As reported in a previous piece the Bohemian Brethren who would later become the Moravians were involved in the 1618 Protestant plot to install Frederick V of the Palatinate on the throne of Bohemia. The Habsburgs responded, defeated the Utraquist-led Protestant forces and launched a vicious Counter-Reformation that would almost eradicate Protestantism in Bohemia. Though minor players and a minority within Bohemian Protestantism, the Brethren would suffer severe persecution. The war soon expanded and would become the Thirty Years War enveloping much of Central Europe. After the Habsburgs had scored tremendous victories and seemed poised to win the war - and roll back Magisterial Protestant gains from the previous century, the Swedes invaded under Gustavus Adolphus in 1630 - landing in Pomerania. The tide would quickly turn.
Comenius approved of the Swedish invasion which was motivated by both religious and political concerns. Sweden had become a powerful player on the European stage and while Gustavus Adolphus wished to help the Protestant cause, he had other motivations as well. But for Comenius his focus was on the Brethren and their interests and he hoped the Swedes would drive the Habsburgs out of Bohemia and the Unity of the Brethren (as they were also known) would be restored.
But it was a false hope as Sweden (despite some impressive initial victories) ultimately failed in these objectives and the war against the Habsburgs would eventually be taken up by the French Bourbons. Though fellow Catholics, the French were surrounded by the Habsburgs in Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain and the two houses had a long history of antagonism. The once Protestant-Catholic conflict had been transformed into a geopolitical contest and a clash of dynastic interests and aspirations. When the Thirty Years War ended in 1648, the plight of the Brethren and their hopes of religious liberty in Bohemia were ignored. The bulk of them remained in exile with little hope of return. Those that remained lived a perilous underground existence often resorting to woods and caves.
In the 1620's the Bohemian Brethren would flee in large numbers over the Sudetes Mountains into Poland and the city of Lissa (or Leszno) would become a base for them - some had already settled there a century earlier during expulsions under Vladislav Jagiellon. Jan Amos Comenius (who was during the 17th century the preeminent leader of the Brethren) made Lissa/Leszno his home base. The city also hosted a printing press and school, all connected to the Brethren.
Though the Thirty Years War had ended in 1648, Sweden still had interests connected to Poland and the Baltic states - Poland was at this time united with Lithuania to form a large commonwealth extending to the Black Sea. The Vasa family of Sweden had intermarried with Polish nobility and as such the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was caught up in a complicated mosaic of competing dynasties along with religious alliances. The Russians pushed from the East and there were also Protestant Hungarian princes from Transylvania pushing up from the south who allied with the Swedes to fight the Habsburgs. And if that weren't enough, the Cossacks based in today's Ukraine also rose up (under Bohdan Khmelnytsky) to fight their Catholic Polish-Lithuanian rulers - an episode readers of Gogol will be familiar with. The unruly kingdom is today comprised of not just Poland and the Baltic nations but portions of what is today Western Russia, all of Belarus, and much of Ukraine. But in the 17th and 18th century the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a nation under siege and this 'deluge' would eventually lead to its collapse and disintegration.
Though unconnected to the immediate story, it should be noted that the tolerance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth made it a centre not just for exiled groups like the Brethren, but for Jewish migration as well. The multitude of Jews that would migrate to the Pale of Settlement during this period would still be there when Hitler's troops overran the region in 1941. And while Jews from France, Holland, Italy, and other parts of Western Europe would suffer, the vast majority of Holocaust victims would hail from this region that once was a bastion of religious freedom and tolerance.
Christina the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus abdicated in 1654 and the King of Poland (and Grand Duke of Lithuania) John Casimir Vasa of Poland (a Roman Catholic) laid claim to the Swedish crown. This was contested by Carl Gustav (Charles X) a Protestant of the House of Wittelsbach who was also the nephew of Gustavus Adolphus.
The Second Northern War broke out in 1655 - just seven years after the Peace of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years War. This war was different and yet there was some overlap especially with regard to Swedish and Hungarian-Transylvanian unresolved interests. Comenius once again placed his hopes on the prospect of a Swedish victory. He hoped that they would rule his area of Poland or even better move south and finally drive the Habsburgs from Prague.
In 1655 Swedish troops made their way south in alliance with the Calvinist Hohenzollern Elector of Brandenburg. This family which also ruled over the Duchy of Prussia to the east would through battle and politics force the Polish sovereign's hand and in 1701 Prussia became an autonomous kingdom. The Hohenzollerns were destined to become kings and yet also remained powerful Electors in the polity of the Holy Roman Empire. They along with Russia and Austria would eventually carve up Poland, erasing it from the map by the end of the 18th century. And in the 19th century, the Hohenzollerns would further expand, and create a unified Germany in 1871.
An independent Poland would not reappear on the map until 1918. The same is true with Lithuania. The latter was re-manifested at the end of World War I but like Poland would be occupied by the Nazis during World War II. Lithuania would then be captured by the Soviets and incorporated into the USSR until 1990 when it gained independence once more. Poland was also overrun by the Red Army, would fall under Moscow's shadow throughout the Cold War but did retain its national status throughout.
But this is getting way ahead of the story. In 1655, the Hohenzollerns were small-scale players but a rising power and as such allied with Sweden and its invasion. At the same time the Calvinist Hungarians of Transylvania arose under George Rakoczi and pushed north as well. For Comenius, this Northern War was another Protestant-Catholic conflict even though these questions were in many respects secondary to the nature and essence of the war. The Poles were defeated and 'deluged' on all sides. John Casimir was forced to flee but would return with Habsburg support in 1656. Denmark would enter the war opposing Sweden and the conflict quickly became regional.
Comenius was seemingly blind to the geopolitics and in his zeal to support the Swedes he encouraged them to garrison Lissa and occupy the town. Comenius had made his alliances clear.
But in another episode of miscalculation and foolishness, he had dragged the Brethren into the political melee and in 1656, the Swedes would retreat and the Habsburg-backed Poles burned the town in retribution. The Brethren suffered terribly and Comenius lost many of his works and was brought to the brink of destitution. Reduced to rags, he would eventually find his way to Hamburg and then Amsterdam where he lived out his remaining days - dying in 1670. Had he not openly supported the Swedes there would have been no reason to burn the town and the Brethren might have lived on in peace. But it was not to be.
The Brethren would continue to suffer until 1722 when they began to make their way over the mountains to Saxony and the estates of Count Zinzendorf. The new settlement of Herrnhut took shape and the remnants of the Brethren would soon thereafter be reconstituted as the Moravians - a synthesis of older Brethren doctrine and episcopal succession with Lutheran-influenced Pietism. Zinzendorf would later become a bishop in the new order and their missionaries would be sent around the world - with significant settlements in the British Colonies of North Carolina but especially in Pennsylvania.
Russia and Poland would continue fighting until 1667 with Russia making significant gains. In the 1670's Protestant Sweden would fight its Lutheran brethren in Denmark-Norway as well as the Calvinist Dutch and the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg. To the disgust of many at the time, this was but one of many episodes in which Protestants battled Protestants as nations and economic interests came to the fore.
The Great Northern War of 1700-1721 would break both Sweden and Poland and marked Russia's transformation into empire, and was largely contemporary with the War of the Spanish Succession in Western Europe - another conflict which revealed that religion was increasingly taking a backseat in geopolitical calculation. Many of the so-called Protestant nations would ally with their old enemy the Habsburgs in order to block Bourbon France under its rapacious king, Louis XIV.
Comenius in some respects is reminiscent of later Christian leaders who in hindsight appear rather myopic in their understanding of world events and how they were (and still are) manipulated by political leaders. In the case of Comenius, his poor decisions (which marked a real abandonment of older Brethren principles) resulted in disaster. The Brethren would barely survive his tenure - with the strongest groups living a desperate underground existence in Moravia. They constituted the largest group (the Hidden Seed) that would migrate to Saxony in the 18th century - hence the 'Moravians'.
There is much to admire in Comenius but at the same time he demonstrated some very poor judgment at times and clearly placed a great deal of misguided hope in false prophets and political powers. It left him destitute and but for the grace of God his followers would not have survived.
But as is so often the case, the lessons of history are not learned.
See also:
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-bohemian-brethren-and-crowning-of.html