Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T22:14:22.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

4 - Exile, Education and Eschatology in the Works of Jan Amos Comenius and John Milton

from Part II - Programmes of Restoration

David Parry
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Timothy G. Fehler
Affiliation:
Furman University
Greta Grace Kroeker
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
Charles H. Parker
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University
Jonathan Ray
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
Get access

Summary

Loe, here an Exile; who to serue his God,

Hath sharply tasted of proud Pashurs Rod,

Whose learning, Piety, & true worth being knowne

To all the world, makes all the world his owne.

These words appear beneath a 1652 engraving of Jan Amos Komenský, the polymath scholar, educational reformer and bishop of the Moravian Unitas Fratrum (Unity of Brethren), generally known by his Latinized name Comenius. Comenius made ‘all the world his owne’, not only by winning admirers across a wide geographical area but also, in another sense, through his idiosyncratic endeavours during his long-running exile to bring about a ‘universal reformation’ of the entire world by reordering and teaching all knowledge to all people by means of a ‘universal wisdom’ (pansophia). Comenius's physical exile, brought about by war, became a spiritual and intellectual pilgrimage bringing him into numerous intellectual circles across Europe. Among those connected to the circles influenced by Comenius was the poet John Milton. Though not physically exiled, Milton, too, utilized exile motifs in his writing and, like Comenius, was a teacher who proposed educational reforms. Both men saw the world as suffering a cosmic exile caused by the Fall of humanity, and both saw education as having the potential, at least in part, to restore the harmony of the world and thus to reverse this cosmic exile.

Type
Chapter
Information
Religious Diaspora in Early Modern Europe
Strategies of Exile
, pp. 47 - 60
Publisher: Pickering & Chatto
First published in: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×