28 DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET | Giants in the Nursery This appointment meant that Comenius had to move back to Lissa and give up his arrangement with De Geer. Comenius’s strong sense of responsibility was shown by the fact that once in Lissa he sent the finished books to De Geer as rapidly as he could. Comenius was actually happy to leave the town of Elbing, where he felt isolated and, in some ways, betrayed. He had assumed his connection with Sweden, where De Geer lived and wielded considerable influence, would end a ban that had exiled the brotherhood from Bohemia and Moravia. However, the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years’ War, did not withdraw the ban, and the brotherhood remained excluded from their homeland. In his role as bishop, Comenius devoted his full time to the needs of the broth- erhood from 1648 to 1650. Still, the church had little money, and Comenius began to consider lucrative offers from other regions to revise their educational systems. One such offer came from Transylvania in Hungary. The offer was appealing. In addition to a liberal salary, he would be provided with the complete backing to set up a school system according to his philosophy. He was also offered a printing facil- ity for the printing of his books. Recognizing that this arrangement would benefit the brotherhood as well as his own work, Comenius petitioned the brotherhood to be relieved of his position as bishop for a few years. Last Years in Hungary and Holland, 1650–1670 The brotherhood granted the petition, and Comenius and his family once again moved to a new community, this time in the city of Saros-Patak, a cultural center in northern Hungary. He immediately drew up a plan for a seven-year school. Come- nius stayed in Saros-Patak for four years, during which the first three years of the seven-year plan were completed. The innovations that Comenius introduced were an immediate success. In part at least, the positive outcome of the program was attributable to the fact that the teachers were those Comenius himself had trained in Lissa. Comenius returned to Lissa in 1654 to reassume the role of bishop. But his stay there was brief for the Swedes attacked Lissa; Comenius escaped, as he put it, almost “in a state of nudity” (1858, 101). As he had in Fulneck, Comenius once again lost both his library and his many unpublished manuscripts. He wrote of the loss of these manuscripts, on which he had labored for years: “The loss of this work I shall cease to lament only when I cease to breathe” (Monroe 1900, 70). COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL