's
The Slav Epic cycle No.16: The Last days of Jan Amos Komenský in
Naarden: A Flicker of Hope (1918) , possibly a depiction of Comenius John Amos Comenius was born in 1592 in the
Margraviate of Moravia in the
Bohemian Crown. His exact birthplace is uncertain and possibilities include
Uherský Brod (as on his gravestone in
Naarden),
Nivnice, and
Komňa (the village from which he took his surname, which means "man from Komňa"), all these localities being situated in the
Uherské Hradiště District of today's
Czech Republic. John was the youngest child and only son of Martin Komenský (died ca. 1602–1604) and his wife Anna Chmelová. His grandfather, whose name was Jan (János) Szeges, was of
Hungarian origin. He began to use the surname Komenský after leaving Komňa to live in Uherský Brod. Martin and Anna Komenský belonged to the Bohemian Brethren, a pre-Reformation Protestant denomination, and Comenius later became one of its leaders. His parents and two of his four sisters died in 1604 and John, still a child, went to live with his aunt in
Strážnice. Owing to his impoverished circumstances he was unable to begin his formal education until his later teens. In 1616 he was ordained into the ministry of the Bohemian Brethren and four years later became pastor and rector at
Fulnek, one of the denomination's most flourishing churches. Throughout his life this pastoral activity was his most immediate concern. In consequence of the
religious wars, in 1621 he lost all his property, including his writings. In 1627 he led the Brethren into exile when the
Habsburg Counter-Reformation persecuted the
Protestants in Bohemia. In 1628 he corresponded with
Johann Valentin Andreae. He produced the book
Janua linguarum reserata, or
The Gate of Languages Unlocked, which brought him to prominence. However, as the Unity became an important target of the
Counter Reformation politics, he was forced into exile even as his fame grew across Europe. Comenius took refuge in
Leszno (Lissa) in Poland, where he was head of the
gymnasium school and was furthermore given charge of the Bohemian and Moravian churches. In 1638 Comenius responded to a request by the government of Sweden and traveled there to draw up a scheme for the management of that country's schools. In 1641, Comenius responded to a request from the English
Long Parliament and joined a commission there established to reform the system of public education. The
English Civil War interfered with the latter project. to work with Queen
Christina (reigned 1632–1654) and the chancellor
Axel Oxenstierna (in office 1612–1654) at the task of reorganizing the Swedish schools. The same year he then moved to
Elbląg (Elbing) in Poland and in 1648 to England, this time with the assistance of Samuel Hartlib, who came originally from Elbląg. In 1650
Zsuzsanna Lorántffy, widow of
George I Rákóczi Prince of
Transylvania invited Comenius to
Sárospatak. There he remained as a professor at the first Hungarian Protestant College until 1654, writing some of his most important works in this period. Comenius subsequently returned to Leszno. During the
Deluge in 1655, he declared his support for the Protestant Swedish side, prompting Polish Catholic partisans in 1656 to burn his house,
his manuscripts, and the school's printing press. The manuscript of
Pansophia was destroyed in the fire. From Leszno he fled to take refuge in
Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He lived in the
Huis met de Hoofden and taught his grandson
Johann Theodor Jablonski as well as the young patricians
Pieter de Graeff and
Nicolaas Witsen. In 1659, Comenius produced a new edition of the 1618 Bohemian Brethren hymnal,
Kancionál, to jest kniha žalmů a písní duchovních containing 606 texts and 406 melodies. In addition to addressing the psalms and hymns, his revision greatly expanded the number of hymns and added a new introduction. This edition was reissued several times into the nineteenth century. His texts in Czech were notable poetic compositions, but he used tunes from other sources. He also edited the German hymnal
Kirchen-, Haus- und Hertzens-Musica (Amsterdam, 1661), which had been published under the title
Kirchengesänge since 1566. In other writings, Comenius addresses both instrumental and vocal music in many places, although he dedicated no treatise to the topic. Sometimes he follows the medieval mathematical conception of music, but in other places he links music with grammar, rhetoric, and politics. Musical practice, both instrumental and vocal, played an important role in his system of education. It was in Amsterdam that Comenius would die, in 1670. For unknown reasons he was buried in
Naarden, where visitors can see his grave in the mausoleum, located in the Kloosterstraat, devoted to him. Next to the mausoleum is the Comenius Museum. ==Educational influence==