A History of Bohemian LiteratureLützow, Francis, hrabe
History
A History of Bohemian Literature
Lützow, Francis, hrabe
Czech literature -- History and criticism
Komenský spent six years (1642-1648) at Elbing, occupied partly with
the preparation of the school-books he had been commissioned to write,
partly with his favourite "pansophic" studies. His life here, as almost
everywhere, was a troubled one. The agents of the Swedish Government
urged him, in a manner that was not always delicate, to proceed with
the task he had accepted and not to waste his time on works of a
different nature. On the other hand, Hartlib, with the characteristic
inability of a rich man to understand that others have to work for
their living, bitterly reproached Komenský with having abandoned the
sublime works that had been planned in London for the purpose of
writing school-books.
In 1648, on the death of Bishop Justinus, the members of the Unity
assembled at Lissa chose Komenský as one of their bishops. He outlived
all his colleagues, and eventually became the last bishop of the
Bohemian Brethren. On receipt of the news of his election, Komenský
started for Lissa, but not until he had forwarded to Sweden some of
the school-books which he had been commissioned to write. The year
1648 brought a great blow to the members of the Unity and to the
Bohemian Protestants generally. The Treaty of Westphalia was signed
in that year, and no stipulations in favour of the Bohemian exiles
were contained in it. At the risk of prolonging the war, the Austrian
Government maintained its principle that no one who did not profess the
creed of Rome should be allowed to reside in Bohemia or Moravia; to
Silesia slight concessions were granted. All the hopes of the exiles
that they might once be able to return to their beloved Bohemia were
now destroyed for ever. Oxenstiern had to the last defended the cause
of the exiles, and did not deserve the severe reproaches that Komenský
addressed to him.
All hopes of worldly aid having vanished, Komenský relied more than
ever on the intervention of God, and on the visions and prophecies
which announced that such an intervention would shortly take place.
"If there is no aid from man," he wrote to Oxenstiern, "there will
be from God, whose aid is wont to commence when that of men ceases."
Komenský's relations with Kotter and Ponatovská prove sufficiently
that it was not now that mysticism and credulity first obscured his
generally clear brain; but it is evident that Komenský never quite
recovered from the blow inflicted by the Treaty of Westphalia, which
to his generally optimistic nature appeared unexpected. His reliance
even on the prophecies of an impudent liar and humbug such as Drabik
injured his reputation in the learned world, and threw obloquy even on
his masterly, wise, and perfectly sane educational works.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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