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INTRODUCTION

long remain untouched by the vicissitudes of the Thirty Years' War, and the unspeakable horrors that befell Bohemia and Moravia after the battle of the White Mountain in 1620. In the following year, Spanish troops, that came as allies of Ferdinand II., German Emperor and Archduke of Austria, attacked the small town of Fulneck. The town was captured without resistance. Here, as almost everywhere at that time, the inhabitants immediately submitted to the victorious Romanists. Komensky's house was pillaged and burnt down, and—to him almost a greater loss—his library and MSS. also perished in the flames. Komensky fled to Bohemia with his wife and children, and sought refuge with Charles, Lord of Zerotin, at Brandeis on the Orlice.[1] I have already mentioned the name of Charles of Zerotin. During the war that had just ended he had, though a fervent Bohemian patriot and member of the Unity, not espoused the cause of Frederick of the Palatinate, but had remained faithful to the House of Habsburg. It was therefore natural that the victors showed him a certain amount of consideration. His vast estates were not confiscated by the Austrian Government, and he was allowed to remain in the dominions of the House of Habsburg. He was even tacitly, though by no means officially, granted yet further privileges; he was allowed to afford at least temporary shelter to some of the clergymen of his Church, whom one of the

  1. In German, "Adler."