Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/268

  

DURIE, JOHN (1537–1600), presbyterian minister, was born at Mauchline in Ayrshire in 1537, and educated at Ayr. He became one of the monks of Dunfermline, but being suspected of heresy was ordered to be shut up till death. At the time of the Reformation, through the influence of the Earl of Arran, he made his escape, and became an exhorter between 1563 and 1567, and then a minister, at Leith or Restalrig. He was extremely devoted to John Knox, and a most ardent supporter of his views. Becoming a minister of Edinburgh about 1573, he was conspicuous in the conflicts between the church and the king, and in many ways suffered for his outspokenness. In 1575 he expressed himself strongly in the general assembly against prelacy, and was supported by Andrew Melville. For inveighing against the court Durie and (1548–1616) [q. v.] were imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh until they produced in writing the passage objected to. For reflecting on the Duke of Lennox and others in a sermon preached 23 May 1582, he was called before the privy council and ordered to leave Edinburgh. Soon, however, he got leave to return, and on his arrival at Leith on 4 Sept. the people of Edinburgh met him at the Gallow Green and marched with him up to Edinburgh and along the High Street singing the 124th psalm in four parts, showing not only their attachment to their minister but their skill in psalmody. In November, however, he was again banished from Edinburgh, but allowed to exercise his ministry at Montrose. He was a member of the assembly in 1586, and on 7 Aug. 1590 was granted by the king a pension of 140l., in respect of ‘the greit chargis and expenses maid by him mony zeirs [years] in avancing the publict effayres of the kirk and the greit houshold and famelie of barnis quhairwith he is burdynit.’ James Melville, who was his son-in-law, says of him that though he had not much learning, he was a man of singular force of character, mighty in word and deed. Preaching and athletics went together, for ‘the gown was no sooner off and the Bible out of hand in the kirk, when on went the corselet and up fangit [snatched up] was the hagbut, and to the fields.’ But he speaks of him as a man of singular devoutness, who prayed and communed with God in so remarkable a manner that he counted it one of the privileges of his life that he had come in contact with him. His death took place on the last night of February 1600, amid great serenity of mind. In many ways he bore a great resemblance to his master, John Knox. Andrew Melville composed no fewer than eight Latin epitaphs in his honour, chiefly celebrating the courage with which he resisted the court.

(‘Celurca’ is the Latin for Montrose.)

Durie married Marion, daughter of Sir John Majoribanks, provost of Edinburgh, and had her husband's pension continued to her by act of parliament 11 July 1606. He had six children—three sons (Joshua, [q. v.], and Simon), all in the presbyterian ministry, and three daughters.



DURIE, JOHN (1596–1680), protestant divine, fourth son of [q. v.], was born at Edinburgh in 1596. He was educated for the ministry at Sedan under his cousin Andrew Melville, and at Leyden, where his father had settled. In 1624 he came to Oxford. In 1628 he was minister to the English Company of Merchants at Elbing, West Prussia, then in the hands of Gustavus Adolphus. In 1630, the factory failing, he returned to England on the advice of the English ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, who had met him at Elbing, and who favoured his plan of negotiation with the reformed and Lutheran churches. He obtained some support from Archbishop Abbot, and Bishops Bedell and Hall. With letters from them he visited Gustavus Adolphus. Gustavus showed sympathy, and promised him letters to the protestant princes of Germany. He attended the courts and churches, the state assemblies and synods of Hesse, Hanau, the Wetterau, and Leipzig in 1631, and of Heilbronn (where an evangelical league was formed), Frankfort, and Holland in 1632. Gustavus fell at Lutzen, and Oxenstiern refused ‘formal’ sanction to Durie's scheme for a general assembly of the evangelical churches.

At the end of 1633, being heavily in debt (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1633–4), he returned to England, and in 1634 was ordained priest with a license of non-residence.