John Durie - Protestant evangelist and unifier
John Durie, grandson of the first Protestant reformer of
the same name (see here)
and son of Robert
Durie, was a persistent advocate of Protestant union. Born in Edinburgh in
1596, he died at Cassel on September 26, 1689 and accomplished a great deal in
between.
His father, Robert, left Scotland because of his opposition to the policy of
King James VI, and John, having completed his studies in Oxford, accepted the
position of minister of the English settlers at Elbing just after Gustavus
Adolphus of Sweden captured the city. There he became acquainted with Swedish
Lutherans and was thus led in 1628 to a careful study of the differences between
the Lutherans and the other Reformed churches with a view to effecting a
reconciliation between them. About that time Elbing was visited by the English
ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, who became interested in Durie's plan. In 1630 Roe
sent Durie to England with an endorsement of his project to the moderates among
the bishops. In Germany the Lutherans and the Reformed were drawing closer
together - a conference in Leipzig in 1631 between German Lutherans and
Calvinists called for the purpose of securing united action to prevent the
execution of the Edict of Restitutio. It seemed a favorable moment to send Durie
to the Continent in the interest of ecclesiastical peace, and he thus began an
activity of almost fifty years an an itinerant advocate of union between the
Reformed and the Lutherans.
Until the end of 1633 John Durie travelled through Germany with letters of
recommendation from Sir Thomas Roe, as well as from Archbishop Abbot of
Canterbury and other bishops and theologians. Gustavus Adolphus received him at
Wurzburg and promised him a letter of recommendation to the Protestant princes
of Germany. In 1633 Durie was recalled to England by the death of Archbishop
Abbot, whose successor, Archbishop Laud, supported him only after he had joined
and been ordained in the Anglican Church . Aided by the recommendation of Laud
and by English ambassadors, Durie again worked in Germany and Holland. In 1638
he was expelled from Sweden and in 1639 he had an unfriendly reception in
Denmark. The following year he returned to Germany, associating chiefly with the
dukes Augustus and George of Brunswick.
The troubles in England called him home. From 1641 to 1644 he was an Anglican
clergyman in The Hague, but in 1645, when Laud fell, he rejoined the
Presbyterians, taking part in the drafting of the Westminster Confession and the
Westminster Catechism, but refusing to vote in favour of the king's death.
During Cromwell's protectorate, Durie was a staunch supporter, joined the
Independents, and was again sent to the Continent by Cromwell in 1654, though
the plan of union was now restricted to the Reformed Churches. He visited
Reformed theologians and statesmen in Switzerland, Germany and Holland, and
returned to England in 1657.
Cromwell's death in 1658 and the restoration of 1660
interrupted all his efforts. With no more hope of governmental support of his
plans for union, he could continue his work only in private and at his own risk.
Despite his advanced age, he left England in 1661 and returned to his task of
uniting the Protestant churches and of reconciling the Reformed and the
Lutherans. He gained the sympathy of the Elector Frederick William of
Brandenburg and of the Landgrave William VI. of Hesse-Cassel, and whose early
death his widow, Hedwig Sophia, who ruled almost alone at Cassel from 1663 to
1683, remained Durie's patroness throughout the remainder of his life.
John Durie is often credited with the famous slogan 'In essentials, unity. In
non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity' but it wasn't his. It was too
early for these principles to meet with any general acceptance, and the majority
of Lutheran theologians rejected Durie's plane for reunion, especially as they
were not clearly defined. This earnest advocate of Christian union died in 1680
without seeing his hopes realized and his life-work ended in apparent failure.
In the dedication of a work on the Apocalypse of John (written in French and
published at Frankfurt, 1874) to his patroness, the Landgravine of Hesse, he
wrote: "The chief fruit of my labours is that I see that the misery of the
Christians in far greater than the wretchedness of the heathen and other
nations; I see the cause of the misery; I see the lack of remedy, and I see the
cause of that lack. For myself, I see that I have no other profit than the
witness of my conscience." However, Bishop Hurst said that "John Durie was the
greatest peacemaker of the seventeenth century."
Among Durie's numerous works were the influential The Reformed School
(1649?) and The Reformed Library Keeper (1660), often listed under the
latinised version of his name, Johannes Dueaeus. A friend of Milton,
Bacon and Samuel Hartlibb, he had beren Librarian to King Charles, and helped
establish what became The Royal Society of London
his daughter married its first Secretary, Henry
Oldenburg. |