He achieved notoriety for his presbyterian principles which brought him into conflict with James VI who wished to impose an episcopalian system.
He attended the General Assembly of Aberdeen in 1605 which had been prorogued by royal authority and was one of six ministers who were imprisoned and later exiled as a result.
In 1601, Durie visited the Orkney Islands and Zetland, and gave an account of his journey to the General Assembly of 1602.
[3] In 1605, Durie attended as a member the General Assembly of Aberdeen, which the king James VI had prohibited, but which ministers repudiating his jurisdiction had insisted on holding.
Durie, after landing at Bordeaux, went to Holland, where he was admitted first minister of the Scottish church at Leyden, where he died in September 1616.