Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/15

 Author:Johan Amos Comenius (in Bohemian Komensky) was born on the 28th of March 1592, in the village of Nivnitz, 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. 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