INTRODUCTION
I
BIOGRAPHICAL
John Amos Comenius (in Bohemian Komensky) was born on the 28th of March 1592, in the village of Nivnitz,[1] near Ungarisch-Brod in Moravia. His father, Martin Komensky, was a miller in fairly prosperous circumstances and belonged to the religious body known as the Moravian Brethren.[2] This community had been organised in 1547; it carried on, with modifications, the traditions of John Hus, and took a position midway between the Utraquists, his followers, and the Roman Catholics. Though the ideas of the Lutherans had not been without a decided influence, the Moravians differed from that body on certain fundamental points, such as the Doctrine of Works, and, at one period, the celibacy of the clergy. Their chief
- ↑ In the Introduction to De cultura ingeniorum oratio (Op. Did. Omn. iii. 72) he calls himself Hunno Brodensis Moravus; but, as he was known at Herborn as John Amos Niwnizensis, was inscribed in the Matriculation book at Heidelberg as Joannes Amos Nivanus Moravus, and wrote his name “Johannes Amos Nivanus” on the manuscript of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium cælestium that he bought from a widow Christman at Heidelberg, it seems probable that Nivnitz was his birthplace and that he refers to Ungarisch-Brod as the spot where his childhood was spent.
- ↑ By contemporary writers they are also termed the Bohemian Brethren and The Unity.
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