Uherský Brod, Komensky spent some time at the school of the Unity at Prerov (Prerau), also in Moravia, and then proceeded to the Calvinist University at Herborn, in Nassau. That university, founded in the sixteenth century by Henry, Count of Nassau, was then one of the strongholds of the Calvinist creed. The brethren often sent their promising pupils who were to become clergymen to that university, rather to the then utrafuist[1] University of Prague. It is certain that Komensky's views, particularly early in life, show traces of his Calvinistic training. From Herborn, Komensky proceeded to Heidelberg, then the residence of Frederick of the Palatinate, destined shortly afterwards to become the "winterking" of Bohemia. Though we have little positive information on the matter, he seems to have travelled extensively at this period, to have visited the Netherlands and Amsterdam, which was to be the refuge of his last years.
Komensky returned to his own country in 1614, and was appointed a minister of his Church in 1616, with residence in the small town of Fulneck, in Moravia. He married there, and spent a few peaceful years, the happiest of his long life.
But even a pious preacher and teacher could not
- ↑ I.e., receiving Communion in both kinds (subutraque). This was the official designation of all those not Romanists who, up to the battle of the White Mountain, enjoyed religious freedom in Bohemia. The old utrafuist teachings, such as then prevailed at the University of Prague, differed but little, except on this one point, from the teaching of Rome; and the more advanced reformers therefore preferred to send their youths to foreign universities.
