7. Jahrgang MBS TEXTE 148 2010 George M. Ella John Durie (1596–1680): Defragmenter of the Reformation BUCER IN S T E M R A I N M A R 2 1 : E P 4 H ReformedReformiertes Forum Forum TableInhaltsverzeichnis of Contents Part One: Europe and Britain Working Together ..................... 3 Part Two: Ideas of Union Grow ................................................ 8 Part Three: Working for Cromwell ......................................... 14 Annotation ............................................................................. 20 The Author ............................................................................. 21 Impressum ............................................................................. 22 1. Aufl. 2010 John Durie (1596–1680): Defragmenter of the Reformation John Durie (1596–1680): Defragmenter of the Reformation George M. Ella Part One: Europe and is the modern man of God today who Britain Working Together is world-renowned as a great preacher, pastor, diplomat, educator, scientist, lin- Who on earth is John Durie? guist, translator, man of letters, ambas- Most computer users have experi- sador, library reformer, mediator and enced hard disks full of jumbled, frag- politician? Who today produces best- mented files which block spaces causing sellers on a monthly basis, writing in memory and retrieval problems. What half a dozen different languages? In all a relief it is to switch on a defragmenter these fields John Durie has been called and have everything made ship-shape ‘great’ or ‘the greatest’, yet he is forgot- again. The Reformation in mid-seven- ten by his mother country whom he teenth century Britain had reached such served so long and well. This is perhaps a fragmentation and a defragmenter was because it is beyond human imagination called for. The man for the job was cer- that such a man could have existed and tainly John Durie who was possibly the his ‘type’ today is not called for. Trevor- most well-known man in Europe at the Roper, speaking of the great deeds of time and one whom countless crowned Durie and his colleagues in his Crisis heads, church leaders, politicians, gen- of the Seventeenth Century says ‘the need erals, educators, social reformers and produced the men’. Does it? We are in humble men and women loved and such a ten-fold need today but where respected. If anybody, he was the one are the men? Yet, Durie’s idea of a pan- to knit together again what denomina- European Reformed Church based on tionalism, legalism, rationalism, politi- a reformation of church life and edu- cal strife, opportunism and personal cation was supported by the majority ambition had rent asunder. of Reformers and Puritans from Eliza- “Who on earth is John Durie?” you beth’s days to post-Restitution times. might well say; “Never heard of him!”. Durie was supported by Charles I This common ignorance is one of and Oliver Cromwell, besides most of the tragedies of our present confused the crowned heads of Europe and the churches. Britain has forgotten another leaders of the various republics and of her greatest Christian heroes. Where Swiss cantons. Reformed Bishops and Archbishops Hall, Davenant, Morton, REFORMIERTES FORUM 3 George M. Ella Bedell, Abbott and Ussher backed and Melville as pastor of St. Giles, Edin- Durie and even Laud promoted Durie’s burgh. He was banished twice by the plan of Protestant unity in Europe with King but ended his life on a royal pen- a surprising degree of enthusiasm as his sion. John’s father, Robert Durie was an letters show. Later, the Commonwealth ex-monk and Presbyterian minister in parliaments and the Westminster Anstruther, Fife, who had evangelised Assembly fully supported Durie’s enter- Lewis, the Orkneys and the Shetland prise. Indeed, John Durie was made a Islands. After a short prison sentence member of the Westminster Assembly and growing differences with James VI and Britain’s ambassador-at-large to which led him to extreme measures, he Europe chiefly because of his lead in was found guilty of treason and exiled promoting a pan-European Protestant in 1606. He and his young family found union and his great proficiency as a lin- a new home in Leyden, Holland. There guist. Cromwell is famed for his inter- John was educated in French, Dutch, national diplomacy but without Durie’s German, and Latin and matriculated in help, Cromwell would never have been theology aged 15 at Leyden University taken seriously in Europe for a number before doing further studies in Sedan of reasons. Indeed, when Charles’ head under his cousin Andrew Melville. fell, most of the Continental kingdoms Other sources say that Durie finished and dukedoms broke with England. his studies at Oxford because of the It was largely due to Durie’s frequent great libraries there. It is said that when diplomatic tours of the Continent that Durie travelled anywhere in Europe, relations bettered. Thus when James he would adopt the clothing and lan- Reid in his excellent Memoirs of the guages of the various countries and Westminster Divines, introduces Durie always be taken for a native. He even as: ‘A Scotchman, and learned Divine, adapted his own name to suit the local who was eminently distinguished by language being known on the Conti- his indefatigable industry to promote nent as Johannes Duraeus and at least union among Christians, and a mem- five other variants. ber of the Assembly of Divines at West- Now twenty-five years of age, Durie minster’, he does not reveal a fraction of became a private teacher for two Durie’s value to Britain. years in France, coaching the son of Barthelemy Panhausen, a Huguenot merchant. Then Durie was called to An exile Scotsman pastor the Belgic church in Cologne becomes a leader in Europe from 1624–1626 where he preached in John Durie was born in Edinburgh in French, Dutch and Latin. Durie’s great 1596 of a long line of ministers, diplo- talents as an internationalist reached mats, lairds and rebels. His grandfather Charles I’s ears and he was asked to of the same name worked with Knox accompany Ambassador Extraordinary, 4 MBS TEXTE 148 John Durie (1596–1680): Defragmenter of the Reformation Lord James Spence on his Swedish jour- A small Gnesio-Lutheran faction cam- ney to make Gustav II Adolf a knight paigned for a full acceptance of the of the Order of the Garter. Durie was Lutheran formulas but there was a accepted gladly by the Swedish Court stronger Reformed group amongst the and leading ministers and gained life- Swedish middle-class, a large group of long friends. Reformed Waldensians immigrants and King Gustav decided to make Elbing a number of Greek Orthodox on the in West Prussia the capital of his Ger- borders of Sweden’s Baltic Empire, each man-Polish territories and Durie was with their own views of the Lord’s Sup- called in 1624 or 1625 to pastor the per, so no one view prevailed. A recent multi-national church there, originally chat this author had with Archbishop founded by Scottish and English mer- Anders Weyryd concerning Cromwell’s chants. Durie found himself minister- efforts for church union with Sweden ing in several languages again, now confirmed that, even today, the State including Lithuanian. Because of the Church in Sweden allows local churches different church backgrounds involved, freedom in expressing faith rather than he pastored ‘ecumenically’ but based enforces nation-wide strict rules of on the sound doctrines of the Ref- faith and order. It must be added that ormation. Having qualms about not not even the German Lutherans stood being ordained, he corresponded with unanimously behind the Book of Con- Bishop Joseph Hall of Dortian fame on cord which became a Book of Discord the subject. At this time Sweden had for many.2 gone through a real indigenous Ref- Gustav Adolf also set up his High ormation so they did not feel obliged Court at Elbing and the new senior to accept any other major European judge and Privy Councillor, Kaspar Reformed Creeds whether Lutheran, Godemann, who had recommended Reformed or Anglican. They did, how- Durie as pastor to the King, was a ever, instruct their theological students fervent Reformed Unionist. Gustav in Melanchthon’s Confessio Augustana called English statesman and Reformed Variata of 1540. This version toned Christian Thomas Roe as ambassador down consubstantiation so much that it to mediate in the Swedish-German- was accepted by both Calvin and Beza, Polish peace treaties. Roe soon told leaving the Frenchmen less Reformed Durie that he, too, desired a stronger than the Church of England Reformers pan-European church and political who followed Bullinger’s interpretation union based on a common Reformed of the Lord’s Supper. The Book of Con- stand against Rome. Roe felt this union cord was not even on the curriculum. could stretch as far as Turkey as he had So, Michael Dewar is incorrect in say- been successful in gaining an ear for ing that the Swedes held ‘tenaciously Reformed doctrine during his ambas- to the doctrine of Consubstantiation’.1 sadorship there. A further resident of REFORMIERTES FORUM 5 George M. Ella Elbing, Samuel Hartlib, who was to Sweden and Germany and Archbishop help reform England’s schools and agri- Abbot was immediately captivated by culture under Cromwell, also shared Durie’s charm, faith and great sincer- Durie’s views. Some time later, Durie’s ity. Both authorised Durie to represent and Hartlib’s friend and co-worker Britain as ambassador to Europe in the John Amos Comenius, the internati- interest of ecumenical peace. He was onally famous Reformed theologian equipped with a limited budget, diplo- and educator, settled in Elbing, so for matic passports and recommendations many years the city became the centre from leading politicians and clergy. of international political, religious and On the Scottish side, ties with educational reform.