Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, took an interest in this "treaty of the ecclesiastical peace," as Sir Thomas Roe termed it; and, in a letter to that illustrious lady, he spoke of Durie as an excellent man, whom God had "raised up to be an instrument of the greatest treaty of the age." Roe felt persuaded he should see the purpose accomplished, if, as he remarks, "it fall not by us who should most affect both the benefit and honour." Whilst Roe was writing to the Queen, Durie was writing to Roe, full of anxiety as to whether he could start equipped with such authority as he sought from princes and prelates, or "proceed in a private way;" also as to the manner in which the Hollanders, "the stiffest of all," were likely to behave; and further as to the mode in which he should proceed with the Churches of the Low Countries, because the business trenched upon their domestic controversies. The French and Swiss, he believed, were well disposed, and if he himself could but subsist in ever so mean a way, but for a year or two, his heart told him that the seed which he was sowing would spring up, although no sunshine should fall, nor any shower from England should rain upon it.[540]
Episcopal patronage and the diplomacy of statesmen effected nothing for this sanguine Apostle of union. He was left single-handed to plead the cause, as best he could, at the Evangelical Congress of Frankfort, in the year 1634, having been allowed by Sir Robert Anstruther to travel thither with him in his coach—Durie's man being "shifted sometimes in the baggage waggons, and sometimes afoot, and sometimes in the second coach." As lodgings were dear during the Diet, the good man's chamber cost him nine shillings a week, and he had "to put himself in some fashion for clothes."[541]
In the same year, Durie published his "Aliquot Theologorum Galliæ, et trium ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Episcoporum, sententia de pacis rationibus inter Evangelicos usurpandis." Davenant, Morton, and Hale, were the three Bishops referred to in the book. Other Latin treatises, on the same absorbing theme, from the same pen, followed, but without effect. The Churches of Transylvania, indeed, sent their advice and counsel; and the Divines of Sweden and Denmark listened to what the Scotchman had to say; but after all this correspondence, and after a consultation with Universities to boot, this indefatigable minister, was as far from realizing his dreams of union when Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, as when he waited at the doors of Lambeth Palace upon Archbishop Laud.
Protestant Alliance.
A sweeping method of promoting the Protestant Alliance was recommended by a correspondent of John Milton—which there can be no doubt would have been found quite as inoperative for the accomplishment of the end in view as the official position and influence at which it ill-naturedly sneers. "Mr. Durie," said the writer, "has bestowed about thirty years' time in travel, conference, and writings, to reconcile Calvinists and Lutherans, and that with little or no success. But the shortest way were—take away ecclesiastical dignities, honours, and preferments on both sides, and all would soon be hushed; the ecclesiastics would be quiet, and then the people would come forth into truth and liberty."[542]
Protestant Alliance.
Civil establishments of Christianity have doubtless greatly complicated such difficulties as exist in the way both of international and domestic religious union; but the deepest and most lasting source of difficulty is to be found lower down than any ecclesiastical organizations, even in human nature itself, in its blended good and evil—on the one hand, in its mistaken but honest conscientiousness, and on the other, in its selfishness, prejudice, and pride. When much ecclesiastical wealth had been confiscated, and all ecclesiastical dignities had disappeared in England, the great Protestant Alliance, floating before Durie's imagination, approached no nearer its realization than it had done before. Real Christian union can never be reached through any diplomacy of that kind, nor even through persistent endeavours such as those of the zealous individual whom we have described. It must come as the unforced result amongst sects and parties of a divine temper, such as we have never yet seen, and which we find it not in human power to command. We can but intercede that God would inspire it through His own good Spirit.
Cromwell was, perhaps, as desirous of active fellowship between Protestant Churches as was Durie; and the latter, with such a powerful person to countenance his mission, might well imagine himself within sight of the port towards which he had been steering for so many years. Thurloe, Secretary of State, and Dr. John Pell, who was the Protector's minister abroad, entered largely into the plans of this enthusiastic individual, the latter of the two being engaged in performing important missions to foreign Protestants, especially the Swiss.[543]
After repeated discouragements the ecclesiastical diplomatist returned to England, and found, to his great joy, the Protector most gracious, and the Parliament most friendly. He forwarded to Pell a resolution of the House, that his Highness "would be pleased to encourage Christian endeavours for assisting the Protestant Churches abroad"—a few kind words which Durie fondly hoped would "open a door for action." His hands might appear to be strengthened by this vote; yet he still went on spending his strength for naught. It is needless to follow him any further through his fruitless negotiations, except to state, that without "bating one jot of heart or hope," he still pressed onward; and when Cromwell's death, and the Restoration of Charles had left him without any aid from the English Government, this man of unquenchable ardour published another book on his favourite theme. Fourteen more years of Sisyphus-like labour did, indeed, dishearten him in the attempt to draw together the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches, only however, to inspire him with the resolve to attempt union upon a still larger scale; and at the same time he sought, amidst his disappointments, consolation in the study of the Apocalypse, a part of Scripture which, in his view, satisfactorily explained his want of success, its cause and its remedy. This singular person, so generous in purpose, and so persistent in toil, ended his days in Germany.[544]
Persecution of the Vaudios.