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Comenius placed great confidence in this Swedish leader, confidence that would be disappointed. As chancellor of Sweden (1612–1644), Oxenstierna wielded considerable power. King Gustavus Adolphus II was more of a warrior than an administrator, and generally left domestic affairs in Oxenstierna’s able hands. The chancellor was a good organizer and a skilled diplomat. The peace he arranged with Poland in 1629 allowed Gustavus to enter the Thirty Years War in 1630. After Gustavus’s death (1632), Oxenstierna was the dominant member of the committee that ruled Sweden until Queen Christina came of age in 1644. In that capacity he accomplished a number of social and economic reforms— among them the invitation to Comenius to develop Swedish schools. But Oxenstierna did not get along with the young queen and his power declined after Christina’s accession. He was not directly involved in the negotiations of the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which may explain why his promise to Comenius, to look after the interests of the Brethren, was never fulfilled.

The “Lion of the North,” Gustavus Adolphus was acknowledged as one of the great military men of his day. When King Gustavus intervened in the Thirty Years War, he embodied the hope of Comenius and his fellow exiles for the re-establishment of their lands and a defeat of the Hapsburg Catholics. In A Trumpet for the Year of Grace, Comenius reflected this mood; Gustavus was shown to be a great conqueror in this pamphlet.
Ironically, Gustavus’s primary purpose was to strengthen Sweden, not to enter a religious conflict. However sympathetic he may have been to the Moravians. he intended to settle the exiles near the Baltic, not in their former homeland. But Gustavus never got the chance to implement his plan. He died in 1632 of battle wounds.
The Peace of Westphalia materialized in 1648 while Queen Christina, daughter of Gustavus, reigned, and the Westphalian agreement brought to an end the “Bohemian question.” If any exiles were to return to Czechoslovakia it would be as Catholics, or not at all. Few Europeans decried these peace conditions after an utterly meaningless and lengthy war. True to his pietistic inclination, Comenius wrote in a 1649 letter, “…it is the beginning of wisdom to look within ourselves and search our own omissions and want of humanity….we must admit that we [Bohemian exiles] have not taken enough thought for ourselves, but always besought others to carry the fight on our behalf.”
So, even though Swedish negotiators for the Peace of Westphalia may have entertained special treatment for the Bohemians, the German Protestants desired an end to the war, without regard to the memory of Gustavus Adolphus.

A life-long acquaintance of Comenius from the town of Straznice, Nicholas Drabik was a mystic who had prophetic visions after his suspension from the ministry by the Brethren. While Comenius awaited peace negotiations at Osnabruck, Drabik’s prophecies included the overthrow of the Hapsburg power and the return of the Brethren to their land. Comenius so accepted the truth of these visions that his faith went unshaken by their failure to materialize, even as the visions became more elaborate, transformed and eventually retracted.

Comenius collected Drabik’s prophecies, as well as those of other mystics, into a book, Lux in Tenebas, which was never published but circulated among his friends. Until Comenius’s death, he corresponded with this unusual man. His trust in Drabik has generally been considered a tragic mistake by Comenius historians.

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