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John Durie - Early Protestant Reformer
John Durie, a cousin of
Abbot George Durie,
Bishop Andrew Durie and
Robert Durie of Durie, was born at Mauchline, Ayrshire in 1537
In 1557 he was a monk at Dunfermline Abbey, but being suspected of heresy by his cousin Abbot George Durie, he was sentenced to be confined for life. He is rescued by friends, who interceded with the Earl of Arran. Clearly, this set him against the rest of the (Catholic) family. It was his part in the St Giles Day riots (1 September 1558), to which Knox attributes the death of John's cousin, Bishop Andrew Durie.
In 1563 John Durie was Exhorter in Parton, Galloway,
later exhorter at Colinton and Restalrig (1567-69) then Minister in
Penicuik, near Edinburgh (1570), then Minister in Restalrig again
(1570-72), then minister at St Giles, Edinburgh, the primary church of
Scotland (1574-79). Chalmers History of Dunfermline (vol. i. p. 307, &c.)
records that in 1574 “Mr. John Durie, the learned Monk of Dunfermline,"
but now an eminent preacher of the Protestant faith, “this year began his
active crusade against the bishops”.In 1575
John was imprisoned with Walter Balcanqual in Edinburgh Castle for being
critical of the Scottish court. In 1582 (23 May) John was ordered to leave
Edinburgh (on internal exile) but got leave to return and on 4 September
the people of Edinburgh met him at Leith and marched him up the High
Street singing the 124th psalm, in imitation of Christ's return to
Jerusalem. We have to assume he was not without influence in the city, as
he had married Marion Marjoribanks, daughter of Edinburgh's Lord Provost.
In 1590 John Durie received an annual pension of 140
shillings Scots from the King. John, with Archie Stewart, was the last man
to see John Knox alive (17 November; he died on 24 November).
John Durie seems to have spent out his last years in
Montrose comfortably and happily. He lived to see two of his sons, Joshua
and Robert, follow in his footsteps into the ministry, and to watch Simeon
and three young daughters grow up: Joshua became minister of Inverkeillor;
Robert,
Minister of Anstruther (but with many other adventures and eventually
the founding of the Scots Kirk in Leyden, Holland); Simeon had the
ministry of Arbroath; Christian married George Gledstanes, Archbishop of
St Andrews; Elizabeth married James Melville, minister of Kilrenny; and an
unnamed daughter married John Dykes, also minister of Kilrenny). His
grandson, also
John
Durie, became a Protestant crusader throughout Europe.
John Durie died on 28 February 1600, by all accounts
in great peace of mind. He had also been a good athlete.
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