DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET John Amos Comenius | 29 Comenius escaped to Silesia and shortly afterward to Frankfurt in Germany. Still not feeling safe, he journeyed on to Hamburg, Germany. In Hamburg, he suf- fered a severe illness that incapacitated him for two months. When he learned of Comenius’s illness, Lawrence De Geer, the son of Comenius’s deceased former patron, wrote to him and told him to come directly to Amsterdam in Holland. During Comenius’s time with his father, the young De Geer had formed a deep and abiding affection for Comenius and a profound respect for his educational ideas. He wanted to ensure that Comenius had a safe and secure place to reside. In 1656 Comenius made his final move to Amsterdam. This was a happy move for Comenius. The Dutch Republic was the most lib- eral region in Europe, open to a wide variety of religious beliefs and opinions. Although in his sixties—old for the time period—he continued to be productive and published a one-thousand-page edition of his collected educational writings. He also continued serving as minister to his disheartened brotherhood who had also escaped to Holland. In addition, thanks to the efforts of the young De Geer, he was sought out to teach the children of the wealthy merchant class in Amsterdam. He was comfortable both financially and intellectually in this new setting. Comenius could well be regarded as a genius, and one who could rightly be named the father of modern education. In person he was a humble, gracious, and generous man. As Palacky writes, all those who knew him attested to his goodness, kindness, and faithfulness: In his intercourse with others, Comenius was in an extraordinary degree friendly, conciliatory, and humble; always ready to serve his neighbor and sacrifice himself. His writings, as well as his walk and his conversation, show the depth of his feeling, his goodness, his uprightness, and his fear of God. He never cast back upon his opponents what they meted out to him. He never condemned, no matter how great the injustice that he was made to suffer. At all times, with fullest resignation, whether joy or sorrow was his portion, he honored and praised the Lord. (Monroe 1900, 81–82) The Work Comenius was a reformer—but an evolutionary reformer rather than a revolution- ary one. For example, he was opposed to the way in which Latin was taught, but COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL