall to John de Cora, archbishop of Sultaniyah in Persia, within whose
province Kulam was reckoned; he was also commended to the Christians of
south India, both east and west of Cape Comorin, by Pope John. Either
before going out to Malabar as bishop, or during a later visit to the
west, Jordanus probably wrote his _Mirabilia_, which from internal
evidence can only be fixed within the period 1329-1338; in this work he
furnished the best account of Indian regions, products, climate,
manners, customs, fauna and flora given by any European in the Middle
Ages--superior even to Marco Polo's. In his triple division of the
Indies, India Major comprises the shorelands from Malabar to Cochin
China; while India Minor stretches from Sind (or perhaps from
Baluchistan) to Malabar; and India Tertia (evidently dominated by
African conceptions in his mind) includes a vast undefined coast-region
west of Baluchistan, reaching into the neighbourhood of, but not
including, Ethiopia and Prester John's domain. Jordanus' _Mirabilia_
contains the earliest clear African identification of Prester John, and
what is perhaps the first notice of the Black Sea under that name; it
refers to the author's residence in India Major and especially at Kulam,
as well as to his travels in Armenia, north-west Persia, the Lake Van
region, and Chaldaea; and it supplies excellent descriptions of Parsee
doctrines and burial customs, of Hindu ox-worship, idol-ritual, and
suttee, and of Indian fruits, birds, animals and insects. After the 8th
of April 1330 we have no more knowledge of Bishop Jordanus.
Of Jordanus' _Epistles_ there is only one MS., viz. Paris, National
Library, 5006 Lat., fol. 182, r. and v.; of the _Mirabilia_ also one
MS. only, viz. London, British Museum, _Additional MSS._, 19,513,
fols. 3, r.-12 r. The text of the _Epistles_ is in Quétif and Echard,
_Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum_, i. 549-550 (Epistle I.); and in
Wadding, _Annales minorum_, vi. 359-361 (Epistle II.); the text of the
_Mirabilia_ in the Paris Geog. Soc.'s _Recueil de voyages_, iv. 1-68
(1839). The Papal letters referring to Jordanus are in Raynaldus,
_Annales ecclesiastici_, 1330, §§ lv. and lvii. (April 8; Feb. 14).
See also Sir H. Yule's _Jordanus_, a version of the _Mirabilia_ with a
commentary (Hakluyt Soc., 1863) and the same editor's _Cathay_, giving
a version of the _Epistles_, with a commentary, &c. (Hak. Soc., 1866)
pp. 184-185, 192-196, 225-230; F. Kunstmann, "Die Mission in Meliapor
und Tana" and "Die Mission in Columbo" in the _Historisch-politische
Blätter_ of Phillips and Görres, xxxvii. 25-38, 135-152 (Munich,
1856), &c.; C. R. Beazley, _Dawn of Modern Geography_, iii. 215-235.
(C. R. B.)
JORIS, DAVID, the common name of JAN JORISZ or JORISZOON (c. 1501-1556),
Anabaptist heresiarch who called himself later JAN VAN BRUGGE; was born
in 1501 or 1502, probably in Flanders, at Ghent or Bruges. His father,
Georgius Joris de Koman, otherwise Joris van Amersfoordt, probably a
native of Bruges, was a shopkeeper and amateur actor at Delft; from the
circumstance that he played the part of King David, his son received the
name of David, but probably not in baptism. His mother was Marytje,
daughter of Jan de Gorter, of a good family in Delft. As a child he was
clever and delicate. He seems then or later to have acquired some
tincture of learning. His first known occupation was that of a
glass-painter; in 1522 he painted windows for the church at Enkhuizen,
North Holland (the birthplace of Paul Potter). In pursuit of his art he
travelled, and is said to have reached England; ill-health drove him
homewards in 1524, in which year he married Dirckgen Willems at Delft.
In the same year the Lutheran reformation took hold of him, and he began
to issue appeals in prose and verse against the Mass and against the
pope as antichrist. 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 turned to
the Anabaptists, was rebaptized in 1533, and for some years led a
wandering life. He came into relations with John à Lasco, and with Menno
Simons. Much influenced by Melchior Hofman, he had no sympathy with the
fanatic violence of the Münster faction. At the Buckholdt conference in
August 1536 he played a mediating part. His mother, in 1537, suffered
martyrdom as an Anabaptist. Soon after he took up a rôle of his own,
having visions and a gift of prophecy. He adapted in his own interest
the theory (constantly recurrent among mystics and innovators, from the
time of Abbot Joachim to the present day) of three dispensations, the
old, with its revelation of the Father, the newer with its revelation of
the Son, and the final or era of the Spirit. Of this newest revelation
Christus David was the mouthpiece, supervening on Christus Jesus. From
the 1st of April 1544, bringing with him some of his followers, he took
up his abode in Basel, which was to be the New Jerusalem. Here he styled
himself Jan van Brugge. His identity was unknown to the authorities of
Basel, who had no suspicion of his heresies. By his writings he
maintained his hold on his numerous followers in Holland and Friesland.
These monotonous writings, all in Dutch, flowed in a continual 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 1st 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 A. 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 Boehme,
Swedenborg and others. His remaining writings exhibit all that easy
dribble of triumphant muddiness which disciples take as depth. His wife
died on the 22nd of August, and his own death followed on the 25th of
August 1556. He was buried, with all religious honours, in the church of
St Leonard, Basel. Three years later, Nicolas Blesdijk, who had married
his eldest daughter Jannecke (Susanna), but had lost confidence in
Jorisz some time before his death, denounced the dead man to the
authorities of Basel. An investigation was begun in March 1559, and as
the result of a conviction for heresy the exhumed body of Jorisz was
burned, together with his portrait, on the 13th of May 1559. Blesdijk's
_Historia_ (not printed till 1642) accuses Jorisz of having _plures
uxores_. Of this there is no confirmation. Theoretically Jorisz regarded
polygamy as lawful; there is no proof that his theory affected his own
practice.
The first attempt at a true account of Jorisz was by Gottfried Arnold,
in his anonymous _Historia_ (1713), pursued with much fuller material
in his _Kirchen und Ketzer Historie_ (best ed. 1740-1742). See also F.
Nippold, in _Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie_ (1863, 1864,
1868); A. van der Linde, in _Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie_ (1881);
P. Burckhardt, _Basler Biographien_ (1900); Hegler, in Hauck's
_Realencyklopädie_ (1901), and the bibliography by A. van der Linde,
1867, supplemented by E. Weller, 1869. (A. Go.*)
JORTIN, JOHN (1698-1770), English theologian, the son of a Protestant
refugee from Brittany, was born in London on the 23rd of October 1698.
He went to Charterhouse School, and in 1715 became a pensioner of Jesus
College, Cambridge, where his reputation as a Greek scholar led to his
being selected to translate certain passages from Eustathius for the
notes to Pope's _Homer_. In 1722 he published a small volume of Latin
verse entitled _Lusus poetici_. Having taken orders in 1724, he was in
1726 presented by his college to the vicarage of Swavesey in
Cambridgeshire, which he resigned in 1730 to become preacher at a
chapel-of-ease in New Street, London. In 1731, along with some friends,
he began a publication entitled _Miscellaneous Observations on Authors
Ancient and Modern_, which appeared at intervals during two years. He
was Boyle lecturer in 1749. Shortly after becoming chaplain to the
bishop of London in 1762 he was appointed to a prebendal stall of St
Paul's and to the vicarage of Kensington, and in 1764 he was made
archdeacon of London. He died at Kensington on the 5th of September
1770.
The principal works of Jortin are: _Discussions Concerning the Truth
of the Christian Religion_ (1746); _Remarks on Ecclesiastical History_
(3 vols. 1751-2-4); _Life of Erasmus_ (2 vols. 1750, 1760) founded on
the Life by Jean Le Clerc; and _Tracts Philological Critical and
Miscellaneous_ (1790). A collection of his _Various Works_ appeared in
1805-1810. All his writings display wide learning and acuteness. He
writes on theological subjects with the detachment of a thoughtful
layman, and is witty without being flippant. See John Disney's _Life
of Jortin_ (1792).
JOSEPH, in the Old Testament, the son of the patriarch Jacob by Rachel;
the name of a tribe of Israel. Two explanations of the name are given by
the Biblical narrator (Gen. xxx. 23 [E], 24 [J]); a third, "He (God)
increases," seems preferable. Unlike the other "sons" of Jacob, Joseph
is usually reckoned as two tribes (viz. his "sons" Ephraim and
Manasseh), and closely associated with it is the small tribe of Benjamin
(q.v.), which lay immediately to the south. These three constituted the
"sons" of Rachel (the ewe), and with the "sons" of Leah (the antelope?)
are thus on a higher level than the "sons" of Jacob's concubines. The
"house of Joseph" and its offshoots occupied the centre of Palestine
from the plain of Esdraelon to the mountain country of Benjamin, with
dependencies in Bashan and northern Gilead (see MANASSEH). Practically
it comprised the northern kingdom, and the name is used in this sense in
2 Sam. xix. 20; Amos v. 6; vi. 6 (note the prominence of Joseph in the
blessings of Jacob and Moses, Gen. xlix., Deut. xxxiii.). Originally,
however, "Joseph" was more restricted, possibly to the immediate
neighbourhood of Shechem, its later extension being parallel to the
development of the name Jacob. The dramatic story of the tribal ancestor
is recounted in Gen. xxxvii.-l. (see GENESIS). Joseph, the younger and
envied son, is seized by his brothers at Dothan north of Shechem, and is
sold to a party of Ishmaelites or Midianites, who carry him down to
Egypt. After various vicissitudes he gains the favour of the king of
Egypt by the interpretation of a dream, and obtains a high place in the
kingdom.[1] Forced by a famine his brothers come to buy food, and in the
incidents that follow Joseph shows his preference for his young brother
Benjamin (cf. the tribal data above). His father Jacob is invited to
come to Goshen, where a settlement is provided for the family and their
flocks. This is followed many years later by the exodus, the conquest of
Palestine, and the burial of Joseph's body in the grave at Shechem which
his father had bought.
The history of Joseph in Egypt displays some familiarity with the
circumstances and usages of that country; see Driver (Hastings's
_D.B._) and Cheyne (_Ency. Bib._, col. 2589 seq.); although Abrech
(xli. 43), possibly the Egyptian _ib rk_ (Crum, in Hastings's _D.B._,
i. 665), has been otherwise connected with the Assyrian _abarakku_ (a
high officer). An interesting parallel to the story of Joseph in Gen.
xxxix. is found in the Egyptian tale of _The Two Brothers_ (Petrie,
_Eg. Tales_, 2nd series, p. 36 seq., 1895), which dates from about
1500 B.C., but the differences are not inconsiderable compared with
the points of resemblance, and the tale has features which are almost
universal (Frazer, _Golden Bough_, 2nd ed., vol. iii. 351 seq.). On
the theory that the historical elements of Joseph's history refer to
an official (Yanhamu) of the time of Amenophis III. and IV., see
Cheyne, op. cit., and _Hibbert Journal_, October 1903. That the
present form of the narrative has been influenced by current
mythological lore is not improbable; on this question see (with
caution) Winckler, _Gesch. Israels_, ii. 67-77 (1900); A. Jeremias,
_Alte Test._, pp. 383 sqq. (1906). It may be added that the Egyptian
names in the story of Joseph are characteristic of the XXII. and
subsequent dynasties. See, also Meyer and Luther, _Die Israeliten_
(1906), Index, _s.v._ (S. A. C.)