KOMENSKt'S LAST YEARS

2; 5

He stated, either in consequence of his own conviction or because of his belief in the wretched Drabik's prophecies, that the brethren would shortly return to their own country, and therefore could not travel to distant lands.

In

Komensky returned to Lissa, but his stay there was now short and troubled. War between Sweden and Poland broke out in the following year, and the victorious Swedes occupied Lissa in August The only policy for the homeless community of 1655. the brethren evidently was to remain neutral in these alien quarrels. Unfortunately, Komensky employed his ever-ready pen in composing a panegyric on Charles Gustavus, the victorious Swedish king. In the following year the town of Lissa was retaken by the Polish army, pillaged, and burnt down. Komenskys library and his MS. were again destroyed. The brethren, perhaps not without reason, accused Komensky of having, through his injudicious writings, caused the downfall of the community of Lissa, to which the Poles had never been hostile before. Komensky, now sixty-five years old, was again homeless, and he was at first uncertain where he should He proceeded to Hamburg, but there reseek refuge. ceived an invitation to Amsterdam from Lawrence De Geers, the son of his old patron Louis De Geers. Komensky started for Amsterdam, and here spent the His literary activity continued to latest years of his life. He published at Amsterdam the only comthe last. plete edition of his educational works, and even wrote " books. Differing on this point from new " pansophic his father, Lawrence De Geers took great interest in " these studies, and even in the writings of the prophets," 1654