In 1621 Fulneck was sacked by the Spaniards, and the conquering force gave itself up to destruction that baffles description. Houses were pillaged, including the residence of Comenius, and he lost all his property, including his library and the manuscripts of several educational treatises, on the composition of which he had spent years of labor.
From this time on, the Moravian Brethren were exposed to the most relentless persecutions. Many were executed, and others took refuge in caves in the wilderness or on the secluded estates of wealthy sympathizers. For three years Comenius found an asylum on the estate of Karl von Zerotin. The death of his wife and children (for he had married while at Fulneck) added to the afflictions of his exile; but he sought relief from his sorrow in literary work—the composition of a metrical translation of the Psalms, an allegorical description of life, and the construction of a highly meritorious map of Moravia.
The persecution of the enemies rendered concealment no longer possible; and, although Karl von Zerotin was held in high regard by Ferdinand II, in 1624 the imperial mandate was issued which banished the evangelical clergy from the country. For a time Comenius and several of his brethren secreted themselves from their merciless pursuers on the Bohemian mountains, in the citadel of Baron Sadowsky, near Slaupna. But the edict of 1627 put an end to further protection of the Moravian clergy by the nobles; and in January, 1628, Comenius and many of his compatriots, including his late protector, Baron Sadowsky, set out for Poland. On the mountain frontier which separates Moravia from Silesia, one gets an excellent view of Fulneck and the surrounding country. Here the band of exiles knelt and Comenius offered up an impassioned prayer for his beloved Moravia and Bohemia. This was his last sad look on his devoted country. He never afterward beheld the land of his fathers, but for more than half a century he lived an exile in foreign regions. Well might he, in his old age, exclaim: “My whole life was merely the visit of a guest; I had no fatherland.”
CHAPTER IV
CAREER AS AN EDUCATIONAL REFORMER: 1628–1656
Flight to Poland—Appointed director of the gymnasium at Lissa—Reforms introduced—Literary projects—Need of a patron—Call to England—Friendship with Hartlib—Interest of the English Parliament—Discontent with existing educational institutions—Lewis de Geer, his Dutch patron—Call to Sweden—Interview with Oxenstiern—Located at Elbing—Reform of the Swedish schools—Return to Poland—Consecration as senior bishop—Consequences of the treaty of Westphalia—Ecclesiastical ministrations—Call to Hungary—Reform of the schools at Saros-Patak—Plan of a pansophic school—Return to Lissa—The city burned—Flight of Comenius from Poland.
After the flight from Bohemia, Comenius and his compatriots found a refuge at Lissa, Poland, with Count Raphael, a powerful prince of the faith of the Moravian Brethren, to whose estate hundreds of persecuted Bohemians had already fled. Twelve years were passed in Lissa, during which time Comenius was actively engaged in educational reform. Besides the composition of three of his most important books—the Janua, in 1631, the Great didactic, probably in 1632, and the School of infancy, in 1633—he engaged actively in the work of teaching. A secondary school of acknowledged repute had been maintained in Lissa by the Moravian Brethren since 1555, and here Comenius found the opportunity of putting into practice some of his educational theories. It is apparent, however, from his writings, that he read widely before undertaking the reorganization of the gymnasium at Lissa, and that he sought aid from all the writers on education, both ancient and modern. His correspondents at this period included such distinguished names as Lubin, Andreæ, Ritter, Vogel, Ratke, Frey, Mencel, Hartlib, Evenius, Johnstone, and Mochinger. To these distinguished contemporaries he expresses his dissatisfaction with current educational practices, and seeks guidance in the reform movement he has instituted in Poland.
“When our people attend school for the sake of the learned languages, what do they bring with them on returning home?” he asks. “What beyond that which they obtain there—the tinkling of human eloquence, the love of disputation, and the knowledge that puffeth up instead of the charity that buildeth up. Moreover, some acquire corrupt morals; some, a desire to make themselves agreeable by a show of external civility; some, habits of intemperance and a distaste or hatred of firm discipline. And yet these very men were trained for the lights of the Church and the pillars of the State. O that, instead of such an education, we had retained the simplicity of childhood. O that we might bring back the ancient custom of the Spartans, who, more than all the other Greeks, were intent upon the rational education of their youth.”
A noteworthy feature of his work as a reformer at Lissa consisted in a careful grading of the schools, and the formulation of a course of study for the successive grades. The guiding principle in this schematization of school work was that each grade should pave the way for the one next higher,—the elements of all subjects of study being comparatively simple, these elements should be gradually introduced and elaborated from grade to grade. These reforms were not only far-reaching, they were revolutionary; and they made possible the modern graded school.