He officiated a short time at Caen in place of Samuel Bochart, and after declining an offer from William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel became chaplain for eight years to the Duc de la Force.
[9][10] Early in 1660, as the restoration of the House of Stuart seemed likely, Brevint, Durel and Philippe Le Couteur, all from Jersey, were recruited by Sir Robert Moray, on behalf of the Earl of Lauderdale, to solicit letters of support from leading Huguenots.
The Jersey group were then asked to set up a synod at Charenton, by Madame de Turenne, again through Moray: the royalists here followed a plan of George Morley to win over Protestant ministers.
[11] Whatever the outcome for Charenton, Durel and other Jersey clergy did attend shortly a synod at Caen, undermining Huguenot support for English Presbyterians intent on continuing their opposition to the Church of England.
There was an existing French congregation from the Protectorate, and Jean D'Espagne had preached to them in the chapel of Somerset House; which Henrietta Maria claimed back.
Charles II granted use of the chapel, subject to the right to appoint the minister, to be instituted by the Bishop of London, and the liturgical use of the Book of Common Prayer.
[14] Belonging to a "conformist" group of Francophone clergy, who wished to reconcile the Church of England with Huguenot and Reformed practice generally, Durel had as allies Isaac Basire and Samuel Brevint, tolerant of episcopacy, and Peter Du Moulin.
[2][21] The outcome of the Savoy Conference of the first half of 1661, held on the same site as Durel's chapel, led in 1662 to the exodus of non-conformists from the Church of England now called the Great Ejection.
[23][24][25] Bosher's account of the period 1660 to 1662, from the point of view of the returning bishops, argues for continuity with Laudian values: Richard Baxter had a Latin letter of April 1660 from Raymond Gaches (1615–1668), minister at Castres and one of Daniel Brevint's contacts in Moray's campaign.
It was written at the request of Anna Mackenzie, who knew both Baxter and Gaches, and gave assurances from personal observation on Charles II's religious views.
[2] Durel's major work was published in 1669, in vindication of the English church against schismatics, and entitled Sanctae ecclesiae Anglicanae schismaticorum criminationes, London, pp.
Presbyterians retorted by Bonasus Vapulans, or some Castigations given to Mr. John Durell (1672) by Henry Hickman, republished as The Nonconformists Vindicated (1679); and Patronus Bonæ Fidei (1672), attributed to Louis du Moulin.
[2] It contains positive comment on the Unitas Fratrum (Moravians), then under threat in Central Europe, and supported by John Amos Comenius.
[34][35] Durel's Protestant ecumenism was designed for arguments based on the Elizabethan settlement, and against the English Dissenters following the Act of Uniformity 1662.
[36] Needing the Book of Common Prayer in French in a hurry to begin his London ministry, Durel used the 1616 version by Pierre Delaune or de Laune, reprinted in an edition that quickly sold out.
[3] It has been commented that "Durel's temporary edition of 1661 shares with the Maltese Prayer Book of 1845 the distinction of being the rarest of all the foreign-language versions of the English Liturgy.
"[37] The king then asked Durel to translate the work again into French, and ordered the book to be used in the parish churches of Guernsey and Jersey and at the Savoy chapel.
[38] The right of sole printing was granted 6 October 1662, and the Bishop of London's chaplain sanctioned it in 1663, but Durel's work did not appear until 1667, as La Liturgie, c'est à dire Le Formulaire des Prières publiques.