Opera Omnia 9/II

Another volume in the collected edition of the works of John Amos Comenius, thematically tying in to volume 9/I. It contains his works concerning the past and present of the Unity of the Brethren (the Bohemian Brethren). This means above all his edition and translation of the eighth book of the history of the Unity of the Brethren by the Polish nobleman Jan Łaski; Comenius chose this portion of Łaski’s work because it discusses the religious order of the Brethren, and in the period after the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia he wished to emphasize precisely this order, because he considered it as very important for the survival of this church, now dispersed into exile. He thus reaches primarily for pastoral aims; in his Czech version of the text he calls for a return to internal discipline in the life of the Brethren, while in the Latin version, he both reminds sister evangelical churches of the long tradition of the Czech reformation and again stresses the above-mentioned internal discipline in the life of the Brethren. The volume also contains two smaller Latin works freely connected with the person of the Swedish king Charles X Gustav. The first of them, Lesnae excidium (The Annihilation of Lešno), describes in detail the last days of the inhabitants of Lešno before it was captured and burned to the ground by Polish soldiers in April of 1656. That event, while unimportant in the framework of the wars between Sweden and Poland, was fateful for this vibrant center of the Brethren, and also for Comenius personally. His second work, Carolo Gustavo votiva acclamatio (A Thankful Appeal to the Most Serene Charles Gustav, King of the Swedes), written on the occasion of an initially successful Swedish campaign against the Danes in 1658, is one of the great 20th-century discoveries in the field of Comenius studies. Just as in his short work from three years earlier named A Panegyric, dedicated to this same ruler roughly (see Opera Omnia 13), here as well Comenius highlights the king’s military abilities and monarchical virtues as a model for Christian rulers.