BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE OF COMENIUS: 1592–1628
Ancestry of Comenius—Attends the village school
at Strasnitz—Studies Latin in the gymnasium at
Prerau—Character of the Latin schools of his
day—Enters the college at Herborn—Studies theology
and philosophy—Inspired by the teachings of
Alsted—Makes the acquaintance of the writings of
Ratke—Continues his studies at Heidelberg—Begins
his career as a teacher at Prerau—Ordained as
a clergyman—Installed as pastor and school
superintendent at Fulneck—Persecution.
Many of the facts concerning the early life of John Amos Comenius are
shrouded in obscurity. It is certain, however, that he was born in the
village of Nivnitz in Moravia (now a province of Austria) on the 28th
day of March, in the year 1592. Nivnitz then, as now, was little more
than a country market town and settled quite largely by members of
the religious organization known as Moravian Brethren. The father and
mother of Comenius, Martin and Anna Komensky, were influential members
of the brotherhood, who had settled here some years previous with other
followers of John Hus, the Bohemian reformer and martyr. The tradition
that Martin Komensky was a miller by trade does not seem to be well
authenticated. Besides John Amos, three daughters were born to Martin
and Anna Komensky,—Ludmilla, Susanna, and Margaret,—but the three girls
died in early childhood.
Martin Komensky died in 1604,[14] and his wife survived him less than
a year. Left an orphan at the early age of twelve years, Comenius was
intrusted to the care and training of an improvident aunt, who soon
made way with his inheritance. In this, as in the neglect of his school
training, the incompetence of the foster parent is clearly apparent.
For something more than four years the lad attended the village school
at Strasnitz. But, as he himself tells us, the curriculum was narrow
and the teaching poor. While here Comenius formed the acquaintance of
a schoolfellow named Nicholas Drabik, through whose prophetic visions
he was so ignominiously led astray in his later life, and so bitterly
reproached by his contemporaries. “It was a strange irony of fate,”
remarks Mr. Keatinge, “that a wanderer like Comenius, when only eleven
years old and in his native land, should commence the intimacy that
was to embitter his old age in Amsterdam.” But, as Benham notes, the
fact that the matter was so soon forgotten shows that the character of
Comenius received no indelible stain by the unfortunate alliance, even
though he excited the ridicule and disrespect, and even the contempt,
of his contemporaries.
At the advanced age of sixteen years, he was initiated into the
mysteries of classical learning in the Latin school at Prerau, where he
studied for two years. A fairly accurate notion of his studies during
this period may be gained from a glance at the course of study in a
contemporary Latin school herewith reproduced in translation from the
Bohemian.[15] The schedule of hours in the second grade of this school
was as follows: In the morning, during the first hour, repetition of
grammar lesson from memory and explanation of the next day’s grammar
lesson. During the second hour, the dialogues of Castalio; and the
third hour, the recitation of Castalio’s dialogues in the Bohemian, and
the grammatical analysis of the words and conversation of the lesson.
In the afternoon, during the first hour, writing and singing; the
second hour, explanation of the writings of Cicero according to Sturm’s
edition, and grammatical analysis; and the third hour, exercises in
words and sayings. This was the programme for Mondays, Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Saturdays. On Wednesdays there was but one lesson in
the morning and one in the afternoon. In the morning the catechism was
recited; in addition, imitative exercises for the formation of style.
In the afternoon, the writing of short words and a recapitulation of
the week’s lessons.
The programme for the third grade was as follows: In the forenoon of
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays:—
_First hour._—Repetition of Latin rules in the mother-tongue.
_Second hour._—Exposition of the conversations of John Lewis Vives.
_Third hour._—Repetition of the above, and Bohemian exercises from the
text.
In the afternoon of the same days, first hour, writing and singing;
second hour, Greek grammar and the collected writings of John Sturm;
and third hour, exposition of Greek proverbs from the New Testament,
together with grammatical analysis of the same. This class had for
its forenoon lesson on Wednesdays the catechism and exercises in the
Bohemian, and in the afternoon singing and writing. _In the summer the
more industrious pupils were excused from the lessons on Wednesday
afternoons._
One period on Saturday was devoted to a weekly review; and on Sunday
morning a chapter was read from the New Testament, the same explained
in Greek (to all grades above the second), and all the students
attended church. In the afternoon there was preaching again and more
reading from the New Testament.
Such we may suppose to have been the character of his studies at Prerau
during the two years from 1608 to 1610. Because of his maturity, he
appreciated most keenly the faults of current humanistic methods of
teaching. As one of his biographers remarks: “The defects of this
early education were the seeds from which sprang the whole of his
didactic efforts. Considerably older than his school-fellows, he was
able to criticise the methods and speedily arrive at the conclusion
that the lack of progress was due more to the inefficiency of the
teachers than to the idleness of their pupils. From this time onward,
he began to devise new methods of class instruction and better schemes
of study. From the vivid memory of the horrors through which he had
passed, of the thousand and one rules that had to be learned by rote
before they were understood, of the monotonous study of grammar, only
diversified by the maddening effort to translate Latin authors without
the assistance of suitable dictionaries or commentaries, sprang that
intense sympathy with beginners which characterizes his whole life and
gives practical worth to every precept that he enunciated.”
After two years in the Latin school at Prerau, he entered the college
at Herborn on the 30th of March, 1611. The University of Prague
was at this time in the hands of the Utraquists, whose unfriendly
attitude toward the Moravian Brethren led to the selection of a German
university for his higher course of instruction. He had determined to
qualify for the ministry, and the institution at Herborn at this time
afforded unusual opportunities for the study of theology. Doubtless
another factor in the selection of Herborn was the fact that John Henry
Alsted, one of the most distinguished theological and philosophical
professors of the day, was lecturing there, and aspiring youths of the
temperament of Comenius naturally gravitated toward this centre of
fresh thought. Although but four years older than Comenius, Alsted was
the most commanding figure in the academic circles of Europe at this
time. He had travelled extensively; had made the acquaintance of most
of the learned men in Europe worth knowing; and had advocated views of
education which were new and startling.
For twenty-seven years Herborn had enjoyed unprecedented academic
prosperity. Opportunities for the study of education were unexcelled;
for, connected with the college, there was a preparatory department
which served as a laboratory for the study of pedagogic problems,
in which, for example, the lower classes were instructed in the
mother-tongue—a procedure that was regarded as ultra-heterodox at this
time.
Comenius was most helped by the instruction of the distinguished
theologian and philosopher, Professor John Henry Alsted. The teachings
of Alsted were of a character calculated to deepen the convictions of
the young student from Moravia, for the Herborn professor taught among
other things—as is indicated by his _Encyclopædia of the sciences_,
published a few years later—the following: (1) Not more than one thing
should be taught at a time; (2) not more than one book should be used
on one subject, and not more than one subject should be taught on one
day; (3) everything should be taught through the medium of what is
more familiar; (4) all superfluity should be avoided; (5) all study
should be mapped out in fixed periods; (6) all rules should be as
short as possible; (7) everything should be taught without severity,
though discipline must be maintained; (8) corporal punishment should be
reserved for moral offences, and never inflicted for lack of industry;
(9) authority should not be allowed to prejudice the mind against
the facts gleaned from experience, nor should custom or preconceived
opinion prevail; (10) the construction of a new language should first
be explained in the vernacular; (11) no language should be taught by
means of grammar; (12) grammatical terms should be the same in all
languages. “The teacher,” said Alsted, “should be a skilled reader of
character, so that he may be able to classify the dispositions of his
pupils. Unless he pays great attention to differences of disposition,
he will but waste all the efforts he expends in teaching.”
Another professor of philosophy at Herborn at the time was Heinrich
Gutberleth, who was likewise deeply interested in pedagogy and whose
lectures seem to have influenced Comenius, with special reference
to his advocacy of the study of the physical sciences. In theology
he heard lectures by Piscator, Hermannus, and Pasor. Since 1530 the
schools of Nassau had been marked by great improvement, and this
improvement was in no small measure due to the intelligent interest
of the professors of theology at Herborn in the schools of the
province. Hermannus, with whom Comenius studied practical theology, was
especially active in school reform.
It was during his student life at Herborn that Comenius became
acquainted with Ratke’s plan of instruction, then much discussed at
university centres, and especially at Jena, Giessen, and Herborn.
However much he may have been stimulated to educational reform by
his own belated classical training and by the pedagogic character of
the work at Herborn, the writings of Ratke, as he himself tells us,
played the largest part in making him an educational reformer. While at
Herborn he gave special attention to the Bohemian language, and planned
a dictionary which was never published.
Comenius left Herborn in the spring of 1613; and after a few weeks’
sojourn at Amsterdam he repaired to Heidelberg, where he matriculated
as a student of philosophy and theology on the 13th of June. Beyond
the fact that he purchased a manuscript of Copernicus, and that at the
end of a year, his funds becoming exhausted, he was forced to make
the return journey to Prague on foot, nothing is known of his life at
Heidelberg.
Back in his native country after these years of study and travel
in Germany, he was still too young by two years for ordination in
the brotherhood. Meanwhile he turned his attention to education,
and engaged himself as a teacher in the elementary school at Prerau
conducted by the Moravian Brethren. This experience brought him face
to face with problems of methodology and discipline, and gave him an
opportunity to apply some of the theories he had formulated while a
student at Herborn. His attention was at once called to the ineffective
methods employed in teaching Latin, for the remedy of which he prepared
an easy Latin book for beginners.
His ordination took place at Zerwick on the 29th day of April, 1616,
although he continued teaching at Prerau for two years longer, when
he was called to the pastorate of the flourishing Moravian church
at Fulneck. At the same time, or shortly thereafter, he was elected
superintendent of the schools of the town. In this twofold capacity he
ministered to the spiritual and educational needs of Fulneck for three
years, and passed the only tranquil and happy years of his life. But
the year that ushered in this prosperous career witnessed the outbreak
of the Thirty Years’ War.
In 1621 Fulneck was sacked by the Spaniards, and the conquering
force gave itself up to destruction that baffles description. Houses
were pillaged, including the residence of Comenius, and he lost all
his property, including his library and the manuscripts of several
educational treatises, on the composition of which he had spent years
of labor.
From this time on, the Moravian Brethren were exposed to the most
relentless persecutions. Many were executed, and others took refuge
in caves in the wilderness or on the secluded estates of wealthy
sympathizers. For three years Comenius found an asylum on the estate
of Karl von Zerotin. The death of his wife and children (for he had
married while at Fulneck) added to the afflictions of his exile; but
he sought relief from his sorrow in literary work—the composition of a
metrical translation of the Psalms, an allegorical description of life,
and the construction of a highly meritorious map of Moravia.
The persecution of the enemies rendered concealment no longer possible;
and, although Karl von Zerotin was held in high regard by Ferdinand
II, in 1624 the imperial mandate was issued which banished the
evangelical clergy from the country. For a time Comenius and several
of his brethren secreted themselves from their merciless pursuers on
the Bohemian mountains, in the citadel of Baron Sadowsky, near Slaupna.
But the edict of 1627 put an end to further protection of the Moravian
clergy by the nobles; and in January, 1628, Comenius and many of his
compatriots, including his late protector, Baron Sadowsky, set out for
Poland. On the mountain frontier which separates Moravia from Silesia,
one gets an excellent view of Fulneck and the surrounding country. Here
the band of exiles knelt and Comenius offered up an impassioned prayer
for his beloved Moravia and Bohemia. This was his last sad look on his
devoted country. He never afterward beheld the land of his fathers, but
for more than half a century he lived an exile in foreign regions. Well
might he, in his old age, exclaim: “My whole life was merely the visit
of a guest; I had no fatherland.”