Joriaen Ketel (1511-1544)

Joriaen (Jurriaen, Jurrien, Jurjen) Ketel (Ketelaer), an Anabaptist martyr, was beheaded on 9 August 1544 on the Brink square of Deventer, Dutch province of Overijssel. He was born about 1511. Joriaen had been an Anabaptist since 1533, when he was rebaptized. His first wife, Elsken, also an Anabaptist, was drowned at Utrecht, Netherlands on 18 June 1539.

Joriaen Ketel, a tailor by trade (or a cloth or silk merchant), is said to have been of high rank, his father being a nobleman and he himself being educated in the upper circles. During or soon after the Munsterite troubles he joined the Anabaptist leader Jan van Batenburg. At that time Joriaen was called Joriaen (Hendricksen) van Goor. After Batenburg's death (1538) Joriaen was converted from his profligate life by David Joris, whose loyal follower he remained until his death. On the order of David Joris he visited the Landgrave of Hesse; he also accompanied David Joris to Antwerp, Belgium, and to Basel, Switzerland. He provided for the printing of David Joris' Wonderboeck, which had appeared in 1542 without mentioning place and printer; he also had intermediated in the publishing of other books by David Joris since 1539. At Pentecost of 1544 he was arrested at Deventer. Four or five times he was tortured; he confessed that he did not approve the revolutionary principles of Batenburg; he frankly confessed his following of David Joris, saying that this leader had taught him nothing but good things. In his last hour he wrote a striking letter to his wife.

Joriaen is the author of the following booklets: (1) Heilsame Leere (n.p., n.d.) followed by a song, "In lijden end noot heb ick, o Godt, Dijn guede ende Genede ervonden" (In grief and distress I have experienced, O God, Thy goodness and mercy). This book was reprinted at Groningen in 1634. (2) Ein edel Duerbaer Testamenth; (3) Belijdinghe, Een Brief tot sijnder Huysfrouwen geschreven; and (4) Ein Suyverlijcke Schone Korte Leeringe. (All of these are found in the [[Amsterdam Mennonite Library (Bibliotheek en Archief van de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente te Amsterdam)|Amsterdam Mennonite Library]]; the last three are extant only in a manuscript of about 1700.)

Bibliography

Catalogus der werken over de Doopsgezinden en hunne geschiedenis aanwezig in de bibliotheek der Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam. Amsterdam: J.H. de Bussy, 1919: 58.

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1917): 141; (1919): 20-22.

Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: I, Nos. 209, 211, 263, 271 f., 276.

Haeghen, Ferdinand van der., Thomas Arnold and R. Vanden Berghe. Bibliographie des Martyrologes Protestants Néerlandais. Receuils. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1890: I, 233-246.

Meihuizen, L. "Overzicht van de Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden te Arnhem." Een eeuw Doopsgezinde Gemeente: herdenkingsgeschrift; uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van het 100-jarig bestaan der Doopsgezinde Gemeente te Arnhem op 7 en 8 Juni 1952. Arnhem, 1952: 19-23.

Mellink, Albert F. De Wederdopers in de noordelijke Nederlanden 1531-1544. Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1954: here and there, throughout, see Index.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1957

Cite This Article

MLA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Joriaen Ketel (1511-1544)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Joriaen_Ketel_(1511-1544)&oldid=130353.

APA style

Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1957). Joriaen Ketel (1511-1544). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Joriaen_Ketel_(1511-1544)&oldid=130353.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 122. All rights reserved.

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