DURIE,
a surname derived from the estate of Durie in Fifeshire, which was
anciently the inheritance of a family of the name of Durie, but for a
long time in possession of the Gibsons, the first of whom, a lord of
session, purchased it in the reign of James the Sixth. The Duries
obtained it in the reign of Alexander the Second. The castle of Rossend,
Burntisland, was built in 1382. Of this family was
Andrew Durie, bishop of Galloway in 1541, and abbot of Melrose as early
as September 24, 1527, who died in September 1558. Calderwood has a
curious entry concerning him. According to him Bishop Durie was very
fond of cards: “He died as he lived,” he says. “The articles of his
belief were, – I referre: decart you. Aha! The four kings, and all made:
the devil goe with it, it is but a varlett! From France we thought to
have gotten a ruby, and yitt he is nothing but a Cohubie!” (It is
explained in a note that these were terms in the card-playing of the
period, including a pun at the expense of M. Rubie). With such faith and
such prayers, departed out of this life that enemy of God and his truth,
who had vowed that so long as they that were prelates lived, that word
called the Gospel should never be preached within this realm. [Calderwood’s
Hist., vol. i. p. 352.] In the time of James the Fifth Robert Durie
of Durie, leaving an only daughter, the king by virtue of the ward,
married her to Sir Alexander Kemp, his favourite, from whose posterity
Sir Alexander Gibson bought the lands of Durie. [See GIBSON, Sir
Alexander, Lord Durie.] The estate subsequently came into the possession
of a family of the name of Christie.
During the
struggle between the church and the court, in the reign of James the
Sixth, there were two ministers of the name of Durie, who then acted a
prominent part, namely John Durie, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, in
1574, and Robert Durie minister of Anstruther (father and son). The former, for his
opposition to the bishops, brought upon him the persecution of the
court, and was the particular object of enmity of the king’s favourite,
the dissolute duke of Lennox. In 1580, with Mr. Walter Balcanquhal, he
was summoned before the secret council, and charged to enter prisoner in
the castle of Edinburgh, for inveighing in a sermon against the French
courtiers. The sentence, however, was soon recalled. He was one of the
ministers who held a conference with the Regent Morton, on the morning
of his execution, June 2, 1581, when the earl made his celebrated
confession. On the 30th May 1582 he was again cited before
the council for having, in a sermon, styled the duke of Lennox and the
earl of Arran, the court favourites, abusers of the king, and charged to
remove out of Edinburgh, which city he accordingly left. That he and the
cause of the church must have been very popular is proved by the warm
reception he experienced on his return to Edinburgh in the following
September. Calderwood says, “As he is coming from Leith to Edinburgh
upon Tuesday the 4th of September, there met him at the
Gallow Green, (that is, about the middle of Leith Walk) two hundred men
of the inhabitants of Edinburgh. Their number still increased till he
came within the Nether Bow. There they began to sing the 124th
Psalm, ‘Now Israel may say,’ &c. They came up the street till they came
to the Great Kirk (St. Giles’) singing thus all the way, to the number
of two thousand. They were much moved themselves, and so were all the
beholders. The duke (of Lennox) was astonished and more affrayed at that
sight than at any thing that ever he had seen before in Scotland, and
rave his beard for anger.” [Calderwood’s Hist. vol. iii. p. 646.]
He was called before the king and council on the 13th
December 1583, for having said that the raid of Ruthven had produced
some good effects, when, after being examined, the council decided that
he had transgressed the act, and, therefore, should be punished at the
king’s will, on which he was banished to Montrose. He was a member of
several of the subsequent General Assemblies which met at Edinburgh, and
was engaged in most of the more important transactions of the
Presbyterian church at that interesting period of her history.
His son, Mr. Robert Durie, minister of Anstruther, was one of the six ministers who were
condemned at Linlithgow in 1606, and banished the realm, for declining
the jurisdiction of the privy council, and holding a General Assembly at
Aberdeen after the king had prohibited its meeting.
DURIE, or DURY, JOHN,
in Latin DURÆUS, a learned divine of the seventeenth century, was
born and educated in Scotland, and was for some time minister of Dalmeny.
He was the son of Robert and grandfather of John, above.
In 1624 he went to Oxford for the sake of the public library, but being
zealously bent on effecting a union between the Lutherans and
Calvinists, he published his plan in 1634, and obtained the approbation
and recommendation fo Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, of the bishops of
Kilmore and Exeter, and others. The same year he appeared at a famous
assembly of the evangelical churches in Germany, at Frankfort, and
afterwards negotiated with the divines of Sweden and Denmark. In 1641 we
find him in London as one of the members of the Assembly of Divines, and
he was also one of the preachers before the long parliament. He
afterwards quitted the Presbyterian party, and joined that of the
Independents. travelling into Germany for the advancement of his scheme,
he obtained from the divines of Utrecht an authentic testimony of their
good intentions, which he annexed to a Latin work, published in 1662 at
Amsterdam, under the title of ‘Johannes Duraei Irenicorum Tractatnum
Prodromus,’ &c. The discouragements he encountered in endeavouring to
serve the church by the plan he had hitherto advocated, induced him to
have recourse to another expedient of a still more impracticable nature,
namely, the attempt to re-unite all sects of Christians by means of ‘A
New Explication of the Apocalypse,’ which he published at Frankfort in
1674. At this time he resided in Hesse, where the princess Hedwig
Sophia, then regent of that country, had assigned him a free house and
well-furnished table, with free postage for his letters. The time of his
death is unknown, but is supposed to have been about 1675. He was the
author of a great many publications, relating principally to his two
grand schemes for bringing about an accommodation and union between the
protestant churches, a list of which is subjoined:
Informatio de
iis, qui in Studio Ecclesiasticae Concordiae inter Evangelicos
prosequendo, agitare instituit Duraeus erga Ecclesiarum Danicarum
Theologos. Bren. 8vo.
Trium in
Ecclesia Anglicana Episcoporum, (sc. Davenanti Martoni, et Halli,)
Sententiae de Pacis rationibus inter Evangelicos usurpandis. J. Duraeo
traditae. 1634. Et cum Sententiis quorundam Ecclesiae in Gallia pastorum
et Syllabus quorundam Scriptorum de Ecclesiastica Reconciliatione. Amst.
1636, 8vo. London, 1638, 8vo.
Hypomnemata
de Studio pacis Ecclesiasticae. Amst. 1636, 4to.
The Copy of a
Petition, as it was tendered by Mr. Dury, to Gustavus, late King of
Sweden when he was at Elbing, in Prussia, in the year 1628. Lond. 1641,
4to.
A Discourse
concerning Peace Ecclesiastical. Camb. In Latin. Lond. 1641, 4to.
A motion
tending to the Public Good of this Age and Posterity, or the Copies of
certain Letters written by him to a worthy Knight, at his ease. Lond.
1642, 4to.
Petition to
the House of Commons, for the Preservation of True Religion. Lond. 1642,
4to.
Petition to
the House of Commons; whereunto are added, certain Considerations,
showing the necessity of a Correspondence in Spiritual Matters, between
Protestant Churches. Lond. 1642.
Copy of a
Letter to Lord Forbes in Sweden. London, 1643, 4to.
Epistolary
Discourse to Thomas Godwyn, Nye, and Hartlib, concerning Independency.
Lond. 1664, 4to.
Discourse
against Toleration.
Letters to
Lady Ranaloe. 1645, 4to.
Israel’s Call
to march out of Babylon into Jerusalem opened, in a Sermon. Lond. 1646,
4to.
Of Presbytery
and Independency, &c. 1646, 4to.
Model of
Church Government, or the Grounds of the Spiritual Frame and Government
of the House of God. Lond. 1647.
The
Peacemaker; or the Reconciliation to be procured between the Reformed
Churches. Lond. 1648, 4to.
The Reformed
Library-keeper, and Bibliotheca Augusta Sereniss. Princ. de Augusti
Ducis Brunovicensis et Lunenburgi; et Wolfenbuttle. Lond. 1648, 4to.
Lond. 1650, 12mo.
An Epistolary
Discourse to Mr. Thomas Thorowgood, concerning his conjecture, that the
Americans are descended from the Israelites, &c. 1649, 4to.
A Reasonable
Discourse, concerning the Reformation of Religion and Learning. Lond.
1649, 4to.
Considerations
concerning the Present Engagement. Lond. 1649, 4to. 1650.
Seasonable
Discourse for Reformation. 1649, 4to.
The Reformed
School, published by Hartlib. 1650, 12mo. With a Supplement, 1651.
Impartial
Consideration of, and Answer to, the Humble Proposals of sundry Divines
concerning the Engagement; and Objections against taking the Engagement
answered. Lond. 1650, in answer to an antagonist.
Just
Reproposals to Humble Proposals. Lond. 1650, 4to.
Disengaged
Survey of the Engagement. Lond. 1650, 4to.
Two Treatises
concerning the Matter of Engagement. Lond. 1650, 4to.
A Case of
Conscience, concerning Ministers meddling with State Matters, in or out
of their Sermons, resolved more satisfactorily than heretofore. Lond.
1650, 4to.
The Main
Scruple against the Engagement removed. Lond. 1651.
Conscience
Eased. 1651, 4to.
Earnest Plea
for Gospel Communion. 1654.
Summary
Platform of Divinity. 1654.
A Case of
Conscience, whether it be lawful to admit Jews into a Commonwealth,
resolved Lond. 1656, 4to.
The Plain Way
of Peace and Unity in Matters of Religion. Lond. 1660, 8vo.
Irenicorum
Tractatuum prodromus, in quo praeliminares continentur tractatus de. 1.
Pacis Ecclesiae remoris e medio tollendis. 2. concordiae Evangelicae
fundamentis sufficienter jactis. 3. Reconciliationis religiosae
procurandae argumentis. 4. Methodo investigatorio ad controversias omnes
sine contradicendi studio, et praejudicio, pacifice decidendas. Amst.
1662, 8vo.
Consultationum
Irenicarum prodiorthasis. Chest. 1664, 12mo.
A New
Explication of the Apocalypse. In French. Franc. 1674.
Electric Scotland Note:
The Minister at Dalmeny,
was a different John Durie (1623-1656), son of Simeon and
therefore also a grandson of John and
cousin to “DURÆUS”..
