THE
Great Comet of 1680
a study in the history of rationalism
by
JAMES HOWARD ROBINSON, A. M., B. D.
Submitted in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Political
Science of Columbia University.
NORTHFIELD, MINNÊSOTA.
1916
NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680:
A STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF RATIONALISM
THE
Great Comet of 1680
a study in the history of rationalism
by
JAMES HOWARD ROBINSON, A. M., B. D.
Submitted in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Political
Science of Columbia University.
NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA.
1916
press op
The northfiei_d news
northfieuo, minn.
CONTENTS
Page
Preface vii
Chapter 1. Cometary Superstition before the Seven¬
teenth Century I
Chapter IL Cometary Appearances and Beliefs from
1600 to 1675 12
Chapter III. The Great Comet of 1680 .... 23
Chapter IV. Cometary Influences in Germany and Ger¬
man Switzerland.
Section I. Gross Credulity 30
Section II. Semi-Superstition 46
Section III. Scepticism 58
Chapter V. The Situation in England and America . . 64
Chapter VI. The Attack on Superstition in France and
Holland 77
Chapter VII. The "Pensées Diverses sur la Comète" of
Pierre Bayle 91
Chapter VIII. The Victory of Science and Reason . . 107
Bibliography 120
vii
PREFACE
The following dissertation, although it is concerned with a
great comet, does not pretend to be a contribution to the annals of
astronomy. The subject is approached with the history of thought
and culture primarily in mind, and is intended to elucidate a por¬
tion of the field of superstition, which has received almost no
attention. The comet of 1680 is the nucleus of the study because
cometary superstition reached its highest development and receiv¬
ed its sharpest attacks with the appearance of that great comet.
In order to aid any who may desire to explore further into this
fascinating field, and to indicate the great literary "stir" created
by this comet, a bibliography of contemporary treatments of the
comet of 1680 has been appended to a list of the more important
general works that have been found of value.
The writer wishes to express his indebtedness to the kindly
interest of Professor Burr of Cornell, who went to considerable
trouble to make available rare material from the President ^White
Library, and in particular to Professor Robinson of Columbia,
at whose suggestion and under whose very helpful direction the
present study has been undertaken.
CHAPTER I
CoMETARY Superstition Before the Seventeenth Century
"No man is so utterly dull and obtuse, as never to lift himself
up and rise with all his soul to the contemplation of the starry
heavens, especially when some fresh wonder shows a beacon-
light in the sky. If there is any disturbance or any extraordinary
light displayed in the sky, we gaze at it, ask questions, and point
it out to our neighbors. This holds especially in regard to comets,
for, if one of these infrequent fires of unusual shape has made its
appearance, everybody is eager to know what it is. Blind to all
the other celestial bodies, each asks about the newcomer; one is
not quite sure whether to admire it or to fear it. Persons there
are who seek to inspire terror by forecasting its grave import. And
so people keep asking and wishing to know whether it is a portent
or a star." - These words of Seneca, the tutor of Nero, admirably
state the place comets have had in the history of human supersti¬
tion. ^
In the long centuries preceding Halley and Newton, when
astronomy was hardly more than astrology, fear was one of the
dominant feelings aroused by the observation of such phenomena
in the heavens. Of the appearances in the sky, none caused such
apprehension as the class known as hairy stars, possessing a tail
or a beard as the case might be. They were irregular in appear¬
ance, in great contrast to the ordered movements of the planets.
They varied in size and brilliancy, but all, to the common imagina¬
tion, seemed to be blazing fires. The addition of the tail, if it
followed the nucleus, or the beard, if it preceded, was undoubt¬
edly the greatest cause of alarm. Some of these appendages were
a hundred degrees in length, stretching across a third of the sky.
It is not strange that such luminaries should have caused fear.
As a result they were considered to be portents. The accumula¬
tion of certain coincidences in the troubled career of an unfortu-
^ Quaest. Nat., vii, I.
—1—
2
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
nate world added fuel to the belief. From the time of the
Homeric poems to the seventeenth century there is really no great
change in these conceptions, save a certain refinement of super¬
stition. But it will be of value to indicate briefly the continuity
of credulity and to list some of the more striking coincidences
that became the stock in trade of the orthodox believer in ordet
that we may have a correct idea of what the seventeenth century
received as an inheritance.^
Among the Greeks and Romans there were numerous oppor¬
tunities for superstition, and many indications remain of their
credulity. The "Iliad" contains significant lines in speaking of
the helmet of Achilles ; it shone
"Like the red star, that from his flaming hair
Shakes down diseases, pestilence and war." ^
In the year 480 B. C. a great comet appeared with a tail like a
horn, and in this year Xerxes invaded Greece. 431 B. C. saw an
uncommonly large comet, whereupon followed unrest in Greece,
and the twenty-year Peloponnesian War. Aristotle, Seneca and
Diodorus Siculus speak of the terrible comet of 373 B. C. with
its tail stretching across a sixth part of the heavens. The result
was an earthquake in Achaia, the invasion of Italy by the Senones,
and the capture of Rome. The teachings of Aristotle as to the
nature of comets exercised as tyrannical a domination over suc¬
ceeding thought down to the seventeenth century as did his ideas
in other fields. ® However, Aristotle was badly mistaken as to the
* Cometary superstition has not received extensive treatment. Compara¬
tively modern works containing some material on the subject are the follow¬
ing: M. Pingré, Cométographie, ou Traité historique et théorique, 2 vols.,
Paris, 1783; A. Guillemin, The World of Comets (translated by Glaisher),
London, 1877; Maurice Champion, La Fin du Monde et les Comètes, Paris,
1859; Rudolph Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, München, 1877; G. F.
Chambers, The Story of the Comets Simply Told for General Readers,
Oxford, 1909; A. D. White, A History of the Doctrine of Comets, Papers
of the Am. Hist. Assn., vol. 2, pp. 109-147, New York, 1887. Arthur Berry,
Short History of Astronomy, New York, 1910, has almost no material on
the superstitious aspect, but is a convenient summary of the history of the
scientific development.
® Book xix, 11. 380-383.
®The feeling of the Middle Ages is well expressed by Dante in the
Convito (iii, 5) where he refers to Aristotle as "that glorious philosopher
to whom, above all others. Nature disclosed her secrets."
COMETARY SUPERSTITION
3
meaning of cometary phenomena, for he held that comets were
of the nature of meteors, and that they were essentially earthly.
He taught that they were exhalations mounting to the upper
regions of the air, where, in the diurnal movements of the upper
atmosphere, these exhalations unite and condense. Here they take
fire, possibly by the force of movement or from the neighboring
fiery region or from the action of the stars and sun.^ This view,
that comets are nearer the earth than the moon, and are transitory,
contributed greatly to the fear in which they were held ; for they
could have an actual physical influence as well as be portents. The
question is still one of importance in 1680, as several of the tracts
appearing as a result of the great comet of that year discuss the
sublunary character of these signs. Aristotle's position became
a formal dogma in the West, and, in many European countries to
the end of the seventeenth century, no professor would be accepted
until he had openly witnessed, not only to the general principles
of Aristotle, but, in particular, to his ideas on comets. ^
In the year 146 the capture of Carthage and Corinth was
announced by a celestial messenger. Virgil refers in the Georgics
to "diri cometae" when speaking of prodigies, ® and these words
seemed to be justified by the portents preceding the death of
Julius Caesar. Furthermore one appeared after his assassination,
and it was commonly considered as a conveyance for bearing the
soul of the dead tyrant to the skies. ^ ijhe Star of Bethlehem was
regarded by many later writers as a comet, and as possessing the
reign of Nero (60 and 64 A. D.) were regarded as portents of his
^ Pingré, op. cit., I, 47ff.
' Wolf, op. cit., p. 181.
® Bk. I, II. 487-488.
"Suetonius, Caesar, 88; Pliny, ii, 23, "Eo sidere significari vulgas credirit,
Caesaris animam inter Deorum immortalium numina receptam."
® Voigt, {Cometa Matutinus et Vesperinus, Hamburg, 1681) notes the
murder of the babes following its appearance as an evidence of its evil
character. Theodore Beza held this star to be a comet, and Origen says
concerning it (contra Celsum, I, 58), "The star that was seen in the East
we consider to have been a new star, unlike any of the other well known
planetary bodies, but partaking of the nature of ^hose celestial bodies which
appear at times, such as comets." This early Christian writer regarded it
as a presage of good.
character
comets which appeared in the
4
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
tyranny and of the numerous murders in government circles.
When, toward the end of his reign, the appearance of a comet
drove the emperor to consult Babillus, his astrologer, the latter
advised him that the portended danger should be averted by the
destruction of the great nobles.^ One of the most noteworthy of
early comets was that of the years 69 and 70, which, according
to Josephus, hung over the city of Jerusalem for a year before
the Jewish capital was captured and destroyed by the Romans
with much slaughter of the inhabitants. It is listed along with
numerous other presages. ^
There were exceptions to the common credulous views, and
Seneca, the tutor of Nero, stands out most prominently in this con¬
nection. His beliefs foreshadowed modern discoveries. In his
"Quaestiones Naturales" he displayed a remarkable amount of
self-restraint for the time. He held comets to be among Nature's
permanent creations. "He has little conception of Nature's pow¬
ers who thinks she may not do exceptionally what she does not do
repeatedly. She does not often display comets ; she has assigned
them a different place, different periods from the other stars, and
motions unlike theirs. . . . They are not accidental fires, but
inwoven in the texture of the universe, directed by it in secret
secrets would be exposed. ® A story much in use by the rational-
secrets would be revealed." ® A story much in use by the rational¬
ists of 1680 concerns Vespasian's disregard of the comet that
appeared as he was nearing his end. He is reported to have said
(according to Suetonius), "This hairy star does not concern me;
it menaces rather the king of the Parthians, for he is hairy and
I am bald." But it is hard to say how much of this statement is
bravado and how much is conviction.
But Seneca's premonition, which he himself did not under¬
stand in terms of today, was a most remarkable exception, and
the deeply pessimistic conclusion of his treatment of physical
scieñce was abundantly justified; the belief in comets as portents
^ See Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, London, 1911,
p. 448.
^Jewish Wars, vi, Chapter 5.
® Quaest. Nat. vii. 22, 30, 31. Seneca offers no definite suggestion regard¬
ing the nature of comets, concluding his treatise in a spirit of deep pes¬
simism. See John Clarke, Physical Science in the Time of Nero, being
a Translation of the Quaestiones Naturales of Seneca, London, 1910.
COMETARY SUPERSTITION
5
was monotonously common/ Among the ancients Pliny was most
influential in furthering credulity. The tracts resulting from the
cometary appearance of 1680 not infrequently refer to Pliny's
opinions. He distinguished twelve kinds of comets, according to
their appearance, such as, e. g., the disc-shaped (disciformis),
the torch-shaped (lampadiformis), the bearded (barbatus), the
spear-shaped (hastiformis), the horror-producing (monstriferus),
etc. He held that a comet was ordinarily a fearful star, for it
indicated no small effusion of blood, an example of which he saw
in the civil commotion of 86 B. C. He wrote of the comet of 48
B. C.,Ç'We have in the war between Caesar and Pompey an exam¬
ple of the terrible effects which follow the apparition of a comet.
Towards the commencement of this war the darkest nights were
made light, according to Lucan, by unknown stars ; the heavens
appeared on fire, burning torches traversed in all directions the
depths of space; the comet, that fearful star, which overthrows
the powers of earth, showed its terrible locks. ^ j
As we come down to the Middle Ages and to Christian
writers plenty of evidence can be adduced to show the supremacy
of the belief. The comet of 307 is recorded as having brought no
good to Christianity, for there followed it heathen persecution
and the beginning of the Arian faction, while the comet of 392,
whose tail looked like a sword, announced the rise of additional
heresies, dividing the church. The church historian, Socrates,
in recounting the attack of Gainas on the city of Constantinople
in the fourth century, says, "Moreover, so great was the danger of
the city that a comet of prodigious magnitude, reaching from
heaven even unto the earth, such as was never before seen, gave
forewarning of it. ® John of Damascus recorded comets as por¬
tending the death of kings. He was consistent enough to hold
that, as signs, they were especially created and dissipated by the
will of Almighty God. ^ The Venerable Bede, in his "Ecclesiastical
History," notes comets as preceding disasters and records several
^Suetonius {Life of Nero, 36) wrote, "Stella crinita, quae summis
potestatibus exituum portendere vulgo putatur."
® The Natural History describes the different varieties in Book II, chap¬
ter 22, and the next chapter makes the application to worldly happenings.
See also Guillemin, op. cit., p. 12.
E., vi, 6.
* De Fide Orthodoxa, ii, 7, in Migne, xciv, 894-895.
6
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
cometary appearances. One occurred in 678 followed by differ¬
ences between King Egfrid and Wilfrid, who was driven from his
see. "In the year 729 two comets appeared about the sun, to the
great terror of the beholders. They carried their flaming brands
toward the north, as it were to kindle a conflagration. At which
time a grevons blight fell upon Gaul, in that it was laid waste by
the Saracens with cruel bloodshed." In his chronological sum¬
mary he adds, "In the year 729 comets appeared : the holy Egbert
passed away and Osric died."^ The transfer of the imperial title
to Charlemagne in Scx) was preceded by a comet, and shortly
before Charlemagne's death in 814 a similar portent appeared.
The division of Charlemagne's empire and the wars resulting were
announced by no less than four comets in 842 and 843. Many
writers record these and other prodigies for the years 999 and
1000.
One of the most noted comets of the Middle Ages was the
one appearing in 1066. It was viewed with especial fear in Eng¬
land, which, shortly after this apparition, was invaded by the
Normans. The death of Harold was an evident result of the bane¬
ful effect of comets on crowned heads. Ingulph's chronicle con¬
tains some interesting comments : "In the year of our Lord 1066,
a comet appeared in the heavens, which portended great changes
in the kingdom, the slaughter of the people, and multiplied miser¬
ies inflicted upon the land. On this occasion was repeated the
rhyming couplet.
Anno milleno sexageno quoque seno,
Anglorum metae crinem sensere copetae."
And he adds a saying of the "philosophers,"|JThose who see its
tail will have bad fortune to bewail." Odericus Vitalis, in his
"Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy" (Bk. V, ch 9,
n. 44) gives a versified rendering :
"History's ancient annals fix
The year one thousand sixty-six
(Then a fiery comet whirled.
Dreadful omen, round the world.)
As the time when England's lord
Fell before the Norman sword."
This comet has received pictorial representation on the Bayeux
E., iv, 12; V. 23, 24.
COMETARY SUPERSTITION
7
tapestry, where the words "Isti mirant Stella" appear beside the
comet, while from beneath the people look up in wonder and
fear. The comet is of interest as well because it was one of the
earlier appearance of Halley's comet.
During the height of Roman Catholicism the belief is em¬
phasized by Thomas Aquinas, who, quoting Saint Jerome, affirms
that comets will be a sign of the last day. He accepts, naturally,
the physical system of Aristotle, but does not appear to be grossly
superstitious.^ Albertus Magnus, so famed in the mediaeval
church for his knowledge of natural science, passes on the opin¬
ion. ^ The comet of 1240, which was observed by Albert, was fol¬
lowed by disturbances in the East. The comet of 1347 was
regarded as having a close relation to the terrible Black Death and
the widespread famine. Tamerlane is mentioned in connection
with many comets of the fourteenth century, but with the opening
of the next century the Turks begin to usurp his position. The
Christians saw in the successive comets reiterated evidence ot
Turkish encroachment. The comet of 1439 is mentioned by Wei-
gel with the addition, "At this time the Turkish kingdom, not only
in Asia but also in Greece, is daily increasing." ® The comet of
1450 was supposed to presage the fall of Constantinople, and the
continued advance of the Turk was witnessed by the portent of
1456. Calixtus III, who was reigning at the appearance of this
comet, was said to have excommunicated the comet by a bull;
for the Turks had just taken Constantinople, and the two evil
forces were supposed to be in collusion. The idea became current
that at that time there was incorporated in the midday Angelus
the plea, "From the Turk and the comet. Good Lord, deliver us."
Although this has been affirmed by some of the leading historians
of astronomy, it is strenuously denied by modern Catholic writers,
and it is doubtful if such definite proceedings were taken. But
whether true or not the story was widely believed; it was cer¬
tainly quite in accord with the beliefs of the time. ^
* Summa Theologica, Suppl, Quaest. 73, Art. i ; Part I, Quaesf. 68, Art. 4.
''Op. I, Tr. 3, Ch. 10, II.
®For Weigel, see note at the end of this chapter,
* Platina, De Vitts ac Gestis Summorum Pontiñcum, ed. 1645, p. 730 ;
Guillemin, op. cit., p. 23, who quotes Babinet; Chambers, op. cit., p. 208;
White, op. cit., p. 12. What Platina does say is, "Apparente deinde per
8
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
The advent of Protestantism did not affect the situation ; its
leaders held to the common views in the field of natural phe¬
nomena. In England, Cranmer, writing to Henry VIII and
speaking of the comet of 1532, says, "What strange things these
tokens do signify to come hereafter, God knoweth; for they do
not lightly appear but against some great matter." ^ Zwingli
insisted that the comet of 1531 betokened calamity. As if in seem¬
ing confirmation of this prophecy, Zwingli himself was killed in
the Battle of Cappel in that same year, and in 1532 occurred the
death of the Elector John of Saxony. Melanchthon and Luther
are frequently appealed to by the German writers of 1681 in
support of the belief in these signs. From the former is quoted
the following epigram,
"Nulla aetas vidit flagrantem impune cometam.
Non leve venturum nunciat ille malum,"
which is translated in the following manner,
"Wann ist doch ein Comet am Firmament gesehen.
Das Nicht viel ungemach bald in der Welt geschehen." ^
Luther was quoted most aptly and decisively. Voigt adorns the
title page of his work on the Comet of 1680 with these words of
Luther, "Wenn Gott will, so muss ein Comet brennen uns zum
Schrecken." And the second page of this tract is filled, necessar¬
ily in very bold type, with another quotation, "Die Heyden schrei¬
ben : Der Comet enstehe natürlich ; aber Gott schaffet keinen, der
nicht ein gewiss-Unglück bedeute." In the pamphlet of Ed.
Mayer, there is added to the first of these quotations another
from the Kirch Postill for the second Sunday in Advent: "Du
aliquot dies Cometa crinito et rubro, cum Mathematici ingentem pestem,
caritatem annonae, magnam aliquam cladem futuram dicerent, ad
avertandam iram Dei Calistus aliquot dierum supplicationes decrevit; ut
si quid hominibus immineret, totum id in Turcos Christiani nominis hostes
converteret." It is quite evident that Calixtus joined the comet and the Turks
in his thought of the situation, and the command to say the Missa contra
Paganos, and to ring the bells as for the Angelus, could be easily inter¬
preted to refer to the comet as well as the Turk. Pastor's dismissal of
the subject as unworthy of consideration is hardly an adequate treatment
of the incident. See his History of the Popes, 2nd Eng. ed., 1899, II, 401.
^"Remains," 11, 535 (Parker Society Publications) ; White, op. cit., p. 13.
® Unterschiedliche Beschreibung and Bedeutungen . . . des Wunder-
Cometen. Gedruckt im Jahr 1681, p. ló.
COMETARY SUPERSTITION
9
solt wissen, wann der Comet, der Schwantzstern scheinet, dass
gewisslich ein boss Zeichen das sehe, da ein Unfall nachkommen
wird, dann also lehret die Erfahrung." ^ A message based on
fear was not opposed to the general principles of Calvin, who
wrote in his commentary on Jeremiah (X, i), "God gave the
heavenly bodies the character of signs; it follows they ought to
be dreaded by us." John Knox was a firm believer in these celes¬
tial portents. He records the appearance of the comet of 1556
in the following words, "In the winter that the said John abaid
in Scotland, appeirit a comeit, the cours quhairof was frome the
Southe and South-west to the North and North-eist. It wes sein
in the monethes of November, December and Januare; It wes
callit. The Fyrey Bussome. Sone efter dies Christierne king of
Denmark and war rays betwix Scotland and Ingland. . . .
At the end of that nixt Harvest was sein upoun the Borders of
England and Scotland a strange Eyre, and thair was presented
to the Quein Regent, by Robert Ormistoun, a Calfe having two
Heidis." 2
This comet of 1556 was regarded by Charles V and the world
at large as indicative of a change of rulers in the Empire. Motley
records its effect on Charles: ".While he still lingered in Brus¬
sels, after his abdication, a comet appeared, to warn him to the
fulfillment of his purpose. From first to last, comets and othei
heavenly bodies were much connected with his evolutions and
arrangements. There was no mistaking the motives with which
the luminary had presented itself. The emperor knew very well,
says a contemporary German chronicler (Godelaevus), that it
portended pestilence and war, together with the approaching
death of mighty princes. 'My fates call out,' he cried, and forth¬
with applied himself to hasten the preparations for his departure."^
This apparition also called forth a Latin poem by Melanchthon, a
distich of which has been quoted above. The comet of 1572 was
necessarily related to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and
^ Voigt, op. cit.; Ed. Mayer, Vorstellung des jüngsterschienenen Cometen,
Ulm, 1681, p. 33.
'John Knox, The History of the Reformatioun of Religioun Within the
Realm of Scotland, Edin., 1732, p. 93.
^ Rise of the Dutch Republic, New York, 1901, I, 109-111.
10
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
Theodore Beza composed a Prognosticon in connection with it.^
Examples could be multiplied to almost any length to show
the unanimity of belief during the sixteenth century. Gottfried
Kirch, the discoverer of the comet of 1680, wrote, "I have read
through many books on comets, heathen and Christian, religious
and secular, Lutheran and Catholic, and they all declare comets to
be signs of God's wrath. . . . There are some that oppose
the belief but they are not very important." ^ In concluding this
small but representative list, the quaint words of Leonard Digges
will serve to state the common ideas î^"Cometes signifie corrup¬
tion of the ayre. They are signes of earthquakes, of warres, of
changying of kyngdomes, great dearthe of corne, yea a common
death of man and beast.'M
These are a few of the representative opinions and some of
the more conspicuous examples of the application of comets as
portents to worldly events. Looking back over the past, it was
easy to see the coincidences and forget the exceptions. \ Lists of
cometary appearances invariably included events of dire character
following their arrival.^ The chronicles of the Middle Ages are
excellent examples of this method. And Lubienietzky, who pub¬
lished his great "Theatrum Cometicum" in 1667, does this, al-
although he was free from the grossest forms of the superstition.
Even Erhard Weigel, the "weit-berühmte" mathematician of the
University of Jena, lists the events as well as the comets in the
"Anhang" of his "Himmels-Spiegel" of 1661. The cry of experi¬
ence and common sense never seemed more warranted. And when
the great controversy took place on the appearance of the comet
of 1680, this was felt to be an unanswerable position. ^ Lubien-
* For Melanchthon, see Lubienietzky, p. 252. For Beza, ibid., p. 365. The
work of Lubienietzky is described in a note at the end of this chapter.
^ G. Kirch, Neue Himmels-Zeifung, Nürnberg, 1681, pp. 95-96.
^ Prognostkon Euerlastinge, 2nd ed., London, 1576, fol. 6, quoted by
Chambers, op. cit., p. 209.
*The best works to consult for lists of comets and their prognostica¬
tions (the ones from which most of cases cited above have been selected)
are: E. Weigel, Speculum, 1661, pp. 97-116 and Stanislaus Lubienietzky,
Theatrum Cometicum, folio, Amsterdam, 1667. The Pars Posterior of this
sumptuous work consists of 464 pages, and is entitled, "Historia Universalis
Omnium Cometarum, a Diluvio usque ad praesentem Annum; et una cum
indiculo Laetorum et Tristium eventuum, Cometarum apparitionem secu-
COMETARY SUPERSTITION
11
ietzky lists four hundred and four comets as appearing before
the year 1600, and practically every one was related to the miseries
of mankind^ It will be evident that these numerous coincidences
but fostered the dominant spirit of fear. The result is that in
the seventeenth century the story of Europe's calamities is punc¬
tuated by cometary apparitions. This is particularly true because
the sixteenth century saw more remarkable comets than any pre¬
vious century, or probably any subsequent equal period of time.
In considering the superstition as exhibited in the seventeenth
century, and particularly in connection with the comet of 1680,
the corroborative evidence of the past centuries of accumulating
credulity should be borne in mind.
torum; 25 Figuris aeneis illustrata." Both these works were reprinted on
the appearance of the comet of 1680. Pingré, op. cit., should also be
mentioned.
CHAPTER II
CoMETARY Appearances and Beliefs from 1600 to 1675
The seventeenth century is the age in which cometary super¬
stition reaches its most important development. The credulity of
the mass of mankind remained much the same until the end of
the century. But it was during this period as well that the forces
of rationalism and science were preparing for the attack that was
to prove so effective, following the appearance of the comet of
1680. Regarding the comets of this century, Robert Grant says,
"The seventeenth century is peculiarly fertile in great comets. It
was distinguished by two apparitions of Halley's comet, those of
1607 and 1682. The comet of 1618 was one of the most splendid of
modern times. The comet of 1652 is said by Hevelius to have
been of such magnitude as to have resembled the moon when half
full. The comet of 1680 is memorable for the magnificent tail by
which it was accompanied." ^ Undoubtedly, the spectacular char¬
acter of these prodigies had much to do with the continuance of
the superstition in such vividness. Certainly the literary impulse
was fostered to a high degree. As early as 1474 there had ap¬
peared a tract on comets, but before 1500 a small number only
of monographs was published, though every brilliant comet would
have some literary fruitage. In 1532 four or five works appeared.
The comet of 1556 aroused great interest, but only about ten con¬
temporary writings are recorded by Carl. ^ The comet of 1557
gave rise to something over forty contemporary treatises. But
when we come to the comets of the seventeenth century, we find a
very much more abundant literature.
^Robert Grant, History of Physical Astronomy, London, 1852, p. 305.
This writer classes as "remarkable" the following comets, 1066, 1106, 1145,
1265, 1378, 1402, 1456, 1531, 1556, 1577, 1607, 1618, 1661, 1680, 1682, 1689,
etc. It will be noticed that the seventeenth century, which had the next
largest number, could claim but three.
® See Ph. Carl, Repertorium der Cometen-Astronomie, München^ 1864.
This is a very useful listing of the literature, though, of course, it is not
exhaustive. The works noted are mostly of German origin.
—12—
COMETS FROM 1600 TO 1675
13
In this rapidly increasing literary product, the interpretation
of cometary phenomena in its relation to the future is highly
developed. Thus far no mention has been made of the relation of
prediction by comets to the astrological art. It will be necessary
to show the influence of the latter on the former if we would
understand the way in which prognostications were obtained from
the heavenly signs. Astrology did not find comets of great use
in its judicial activities on account of their irregularity. But
observers of comets found astrological methods quite applicable
to the interpretation of those portents. Even the greatest of the
astronomers were not yet free from astrological leanings. \^Tycho
Brahe took the horoscope of the emperor Rudolph II. Indeed,
this ruler had astrologers and alchemists around him constantly.
The apparition of Halley's comet in 1607 greatly terrified him.
Kepler was enough of an astrologer to go even as far as to take
the horoscope of the last comet of 161^ Pingré places Gassendi
(1592-1655) at the head of the list of true astronomers. "The
greatest service that Gassendi has rendered cometary astronomy
was to disengage it from the ridiculous visions of astrology.
Before him the 'plus grands esprits' were not free from the con¬
tagion; Regiomontanus, Appien, Cardan, Tycho Brahe, Kepler,
Maestlin, Longomotanus, had been astrologers or at least 'cométo-
mantiens.' " ^ The kings of France in the early part of the century
were as bad as the emperors of Germany. Henry IV had an as¬
trologer, Larivière, present at the moment of the birth of Louis
XIII, and when Anne of Austria gave birth to Louis XIV, an
astrologer, Morin, was concealed in the apartment to take the
horoscope of the future monarch. ^
The application of judicial astrology to comets ® had to do
with their physical appearance. \An important element was the
color of the comet. If it had a pale Saturnian color, that is, looked
like the planet Saturn, it was held to have the qualities attributed
' For Kepler, see L. F. A. Maury, La Magie et l'Astrologie, Paris, i860,
p 216. Pingré, op. cit., I, pp. 66, 100; Kepler, De Cometis, lib. 3.
® Maury, op. cit., p. 215.
'For hostile treatments, see. Cometa Scepicus, 1681; Johann Schnitzen,
Coelum Planetarum, 1681 ; Pierre Bayle, Pensées diverses sur la comète,
Rotterdam, 1682.
14
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
to that heavenly body, and to bring pestilence and want. If the
appearance was reddish, it was called Martial, and had the warlike
qualities attributed to the planet Mars. Thus comets could have
Jovinian and Mercurial characteristics also. Observers of comets
often imagined the color changed. In that case the qualities of
the different planets it successively resembled were combine^
This finding of color differentiations was apparently a matter of
imagination, for Chambers in his recent book on comets thinks
that all comets have a more or less silvery-gray color, although
he admits that certain trained observers have seen slight varia¬
tions. ^ The astrologers of the past were evidently possessed of
exceedingly acute as well as highly imaginative eyes. A second
means of prognostication was by the so-called 'mutual relation'
of the comet with the planets. The author of "Cometa Scepticus"
says that this method was most common. If the comet first ap¬
peared in the neighborhood of some planet, then it was felt to be
under the influence of that planet. If two planets or a malevolent
star were near, it was a matter of serious moment. The great
stars like Antares or Regulus were thought to be influential as
well. This relation to important planets and stars was called a
conjunction. It is apparent that, as a comet progressed on its
course, particularly if it were a luminary of long duration, it
would be in highly embarrassing situations constantly.
cA third point of vital importance was the relation of the
comet to the different constellations, and especially those twelve
heavenly houses that composed the zodiacal circle. As comets
were essentially planets, they were always found in or near the
signs of the zodiac. Then too it must be remembered that the
heavens were pictured in a very realistic way during the days
previous to scientific astronomy. The constellations as, for ex¬
ample, the Eagle, or the Waterman, or the Virgin, were always
conceived pictorially, and as in one definite position. The way in
which a comet cut across Pegasus or Perseus or Andromeda was
a vital matter. If it went through the head of the Scorpion, it
v^as considered a very bad omen, for the scorpion was poisonous,
or if it cut the arm of the Virgin, in which she held a sheaf of
grain, it was^ considered a sure sign of the failure of the crops.
^ Chambers, op. cit., p. 9.
COMETS PROM 1600 TO 1675
15
It is hard for us to realize these beliefs, for the heavens are not
thus pictured now. But the numerous illustrations in the works
of astronomy then appearing could serve quite as well for fan¬
tastic zoological reproductions.
fourth means of prognostication was by the examination
of the conduct of a comet's tail. If it pointed to a certain section
of the world, it was felt to be prejudicial to that continent or
country. In several systems of prognostication, certain constel¬
lations were assigned to particular countries or cities, and the
relation of a comet's tail to this or that constellation was thought
to portend evil to the country concerned. Great importance was
also attached to the duration of a comet's appearance. There was
no unanimity as to the reckoning of the length of its influence,
but there are sober individuals in i68i thinking that a day of the
comet's appearance is equivalent to a half year's influence, or,
if the comet were one of short duration, to a year's influence.
Thus, if a comet was visible for fourteen days, it was expected to
be a bane to the earth for the next seven years, and to portend all
the misfortunes occurring within that period. Countries directly
underneath the nucleus were thought to be particularly liable to
malevolent influences. Added to all these means of arriving at
the conclusions, was a careful comparison of each new comet
with its predecessors. If their courses or appearance were similar,
and, naturally, they often were, the calamities following the earliei
comet would be predicted for the one in questio^ Such were the
principal methods of handling cometary phenomena, methods in
full vogue even during the latter part of the seventeenth century.
The author of "Cometa Scepticus," after a scathing arraignment
of these methods, applies to these pseudo-scientists the woids of
Ecclesiastes III, lo, "I have seen the travail which God hath given
to the sons of men to be exercised therewith." ^ As the comets
of this century are examined, interesting applications of these
rules will be seen.
The comet of 1607 was the one which returned in 1682, when
it was the subject of Halley's epoch-making observations. Carl
does not list more than ten works that were published as a result
of the appearance of the comet of 1607. .Mayer, writing in 1681,
' P. 23.
16
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
makes note of its appearance with a pale Saturnian color. There
followed this comet not only a pestilence in Saxony and Thur-
ingia, but a grievous seven-year dearth, and an invasion of Bo¬
hemia. ^ The never-failing Weigel adds that there was mistreat¬
ment of Venice by the Jesuits.
The stir that this comet created was small in comparison with
the effect of the group of luminaries that showed themselves in
1618 and 1619. Some reckonings included as many as six comets,
but there were not more than three. Of these, the third comet was
noteworthy. It was seen from the end of November until the
end of January, a period practically the same as to length and
time with that of 1680. Naturally, writers on the latter portent
found abundant material for comparison. This comet was pos¬
sessed of a beautiful tail, which was undoubtedly a primary cause
of the universal interest aroused. Longomontanus reckoned the
tail to be 104° in length. An abundant contemporary literature
appeared, Carl having recorded nearly one hundred works. Some
of them are of an interesting character. Thomas Maajus pub¬
lished a work at Magdeburg, which has the title, "Zorn Ruthe."
E. de Montlhery put forth a tract named, "De la trompètte du ciel,
ou de la comète de l'an 1618." Caspar Uttenhofer gave to the light
at Nürnberg a "Judicium de nupero Cometa Astrologo-Histori-
cum," and at Strasburg E. Welperus published "Observationes
Astronomicae et Praedictiones Astrologicae, genommen aus dem
Stand und Lauf des Cometens." Numerous sermons on comets
appeared in print. Probably the best known publication of this
character was by Conrad Dieterich, entitled "Ulmische Cometen-
Predig^, so nechst abgewischen 1618 Jahrs im Wintermonat ers-
tenmahls in Schwaben sehen lassen." This work must have had
wide circulation, for its author was one of the best known Luth¬
erans of the day. Among his official positions were the arch-
deaconship of Marburg, a professorship of philosophy in Giessen
and the Lutheran superintendency in southwestern Germany.
The work was of the most superstitious character; a comet was
the brandishing rod of God, "die bald hinter uns her zu wischen
traue." ^
' Op. cit., p. go.
' See Wolf, op. cit., p. 575-
COMETS FROM 1600 TO 1675
17
The mighty significance of this comet could be perceived
only with the lapse of time, and it was reserved for later writers
to explain its true effect on the earth. The works appearing in
i68o refer, almost without exception, to the baneful character
of this great portent. Certainly it came at a very opportune time
to confirm credulity ; its appearance was identical with the begin¬
ning of the Thirty Years War, a war that was of the most sangu¬
inary and devastating character. The case is presented by one
writer in the following conclusive fashion, "In the year i6i8, on
the i8th of November, there was seen for the first time the 'Welt-
beruffene grosse' comet near the right foot of Bootes, and it lasted
for sixty days. Moreover, three other comets were seen in the
same year. What did it signify ? Certainly that which cannot be re¬
lated save with pain and tears. Soon thereafter occurred unrest in
Bohemia, which extended ultimately to all Germany. The Swedes
were enticed from the North, and Saxony, Franconia, 'Bavaria,
Bohemia, Swabia, the Rhine country, Westphalia and other pro¬
vinces were miserably devastated and laid waste in the alternating
victories and defeats. The whole of Europe was in armor ; unfor¬
tunate Germany and the other nations included left 236,000 of
their children on the more important fields of battle, and in addi¬
tion there were losses in sieges and skirmishes. In fact, so griev¬
ously did Sword, Want and Fever rage, that not more than one
man in three was left in the populous Empire. Our charred
buildings and the piles of stone even now witness the dreadful
significance of the comet." Similar, if not as striking, state¬
ments are found frequently. Vulpius, writing in the latter part
of the century, makes the application to the comet of 1680, stat¬
ing that the course, color, and duration of the two were the same.
Therefore, why not the consequences as well ? No wonder a lively
interest was aroused in the comet of 1680 ! ^
It was not until the middle of the century that comets were
again seen. Then three very spectacular ones were observed by
the untrained as well as the trained comet-seekers. The comet of
1652 was of such brightness as to have resembled the moon when
half full. The comets of 1661, 1664, and 1665, appearing as they
did almost contemporaneously, caused an extraordinary amount
^ Mayer, op. cit., 30-31; Unterschiedliche Beschreibungen, p. 45.
18
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
of interest. Pingré records the feeling as follows, "La Comète
de l'an 1652, quoiqu'égale en grandeur au Soleil, dans les premiers
jours de son apparition ne produisit que peu de Dissertations. . . .
La comète, qui parut à la fin de 1664 et au commencement de 1665,
et celle qui succéda aussitôt, dès le mois d'Avril 1665, firent
beaucoup plus de sensation ; elles occasionèrent un nombre infini
d'Écrites, de Traités, de Dissertations, de Conférences, d'Éphém-
érides, de Systèmes." ^ The usual harvest of astrological produc¬
tions is reaped. Among the writers Nottnagel deserves mention
for his "Grundlicher Bericht" because of the frequent reference
made to it by the credulous fifteen years later. Erhard Weigel,
Professor of Mathematics at Jena, and a veritable polyhistor,
began his long series of works on comets in 1661 with his "Specu¬
lum Uranicum Aquilae Romanae Sacrum, das ist, Himmels-
Spiegel." This work was quoted from above in connection with
the comets of note previous to the seventeenth century. It was
reprinted in 1681. In 1664 he published a "Fortsetzung" of this
work, and in 1665 a "Speculum Terrae, darinnen der Erdkreis
und der neue Comet beschreiben wird." His works
were of great influence ; their point of view and importance will
be considered in a later chapter.
A famous work published at this time was the "Theatrum
Cometicum" of Stanislaus Lubienietzky, probably the most sump¬
tuous volume on comets appearing during the century. ^ The
author was a Polish nobleman, and a celebrated minister in the
Socinian Church. A sturdy advocate of religious liberty, he suf¬
fered persecution; his death was said to be caused by poisoning.
The "Theatrum Cometicum" exhibits some freedom from the
older beliefs. Lubienietzky is certain that favorable as well as un¬
favorable occurrences follow the appearance of comets. The high¬
ly decorated title page of his work furnishes an informing picture
of his point of view. In the upper center is God with an open
book in each hand, and above the figure are the words, "Sapiens
dominabitur astris!" The volume in the right hand, inscribed
with the word "Revelatio," is held up high, while the other book,
in a more humble position, has the word "Ratio" across its open
^ Op. cit., I,nios.
®It was first published in Amsterdam in 1667, and was reprinted in 1681.
For the author's life, see Bayle's Dictionnaire, art. Lubienitzki.
COMETS FROM 1600 TO 1675
19
pages. Comets are seen emerging from the clouds in the upper
corners of the sheet. On one side is a hand holding an olive
branch, and above it the words, "Bona bonis," Near a bundle
of rods beside the other hand are the words, "Mala malis." But
the position of the author does not preclude long lists of dire
events, and the reprinting of credulous and highly colored ac¬
counts of observations of the comet of 1664. Moreover, he makes
no effort to force his opinions on anyone. In bidding farewell to
the reader, he says, "Ego sané meam sententiam justis rationibus
munitam et fundatam esse credo. Dissentiendi tamen à me cuique
relinquo integram libertatem." ^
At the beginning of the book he reproduces the numerous
reports that he had received, regarding the latest comet. They
indicate a great deal of fear and unreasoning faith in its.ominous
character. This is a report from Stockholm: "Es hat sich ein
3 tagen her ein ungewöhnlicher Comet alhier sehen lassen, als
des morgens zwischen 3 bis 6 uhren mit einen langen schwantz
vorn an in Westen zu, als ein rutte. Gott sey uns gnädig!" Vienna
forwarded the startling news that the comet had a long tail with
a death's head in the middle, and, as the tail was turned from
East toward the West, it was certain to bring no good. ^ From
France came reports of numerous portents; headless fiery figures
fighting in the mountains of Languedoc, two fiery dragons on the
Loire at Saumur, a fiery vessel at Marseilles.® Advices coming
from Madrid announced evils for the Spanish kingdom; the
appearance of a similar comet in 1580 was followed by the death
of the Queen of Spain, and another, that of 1618, presaged the
death of the Pope, the Emperor of Germany and the King of
Spain. ^ From Moscow came the information that the Grand
Duke had ordered public prayer and fasting, "que de nous donner
la paix desirée, et ésloigner de nous tous ces maux, que tant de
Comètes présagent, et nous en menaçent." ® There is included
as well, a list of definite prognostications. ® This comet was even
concerned with ecclesiastical affairs; the following came from
Wissmar, "In der Marek, sollen zwischen den Evangelischen und
* Theatri Cometici Exitus, p. 78.
^ Theatrum Cometicum, Part One, pp. i, 4. v
* Ibid., p. 10. *Ihid., p. II. ^ Ibid., p. 15. ^ Ibid., pp. 17, 18.
20
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
Reformirten Predigern viel widerwertigkeiten fiirlaufïen. Es
scheinet leider! die Operationes der Cometen lassen sich hand-
greifflich spüren." ^
The forces of credulity seem powerful enough, but they were
further strengthened by the publication at Dresden in 1669 of a
great work on astrology, the "Arboretum Mathematicum" of
Tobias Beutel. In over seven hundred pages all the intricacies of
the art are revealed. There are tables of latitude and longitude,
and of logarithms, of the position of the planets and the heavenly
houses, a full explanation of the varied meanings of the constel¬
lations, planets and principal stars. He also includes a list of five
hundred important cities with their latitude and longitude. Of
course there is a detailed explanation of the way to cast a horo¬
scope, and an appendix contains the birth-hour of numerous great
ones of the earth, including, among the ancients, such worthy and
authentic personages as Noah, Moses, Hercules, Romulus, Cyrus
and Alexander the Great. The moment when Noah saw the light
is given as "Im Jahr der Welt 1056, den 25 September umb. 11
Uhr 44 Minuten, Nachmittags," but Beutel does not teil us the
source of his information. There are also pictorially represented
horoscopes of the principal reigning monarchs of the day, with
a sonnet opposite each, explaining its significance. As one looks
over this extraordinary work, it seems to have every evidence of
being of the most scientific character ; certainly, in the seventeenth
century, it must have impressed people with the great weight of
its learning. It may be a matter of surprise to know that this
ridiculous volume of astral lore was printed with the approbation
of the Elector of Saxony at the Electoral Bookshop.
The picture would be very dark did we not have evidence of
the beginnings of an effective rationalism at this time. There had
been little material of this character on comets previous to the
middle of the century. As early as 1531 Paracelsus had published
a remarkable book on comets, but it exerted little influence. Scali¬
ger is a name to which rationalistic views are attached. He is
quoted by Gottfried Kirch as saying that it is ridiculous to think
that a comet can kill a king or devastate a territory, that many
comets have been seen which were followed by no misfortune
* Ibid., p. 18.
COMETS FROM 1600 TO 1675
21
whatever to men in Europe. ^ We have already mentioned Gas¬
sendi as an opponent of superstition in scientific circles. Gas-
sendi's reward was an accusation of Atheism. ^ A poet, Chris¬
tophe de Gamón, at the beginning of the century had commented
unfavorably on the record of comets, to which so many appealed
with confidence :
"Combien voit-on de fois que le Tout-Puissant jette
Les comètes sans maux et les maux sans comètes." ®
The most important attack on cometary superstition appear¬
ing before i68o was published by Pierre Petit in 1665 at Paris.
This "Dissertation sur la nature des comètes" gains especial value
because it was written at the order of Louis XIV. This act of the
king is a witness to the credulities of the day. Louis felt that
superstitious fear was a hindrance to the advance of his king¬
dom ; Fontenelle records the great alarm of the people in 1654 at
the time of a total eclipse, for they shut themselves up in caves
and cellars, and were not easily persuaded to leave them by the
"philosophers" who wrote so much to reassure them. ^ The
choice of the great monarch was a fitting one. Petit, at this time
sixty-seven years old, had been appointed in 164g "Intendant
général" of all the ports and fortifications of France. ^ He was
a man much interested in astronomical matters, and seems to have
considered carefully the nature and movements of comets. After
refuting the position made sacred for so many centuries by the
magic of Aristotle's name, he avers, with Seneca, that comets are
eternal works of nature. He even affirms belief in their periodic
return, and ventures to prophecy the reappearance of the comet
of 1664 in 1710. He argues from the similarity of the comets of
1664 and 1618, thus reckoning its period as forty-six years in
length. Petit gloried in being the first to reckon the return of a
comet, but he was mistaken, and it was reserved for Halley to
make the first correct prediction. Even though he failed in this
regard, he was not far from the truth in his general positions.
Much of the treatise was taken up with an attack on astrology
^ Op. cit., p. 83.
"Pingré, op. cit., I, 66.
'Champion, op. cit., p. 155.
* Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, London, 1803, p. 43.
® See Le Grande Encyclopédie and Fingré, op. cit., I, 109.
22
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
based on common sense. In answering those who put forward in
opposition to scientific ideas the writers of the early church, he
reminds his readers that the Fathers had opposed the doctrine of
the Antipodes as well. ^ It is hard to know just how much influ¬
ence this work had. Pierre Bayle, writing in 1681, makes a great
deal of use of Petit's "Dissertation" in his attack on cometary
superstition. It must have had considerable effect in intellectual
circles before 1680, for at that time credulity is comparatively
weak in France. In 1681 it was translated into German.^ How¬
ever, the judgment of Pingré inclines to a negative conclusion;
"Sa Dissertation ne paroit pas avoir produit beaucoup d'effet." ^ It
is the advance guard of the forces marshalled with more effective¬
ness fifteen years later.
Such is the record of the first seventy-five years of this cen¬
tury. From this survey it is quite evident that there was an over¬
whelming amount of weakmindedness, with a mass of substantiat¬
ing material, and a settled method of interpretation. When the
comet of 1680 appears in all its splendor, there are memories of
several great portents in the near past, allied with the marks of
a devastating European war, and an advancing Turk. In addi¬
tion, there is the beginning of the rationalistic attack that had, as
yet, effected little. With the comet of 1680 we come to the cul¬
mination of these developments.
* White, op. cit., p. 33.
® Von Bedeutung der Cometen und des Gestirns, auss einem Sendschrei¬
ben Herrn Petri Petiti. Dresden und Zittau, 1681. Pp. 76.
^Op. cit., I, 112.
CHAPTER III
The Great Comet of 1680
The comet, which is the particular subject of this study, was
discovered by a German astronomer and almanac-maker named
Gottfried Kirch. On the 14th of November he had risen early to
make observations of the moon and Mars when he caught sight
of the comet about a quarter of six. At that time it had almost no
tail, and it did not become decidedly spectacular on its approach
to the sun. After it had circled the sun and had begun its return
to the trackless spaces of the universe (24th of December), its
appearance was of such brilliancy as to attract all eyes. It had
formerly appeared in the morning; now it was seen in the even¬
ing. The course of the comet was followed without difficulty
until February 17th; for another month the trained eyes of the
astronomers were able to discern its movements. The comet was
seen first in the sign of Leo, and finally disappeared as it was
about to enter the constellation of Perseus and the Milky Way.
Kirch and several others did not identify the comet seen in No¬
vember in the morning with the one visible after Christmas in
the evening. But an examination of the orbits made it clear that
the two apparitions were caused by the same celestial visitor.
But the interest of the present study is not in the scientific
calculation of an orbit, or the exact record of the comet's course
day by day, but rather the effect of its appearance on the intel¬
lectual life of the time. The interest of many who wrote on the
comet was not primarily scientific. With a few, of whom Pierre
Bayle is the most conspicuous example, the details of the comet's
course or a description of its physical peculiarities is of no impor¬
tance. Ordinarily, however, the writers on this great star are
concerned with its conspicuous appearance as a prime cause of the
effect it produced. The reaction is a very interesting record ; con¬
siderable evidence can be gleaned from the contemporary literary
output.
—23—
24
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
In a collection of descriptions of this "Wunder-comet" which
was published anonymously, are a number of interesting descrip¬
tions. The second one "eines unbenannten autoris" is a fine sam¬
ple of the viewpoint of the less strictly scientific observer. ^ "At
Strassburg on the i6th of November it was observed for the first
time ; on the 26th it was seen 4° from Spica Virginis and 2® from
the ecliptic to the south. From Dresden comes the report that it
was observed on the i8th shortly after three o'clock, but on
account of the clouds the tail was not perceived with clearness.
On the 19th the tail was observed as stretching toward the west;
it was rather thin and extended over a distance of 36®. Its move¬
ment was very swift backward toward the east. It is, indeed,
not directly over our heads, but its supernatural threatenings and
warnings are not far removed from any place. On the 20th,
about five o'clock in the morning, it was seen at Utrecht about 5®
above the horizon in the southeast, its course being directed
toward South America, mid Africa, the East Indian Islands and
the Pacific Ocean."
"We had indeed hoped," he continued, in speaking of its later
appearance, "that this comet, which had not appeared for about
sixteen days, had completely consumed itself, and had ceased
from driving men into tremblings and despair with its threaten¬
ing rod. ^ But this hope was vain, for on Monday the. i6th of
December it was plainly seen in the southeast not long after sun¬
set. The air was not of the clearest then, and the tail could not
be observed in all its extent. Likewise on the following Friday
it was not observed on account of the foggy weather. But I
tremble when I recall the terrible appearance it had on Saturday
evening in the clear sky, when it was observed by everybody with
inexpressible astonishment. It seemed as though the heavens
were burning or as if the very air was on fire. The star itself
(that is, the nucleus of the comet) was not larger than an ordinary
^ Unterschiedliche Beschreibung und Bedeutungen, insonderheit des bissan-
hero nicht sonder grosses Entsetzen erschienenen, und weit und breit ob-
servirten Wunder-Cometen. Gedruckt in Jahr 1681. P. i6ff.
' "Mit seiner draü-ruthen in Zittern und Zagen zu setzen." The confusion
in dates inAhe different accounts arises from the use of the old and new
styles of reckoning used at the time.
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
25
star of the first magnitude, somewhat pale, although it sparkled
at times. But from this little star stretched out such a wonder¬
fully long tail that even an intellectual man was overcome with
trembling; one's hair stood on end as this uncommon, terrible
and indescribable tail came into view. The comet was in the
southwest, and as soon as the setting sun no longer outshone the
stars and they began to appear in the blue heavens, in that same
moment appeared this great new star, whose tail was turned from
the southwest to the northeast. Although the comet was not far
from the horizon, yet this trailing rod raised itself up to the very
highest point of the heavenly vault. It extended about 68° to 70°
in length, the fifth part of a circle, which according to earthly
reckoning would be about one thousand miles in distance. How
many thousands of miles must this tail have stretched in the
heavens ! It was not exactly bright but somewhat pale and trans¬
parent so that some fixed stars could be seen through it. Near
the comet-star where it had its beginning, it was somewhat denser.
Through the 'Tubum' it appeared as a great furnace emitting a
powerful flame. At six o'clock the star went out of sight, but
at eleven o'clock the tail could be seen. The tail stretched through
the heart of the Eagle and the wing of the Swan, even to Cas¬
siopeia. O wonderful almighty God ! The heavens show thy might
and the earth thy handiwork !"
An interesting picture of this great sight is represented on a
large poster published in Nürnberg in 1681. The upper half of
the sheet, which is about twelve inches wide by eighteen inches
long, is occupied by a picture of Nürnberg, the castle being to the
right and the cathedral to the left. In the lower left-hand corner,
just above the buildings of the city, is the head of a comet, and
back of it stretches an increasingly large tail to the opposite upper
corner. Under the tail are the words, "Der Schweifï erstreckt
sich auflf die 1000 Meilen." The title and explanation above affirm
this to be a truly exact representation of the terrible wonder-
comet seen in Nürnberg on the 16/26 December, 1680 at five
o'clock in the afternoon. Below are twelve lines of verse calling
on Germany to repent of her sins on account of this Go^-given
sign of wrath. The conclusion is spirited :
26
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
"Auflf! Teutschland! finde dich zur reue deiner Sünden,
und thu wie Ninwe, so wirstu Gnade finden."^
Such a visitor in the heavens could not help but arouse wide
interest on earth. Pierre Bayle, who was Professor of Philosophy
at Sedan when it appeared, gives, as one of the reasons for writ¬
ing his book on the comet, the numerous inquirers who came out
of curiosity or fear to know its meaning. ^ Benjamin Gerlach in
Germany was in a similar situation ; "I have been asked by many
what the comet signifies, and this has led me to put my thoughts
on paper." ® Johann Schnitzen makes a similar statement. ^
Samuel Virling writes, "Not only has it been witnessed by us but
in other and widely separated places. The daily arriving Post indi¬
cates that it was seen with the greatest wonder in Austria, Italy,
France and elsewhere." ® In general, statements in favor of its
foreboding character predominate. The author of "Cometa Seep-
ticus" declares that some completely deny its prophetic character,
but the majority affirm it. ® Gerlach asserts that most people have
more fear of the comet than they have of God. ^ We have already
quoted Gottfried Kirch in this connection. The State Library at
Zürich possesses a silver medal, struck at the time of the comet's
appearance to allay the terror of the people. On one side is the
picture of the comet and the reverse comforts the people in the
following words, "Der Stern droht Boese Sachen. Trau nur ! Gott
wirds wol machen." ® The widespread superstition regarding this
terrible "wunder-comet" will be made more evident as we examine
the contemporary literature.
^The writer found this and another broadside, representing the comet
over Rome, bound together in a volume of pamphlets on this comet. They
are not a part of any pamphlet in the collection. The only indication of
publication on the picture is "Zu finden bey Johann Hoffman, Kunst^und
Buchhändlern in Nürnberg."
® See the Avertissement to the 3rd edition (1699) of his Pensées diverses
sur la comète.
® Unvorgreiñiches Urtheil von der Cometen Würckung und Bedeutung.
Schweidnitz, 1681, p. 2.
* Op. cit., ch. I.
'Der Wackere Stab. Erffurt, 1681, p. 11.
'P. 18.
' Op. cit., p. r8.
* See Wolf, op. cit., p. 184. For a pictorial representation, see Chambers,
op. cit., p. 103.
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
27
In addition to the comet, as if that were not sufficient cause
for trouble, many people reported other remarkable contemporary
occurrences and discoveries. These confirmatory portents tended
to verify and magnify the significance of this star. The winter
was a very cold one, with an abundance of snow in places where
it seldom appeared. Wagner reported several earthquakes along
the Rhine, and some severe cases of travail in childbirth at Augs¬
burg. He regards these as but additional evidences of approach¬
ing evil. ^ Dörfel records a grevions pestilence in Leipzig, and
he sympathizes with the poor Leipzigers who may have been
studying the heavens for recreation. They would not be com¬
forted by this strange phenomenon, foreboding a possible aggra¬
vation of the pestilence. ^ Vulpius confirms the significance of
this comet by citing the observation of a fire-ball at Nürnberg,
another seen at Dantzig, and a third which fell nine miles from
Berlin. He adds, "Auch den 30 December 3 Monden erschienen.
Wodurch Gott die Menschen auffmuntern will, damit sie desto
weniger an den künfftigen Unglück zu zweiffein haben sollen." ®
The greatest of all confirmatory portents, however, was a
comet-marked egg discovered in Rome. Even the fowls of the
barnyard were brought into sympathy with the situation, and a
hen laid an egg on which was shown the comet. This wondrous
occurrence was vouched for by some important persons in Rome
in letters to people in France and Germany. In both countries
it received considerable notice. Several pictures of the redoubt¬
able hen and her egg are to be found in the German pamphlets.
One fine engraving gives a view of the city of Rome with the
comet above. In the right foreground is the hen sitting on a nest ;
under her wing can be seen the comet-marked egg. To make
plain the marking of the egg, it is pictured again at its actual
size at the left. A comet stretches from the narrow end of the
egg to the nucleus near the other end, where it is surrounded by
four stars. On the engraving is the following information ; "Im
Monat decembris dieses zu entlaufenden i68osten Jahrs, wurde
von gewieser hand aus Rom berichtet, dass daselbst ein Hun ein
^ Cometa disparens, Augsburg, 1681, p. 16.
®In Unterschiedliche Beschreibungen und Bedeutungen, p. 26.
^ Das neulich langgeschwäntste Schrekk-Liecht, Hall in Sachsen, (1681),
p. 10.
28
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
Ey gelegt, worauff der annoch am Himmelstehenden Comet gar
Natürlich abgebildet war, wie in dieser figur zusehen ist." Such
a phenomenon was not unique, apparently, for we hear of other
similarly marked eggs. In 1678 the syllables, "on, pa, re, ma, ne,
pa" were found on an egg laid in Montpellier. The astrologer,
Kostradamy, found that the syllables signified, "Ova parturito,
regnum manebit pacificum." ^ Lubienietzky relates a similar por¬
tent in connection with the comet of 1665 ; at Warsaw an egg was
laid on which were seen the figures "d'une espée, d'une croix
flamboyante, d'une verge et d'un arc bandé."^
The egg discovered in Rome was the cause of so much remark
in France that the "Journal des Sçavans," the organ of the
Academy of Sciences, felt the need of correcting some misappre^
hensions. After apologizing for taking notice of the occurrence,
but justifying their consideration by the great stir it had created,
the editors gave the following report in their issue of January 20.
"Last Monday night, December 2, about eight o'clock (which
corresponds to an hour after midnight according to our reckon¬
ing) a hen which had never before laid an egg, after having
cackled in an extraordinarily loud manner, laid an egg of an
uncommon size. It was not marked with a comet as many have
believed, but with several stars as our engraving indicates. If
the report is true, it would not be the first prodigy of this char¬
acter that has appeared in Italy during eclipses or cometary
appearances. For without speaking of crosses which have appear¬
ed on linen in Calabria at the time of the comet of 1663, there was
shown M. Cassini at one time, in the city of Bologna, a hen's egg
on which was seen in perfect outline a well-marked sun. It was
averred that this egg was laid at the time of an eclipse." ^ In
scientific circles the egg was not taken seriously, but that it was
even necessary for a scientific journal to comment on the incident
indicates that the egg was accepted to a considerable extent as a
confirmatory portent. We shall note, in considering the attack on
* This is in accordance with some manuscript notes in connection with
the picture of the egg described above.
^Op. cit., p. 16.
'Volume 4or 1681, pp. 25-26. The reproduction of the egg facing p. 25
does not show a comet, but a group of stars with extending rays. The
general effect is a vague form something like the comet and its tail.
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
29
superstition in France, the sarcastic treatment of the story by
Fontenelle.
The widespread interest awakened by this comet is expressed
for us most effectively in the literature that resulted. It aroused,
without question, more pamphlets and treatments of all kinds
than any comet before or since. Pingré uses very strong state¬
ments regarding the wealth of ideas and paper expended, "Le
monde étoit inondé d'Ecrits sur ses phénomènes, sur sa nature,
sur ses significations ; car il y avoit encore des Astrologues et des
Cométomantiens. . . .Je crois que les langages n'ont point
été si confondus à la tour de Babel, que les sentiments le furent
sur cette fameuse comète." ^ Such standard works as those of
Weigel and Lubienietzky were reprinted as fitting the occasion.
In addition, a veritable flood of writings for and against its
superstitious character appeared in 1681. Over one hundred
pamphlets were printed in Germany. France saw some of its
ablest writers turn to the subject. England, America, Italy, Spain,
Holland, all made their contributions. This material is of especial
interest to us because the struggle between the two diametrically
opposed views, the theologico-astrological on the one hand, and
the philosophical and scientific on the other, engaged in keen com¬
bat. With the attack of the philosophers and scientists at this
time begins the rapid break-up of the superstition in intellectual
circles. How complete was their victory, we shall endeavor to
indicate in a later chapter.
It is the chief purpose of this study to examine the literary
output resulting from the apparition of this comet, in the endeavor
to understand an important incident in the life of the intellectual
class in Europe. The German and Swiss material will be con¬
sidered first, as it evidences most clearly the grosser side of the
superstition. Then the contribution of England and her colony,
America, will be appraised. Finally, the attack on credulity in
France and Holland will be studied. We shall then be in a posi¬
tion to judge the appearance of this comet as an episode in the
history of rationalism.
^ Op. cit., I, 162, 164.
CHAPTER IV
CoMETARY Influences in Germany and German Switzerland
Section I
gross credulity
The situation in Germany in the latter part of the seven¬
teenth century was not unfavorable to the spread of fear and
superstition. Political disunion had left the German people in
many divisions, while the bordering nation of France had been
consolidated and had never reached a higher point in its develop¬
ment. Louis was then at the zenith of his power. The Peace
of Nimeguen had just been concluded, and it was clear that his
plans for aggrandizement would have further expression. In
1680 the French courts, known as Chambers of Reunion, were
annexing many of the bordering German towns and cities. These
evidences of a Gallic danger were emphasized by the memory of
the Thirty Years War. This conflict had been concluded by the
Peace of Westphalia a little over thirty years before; its marks
were still on land and people. The comet of 1618, coming just at
the outbreak of hostilities, had undoubtedly done much to impress
more deeply the superstitous beliefs in comets ; there never was a
more malign coincidence in the history of superstition. The
amount of reference, in the pamphlets of 1681, to that great war-
comet, is significant of this feeling. In addition, the Turks were
a real menace. The so-called First War with the Mohammedans
had been concluded in 1664 by a treaty favorable to Germany's
opponents. The Second War was to begin in 1682, and the fol¬
lowing year was to see the siege of Vienna and its rescue by John
Sobieski of Poland. The almost universal prognostications in the
comet-pamphlets of a war with Turkey indicate that the cloud
of invasion was already on the horizon. In theological circles,
the mystic type of mind, which was not keenly alive to intellectual
—30—
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
31
developments, was becoming dominant in Germany. A great
revival of "heart religion" had been inaugurated by the Pietists,
Spener and Francke, within Lutheranism, and was to be per¬
petuated in non-conformist circles by the zeal of Zinzendorf. It
was the dominant religious force of the time ; the Enlightenment
was to obtain momentum only in the next century. In view of
these conditions it is not a matter of surprise to find superstition
the prevalent feature of the widespread literature resulting from
the comet of 1680.
The pamphlets, some containing hundreds of pages, others
not more than twelve or sixteen, were numerous. At least a hun¬
dred can be collected as the contribution of Germany and German
Switzerland. ^ With few exceptions the pamphlets are not con¬
fined to the purely scientific aspects of the situation. In Germany,
even those who regarded themselves as scientists usually con¬
cluded their study of the comet with a section "von der Bedeutung
dieses Cometen." Dörfel, who is credited with the first affirma¬
tion of the parabolic nature of this comet's orbit, and Kirch, who
was connected with the Berlin Academy at its foundation, were
impelled to a discussion of the theological question. There is a
small group of writings treating the superstition antagonistically,
but they are, for the most part, by philosophers and not by scien¬
tists. One work of this group, the "Cometa Scepticus," reports
that while some deny the "Bedeutung" of this comet, the major¬
ity affirm it. ^ The writings that have been examined in connec¬
tion with this study will be grouped, therefore, with regard to
greater or less thoroughgoing acceptance of the superstition and
with respect to antagonism to the prevalent ideas. The most
credulous will be treated first ; the sceptics, last.
Johann Jacob Zimmermann, "diaconus zu Bietigheim," pub¬
lished in 1681 at Stuttgart a work called "Cometo-scopia, oder
Himmel-gemäser Bericht . . . des Wunder-Sterns und
Cometens." This astrological work was introduced by a long
dedication to the Duke of Würtemberg and Teck. The early
chapters deal with the comet's movements through the heavens,
^ Carl's Repertorium reports about 75. The present writer, from other
sources and personal investigation, is able to increase the number of titles
to about 100, See the Bibliography II, A.
' P. 18.
32
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
and this is followed by a series of careful computations as to its
exact positions at different moments in its progress. He does
this by considering it as one point in a triangle, the other points
being well known stars, and the distances being reckoned from
Tycho Brake's Register. It is an exercise in astronomical geom¬
etry ; the matter is even put in the form by which a theorem is dem¬
onstrated. With this start he launches into the "Astro-Theolo-
gische Ausslegung berechneten Cometens" by quoting from the
Nineteenth Psalm (as the words of Daniel!), "The heavens de¬
clare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork."
This is followed by a quotation from Jeremiah (I, 11-14),
which was the nearest reference to a comet that these writers
could find in the Bible. As this portion of Jeremiah is very much
used, it may be well to give it here. "Moreover, the word of Jeho¬
vah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, What seest thou? And I
said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said Jehovah unto me,
Thou hast well seen: for I watch over my work to perform it.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying.
What seest thou? And I said, I see a boiling caldron, and the
face thereof is from the north. Then Jehovah said unto me. Out
of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the
land." These words of the prophet seem far enough removed
from comets, but they were the classical basis for substantiating
the belief by the Bible. In fact, the theological interpreters of
comets were much hampered by this Scriptural silence. But alle-
gorization came to their assistance, especially in connection with
the verses given above. Zimmermann doubts not that the
"wackere Stab oder aussgetreckte Ruthe" and the "siedende
Topff" of Jeremiah refer to a long-tailed and fiery,comet.
He concludes this pamphlet with a dozen questions and as
many surprising answers as to its nature. ^ The matter is at
times so astrological as to be difficult of interpretation to one not
versed in that science. Because the comet appeared in the morn¬
ing and kept on the sun's path, he concludes, according to the
"Ptolemaei aphorisma," an acceleration and maturing of it effect.
Because the tail was turned westward and the comet was ulti¬
mately lost behind the sun, he decides there shall be grave and
^Pp. 17-19.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
33
violent results. This is inferred also from the length of the tail.
The fact that the comet traversed the three zodiacal signs of the
Virgin, Libra and the Scorpion points to the probability that the
three chief troubles of mankind, Pestilence, War and Want, will
result. The Virgin is a "signum sterilitatis," Libra, of the execu¬
tion of divine justice, and the Scorpion is poisonous. This is
further affirmed because the three chief stars of these constella¬
tions show these dire qualities. Because the comet was seen for
eleven or fourteen days (he is not sure which), it signifies that the
effect of this apparition is to continue for that many years; the
troubles foretold will last until 1690, at least. ^ The comet had a
pale white color like that of the planets Saturn and Mercury,
whose qualities it therefore exerts; he predicts, among other
evils, a predominating "Krankheiten in denen Gliedern." General
plagues are to result from the fact that it had three stars of the
first magnitude in front of it, at its first appearance, and later in its
rear. He shows his intellectual impotence when he decides that
the infallibility of these dire influences is made certain by the
regularity of the comet's movements. The writer rounds out
these prophecies by affirming that the evil effects of this comet
shall strike first the northern and European peoples and later the
southern and Asiatic, all because this unoffending comet "anfangs
eine mittnächtige, und nachmals mittägige Latitudinem hatte
. . von Abend gegen Morgen lauffende."
This all seems very strange; it is a matter of wonder how
such things could be asserted and believed by any large number
of trained people. Such pamphleteers as George S. Virling of
Eisenach, the Mathematicus Friedrich Büthner of Dantzig, J. M.
Polzius, "Prediger an St. Johannis Kirchen" in Rostock, J. H.
Voigt of Hamburg, Johann Mayer, "Pfarrer zu Layehingen auf
der Alb," Simon Bornmeister and J. C. ^Wagner of Nürnberg,
Johann Frick of Ulm, and many other writers, clerical and lay,
are as grossly credulous as J. J. Zimmermann, the Bietigheim
"diaconus."
An interesting member of this group is Samuel Virling, who
took the words of Jeremiah, quoted above, as the basis for his
pamphlet on the comet, "Der wackere Stab des Herren." The
^ This refers to the Cometa Matutinus.
34
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
author was undoubtedly an ecclesiastic, for he makes an extremely
liberal use of Biblical references throughout, while the first part
of the pamphlet is in the form of a homily, which may have
served as a "Buss-Predigt." The development of this preacher's
thought is interesting, as showing a type of jeremiad very com¬
mon in Germany in connection with this comet. He considers
first the condition of Jerusalem in the days of the prophet when
no improvement came in the lives of the hardened and obstinate
Jews. It then became necessary for God to reveal his plans to
Jeremiah by showing him the budding almond rod in the sky.
Virling interprets this to mean that God will hasten his judgment,
for the almond blooms early, and that he will inflict a heavy and
intolerable punishment, for the almond rod is straight and heavy.
This "wackere Stab" is then declared to be "einen erschreck¬
lichen Schwantz-stern, oder Cometen" because Josephus records
a comet's appearance over Jerusalem before its capture by the
Romans. The leap from the almond rod of Jeremiah and the
fall of Jerusalemn to his own day is easily made; he decides that
God has sent his "wackere Stab" as a warning and an awakener
of true repentance. As a proof of the correctness of his homiletic
method, he simply recalls what is still fresh in the memory of all
Germans.
Virling thereupon proceeds to a very lugubrious "History of
Our Own Times." Since the beginning of the sixteenth century
the old German "Redlichkeit, das gut vertrauen, Liebe und Einig¬
keit" have been lost. Enmity and bitterness have replaced them.
The bloody Thirty Years War, in which millions were slain, was
portended by a "rod" in the heavens, the comet of 1618, "deren
würckung, weil wenig frömmigkeit darauff erfolgete, Deutschland,
leider! mehr, als zu viel, mit seinem höchsten Schaden und Ver¬
wüstung erfahren." Finally, the long-desired peace came, but
through God's pity. However, as there was no improvement in
the morals of the people, and men traveled in their former paths
of sin, in 1652 a new comet appeared in the heavens as a warning.
Thereupon Sweden began a grievous war in Poland. The on¬
slaught of the Turks on Hungary was foretold by the comet of
1661. On this same account arose a "schreckliche Sturmwind"
%
which raged through all Germany. For like purposes this most
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
35
recent "wackere Stab" has appeared in the heavens at the present
time. Virling speaks of the widespread interest it has aroused,
and the numerous conjectures as to its meaning. [ "Different per¬
sons at Rome and Paris hold that it signifies the death of a great
monarch ; another deems it to portend a terrible war ; some pro¬
claim, as a result of its appearance, grievous sickness, increase
in epidemics and pestilences; others prophesy failure of crops,
famine, want, severe travail to women in childbirth. There are
a few who turn its significance from us to the Turks, Persians
and other Eastern peoples. It is certain that the heavenly Father
has grown angry or he would not have stretched such a wonder¬
fully long rod over us to show the readiness and harshness of his
vengence (Rache)
The homily is concluded by a statement of the purpose of the
second part of the pamphlet ; "We shall accordingly, with God's
help, show with what form and in what place in the heavens the
comet arose, how many heavenly signs or star-pictures it touched
in its course and cut with its enormous tail; finally what is the
probable significance of the comet, placing before the eyes of the
well disposed as much as can be perceived by the learned and
expert students of the heavens." ^ The latter portion of the work
is a careful study of the comet from the purely astrological stand¬
point with much the same results as those obtained by Zimmer¬
mann. One fact not noted by Zimmermann is that the tail cut
through the constellation of the Eagle. Virling regards this as
very serious, for the comet of 1661 was at the head of the Eagle
and signified the attack of the Turks on the Empire. The Turkish
nightmare calls forth an eloquent appeal to patriotism; "Dieser,
umb so viel grösser, als jener (of 1661), durchstriche mit seinem
Schwantz den Adler, dahero klärlich zusehen, und schliessen, das
etwas grosses mit Deutschland vor sey: Mehrere indicia will und
darff nicht melden : Hannibal ad portas ! die Gefahr is vor äugen,
es weisen auch die vielen Wunderzeichen, so bissher, und noch
kürzlich, hin und wieder gesehen worden." ^ He concluded very
naively. In several places in Germany is was remarked that the
tail on its first appearance was turned in the direction of France.
Every nation has its fate and from the height of prosperity it
' P. 18.
' P. 50.
36
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
must fall and be dissolved. It apparently never occurred to this
writer that his point of observation on the earth modified the direc¬
tion in which the tail pointed.
This production of G. S. Virling of Eisenach has been dealt
with at some length because it is a splendid example of the com¬
mon calls to repentance. Very many sermons must have been
preached in much the same vein as this one. Franckfurt saw in
print at least four sermons on this threatening star. ^ B. von
Sanden of Königsberg applied the words of the magi to the
portent. ^ Darmstadt, Schwäbish Hall, Ulm, Hamburg and Augs¬
burg were also places of publication of further "simple" thoughts
of preachers of repentance. ® Carl records the title of a published
Jesuit sermon. ^ In Zürich, Pastor Heinrich Erni of the Cathedral
sent a circular letter to the clergy of the region pointing out the
relation of the words of Jeremiah to the comet, and exhorting the
clergy to preach earnestly on the subject of this warning. The
government of Zürich caused a special "Buss-mandat" to appear
as a result of this new rod in the sky. ® One thing of which we
can be very sure is that the religious forces in Germany, Protestant
as well as Catholic, were overwhelmingly on the side of super¬
stition. ®
As we have indicated above, the preachers who wrote on the
comet were quite troubled by the lack of Biblical evidence. It
was especially disconcerting that comets were not included among
the works of Creation as recorded in the opening chapters of
Genesis. The usual assumption was that God did not regard
them as distinct from stars. An interesting pamphlet by a theolo¬
gian is that of Johann Mayer, "Pfarrer zu Layehingen auf der
* See Bibliography II, A, under the names Rudrauff, Leisten, Langemann
and Horben for the titles.
von Sanden, Einfältige Predigt ueber die Worte: Wir haben seinem
Stern gesehen, nebst beigefügter Application auff den Cometen, Königsberg,
1Ó81.
® See Bibliography II, A, under names List, Stattmann, Müller, Veiel
and Reiser for titles.
*0p. cit., p. 83. Underricht von dem Wundergrossen Comet Stern von
einem Priester Societät Jesu, 1681 (no place).
'Wolf, op. ^it., p. 184; White, op. cit., p. 27.
'For further evidence of the comet-sermons, see, M. Martini Lipenii,
Bibliotheca Realis Theologica omnium materiarum, rerum et titulorum in
universo sacros auctae theologiae studio occurentium, Frankfurt, 1685.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY 3T
Alb." ^ The plate, which he made showing the comet's course
through the constellations, was so pleasing to Friedrich Carl, Duke
of Würtemberg and Teck, that the latter desired its publication
with a "Bericht." This pamphlet, which thus appeared with the
ducal approbation, bases the comet's movements on God almighti-
jiess, substantiating the argument with a liberal use of Scripture.
Tie regards its extraordinary character as evidence that it is a
divine, uncommon, and above all, supernatural and terrible crea¬
tion of Godr^ His argument is very simple and probably appealed
to the great majority. Uncommon and wonderful things are
forebodings of future misfortune. Comets are phenomena of this
character in the heavens. Therefore they are signs of future
misfortunes. ® This is supported, on the one hand, by the prodi¬
gies preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, the plagues of Pha¬
raoh and the prophecies of Joel (II, lo). In addition, the his¬
torians are cited to show the events that have followed comets.
This leads him to a treatment of the comets of the sixteenth cen¬
tury in particular. A final proof to him of the supernatural char¬
acter of these heavenly bodies was the common consent and agree¬
ment of all people. He concludes his argument with a quotation
from Luther. Mayer's presentation is an able statement of the
ordinary views. He concludes with the usual prognostications,
among other things he considers the length of the infiuence.
Because the comet appeared for eighty-four days, he is precluded
from regarding a day as equivalent to a year's or a half-year's
influence. He suggests, as an explanation, that the number of
years that it is to be a bane should be reckoned according to the
number of moons it was seen. *
One of the most elaborate treatments of the comet is a work
of over two hundred pages, composed by two ministers, Johann
Frick of Ulm and Simon Bornmeister of Nürnberg. ^ This elab¬
orate publication is introduced by a number of poetic effusions
by fourteen of the friends of Johann Frick among the clergy and
city officials of Ulm and the vicinity. There are fifteen chapters,
the first dealing with the etymology of the word, comet, the
^ Vorstellung der jüngst-erschienenen Cometen^JJlm, 1681.
® P. 23. ' P. 27. * P. 49.
^Philosophisches und Theologisches Bedencken, Ulm, 1681, pp. 228.
38
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
eleventh proves from Scripture that comets are signs of God's
wrath, the twelfth proves the same thing from experience, and
the last chastises those who teach that comets signify nothing.
The theological interpretation can be illustrated at almost
any length and from practically every pamphlet issued at this
time. Fridericus Büthner, calling himself a "mathematicus," pub¬
lished at Dantzig in 1681 a work dealing with this comet as a sign
of warning. ^ He admits that God only knows the infallible sig¬
nificance of such a great wonder. "But to the extent that human
weakness can grasp it, I hold this and all other things like it to
be signs of warning." ^ There is a liberal amount of reference
to past comets, and the probable events that will follow this one
are considered. He concludes his treatise with the words, "Gott
warnet !" Johann Vulpius published at Hall in Sachsen a curious
little work of twelve pages. ^ He finds, as we have already noted,
supporting evidence of the comet's dreadful message in several
"eingefallen Wunderzeichen," that appeared in Germany at that
time. Towards the close of the pamphlet he quoted the Buss-
Spiegel of D. Christian Gilbert, who declares that there are four
pulpits from which God exhorts men to repentance, "nehmlich der
Kirchen-Cantzel, Hauss-Cantzel, Wunder-Canzel und Land-
Cantzel. Wenn sich nun die Leute von den Kirchen und Haus-
Cantzeln zur Frömmigkeit und Lebens-Besserung nicht bringen
lassen wollen, so prediget Er von der Wunder-Cantzel mit allerley
Zeichen und Schreck-Bildern, Cometen, Feuer-Ruthen und der¬
gleichen." ^ Jacob Honold of Ulm published a pamphlet on this
"Monitor hominum novissimus," in which he agrees with Lpther
that comets are directly subject to God's will. He concludes his
work by putting the "application" in the form of a sonnet. -
^ Astronomische und Astrologische Beschreibung und Betrachtung selt¬
samer Begebenheiten des Cometen . . . nebenst deren Muthmassung
oder Bedeutung. Danzig, 1681.
^ Op cit., p. 9.
^ Das neulich früh letzt aber Abends, vielfältig gesehene lange-schwäntzte
Schrekk-Liecht. Hall in Sachsen.
* Op. cit., p. 10.
^Monitor hqminum novissimus, das ist, Kurtzer Bericht von dem unge¬
wöhnlich grossen Cometen, welcher in verwichner Winters-Zeit erschie¬
nene, Ulm, 1681.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
39
One of the most interesting publications of the year is a col¬
lection of various opinions on this comet, printed without the
name of the compiler or the place of publication. ^ In this work
of forty-six pages, nine different descriptions of this comet are
reprinted, of which only four have the names of their authors
given. The second extract "eines unbenannten Autoris" has
already been quoted from at length in chapter three. In addition
this author gives an interesting versified rendering of the eight
"Landstraffen," which were supposed to follow a comet :
"Gross Wasser, theure Zeit, Pest, Krieg und Feuersnoth,
Erzitterung der Erd, und grosser Herren Tod,
Verändert Regiment. Dergleichen grosse Plagen
Auff deine Sünd, O Welt, Cometen dir ansagen."
He is satisfied that the list is correct : "Gnug ists, das man leider
mehr als zu viel erfahren hat, dass allemahl bey Erscheinung eines
Cometen eine von denen 8 Land-Straffen erfolget." The third
excerpt, "Eine nähere Beschreibung dieser erschrecklichen Com¬
eten," regards a comet not only as a "Zorn-Zeichen" but as a
"Gnaden-Zeichen," because Íhis godly Majesty, although angered
on account of our sins, also entices us to repentance." £] "Noch
eine andere" (the fourth description) saw this "terrible comet-
star" from the city of Hamburg. As to what it signifies, the
Great Triune God will soon enough reveal it. ® One selection is
from "Eines vornehmen Predigers aus Breslau," who regards
this terrible comet as increasing epidemics, and other severe pun¬
ishments. ^ The eighth insertion is a short anonymous descrip¬
tion of interest; "The comet was seen in the Eagle and its tail,
which was 80° in length, that is, 1200 German miles long and one
hundred broad, mounted thirty degrees above our horizon, and
kept going higher day by day. Its 'motus proprius' is between
Aquila and Sagittarius on the one side and the Dolphin on the
other, through the right wing of the Swan up to the constellations
^ Unterschiedliche Beschreibung- und Bedeutungen, so wohl der Cometen
ins Gemein, als insonderheit des bissanhero nicht sonder grosses Entsetzen
erschienenen; und weit und breit observirten Wunder-Cometen
und gedruckt im Jahr 1681.
' Op. cit., p. 2$. ^ Ibid., p. 2$. *Ibid.,p.38.
40
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. I hold that it signifies a new kaiser." ^
A solicitous theologian of Glarus in Switzerland, Hans Heinrich
Blumer by name, printed a timely pamphlet in 1682 in which he
pictured the comet as an artistic creation of the Great Painter,
pictured in the colors of nature. He taught that God did this to
bring back his erring children to the true ways by reminding them
of the blows of the corrective rod. ^ Other instances of this kind
could be given, but these will suffice to show the wide-spread idea
of punishment and consequent repentance involved.
Among the writers who can be classed as grossly credulous,
are several of especial value because they show evidence of a
knowledge of the newer sceptical viws. However, they are quite
impervious to the new ideas with the result that we have some
interesting retorts to the rationalizing opinions. A very zealous
writer on comets was Johann Henrich Voigt, "Konigl. Schw.
Math, zu Stade." He published at Hamburg works on the comets
of 1664, 1665, 1677 and 1680. For twelve years previous to 1681
he had regularly issued almanacs. ® His writings on the comets
of 1677 and 1680 are of interest in the present study. On the
former he published a "Christmässige Betrachtung der Cometen,"
which he says, in his Preface, might as well have as its title,
"Cometische Rendevous," or "Cometischer Welt-Lauff" or
"Türkische und Teutsche Weck-Uhr." This alarm-clock-comet
was to wake up the Turks and Germans within two years time,
when the Lord would begin to perform a strange work by this
war. The kingdom of Hungary shall be freed from the Turks by
1688. ^ By 1696, according to this comet and those of 1664 and
1665, will come the end of the age. The Christian Church shall
have reconquered Jerusalem by that time, and, with the return
of Christianity to the early home of the Jewish and Christian
faiths, the end of things shall come. Voigt ardently hopes that
the Lord Jesus will remain "with us while it is now evening." ^
^ Ihid., p. 42. ' Wolf, op. cit., p. 184.
® According to his own statement in Sendschreiben . . . betreffende
die rechte und unrechte stellen des wahren Osterfeyer alten Julianische
calendar, 1681.
® F. 19. " P. 20.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
41
His idea of the nature of a com^ is interesting in view of the im¬
pending scientific discoveries. \Comets were made at the first
creation for the announcement and proclamation of strange, won¬
derful and highly-marvellous world changes. God has placed
them on high and given them an infrequent and wonderful appear¬
ance. When something extremely important is to be announced,
they are allowed to come into the lower part of their spheres
and nearer the earth. They then, as special ambassadors, appear
and preach as prophets from the pulpit of high heaven, after
which they rise to the upper part of their courses and disappear
Voigt does not evidence, in this pamphlet published in 1677,
any necessity of being on the defensive. It is very significant of
the movement of thought at the time that four years later, when
writing on the comet of 1680, he should have shown considerable
bitterness and acidity in defending his point of view. ^ As one
of the most thoroughgoing of the "old school," he may have been
open to attack; at any rate, he is conscious of the opposition.
Quotations from Luther are given very liberal space on his title-
page and the next sheet. ® The third page is occupied by one
short verse from the Book of Malachi, "Schicke dich Israel,
und Begegne deinem Gott!" In his Address to the God-loving
and God-fearing Reader, he refers to the stiff-necked and accursed
atheists and Epicureans, who try to bring God's work of wonder
into derision and to make "die Göttliche Maacht-Zorn- und Straff-
Ruther nur von blaue Erden-Dunst, als brennende Strohwische."
He doubts whether he can move their hearts with the hammer of
God's Word and turn them from their "verteuffeiten Welt- ja
Höllen-Gedancken und Meynungen." In speaking of the mean¬
ing of the comet, in the latter part of the treatise, he had his oppon¬
ents in mind ; "Truly, all the hearts, who have yet a little fear of
God in them, and are not pure naturalists or naturalizing atheists
and false Christians, speak by means of their conscience, saying
that this terrible and grievous 'Himmels-Wunder' is nothing else
than a revelation of the wrath of God from heaven against all
^ Pp. .1-23.
' Cometa Matutinus et Vespernitis, Hamburg, t68i.
® For Luther's beliefs, see Chapter One.
42
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
ungodliness and unrighteousness." ^ The sceptics had used with
effect the words of Jeremiah (X, 2), "Fear not the signs of the
heavens as do the heathen," interpreting it to mean that Christians
should not believe in the supernatural character of comets. Voigt
says this verse is misconstrued if the context is not considered;
the heathen have a superstitious idolatrous fear of the stars. A
true Christian should have a "kindliche Furcht" of God Almighty,
who sent the comets. He does not fear the comet but God who
made the comet. "Ey ! so ist es warlich ein schlecht Cavalliers-
Herz, welches die Göttliche, grausame Zorn-Ruthe, nur einem
brennendem Strohwische gleich achtet; und in solcher des All¬
mächtigen Schöpffers Verachtung, mit solchem behertzen Stroh-
wisch-Gedancken geschäfftig ist, des Satan-Höllen feuer damit
unterhalten zu helffen." ^ At least, this writer cannot be accused
of lacking vigor.
When it comes to the meaning of the comet he is just as sure
as he was in 1677. After the deluge God began to send comets
as warnings, and, as men disregarded them, God increased the
number and frequency of their appearances. "But since even
these were not regarded, God sends this comet with such an un¬
common, terrible and long tail, as has never been seen since the
world began. Consider the great God's wonder-work and believe
truly that God the Lord will come to punish our ungodliness
with a much longer and stronger arm, and that soon! soon!!
soon ! ! !" ® Nearly every evil is predicted, and he cheerfully con¬
cludes from the length of the tail that it signifies "straffen und
Plagen" for the world. He is still of the opinion that he held
in 1677 that the end of the age will come in 1696. ^ A period of
sixteen years elapsed between the.comets of 1664 and 1680 ; the ad¬
dition.of sixteen more years brings him to 1696. Thus this comet is
revealed in order to emphasize the meaning of the portent of 1664.
To him the great tail is the final and conclusive argument. Dar¬
ingly he challenges his opponents by its witness, "Hörets ihr
Naturalisten ! und vernehmts ihr Atheisten !' ® Probably no bet-
^ Op. cit., p. 21. He has Romans I, 18 in mind.
'^Ibid., p. 23.
^ Ibid., p. 24. The exclamation points are Voigt's.
* Ibid., V'26. ^Ibid., p. 28.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
43
ter example could be adduced that for vigor and crass supersti¬
tion and profound belief in his unimpeachable orthodoxy could
equal this work emanating from the city of Hamburg.
A man of similar cast of mind and with a like consciousness
of the naturalizing tendency was Johann Christoph Wagner, who
published his works on the comet in the city of Augsburg. ^ This
writer was greatly obsessed by the tail. He gives an elaborate
account of the famous comet tails of the past, but finds that since
the birth of Christ no such tail has appeared save the one accom¬
panying the comet of 1618. He even adds a table showing the
length in German miles as reckoned on earth and as applied to
the heavenly spaces. For example, the tail on December 27th was
76° long, and, therefore, 61,625 German miles in length accord¬
ing to "sky" measurements. In discussing its significance, he
shows a knowledge of and a partial assent in the newer views.
"Some," he writes, "regard it as ridiculous that comets can have
a meaning. But comets are not so easily dismissed. For, although
they have their natural causes and are not evil in themselves, yet
one must not reject the belief that they bring great changes, as
the frequent examples in the historians show. Wherefore, it is
not absurd, when one sees such a terrible heaven-sign, to ask
what it signifies, especially as a comet is something peculiar and
not seen at all times. ^ One should like this writer to go on and
explain how a body having a natural movement can be at the same
time a sign. He does not see the need of following his logic,
overborne, undoubtedly, by too great a respect for the writings of
the "historians;" he bases his belief on experience. "A comet,
whether or not it is natural, is a warning and a 'Buss-prediger' of
God, by means of which he beckons us from evil to good." ® At
this point, also, he is conscious of attack. "Experience shows that
important changes have followed all cométs, as the lists of the
learned indicate. And it is a foolish objection when men write
that many punishments and misfortunes have occurred, and elec¬
tors and potentates died when no comet was in sight. The astrol-
^ Gründlicher und warhaffter Bericht von dem Ursprung der Kometen
. aus Anlass dess gegenwärtigen schröcklichen Komet-Sterns, etc.,
Augsburg, 1681. Also, Cometa Dispar ens, dabist. Gründlicher Bericht von
dem fernem Lauff des Komet-Sterns, Augsburg, 1681.
^Cometa Disparens, p. 13. ^Ibid., p. 15.
44
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
ogical writers teach clearly that a comet's influence does not begin
immediately on its appearence, but in accordance with the peculiar
conditions of the heavens." He concludes, that as the comet of
1618 was seen sixty days and was a baneful influence for the next
thirty years, so this comet will be a menace for over forty years,
as it has been seen for eighty-four days. God give fortune and
victory to our leader, his Imperial Majesty, against all enemies
who shall seek to cause unrest in the Empire !" ^
A fitting climax to this group of apologists is Johann Mauri-
cius Polzius, "Prediger" in St. John's Church in Rostock. In
1682, the year following the publication of the works we have
noted hitherto, he published a pamphlet called "Eine neue grosse
Himmels-Lampe." It deals primarily with the comet of 1682,
known as Halley's comet. It is all the more significant because,
following the works for and against superstition published in
1681, the treatise is definitely an answer to the scoffers and athe¬
ists, and a witness of the vigorous treatment of the obscurantists.
Nothing could be more significant of the trend of the movement.
The defense is that of a devout Christian and a good Lutheran.
Scripture is used in abundance, more than thirty-five references
to the Bible occurring in this small pamphlet of sixteen pages.
As a supplement to the Biblical proof are the authorities in the
church and the world. A long list of Lutheran divines, begin¬
ning with Luther, Melanchthon and Osiander are called forward
to witness to the belief. Astronomers such as Tycho Brahe,
Regiomontanus and Nottnagel are declared to affirm the value of
comets as signs. "Why have Hevelius, likewise Lubienietzky, the
very famous Weigel, Ricciolus, Alstedius, Herlicius, Rasch and
others written volumes on them ? What shall we say of the senti¬
ments of the Kaiser Ludwig, the God-fearing Charles the Fifth,
their Royal Majesties of Sweden, and other potentates, as they
have expressed themselves in their 'Busstage-Intimationen' ?"^ He
develops and then answers the positions of the scoffers, argument
for argument. "Some endeavor with their atheistic smoke," he
says, "to darken these heavenly torches, as well as many other
works and wonders of God, and to apply their foolish and flippant
ribaldry to its possible meanings or its supposed accomplish-
pp. 16, 17. 'P. II.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
45
ments. ^ When the common people hear these ideas, both the men
and the women shake off all the restraints as despicable, and go
into all abuses and vices. They say, ^hat harm can a floating
star do me ? It is a poor wandering star not able to find its way ;
it signifies as much as when a hound howls or an owl hoots. "This
surely," continues Polzius, "fulfills the prophecy of Peter (II
Peter III, 3) Tn the last days mockers shall come with mockery,
walking after their own lusts.' " ^
In concluding he considers several of the common objections
to the meaning of comets, and answers them cleverly, if super¬
ficially. ® It is said that they have their natural causes. But why
cannot they be used by God as signs? In the second place it is
pointed out that they are not mentioned in Scripture. The reply
of Polzius is clever; the word comet is not in the Old Testament,
for it is a Greek word; in the New Testament they are called
signs. A third objection is based on the words in Jeremiah (X, 2)
regarding the heathen's fear of the signs of the heavens. His
reply is that a reading of the context will make the meaning clear.
To the objection that they signify good as well as evil, he retorts
that they certainly do signify good for the pious and faithful who
turn from their sins. The fifth point of attack was that comets
were not evil because they were of good parentage and in the
good heavens. Polzius replies sarcastictlly ; Certainly, all God's
creatures are good, even "Bircken, Blitz, Donner und der Teuffei
selbst." A sixth point was that, since they have been seèn by the
whole world, they cannot threaten any particular place, but the
world in general. The writer of this pamphlet recalls his school
days in replying to this objection; the master puts the rod in the
window, and all the children fear, but he has in mind only the
mischievous. A last objection dealt with the fact that nothing
evil had yet followed the great comet of 1680. He answers, "Can
we see no evil ? or does God intend something yet ? God be prais¬
ed'that so far the godly with their prayers have held it off!"
One is tempted to ask this defender of superstition if the school¬
master of his day would have been inclined to remit the punish-
^He may be referring here to the airy way in which the comet of 1680
was treated at the French court. See below, chapter six.
' P. 9. ' P. 16.
46
THE GREAT OOMET OP 1680
ment due the mischievous ones at the request of the good boys
and girls, or would the schoolmaster have regarded the request
as mischievous ?
There can be no doubt from the above evidence that super¬
stition of the crassest variety was abroad in Germany in the years
following the appearance of the great comet. It is also plain that
the later writings are conscious of a growing opposition to the
older views. But the ranks of the credulous still had the majority,
and the scoffers felt it safer to conceal their identity. We next
consider those who had gone part way on the road to reason, and,
finally, the thoroughly sceptical and accursed "atheists."
Section II
semi-superstition
The picture would be dark indeed if we could find among the
superstitious of the day no modification of the grosser beliefs.
An indication of the advance of the sceptical movement is the
evidence of its partial influence on some, at least, of the writers
on comets. Among the publications on this comet some works
can be found which occupy this half-way position; the scientific
views are largely affirmed, and yet the "Bedeutung" is not alto¬
gether surrendered. It is interesting that the best known Ger¬
man writers on the comet are in this group. The feeling of re¬
sponsibility for the morals of the common people, or the inability
to see the intellectual weakness of a half-way position, or the
economic interest of retaining a lucrative position prevented them
from advancing to the point of scepticism.
An example of this type of thinking is found in an anonym¬
ous pamphlet, entitled "Betrachtung und Bedencken über den
entsetzlichen Cometen." ^ The work tends decidedly
to the scientific side. Regarding unknown things the author holds
that it is better to be silent than to attempt an explanation, denies
^ There is no place of publication indicated.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
47
the influence of comets on the weather, and regards judicial as¬
trology as largely superstitious. ^ He qualifies his judgment, how¬
ever, by saying that one must not deny all meaning, and concludes
that the swift course of this comet and its double appearance
morning and evening must signify a swift-following misfortune.
The works of Friedrich Madeweis are to be placed here
also. ^ He published, with the permission of the elector of Bran¬
denburg, three works on this comet, two in Latin and one in Ger¬
man. ® In the work written for the popular eye the last chapter
is given over to the significance of the comet. After confessing
that astrology is not pleasing to him, God only knowing the future
"contingentia," he at least hopes the significance accorded to it by
astrology may not come true. Nevertheless, he gives the astrolo¬
gical interpretation at some length.
A more famous scientist to write on this comet was George
Samuel Dörfel. ^ Although a minister of Upper Saxony, his care¬
ful observations enabled him to take an important part in the
scientific development. ® Although he was an accurate observer
of the phenomena of the heavens, he was not completely divorced
* Pp. 22-24.
'Madeweis was born in 1648, studied at Jena, in 1672 was co-rector of a
grammar school in Berlin, and in 1681 the Great Elector named him Post¬
master at Halle. He was "ein gelehrter Polyhistor." His publication,
Redux apparitio novi cometae 1680 et 1681, secured him a sure place in
the annals of astronomy, according to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
(XX, 35). It was thought for a time that he antedated Dörfel and Hevel-
ius in affirming the parabolic orbits of comets.
® See Bibliography II, A, Nos. 37-39 for the titles.
^Dörfel was born in 1643 and died in 1688. He was a minister, first
deacon at Plauen in Upper Saxony and later Superintendent at Weida.
His observations of the comet, although not of the greatest accuracy (ac-
cordirtg to Pingré, II, 27), enabled Dörfel to come to the conclusion that
this comet moved in a parabolic manner with the sun as the focus. This
conclusion was the result purely of the graphic process, for Dörfel makes
no mention of any fixed law regarding the motions of comets (according
to Grant, op. cit., p. 102). See also, the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,
XII, 341-343 and WoU, Handbuch der Astronomie, Zürich, 1893, II, 508.
"His work on the comet is entitled. Astronomische Betrachtung des
grossen Cometens, welcher im ausgehenden 1680 und angehenden 1681 Jahr
höchst verwunderlich und entsetzlich erschienen, etc. Plauen, 1681. An
extract of the work was printed in the Unterschiedliche Beschreibung- und
Bedeutungen, which has been considered above.
48
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
from the need of finding in the sky evidence of God's teaching.
His ministerial vdfcation naturally influenced his astronomical
avocation. The prognostications of the astrologers are belittled,
but he is sure of the homiletic value of these "sky pilots." "But
one may observe this comet and with good reason in a Christian
way as sent from God and placed in the high pulpit of heaven as
an 'ernstlichen Buss-prediger from this preacher we can obtain
the following lessons, warnings and comforts." ^ He held that
it reminded men of their Creator, admonished them to the im¬
provement of their lives, exhorted men to lift their hands in prayer
for the turning away of its evil significance; "for it is an out¬
stretched rod threatening punishment for sin." He held it was a
reminder of the great national plagues of war, pestilence and
famine. However, it is a comforting sign, for God evidently
seeks our betterment. The treatment of the "Bedeutung" is con¬
cluded by the quotation in large print of some verses from Jere¬
miah, and the words, "Now has the comet turned in an opposite
way with respect to the sun, and no more has us under its tail.
So we can now find comfort when we turn, in true faith, to our
Lord Jesus Christ as the outgoing Sun of Righteousness with
healing in his wings. Amen." ^
A work that approaches the sceptical point of view is the
"Coleum Planetarum" of Johann Schnitzen of Göttingen. ® He
feels that the significance of a comet is known to God only. He
deplores the tendency of so-called "Mathematici" to degrade the
good title by using it to indicate one investigating the future,
and who "bedeck their devil's art" with this name, in order to
make a reputation with the rabble. He refers to the work of
Erhard Weigel in support of his view; apparently, he has in
mind the habit of making special prognostications. Schnitzen
lists the astrological predictions, but does not heartily assent to
the conclusions. He completes his treatment by stating that it
is his conviction that men can wholly avoid the evil effects of
^ Unterscheidliche Beschreibung- und Bedeutungen, p. 33.
'Ibid., pp. 36, 37. White, op. cit., p. 38, has unduly glorified Dörfel, who
had not grasped all the implications of his observations.
® M. Joha^i^n Schnitzen, Duc. Paedag. Gotting. Math. Prof.> Caelum Plane¬
tarum, das ist Planeten Himmel, Darinnen zugleich eine Beschreibung dess
neuen grossen Cometen, etc. Göttingen.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
49
comets "durch inbrünstiges Gebet und rechten Tugend-Wandel."
The most voluminous and probably the best known German
writer to consider this comet was Erhard ,Weigel. He was born
in 1625 and in 1644 came to Halle where he was in close touch
with the famous astronomer, Bartholomew Schimpfer, a man
who also meddled in astrology on account of its commercial value.
From Schimpfer Weigel received a copy of his astrological
"Indicia," a knowledge of the almanac business, and an impulse
toward this kind of thinking. In 1652 he was appointed Profes¬
sor of Mathematics in the University of Jena, a position he held
fot the remainder of his life. He soon became the most famous
teacher of the University. Again and again he was clothed with
the highest honors; three times he was rector and in 1688 was
nominated to the Imperial Rath. Although not a man of deep
thought, he is regarded as extremely versatile and capable of
arousing great enthusiasm. In the literary field Weigel was un¬
commonly fruitful, no less than one hundred and four small and
large publications of his being known. ^ He wrote numerous
works on comets and they had a wide circulation. Likewise, his
works on astronomy in general were.highly regarded. His "Him¬
mels-Spiegel" was first published in 1661, and, on the appearance
of the comet of 1680, it reappeared as a fitting contribution to the
literature of the time. At the same time a reprint appeared of
the "Fortsetzung des Himmels-Spiegels," published originally in
1665. In 1670 he had printed a "Pancosmus aethereus et sublun-
aris" and in 1681 appeared a "Kurtzer Beschreibung des verbes¬
serten Himmels- und Erd-Globen." These two works were not
on comets, but are of interest on account of his eccentric ideas
as to the mapping of the heavens.
The author is best known for his earnest efforts to remake
the heathen heavens over into a Christian and modern possession.
In the work appearing in 1661 he had begun to perform his task.
He regarded the world as the great theater showing forth the
majesty of God, and this is especially evidenced by his scattering
of the stars. As the groupings of the stars had received names
largely from the heathen poets, he proceeds to go over the list
and make a Christian interpretation. A"^ good example of his
^ See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, XLI, 465!!., where he is considered
at length.
50
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
method can be found in his treatment of the northern constella¬
tions. The Snake he felt to be symbolical of the snake in Para¬
dise, while Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia, located near the
Snake, are symbolical of the king and queen of the world, Adam
and Eve. The Swan is more correctly the Cross of Christ, which
its six principal stars clearly outline. The twelve zodiacal signs
are "Zeichen des Leiden Christi," ^ Here his fancy has very free
play. The Ram (Aries) stands for the crown of thorns; the
Bull (Taurus), the scourge of rods; the Gemini (Twins), for the
Jewish executioners; Cancer is the spittle; the Lion represents the
royal purple mantle; Virgo stands for the wood of the cross;
Libra (the Balances), for the lots; Sagittarius (the Archer) for
the spears; Capricorn for the nails; Aquarius (the Waterman)
for the sponge ; and the poor Fishes represent the vinegar. This
is allegory with a vengeance. At least it can give him an inspired
heaven from which to preach manifold moral lessons.
But he went even further than this and attempted to add the
coats-of-arms of the European nations. They were partly ar¬
ranged according to the configuration of the stars, and partly to
correspond with the location of the nations on earth. Thus the
old sign of Hercules was transferred into an "eques cum districto
gladio" and represented Poland. The Lyre stood for Great Brit¬
ain. The constellation of the Eagle was the heavenly symbol of
the House of Brandenburg, and Orion represented the House of
Austria. Some of the constellations symbolized other earthly
institutions. For example, the Triangle stood for Arts and Learn¬
ing. As late as 1699 a colossal copper globe was made for King
Christian of Denmark in accordance with Weigel's plans. ^ Be¬
cause of this polyhistor's fame, his eccentric treatment of the sky
had considerable vogue. It became important for the interpre¬
tation of the comet's course, for it was now beset with as
many and even more definite difficulties than before. His scheme
of a Christianized heavens enabled him to point his reflections
on the comet with a certain amount of reality. It was unneces¬
sary to have recourse to the "indicia" of the astrologers ; in fact,
he repudiated the astrology of the day, regarding himself as in
^ Op. cit., p. 29.
See Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, pp. 426, 427.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
51
a different class altogether. ^ He did not attempt to make his
prognostications too definite; this seems to have been his chief
objection to the work of the grossly credulous.
Although regarding himself as superior to these men, he
cannot free himself from the records of the past. As a conse¬
quence, in the appendix of his "Himmels-Spiegel" he gives a
list of one hundred and forty comets previous to 1661, arid in
practically every case includes some dire events resulting. It was
to this list that we made extensive reference in chapter one. He
had not furnished quite enough "copy" for the printer, and so he
adds some surprising information regarding phenomena analog¬
ous to comets. This is indicative of the deep superstition of his
nature, and is surprising as coming from this "weit-berühmte"
professor of Jena. "In order not to leave these few pages blank,
we have taken the opportunity to honor God as the creator of
nature, and to show, for the pleasure of the reader, a few other
wunder-wercken,' which shall move us even more to 'ungefärbten
Gottesfurcht.' For just as God the most High has many ways
and means which he uses in punishing the world for its sins,
so he is accustomed to use different means whereby, as with an
alarm, he arouses stubborn ears and hearts to repentance, and
admonishes in a fatherly way of future misfortune. Among such
dumb creatures are to be reckoned, along with comets, new stars,
uncommon windstorms, very sudden and terrible outpourings of
water, and peculiar appearances of the sun and moon. And
although these things are said to have their natural causes, yet
none the less are we to consider that God is accustomed to act
purposefully in nature." ^ In the few remaining pages he gives
illustrations. The famous star of 1572 foretold the massacre of
St. Bartholomew's Day. In the year 1606, following the appear¬
ance of a new star, the Turk Mahmud died, and was succeeded by
his younger son Achmet, after he had murdered his elder brother.
Fourteen illustrations are given to indicate the supernatural char¬
acter of windstorms. For example, "In 648 a great windstorm at
Constantinople did much damage, overthrowing many trees.
Thereupon the Saracens attacked the Emperor Constantino in
Isauria, the Island of Cyprus was taken, and the Emperor was
^ Op. cit., p. 64.
' Op. cit., p. 65.
52
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
forced to buy peace with money." ^ In December 1660, the year
before the publication of this work, occurred a terrible storm on
land and sea. Concerning it, Weigel says, "What it signifies for
us is known only to God, the most High, as he has not revealed
such things." It is hardly just to the grossly credulous group we
considered above to place this writer among the semi-supersti¬
tious. However, his superstition is slightly more refined.
In 1681 he published a "Himmels-Zeiger." ^ In this work
the significance of comets is considered at some length ; he is con¬
vinced that they are "Zorn-Zeichen." The usual meanings are
attached. The course of the comet from Mars to Virgo, which
symbolizes Christianity, indicates a war against Christianity, and
because her hand is severed, the war will be attended by want.
But the most interesting development is in the continuation of
the volume published after the disappearance of the comet. The
"Himmels-Zeiger" appeared before the comet had been lost to
view ; after its disappearance he published a "Fortsetzung des
Himmels-Zeigers." Again he objects to unrestrained prophesy¬
ing of a special significance ; "It cannot be affirmed that a comet
precisely this good fortune or that ill fortune, and nothing else
signifies, unless by this means the general significance is aimed at,
by which the people are directed to an improvement." ® This
homiletic interest is well illustrated by the conclusions of this
pamphlet. He traces the comet as it goes through the constella¬
tions of the Dolphin and Pegasus, through the head of Andromeda
and the Triangle, finally disappearing from sight as it is about to
enter the Milky Way. To him this particular course was fraught
with deep meaning for secondary and elementary education. ^ He
arrives at this conclusion in the following manner. The comet
had passed through the Triangle which, according to the renam-
^ Op. cit., p. 66.
^ Himmels-Zeiger, der Bedeutung aller Dinge dieser Welt, insonderheit
derer Sterne. . . . Auff Veranlassung des ungumeinen Cometen in 1680
und i6^isten Jahre. Jena. 1681. This wark must have had wide circulation
Two copies, not from the same printing, have been seen by the writer, and
the more important portion was reprinted as the first insertion in the Unter¬
schiedliche Beschreibung- Und Bedeutungen.
® Fortsetzung des Himmels-Zeigers, p. 78.
* Ibid., pp. 78ff. See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie for his interest in
and service to German education.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
53
ing of the constellations, signified education. From the Triangle
it went direct to the Milky Way. Now the Milky Way is com¬
posed of innumerable stars, in fact, so many as to be called a
"school" of stars, and this seemed to Weigel to indicate the educa¬
tion of children. But this is not sufficiently specific to suit our
author; he feels it does not refer to schools in general, not even
to public schools, but to the home-school, and, in particular, to
the small children. He admits that it is not easy to determine that
the comet refers to small children, but the Milky Way, at the en¬
trance of which the comet disappeared, signifies this by its abund¬
ant number of the "allerkleinsten Sternlein." By this strange
course of reasoning he finally arrives at the beginning of a long
admonition to parents to feed their children with the "milk" of
true piety by their worthy example. Concluding he says, "Und
dis ist, was der Comet, nach dem er fast durch alle Himmels-
Zeichen durch gewandert, und die Welt zur Besserung, in allerley
Begebenheiten, mit Bedrohung angemahnet, endlich haben wollen,
da er such am Himmel in die Kinder Schul verfügt, und darinnen
heilsame Unterweisungs-Vorthel an die Hand zu geben such
bemuhet." ^ Probably parental responsibility never had a more
fantastic justification.
Erhard Weigel is in a position by himself. This extravagant
allegorization of the sky, and its use in much the same manner
as he would have used the Bible, is carried to a great extreme.
He seems to have been free from judicial astrology, even from
the idea of cometary infiuences on the weather, but one wonders
whether he had progressed very far beyond the class whom he
repudiated. Appended to the last work mentioned was "Kin Gott-
seelig Nativität, begreififende das Judicium generale, nach Ord¬
nung der 12 Himmlischen Häuser." In twelve chapters the twelve
signs of the zodiac are made to refer to the different virtues.
Either he was an eccentric, to say the least, or, if he did not really
believe what he taught, he had a very poor opinion of the ordinary
German of his day. The quality of his credulity would only be
accentuated by his intellectual ability ; in many respects, he can
be compared to the Englishman, William Whiston, of whom we
shall have occasion to speak.
^ Ihid., p. 93.
54
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
A man as interesting as Erhard Weigel is the discoverer of
this comet, Gottfried Kirch. ^ He had studied under Weigel at
Jena, and was recommended by him to the astronomer, Hevelius.
He was the first astronomer who systematically sought for comets
with a telescope. Kirch was rewarded, as we have already noted
in chapter three, with the discovery of the comet of 1680. He
was an almanac-maker during his earlier years, publishing his
"Wunder-Kalendars" at divers places in Germany. Finally in
1700 he was called to the newly founded Berlin Academy. This
man, whose name is always noted by histories of astronomy in
connection with the comet of 1680, is of intertst as a representa¬
tive scientist of the time.
When the comet of 1677 appeared, Kirch published a pamph¬
let on it. ^ The general point of view is much the same as that
already illustrated from other writers, save that there is not quite
so detailed a treatment, possibly. He holds, with the rest, that it
is probable that the loving God does not show in vain these
"Ruthe "Aber wass, und wen er damit drohe, ist so leicht nicht
zu ersehen." ® He is quite sure, at any rate, that comets seldom
signify good; we can avoid punishment by bettering our lives
through the aid of the Holy Spirit. Fire-balls and new stars are
treated also; he regards these as especial wonder works of the
Almighty God, "womit er uns Menschen etwas sonderlich anzei¬
gen wollen."^ The mildness of his general position is indicated
when he speaks of the new stars ; "Diese neue wunderbare Stern,
halte ich davor, is weit höher zuachten, und mehr zu betrachten
als der Comet, weil seine natürliche Ursachen weit unbekandter." ®
Kirch exerted himself, naturally, in putting on paper his
observations of the comet of 1680, in view of the fact that he wasi
the first one to see it. At Nürnberg he published an elaborate
work of one hundred and fifty pages.® The scientific treatment of
comets is prefaced by some observátions on recent "Feuer-Zeichen,
^ See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, XV, 787 for his life.
' Kurtse Betrachtung, welche veranlasst der itsige recht Merckwürdige
neue Comet, die feurige Kugel, welche im vergangenen Jahre durch Italien
geßogen, und anderes mehr. Mit ñüchtiger Feder auffgesetzet von Gott¬
fried Kirchen. Leipzig, 1677.
^Op. cit., p. 17. *Ibid., p. 22. ^Ibid., p. 23.
® Gottfried Kirchs Neue Himmels-Zeitung, darinnen sonderlich und aus-
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
55
Sonnen-Maculn, und Wunder-Sterne." The fire signs, which at¬
tract his particular attention, are none the less signs, although
they may be natural phenomena. 'Tt seems to me that in forming
so many figures God must have brought his hand into play, and
that thereby he wishes to signify something important. Thunder¬
storms are also natural, yet experience shows that oftentimes by
them wonderful things are indicated, and everyone must recognize
that God's hand is evidenced by them." ^ With this introduction
he dilated on the discovery of the comet, its appearance at the
different observations, leaving the "Bedeutung" to the second part
of the work.
Kirch's treatment of the meaning of the comet is different
from any we have yet noticed, for it is cast into the form of a
dialogue between six representatives of the different walks of life.
It is the most extensive German treatment of the significance of
the comet save that by Weigel. One other dialogue on this comet
was published in this same city of Nürnberg. ^ This anonymous
publication is a discussion between Theophilus, Politocosophus
and Physiologus. Although the physicist and the man of the
world are not completely convinced by the opinions of the theolo¬
gian, yet Theophilus has the last word, and uses it to effect by
routing his opponents with a four-page Latin poem. ® Kirch, in
his dialogue, does not leave things in such an impasse, for the
theologian gradually wins the victory. At least that is the im¬
pression that Kirch desires to leave on the reader. In this Ge¬
spräch six men are involved; "Gottlieb, ein Theologus; Weltraht,
ein Politicus ; Sinnreich, ein Philosophus ; Sternhold, ein Astrolo-
gus ; Kleinlaut, ein Bürger ; und Erdmann, ein Bauer." The first
führlich von den sweyen neuen grossen im 1680 Jahr erschienenen Cometen
. . . . dem in einem Gespräch mit beygefüget worden Etliche unvor-
greißiche Muthmassungen, was hierauf Erden erfolgen möchte. Nürnberg,
1681.
^ Op. cit., p. 8.
^ Ein Gespräch zwischen einem Natur kündiger, Politico und Geistlicher,
von dem neulich gesehenen ungewöhnlichen und erschrecklichen Comet-
Stern. Nürnberg, 1681.
® Theophilus at the opening of his last speech says, "Meine Herren, ihr
vermeinet meiner Meinung entgegen zu gehen; und seyd nicht auf dem
rechten Wege. Ich sage, man solle sich vor^'den Cometen furchten, und
ihr saget Nein: wie kommen wir zusammen?" Page 21.
56
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
part of the conversation is concerned with the general question
as to whether comets have any significance, and the latter part of
the dialogue discusses the specific nature of its meaning. The
impression left on a reader is that Kirch desires to emphasize the
supernatural character of the comet; the latter part of the dia¬
logue would have no meaning otherwise. The discussion is quite
spirited in the first part, where a lively discussion takes place,
but when treating the specific meaning of the comet, the discus¬
sion lags and the presentation becomes mechanical. There is
nothing about which to debate ; it is a mere matter of furnishing
information.
Erdmann opens the dialogue by wishing a Happy New Year
to his companions. Gottlieb thanks him but Kleinlaut lugubrious¬
ly replies that the wish is good enough if it would only come true,
"but I fear there is going to be a bad time because we see such
a terrible rod in the heavens." Weltraht replies, "Do you mean
the comet ? It can't hurt us ; why ought we to fear ?" Whereupon
Gottlieb says, "Nor do I fear the comet. But I do fear the Lord
who put the comet in the heavens. Our God must certainly be
angry to show such a 'Zorn-Zeichen.' " After this introduction,
Weltraht, supported by Sinnreich, opposes the idea of the comet's
significance. Scaliger is quoted as one who believed comets to
be natural, but Gottlieb dissents from his opinion on the ground
of experience. A lively discussion ensues on the subject of the
Thirty Year War and the comet of 1618, in which the sceptics
point out that the causes were in action before the comet appear¬
ed ; "Perhaps the war was about to^happen anyway." ^ Sinnreich
supports the sceptical view by stating that it is a rule of philosophy
that when the understanding is no longer sufficient, then it is time
enough for God to step in. Naturally, the horrified Gottlieb dis¬
sents. Weltraht states his position clearly in replying, "I hold a
comet to be a natural work, and to signify nothing. How about
you, Herr Sinnreich?" And the philosopher answers, "I believe
them to be natural, but do not know whether or not they have
significance." ^ This leads to an animated discussion of the physi¬
cal qualities of comets and their tails. Finally, however, Gottlieb
breaks in by;^saying, "God is not dead. Did he do wonders of old.
^ Gespräch, p. 84.
'Ibid., p. 89.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
57
and does he not act now ? Why endeavor to make all God's won¬
ders natural?" ^ Weltraht is willing- to admit that God rules the
world, but not directly, only through natural forces. This leads
to an argument as to the meaning to be attached to other similar
phenomena. Gottlieb affirms that God acts even through rain¬
storms.
An interesting reason for holding to the old beliefs is the
damaging effect of the newer ideas on the common people. "The
common man says, A learned man denies their significance as
godly wonders. Why then do we sing in the churches, 'Es ge¬
schehen gross Wunder and Zeichen,' when it is not so ?" ^ And the
peasant Erdman obediently adds, "It is indeed wonderful ; the dev¬
il's work is passed by, but they are anxious to diminish God's pow¬
er. Is it possible that simple men such as we peasants are should
begin to doubt heaven and hell, angels and devils and even God
himself ! God save me and all men from such devilish thoughts !" ®
At this point the astrologer adds his contribution, "Although a
comet, as far as nature and appearance is concerned, is natural,
yet as to its cause and purpose it is supernatural. It is quite
natural if a whale or other uncommon sea animal is thrown on
some shore, but ordinarily something extraordinary thereafter
ensues. ^
After a review of the comets of the seventeenth century,
Kleinaut opens the second part of the dialogue by saying, "Let
us now consider if they accomplish anything as well as signify
something." It would seem that Gottfried Kirch intends to give
the idea that he believes comets have significance. We then have
the usual specific meanings attached, and the interpretation de¬
pending on its position in the heavens, the tail, etc. In this part of
the colloquy the sceptics are not in evidence. The enormous size of
the tail is illustrated by the seriousness of a parent's intention
when he brings, to punish his children, a rod as well as a sapling ;
^ Ibid., p. 91. ^ Ibid., p. 97.
^Ibid., p. 99. This reference to the devil is interesting as being one of
the very few that the writer has noticed during this investigation. With
the decline of the witchcraft belief the devil seems to have been pretty
definitely banished. Fear-producing occurrences, such as we have noticed,
are uniformly believed to be the acts of an angry God.
* Ibid., p. 103. This same illustration is used by Schultzen.
58
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
"Ich halte gäntzlich davor, dieser Comet bedeute, das Gott sehr
Straffen werde. Die Ruthe war grausam gross." ^ About forty
pages of the dialogue are given over to the most detailed descrip¬
tions of its various meanings, but the conclusions have all been in¬
dicated in connection with the writers already considered. Kirch
concludes with the hope that God will turn away his wrath. ^
A step has been taken when the writers on comets are willing
to admit that the phenomena are natural. The attachment of a
significance to cometary apparitions after this admission is a seri¬
ous inconsistency. Yet in Germany the writers who go the full
way are few, and they are not scientists as much as they are
philosophers. The beliefs of the time in Germany were over¬
whelmingly superstitious. We now turn to consider a few Ger¬
man writers who represent the sceptical point of view.
Section III
scepticism
Judging from the literature suggested by this comet Germany
was almost unanimous in regarding this portent as a God-send
"Rod." Out of about one hundred works resulting from its ap¬
pearance, but a few can be adduced as evidence of a spirit of thor¬
ough scepticism. Only four of the works examined have been
found to belong unquestionably in this class. Not only was the
scepticism very weak, but it was decidedly timid. Of these four
works three are anonymous, and the other is signed by the ini¬
tials only. ® It must be borne in mind that at the end of the seven¬
teenth century freedom of thought was still largely a dream, and
the expression of unpopular or supposedly heterodox opinions
was attended with many inconveniences. A consideration of these
pamphlets will give an idea of the mild character of this very
^Ihid., p. 129. 'Ibid., p. 144.
' In additian to the sceptical works published in Germany, mention should
be made of the translation at this time of Pierre Petit's Dissertation sur
les Comètes. But the translator does not give his name. See chapter two.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
59
weak objection to a dominant spirit of fear resulting from the
sight of this great tail-star.
The Nürnberg picture of the comet, which has been described
above, ^ occupies half the large sheet upon which it was printed.
The lower portion of the broadside is filled with a three-column,
closely printed "Christliche-vernüníftige Cometen-Betrachtung."
Strange to say, this "Consideration" of the comet does not har¬
monize with the verses underneath the picture, but is an attack on
the common credulity. Dissimilar opinions, according to this
handling of the subject, necessarily result when the learned and
the unlearned, the understanding and the ignorant, look at this
new wonder-light. For the most part their opinions are grounded
on an old belief, which is supported, however, by weak proofs.
In order that the rationally-minded reader may obtain from this
comet-star, and from others that may appear in the future, a
healthful understanding in accordance with Scripture, we wish
to guard against all "aberglaubisch-forchtsame Einbildung" by
the shield of David. Thereupon the author quotes the reassur¬
ing verses at the opening of the Ninety-first Psalm; "He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty. For he will deliver thee from the
snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. . . . Thou
shalt not be afraid of the terror by night nor for the arrow that
flieth by day." Reference is made also to Jeremiah's words re¬
garding the fear of the heathen for the signs of the heavens.
There is no proof obtainable from Scripture, he continues, that
we should lift our eyes to a comet-star. These stars are set in
the heavens by divine purpose, but because they were followed by
various evil occurrences, it was credulously fancied that they had
a significance. Wherefore it happened that there was forced from
these heavenly signs all sorts of wonderful prophesyings, which
render comets objects of fear and suspicion. But it is safer to
abandon this hidden nieaning of the Most High God, and consult
Moses and the prophets with a heart of becoming devotion. By
that means we may learn God's command and will, and then shall
we truly honor him. After a description of the comet, the author
refers to the comet of 1618, which was held to be a sign of the
pernicious German war, "but this war was in preparation long
* See chapter three.
60
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
before that, and only then began." Therefore, if this comet has
a significance, leave it to the interpretation of God and study to
live in a way well pleasing to him. For, if the warnings God
gives in his book, and which we also hear in the "Kirch-Gemein,"
do not lead to an improvement of the life, then certainly no long-
tailed comet can accomplish the work. May the well-inclined
reader put himself in charge of the Guardian who has created the
mountains and the earth and the world and the comets.
The author of this deeply religious plea for sanemindedness
was quite likely impelled to the printing of this broadside by the
fear and distress caused through the comet's appearance. It is
certainly an admirable answer of a churchman to the ecclesiastical
products in support of superstition.
A work which has been noticed several times is the pamphlet
"Cometa Scepticus." ^ The particular value of this pamphlet lies
in the general review of the beliefs of the day contained in its
pages. It gives an admirable description of the current astrological
methods, ^ explaining in much detail the way in which the con¬
clusions were reached. This work contains no extensive or order¬
ed refutation of the credulous position, but throughout it is scien¬
tific and naturalistic in tone. It concludes with the wish that the
"Almighty God by his grace may be pleased to turn from us the
fear considered above, and in his time to grant a blessed end to us
all in peace and quiet." This is an imitation of the usual ending
of the pamphlets, the word "fear" being inserted in place of
"comet" or "wrath."
The gem of the group is a work called "Einfältiges Bedencken
von Cometen." ® It is a thorough attack, apparently by a priest,
on the prevalent beliefs of the day, and it created enough stir to
provoke a reply by J. J. Müller, an Augsburg theologian. ^ The
attack is made first on the theological supports of the belief, and
then the general considerations as to appearance and nature are
^Cometa Scepticus. Oder Kurtzer Discursz über Jiingst-eschienenen
Cometen. M. DC. LXXXI. No place of publication is given.
' See chapter two where it was largely used.
® This pamphlet of but eight pages, is without title page, name of author,
date or place ^f publication. The list of comets of the sixteenth century,
given on page five, indicates the work to be a discussion of the comet of
1680.
* For the title, see Bibliography II, A.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
61
considered. "Was von Cometen zu halten sey, muss entweder aus
der Schriiït oder aus der Vernunft gesucht werden. Jenes zeiget
die Theologia, dieses die Physica an." ^ The treatment is com¬
pact, consisting of the statement of a conservative position, fol¬
lowed by the refutation.
The attack on the theological defences is based on the evi¬
dence of the Bible. To the statement that God created comets as
signs, the author replies that no theologian can prove that God is
especially angry when a comet appears. We know that when no
comet is in sight Christians sin and owe repentance to God and
deserve punishment. Where does God say that comets are marks
of especial anger? On the contrary he says that by law comes a
knowledge of sin, not by comets. ^ Likewise, the apostles and
disciples, and not comets were sent to preach repentance. Repent¬
ance, he goes on to say, is a godly work inculcated by God's word,
and it cannot be proved that God intends comets to act thus. God
lets many heathen and unbelievers see comets, and it does not
work repentance in them, for how shall they believe if they do
not hear. ® Further, comets often appear for a short time only,
and in a position to be observed by but a few among the learned.
Why does not God show his sign of wrath to the unlearned as
well ? So long as theology follows Scripture, it must be borne in
mind that God wishes to reveal his holy will not so much by signs
and wonders as by his healing Word.
In the second place, considering comets from the point of
view of science, it cannot be shown that comets have any connec¬
tion with our human free wills or the death of high-born lords.
Pestilence, cold and heat are natural, and cannot result from the
comet's appearance; for then the whole world where a comet is
seen would be full of pestilence, and emperors and kings would
not be more affected than lacqueys and peasants, and Europe no
more than any other part of the world. Morover, if history is
successfully appealed to, it must show that at all times and in all
places where comets were seen some evil has resulted, and, if some
evil did result, that it originated from no other cause than a comet.
The preaching of repentance from a comet is nothing more than
a "pia fraus," and should not be toleratôd by conscientious theolo-
^ P. 7- " Romans, III, 20.
® Romans, X, 14, "How shall they believe in him whom they have not
heard ?"
62
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
gians. This leads the author to consider the actual harm caused
by the belief. Often just rulers, he says, have been hindered from
worthy undertakings, as is shown by the example of Charles V,
who was moved to abdicate by the appearance of a comet. Like¬
wise, in economic affairs, cities and countries were made so timid,
on account of the appearance of comets, that there was no trade
or travel, buying or selling, for fear these heavenly bodies signi¬
fied inauspicious times for carrying on business. I need not add
that much sickness has been caused through excessive fear.
Wherefore, it is safer for the conscience that a "Priester" point
out to the people that the wrath of God will necessarily follow
sin, (and is not dependent on the appearance of a comet.)
The only other pamphlet with the sceptical point of view was
a work published at Schweidnitz by one who signed himself
"B. G." ^ He is a theologically-minded man, holding opinions
similar to those of the "Simple Thoughts" just considered. The
preface to his work sheds some interesting light on the general
situation. "We live," he says, "in a world which is the great thea¬
ter of the wonderful works of God. Scripture proves there is
nothing which the hand of God has not made ; to Him belongs all
glory. Recently there has been seen in our sky a new comet-
torch. I leave it to those experienced in scientific observations
to ascertain its times of rising and setting, the nature of its
course, etc. But what is of concern to me is that this comet is
made such a fearful creation, preaching to us repentance, putting
in jeopardy the lives and crowns of rulers, and plotting war,
pestilence and other evils. Many place more importance on the
preaching of repentance from such an apparition than from God's
Word. In fact, the majority have more fear of the comet than
of God. I have been asked by many what shall follow this comet,
and this has caused me to put my thoughts on paper. I ask that he
who reads this will honestly perceive the situation, and not place
me among the scoffers. Briefly, my understanding of the comet is
this : Comets are a performance of nature, which it presents as
it sees good, and which praises Almighty God^ and encourages
mortals to do the same, without signifying anything sad or ter¬
rible."
^ B. G. Unvorgreiñiches Urtheil von der Cometen Würckung und Bedeu¬
tung. Schweidnitz, 1681. This is probably by a certain Benjamin Gerlach.
COMETARY INFLUENCES IN GERMANY
63
After this auspicious beginning the author considers the
comet's physical appearance and movements, concluding with a
chapter, "Ob die Cometen was Böses würcken oder bedeuten
können." He treats this question in two parts, denying in the first
place its ability to work an evil effect, and secondly the impossi-
billity that it can be a sign of evil. A comet cannot be the cause
of earthly happenings, for it is born of sun vapors. This super¬
stitious belief is similar to the old heathen idea that stars have
evil powers. A comet is a harmless creation and cannot cause evil.
On the other hand, neither is it a sign. All Christians are not so
simple as to be influenced by comets as preachers of repentance.
The conscience must have its foundation, but it seeks no other than
is to be found in the Scripture. It is true that God has used
natural things as signs, as, for example, the rainbow and the sun
whioh stood still for Joshua and the moon in the valley of Ajalon.
But he has spoken of these in his Word. But I read nothing in
the Bible abopt comets as signs of wrath. I shall not have a con¬
science that can imagine comets to be signs. After discussing
the oft-mentioned verse from Jeremiah, he concludes, "Hieraus
bleibet uns diser Satz unbeweglich stehen: Ein erleuchteter und
gläubiger Christ soll sich vor den Zeichen des Himmels, wohin
die Cometen gehören, nicht fürchten, den sie können nichts, und
sollen auch nichts andeuten, was Gott in seinem heiligen Rathe
über Könige, Königreiche und Länder beschlossen hat." This
author is an enlightened and perspicuous German thinker, who is
anxious that he should not be considered a scoffer, and who
emphasizes on every page his deep religious interest.
None of the writers who have been discussed as illustrations
of scepticism are as radical or as cynical in their handling of the
superstition as representatives of this point of view whom we
shall have occasion to treat in considering the contributions of
France and Holland. It is not surprising that a mild scepticism
should be in evidence where the prevailing point of view was so
obscurantist in character. The intellectual life of Germany had
been very slightly leavened by the implications of the scientific
movement. Illumination was to come with the acceptance of
English and French infiuences in the v^rld of ideas. We next
turn to these countries in the endeavor to find the effect of the
comet on their thought.
CHAPTER V
The Situation in England and America
The intellectual life of seventeenth century England was
permeated with rationalism. The influences at work, were not
unlike in nature and extent those that were in operation in France
at that time. In fact, the development of the rationalistic move¬
ment seems to have been effective in England earlier than in
France. The type of thought known as Deism, inaugurated by
Lord Herbert of Cherbury with the publication of his "De Veri-
tate" in 1624, tended to interpret Christianity in universal terms
and even to reject revealed religion in favor of a religion regarded
as natural. The attitude is well illustrated by the titles of such
works as Toland's "Christianity not Mysterious," Locke's "The
Reasonableness of Christianity," and other works appearing at
the close of the century. ^ The secularizing temper was greatly
advanced by the restoration of the Stuarts. The Royal Society
had been founded in 1662, and fourteen years later valuable ob¬
servations began to be made at the Greenwich Observatory under
the direction of Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal. Newton
and Halley, two of the best known figures in British science, were
busily working at this time. Thus elements of great hopefulness
are to be found in the situation.
However, the reaction of England to the comets of 1680 and
1682 was by no means unanimously sceptical. There was cer¬
tainly no thoroughgoing emancipation so far as the intellectual
class as a whole is concerned. In England itself the witchcraft
delusion was declining, although in the very year of the Great
Comet Glanvil's elaborate defence of witchcraft persecution, the
"Sadducismus Triumphatus," was published. But the torturing
of the witches had not yet ceased in Scotland and America. The
wide-spread belief in the value of the King's Touch was never
^For the Deistic movement, see A. C. McGiffert, Protestant Thought
before Kant. N. Y. 1911, pp. i8(5ff.
—64—
THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND
65
more prevalent than just at this time. The King's Evil must have
been epidemic, for between 1660 and 1682, more than ninety-two
thousand persons were touched for this disease by Charles IL ^
It is hardly necessary necessary to say that medicine as yet was
largely under the dominion of alchemy and astrology. ^
Astrology was in much vogue judging from the numerous
works published in the latter half of the century. It was thor¬
oughly identified with the Christian view of the world, and even
theologians wrote on behalf of the "art." In 1647 William Lilly
published his "Christian Astrology" and in 1674 appeared his
"Anima Astrologiae, or a Guide for Astrologers." In the ten
years immediately preceding the appearance of the Great Comet,
writers on astrology seem to have been extremely active. Quite
possibly this was due to the increasing vehemency of the attacks
on the superstition. In 1670 the sixth edition of W. Eland's
"Primer of Astrology" appeared. ® In the following year an "As¬
trological Guide" was published under the name of Will Thrasher,
and in 1674 Gadbury's "Thesaurus Astrologiae" was printed. ^
The year 1680 saw a number of interesting works. John Partridge
published a volume entitled "Prodromus," which must have been
^In 1683-4 the applicants became so numerous that Charles established
"office hours" and required applicants to bring certificates from their parish
priests. James II touched 5000 persons during a single progress in 1687.
But Wm. II refused to continue the practice, not only on the score of
superstition, but probably also on that of expense; for the "touched"
patients received a piece of gold. It is interesting to note that William's
refusal was taken in some quarters as an indication that he was no rightful
king. See J. Chas. Cox, The Parish Registers of England, London, 1910,
pp. 178-183.
^In 1670 appeared Culpeper's Semiótica Uranica or an Astrological
Judgment of Diseases, in 1671 Balgrave's Astrological Practice of Physic,
and a Synopsis Medica, or a Compendium of Astrological, Galenical and
Chymical Physic.
^ A Tutor to Astrology, or Astrology made Easy, whereby the meanest
Apprehension may learn to erect a Figure, and by the same, to give Judg¬
ment upon any Question or Nativity whatsoever. London, 1670. For this
and many other interesting titles, see E. Arber, The Term Catalogues,
1668-1709, a Contemporary Bibliography of English Literature. London,
1903.
Clavis Astrologiae Elimata, or Key to the Whole Art of Astrology new
hied and polished. There was a "Genethliacal part showing how to rectify
and calculate nativities according to Regiomontanus, Argol and Keppler."
66
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
interesting if the subtitle is an accurate indication of the coa-
tents. ^ Henry More, D. D., had the hardihood to attack the as¬
trologers, and replies to his work were published in this same
year. The religious character of the "art" is the basis for the
defence of the Protestant minister, B, J. Butler. Other works
might be mentioned but these will suffice to show that supersti¬
tion was congenial to many English minds.
Regarding comets, equal credulity was in evidence. At the
beginning of the century Shakespeare had embedded in his plays
several interesting indications of the current beliefs in comets. ^
Milton, likewise, has registered indications of the beliefs of his
time in his great epic of Paradise Lost. ^ During the century
works kept appearing on comets. The famous astrologer, John
Gadbury, published in 1660 a general work on Prodigies, and five
years later a more specific treatment of comets. ^ William Fulke,
D. D., revealed in 16^0 his dependence on the old Aristotelian
^ An Astrological Essay upon those Configurations of the Celestial Bodies
whose effects will appear in 168Ö and 1681 in some kingdoms of Europe;
which predictions are drawn from the opposition of Saturn and Mars in
December 1679 and the conjunction of Saturn and Mars in August 1680;
and these things considered and compared with the nativity of the late
Damnable Plot. By John Partridge.
'Jul. Caes. Act 2, sc. 2,
"When beggars die, there are no comets seen ;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
In Hamlet (Act. i, sc. i) "stars with trains of fire" are referred to as
portents, and as Joan of Arc and Charles enter Orleans {Henry VI, Pt. I,
Act 3, Scene 2) the beacons are spoken of as "comets of revenge." The
most striking notice is in the opening speech of the last-mentioned work
where Bedford, lamenting the death of Henry Fifth, says,
"Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night !
Comets, importing changes of time and states.
Brandish your royal tresses in the sky.
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry's death !"
It is, of course, impossible to say what was Shakespeare's point of view,
but we can be quite sure that there is no element of antiquarianism in
these references to a common belief. In the same way the picture of the
witches in Macbeth gives us a record of what was then a terribly real
convictioft.
® II, 706 and XII, 632.
* The Nature and Effects of Comets, particularly of the three late comets,
and what they may naturally portend. London, 1665.
THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND
67
ideas in his work on Meteors, ^ and in 1674 an anonymous publica¬
tion dealt with "the many blazing stars wandering in our Hori¬
zon." ^ It is a pleasure to note that a certain John Spencer had
attacked the superstition in 1665, attempting by his volume to show
the "vanity of Presages by them, and their true and proper ends."
With the appearance of the great luminary of 1680 this practical¬
ly unchallenged inheritance from the credulous past manifests
itself in a number of works.
The Parish Register of Crowhurst, Sussex, has preserved an
interesting account of the Great Comet's appearance; "A Blaze-
ing starre appeared in ye kgdom in ye yeare 1680, it did first
show itselfe the loth of December ye yeare 80 which did stream
from ye South west to ye Middle of ye heavn broader yn a Raine
Bow by farre and continued to ye latter end of February." ® John
Evelyn has furnished in his Diary an interesting record of the
comet's appearance, and his judgment concerning its significance;
"12 December. This evening, looking out of my chamber win¬
dow towards the West, I saw a meteor of an obscure bright color,
very much in shape like the blade of a sword, the rest of the sky
very serene and clear. What this may portend God only knows ;
but such another phenomenon I remember to have seen in 1640,
about the trial of the great Earl of Strafford, preceding our
bloody Rebellion. I pray God avert his Judgments! We have
had of late several comets, which, though I believe appear from
natural causes, and of themselves operate not, yet I cannot despise
them. They may be warnings from God, as they commonly are
forerunners of his animadversions." ^ A somewhat similar posi¬
tion is taken by the Yorkshire antiquarian, Ralph Thoresby,
Plain Description of all kinds of Meteors, as well fiery and airy as
watery and earthy, briefly manifesting all their causes. London, 1670.
^ Coma Berenices, or the Hairy Comet; being a Prognostick of Malignant
Influences from the Many Biasing Stars wandring in our Horizon. London,
1674.
® J. Chas. Cox, op. cit., p. 215. This notice indicates no superstition, but
a record of the comet of 1618 in the parish register of Morley, Derbyshire,
is not so non-committal; "Memorand, that this yeare Novemb. the 25th
and for three weeks after, the blazing starre appearred in the East and did
retrograde. January the nth, the Whitehall waS burned and Queen Anne
died in the Spring following." Ibid., p. 214.
* The Diary of John Evelyn edited by Dobson, London', 1906, III, pp. 65-6.
68
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
F. R. S., in his diary under date of August 25, 1682, regarding the
comet of that year; "Up at five; for an hour about business.
Was then at Mr. T. S. and S. H., who came along with
me to see the comet on our turret. Lord, fit us for whatever
changes or alterations it may portend ; for though I am not ignor¬
ant that such meteors proceed from natural causes, yet are fre¬
quently also the presages of imminent calamities." ^ The mind
of Samuel Pepys was of a very dififerent texture, and he did not
accept two such incompatible views. As President of the Royal
Society in 1686, his name appears on the title page of Newton's
"Principia."
The earliest English work on the Great Comet was published
before the end of the year 1680 under the title of "Memento's to
the World." ^ The work was done, apparently, in collaboration,
the "Minister of the Gospel" using the services of a professional
star-gazer to predict the meaning of the comet then visible, while
he animadverted on the past. This minister, in his preface ad¬
dressed to the "Right Honorable Sir Patience Ward, Lord-Mayor
of the City," exhibits the same inability as John Evelyn and Ralph
Thoresby to see the theological consequences of phenomena that
have become natural ; "These are the torches and voices of God
speaking and preaching out of Heaven; for not only is his
Majesty in a lively manner set forth unto us, in the Generation,
Magnitude, Figure and Motion of these Bodies, but also some¬
thing is propounded to be further learned by them; for whatso¬
ever doth not come to pass after the usual manner, altho it hath
Natural causes, yet it altogether portendeth something or other,
and is put for a Sign of certain Events." ® The list of comets
cited in the work furnish no new material or points of view. How¬
ever, he finds this accumulation of evidence as a convenient text
to unsettle the "security of men and women, a general disease to
which the world is subject." ^ The contribution of William Knight
to this homiletic work was in the customary astrological manner,
and decidedly pessimistic in its outlook. "A star with a Beard, or
Long Tayl, as this Comet hath, denotes the death of great and
^ The Diary of Ralph Thoresby, London, 1830, I, 132.
"For dbmplete title, see Bibliography, II, C, No. 131.
® See Preface.
* Op. cit., p. 23.
THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND
noble men, and wars in those countries unto which it points its
Tayl ; and we may conclude, that in regard from its first appear¬
ance, it took its progress toward the sun, its effects will be mani¬
fested in a great measure on Eminent Persons and Ineminent
Actions ; and I need not go about to tell where, or in what Coun¬
tries the Significations of this Star will appear; but in short
acquaint you. That it hath already taken up a large part of Europe,
so well as other parts, for its Theatre/' ^
Several other publications of a similar character to the "Me¬
mento's" appeared in 1681, though the authors usually lacked the
courage to acknowledge their literary children. A person signing
himself "C. U." published the "Signs of the Times, or Wonderful
Signs of Wonderful Times." ^ A "Person of Quality" in Dublin
wrote a "Judgment of the Comet" ® and in 1683 there was pub¬
lished anonymously in London "Surprizing Miracles of Art and
Nature" in which was included an "account of the most famous
comets and other prodigies since the birth of our Saviour."
The most elaborate treatment of the comet was a work pub¬
lished anonymously in 1684 under the title of "Cometomantia." ^
The volume has been ascribed to John Edwards, the Calvinist
theologian and a voluminous writer, who published some forty
works. He was very highly estimated by his age, which regarded
him as a second Calvin. ® It is significant of the temper of the
time that this distinguished author should have published the work
anonymously ; throughout he is consciously on the defensive. The
volume, which is dedicated to the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, is
directed against the attacks on the superstition that were becom-
^Ihid., p .30. In the following year William Knight published independ¬
ently his Vox Sfetlarum, or the Voice of the Stars. . . . Likewise how
to judge of the Affairs of the World by Revolution, Eclipses, Great Con¬
junctions and Biasing Stars. Also something touching the Popish Plot,
and other remarkable Affairs of the year 1678. London, 16^1.
' For interesting sub-title, see Bibliography II, C, No. 133.
'Dublin, 1682.
* Cometomantia. A discourse of Comets; showing more especially, their
Prognosticks, Significations and Presages. Being a brief Resolution of a
seasonable Question, vis. Whether the Apparition of Comets be the Sign
of Approaching Evilf Occasioned by the Appeàrances of the late Comets
in England and other places. London, 1684, pp. 296.
" For the ascription, See Dictionccry of National Biography, xvii, 121-123,
and Arber's Catalogue, II, 49.
70
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
ing increasingly numerous, but which seem to have received
little literary expression, "I have observed that some of late,
who think they make no inconsiderable figure in the Age, have
bore up very briskly against that common and so long received
Opinion, That the Appearance of Comets is Ominous, and por¬
tend some calamitous Events to the World. They look upon this
as a mere vulgar Errour, and will not be persuaded that it hath
any other Foundation than the prejudicate Fancy and Imagina¬
tion of the deluded People. I must freely profess myself as one
that hath other Notions of this matter, and having satisfied myself
about it, I will try whether I can do the same with others, for I
take it to be a laudable Endeavor, and at present a seasonable one
(we having so lately been allarmed by the sight of such glaring
Bodies in the Heavens) to propagate the Sentiments which I have
of this Doctrine." ^ The theological character of the author's
mind is evident in his general plan of treatment. There is no
desire to bring order into the numerous and varied opinions hand¬
ed down ; he is more concerned to show the "Disagreement of the
Learned Tribe," who have confessed themselves silenced and
puzzled by the unregulated nature of cometary courses. ^ There
is not a glimmering of any contact with the developments of con¬
temporary science; he even asserts comets are a direct cause by
means of their "Extraordinary and Hurtfull Heat." "From the
air and earth being infected, how easie a consequence is there of
Barrenness and unfruitful Seasons !" ^ He felt kings were more
susceptible "for their delicate Feeding and Luxurious course of
Life . . . which renders them more obnoxious than the vulgar
sort of people." ^ Both the color and smell of cométs are seriously
considered, ® and all these remarkable qualities are an excellent
basis for theological admonitions: "A Christian Divine cannot
have a better Text to preach Repentance from than a Comet."
"It is downright sottishness to think that they are set up for vain
shews and useless sights ; it is unworthy of providence to defend
The objections which he felt the necessity of considering,
and the manner in which he replies furnish light on his point of
view. 1^1 answering the statement that the doctrine proceeds from
this." «
^ Cometomantia, p. i.
* Ibid., p. 65.
''Ibid., pp. 13, 59-
"Ibid., p. SO.
"Ibid., p. 64.
"Ibid., pp. 90, 93.
THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND
71
a "Proud and Haughty Spirit," he counters that this is an argu¬
ment of gross profaneness ; "It is the plot and design of Atheis¬
tical Spirits who would exclude God from the Government and
Care of the World. For by Comets God is pleased by new argu¬
ments to urge and inculcate his presence in the World, that when
the ordinary course of Nature and Providence doth not move men,
they may be roused by these Wondrous and Rare Sights to
begin." ^ He replies to the difficulty that comets prophesy good
as well as evil by declaring that this is inevitable, although the
good events are merely accidental ; "Their primary taken is evil." ^
Particularly naïve is his answer to the declaration that evil does
not always follow a cometary appearance ; "Even if things did not
happen it simply means that the Divine Goodness has not sent
what was threatened." ® And the calamities that have appeared
without comets seem to have troubled him not the least, for his
God was apparently a delightfully irresponsible creature. The
latter part of the work is a lengthy treatment of the "Noble
Science of Astrology." He appears to be opposed to an astrology
not tempered with much commonsense and Christian ideas, and
to be attempting to free the belief in comets from the fate of this
"science" that was being so successfully discredited during his
time. ^
The conclusion is particularly interesting. His appeal is to
experience. "We have felt the effects of the comets. .
It hath been proved to us experimentally. And if we are not con¬
vinced of this, but still remain incredulous and senseless, the wise
Disposer of all things may hereafter multiply these prodigies." ®
He feels that the present comet refers to the ubiquitous Turk, for
the "Mahometan Crescent may in time grow to the Full. The
Turkish Cymeter, though often Blunted, may be so Edged once
and again, as at last to doe fatal execution over all thost spatious
Territories where Christianity is professed." ® Nowhere does he
show more plainly the whole weakness of his position, a weakness
^Ibid., pp. 133, 136. *Ihid., p. 140. ^Ibid., p. 152.
* John Gadbury felt it necessary to answer this part of the Comefomantia
in h\s Cardines Coeli, or an Appeal to the Learned and Expert Observers
of Sublunaries. . . . In a reply to the Learned Author of Cometomantia.
By John Gadbury, London, 1684.
® Cometomantia, p. 285. ® Ibid., p. 288.
72
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
of which he seems conscious, than in his final and grand argument.
"Lastly if all that hath been said amounts not to a Demonstration
that Gomets are Signs of Impending Evils, yet this ought to be re¬
membered that no man can be certain that they signify Nothing.
. . It will be best for us to look on them as Signs, and then,
if we are mistaken, it will be on the safest side, and we shall err
with the wisest and soberest Persons." ^
The contribution of England, as evidenced by the publica¬
tions we have been considering, is not such as to compare favor¬
ably with the French welcome of the Great Comet. Superstition
is the prevailing note, and no work, so far as we know, attempts
to uphold, at this time, the conclusions of the sceptical. That is,
no voliune appears with the set purpose of answering the credulity
of John Edwards or the author of "Memento's to the World."
But in comparing the English with the German situation, it should
be borne in mind that England was comparatively apathetic on
the appearance of the Great Comet. At least one hundred works
appeared in Germany, while hardly more than half a dozen seem
to have been published in England. Although the English works
indicate gross credulity, there seems to have been a surprising
lack of interest, comparatively speaking. Besides, in scientific
circles epochmaking observations and conclusions were being
made, which were to give a basis of fact to the scepticism that the
writers on the comet show to be dangerously prevalent.
Some interesting additions to the superstitious fruitage in
England are to be found in her American colony. New England.
It is not to be expected that a province should forge ahead of the
home country. Therefore, the offerings of American writers are
not greatly different from those appearing from the British
presses, although possibly more naïve in their credulity and less
conscious of the rationalistic influences at work. Almanacs had
appeared regularly since 1639, the year in which the first book
was printed in America. These almanacs had "astrological judg¬
ments of the year," much in the manner of the English almanacs
of Gadbury, Partridge and Streete. ^ The first work on comets
^Ibid., p. 292. Of course, such a stand could be taken regarding any
and every, delusion that has obsessed humanity.
® For titles of works published in America, see Chas. Evans, American
Bibliography ; a Chronological Dictionary of all Books, Pamphlets and
THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND
73
printed in America was by Samuel Danforth in connection with
the apparitions of 1664 and 1665. The title would indicate a
superstitious treatment of the subject. ^
With the Great Comet's appearance in 1680 material of
greater importance comes from the press. A New England versi¬
fier by the name of Wiswall, published in London in 1683 a six¬
teen-page poem on the "Dreadful Comet" of 1680. He paid
especial attention to the "Manifold Judgments that are like to
attend upon most parts of the world," concluding with a denuncia¬
tion of the "Pope, the Turk and the Devil," as the "grand archi¬
tects of all that's evil," and the cause of God's wrath. ^ While the
comet was in its most spectacular stage, Samuel Willard, President
of Harvard College, preached a sermon undoubtedly suggested by
this portent, and the sermon later appeared in print.^ But a more
illustrious theologian of the time. Increase Mather, concerned him¬
self with the meaning of this "sign." Several weeks before
Samuel Willard's homily, Mather had preached in Boston on
"Heaven's Alarm to the World," using as his text, "And the third
angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning
as it were a lamp." ^ The appearance of Halley's comet in the next
year only increased the apprehension of Mather, and was the cause
of another published sermon on this "Latter Sign." ® Finally in
1683 this famous New Englander published a "Discourse Con¬
cerning Comets," in which he established by an elaborate treat-
Periodical Publications printed in the U. S. A. from 1639 to 1820. Chicago,
1903.
^ An Astronomical Description of the late Comet or Biasing Star, as it
appeared in New-England in the gth, 10th, iith and in the beginning of
the 12th month 1664. Together with a brief theological application thereof.
By S. D. Cambridge, 1665, pp. 22.
'The title is A Judicious Observation of the Dreadful Comet.
Wherein is shewed the manifold Judgments that are like to attend upon
most parts of the world. London, 1683. ló pp. Ichabod Wiswall, the
author, was minister of the church in Duxbury from 1676 until his death
in 1700. See article by A. B. Page, Boston, May, 1908, in Mass. Hist. Soc.
Publications.
^The Fiery Tryal no strange thing; delivered in a sermon preached in
Charlestown, February 15, 1681. Being a Day of Humiliation. Boston, 1682.
*Rev. viii, 10, and also a portion of xi, 14. ^.The sermon was printed in
1681 and again in 1682. For full title, see Bibliography, II, C, No. 123.
° See Bibilography, II, C, No. 124.
74
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
ment of the history of comets, the contentions put forth before
his congregation. ^
In looking back on the effects of the comet of 1680, he finds
abundant evidence of its dire meaning in the numerous European
calamities. ^ Commotions among the Tartars, the persecution of
the Hungarian Protestants, inundations in the Netherlands, a ter¬
rible confiagration in Moscow, floods in Sicily, the "vomiting" of
Mt. Aetna, are some of the misfortunes cited. Not the least in¬
teresting is a reference to the Pope : "On the 25th of June last the
Pope's Palace of St. Peter's in Rome was stricken with a thunder¬
bolt, the Fire-ball passing from one room to another until it enter¬
ed where the Pope useth to give audience. Fanaticks think that
this may be an omen that Heaven will pour down a Vial full of
Wrath upon the Throne of the Beast ere long." But he would
not have "Prophetasters" be too explicit in foretelling the events ;
for "if men did with understanding read the Scriptures more, they
would mind Judicial Astrologers less." ® However, in contradic¬
tion of this position, he proceeds to find significance in the comet's
"Saturnine" color and in the "Conjunction of the Superior Plan¬
ets." His conclusion is, "I am apt to believe that ere this century be
expired, there will be very great Revolutions in the World." ^ His
interest is not that of the astrologer but of the Christian preacher
who would find these signs a convenient text for alarming his
hearers into Godliness. ® Toward the close of his homily on the
comet of 1680, indicating his general position, he says, "Thus we
have seen what Judgments and Calamityes, Fearful Sights in
Heaven are commonly Presages of. As for that Sign in Heaven
now appearing (which hath occasioned me to speak this word
at this time) what Calamityes may be portended thereby . . .
I shall not say; but leave unto God and time to discover. Only,
in general, we have cause to fear, that sweeping Judgments are
thereby signified ; that the Lord is coming down from Heaven with
a long Beesom of Destruction, which shall sweep away a world
of Sinners before it." ®
^ See Bibliography II, C, No. 125 for full title.
* Op. cit., pp. 122-128. ' Ibid., p. 130. * Ibid., p. 138.
®In the earlier of the two sermons (p. 4) he is convinced that "we are
fallen into th^ dregs of the time wherein the day must and shall be perilous."
'^Heaven's Alarm to the World, p. 23.
THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND
75
Thereupon, he concludes with a "word of Application" which
undoubtedly brought his hearers to feelings of soberness. "Let
us hence be exhorted to approve ourselves as that are under the
solemn, awful warnings of God, ought to do. . . . And let
us not make ourselves secure, by saying or thinking, that the
Lord by such fearful Sights speaks to others onely and not unto
us. . . . Such fearful Sights are usually Signs that, those
Judgments, which are (as Tertullian says) Tonsurae humani
generis, God's sharp razors on mankind, whereby he doth poll;
his Sythe, whereby he doth shear down multitudes of sinful
Creatures, doe draw near." ^ His castigations of New England
and of Boston, in particular, are both detailed and pointed. "If
there had been no Blazing Star, yet upon other accounts, we have
cause to expect and prepare for another Day of Trouble, which
seems to be hastening upon the O New England, and upon thee
O Boston ! The Sins which are amongst us, are surer and blacker
signs of Judgment, than any Signs in heaven, that we may think
of. . . . The Lord hath been roaring out of Sion, Such roar¬
ing Judgments have been amongst us, as that the report of them
hath been heard afar off. . . . Ah! New England, wilt thou
not do more than Nineveh? . . . Will not the haughty daugh¬
ters of Sion reform the Pride in Apparel? Will they have the
Attire of an Harlot ? Will they lay out their Hair and wear false
Locks, their Borders, and Towers like Comets, about their Heads?
Will they do so, untill God sends his Arrows from Heaven, to
smite them down into the Grave, where the dayes of Darkness
shall be many ?" ^ And, as would be expected, the "signal and
speaking providences" of God are but accentuated when another
comet appears in the following year. "Hath not the Sword been
raging in the midst of thee, New-England? Hath not the Lord
been marching through the Land in Indignation? Hath not a
mortal Contagion been amongst us, and swept away five or six
hundred before it, in this one Town? Hath not God rendered his
Rebukes in flames of Fire upon thee, Boston; and that not only
by a first, but a second Sign of his Holy and Righteous Displeas¬
ure ?... And now behold ! the Lord is speaking to us, and
to all the World, by a Blazing Sign, which his own hand hath
^ Ibid., pp. 24, 27. ' Ibid., pp. 29, 30, 37.
76
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
hung up in the Heavens. It is not for nothing that there is this
Latter Sign, appearing so soon (within less than two years) after
a former." ^
The reaction of England and her colony in America was as
credulous as could well have been desired by the most ardent
advocate of superstition. The preachers as a whole, and un¬
doubtedly the great mass of the people, looked upon these signs in
an amazingly simple manner. The situation is somewhat similar
to that which has been observed in Germany. But, as already
noted, the German interest seems to have been very much keener.
The clear-cut and almost unanimous rationalism of France and
Holland finds no expression. However, there is a hopeful element
in the work of the English scientists, for they did a lion's share in
furnishing the scientific grounds for a successful refutation.
^ The Latter Sign, pp. 27-29.
CHAPTER VI
The Attack on Superstition in France and Holland
France furnishes the student of cometary superstition a very
different situation from that which has been found in Germany and
England. This is in no small part due to the policy of enlighten¬
ment adopted by the king, who had encouraged scientific investi¬
gation. We have already noted that the superstition regarding
comets had been attacked at the king's command by Pierre Petit
in 1665. ^ The "Dissertation" of Pierre Petit undoubtedly mirrors
the gittitude of mind at the court during this period. His point
of view was by no means unique among the published ideas on the
comet in 1665, for we find several writers among the Catholic
clergy advancing positions as enlightened as those of the author
who wrote at the royal request. For example, the Jesuit, Jacques
de Billy, attacked cometary superstition in a "Discours" published
in 1665. ^ His point of emphasis is the fact that every bad event
must have its good side, and that, as a consequence, a comet fore¬
tells good as well as evil. Thus Xerxes, on the appearance of a
comet, was conquered in a naval combat, but it was a great victory
for Themistocles. Likewise, the death of Julius Caesar meant the
rise of Augustus, and the destruction of Jerusalem a victory for
Titus. "I have taken the trouble to consider all histories where
it is pointed out that comets have been followed by some evil, and
I have always seen at the same time the good fortune that has
accompanied them ; to speak more strongly and with more reason,
one should be convinced that the phenomena of the heavens have
portended neither the one nor the other." ® Another Jesuit, Jac¬
ques Grandamy, published a work of similar tone in the same
^ See chapter two.
* Discours de la comète qui a paru dans l'an 1665 au mois d'Avril. Par
le P. Jacques de Billy de la Compagnie de Jesus. A Paris, 1665.
® Pp. 9, 10.
—77—
78
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
year. ^ He does not know whether to attribute the superstition to
the ignorance and timidity of the populace or to the avarice of the
charlatans and judiciary astrologers who profit from the vain fears
of the illiterate- To him comets are the results of natural causes,
are not of an evil character, and, therefore, should not be feared.
It is apparent from these examples of the French point of view in
1665 that we need expect little effective superstition in the king¬
dom of Louis le Grand in 1681, especially when representatives of
the church are talking in this fashion.
The tendency to disregard these supposed portents would be
strengthened in many ways when the great comet of 1680 appear¬
ed. That the comet of 1665 was not accompanied by evils for
France would tend to weaken the superstition, just as the Turkish
War had tended to strengthen the belief in these portents in Ger¬
many. France was at this time the dominant nation of Europe, and
at the very highest point in her aggressive policy. The Peace of
Nimeguen, which marked the zenith of Louis' accomplishments,
had been concluded but a year before the appearance of the comet.
The troubles that were to come toward the close of his long reign
were as yet unperceived by Louis or his subjects. In addition,
the development of a cast of mind that was distinctly untheological
and lighthearted had considerable to do with the situation. Theo¬
logical questions were not matters of serious moment at this time.
The literary world was chiefly concerned with the "Querelles des
anciens et des modernes." The precursors of the eighteenth cen¬
tury rationalism were finding brilliant leaders in Pierre Bäyle
and Fontenelle. A similar movement was not to become effective
in Germany for another half century. Not the least important ele¬
ment in the situation was the continuing encouragement of the
king. In 1685 he was to send an embassy to the King of Siam,
and to have attached to the expedition a group of Jesuit astron¬
omers, who were to make observations from that distant land. ^
The gratitude of science to Louis was very real apparently. In the
"Journal des Sçavans," ® the reviewer of a book on comets makes
^ Le Cours de la Comète qui a paru sur la ñn de l'année 1664 et au com¬
mencement de l'année 1665. Avec un traité de sa nature, de son mouvement,
et de ses effets. Presenté à Monseigneur le Prince par le P. Jacques
Grandamy, de la Compagnie de Jesus. Paris, 1665.
^ Weidler, Historia Astronomiae, Vitembergiae, 1741, p. 558.
® Volume for 1681, p. 227.
SCEPTICISM IN FRANCE AND HOLLAND
79
the significant statement, "Les Lettres ne fleurissent jamais davan¬
tage dans un estât que lors que le Prince s'y applique luy-mesme,
ou qu'il les honore de sa protection." At this time a monumental
work on "Superstitions Anciennes et Modernes" was published
by M. Thiers, a doctor of the Sorbonne, with the approbation of
the king and the church. It was an attack on "préjugés vul¬
gaires." Bayle wrote that it would probably be suppressed, "car
il parle un peu librement contre certaines pratiques de son église,"
but such was not the case. ^
In spite of these favorable influences superstition had not
been overcome in France in 1681, even though it found practically
no literary' expression at the time. The numerous considerations
of the comet that appeared in France are certainly an evidence
that superstition still existed. Pierre Bayle, who was a professor
in Sedan at this time, gives, as a cause for his work on the
comet the numerous inquiries of those who were curious or alarm¬
ed by this recent visitor. In the correspondence of Mme. de
Sévigné we have an interesting account of the comet and its
effects. ^ In writing to the Comte de Bussy Rabutin on January
2nd, Mme. de Sévigné informed him of the comet as it was seen
in Paris. "We have here a comet of very great size; it has the fin¬
est tail that it is possible to see. All the 'grands personnages' are
alarmed, and firmly believe that heaven, deeply concerned in their
loss, has given warnings by means of this comet. It is said that
when Cardinal Mazarin had been given up by his physicians, his
courtiers thought that his sufferings were being glorified by a pro¬
digy, and told him that a great comet had appeared. He had the
strength to laugh at them and to reply lightheartedly that the comet
did him too much honor. That is a worthy saying, for human
pride glorifies itself unduly when it believes that there are great
happenings among the stars when some one dies." Six days later
Bussy Rabutin replied from Autun in a similarly enlightened fash¬
ion : "The comet which was seen in Paris was also observed in Bur¬
gundy, and caused 'les sots' to speak here just as they did there.
'Chacun à son héros, qui, à son avis, en doit être menacée,' and I
doubt not that there are some people at Paris who believe that the
comet has announced to the world the death of Brancas. I believe
^Oeuvres diverses, I, 119.
^Lettres de Madame de Sévigné. Paris 1862, VII, 132-136.
80
THE GREAT OOMET OF 1680
as you do, Madame, that Cardinal Mazarin had great courage to
scorn, while on his deathbed, the flatterers who told him that the
heavens presaged his loss by the appearance of a comet. Your
niece admires the firmness of the Cardinal on this occasion, and
indeed one should have the power to say when dying the things
one would say if he were in good health." The "Jo^riial des
Sçavans" for the year 1681 felt it necessary to take notice of the
comet-marked egg found in Rome. Their apology for noticing
the prodigy is interesting. "Since we have received some letters
from Rome regarding the egg which has caused such a stir every¬
where, we should have considered this news as we did another
account, which was sent to us last year, touching a supposed
prodigy, which was found to be as false as we supposed at first.
But since letters have been written to persons of the 'première
qualité," such as Madame la Grand' Duchess, and M. I'lnternonce
has received a detailed account as have many others, we have
thought that at least we should make public the reproduction of
this prodigy, which has been sent, together with the short account
following." ^ Comets were a cause of fear among the Norman
sailors at the close of the eighteenth century, according to Maury
Similar testimony, probably, could be adduced for the bulk of the
uneducated, and those beyond the influence of the court circle.
It is significant that no literary records of the superstition, if any
were published, attained a position worthy of serious considera¬
tion. The numerous works on comets appearing in France are
either scientific treatments of the physical phenomena or attacks
on the superstition with no reference to any particular defence.
The onslaught on credulity was made from all sides. The
"Journal des Sçavans," in reporting the appearance and move¬
ments of the comet in the number for the 13th of January, felt it
expedient to add a page on the question, "Si les Comètes présagent
des malheurs." ® The refutation of the superstition is made from
the scientific point of view, as would be expected. It was pointed
^ Volume for 1681, p. 25. See chapter three for the description. Another
remarkable egg was found in 1681 in Avignon. It contained a miniature
human head, and was the subject of two reports to the Journal des Sçavans
(pp. 278 & 331). But there is no tendency to regard this as a miracle, and
several veryN:urious explanations are offered.
» Op. cit., p. 220. ® Volume for 1681, p. 14.
SCEPTICISM IN FRANCE AND HOLLAND
81
out that formerly comets were thought to be sublunary and the
result of exhalations from the earth ; it was not surprising that a
belief in the possibility of their influences should have been in
vogue. "But since it has been known that comets are celestial
bodies, we are disabused of this mistake, which is now only an
'erreur populaire,' and we are easily convinced that it is unneces¬
sary to impute occurrences here below to causes so far removed.
Besides, many comets have appeared which the people have not
perceived, and if a faithful report had been made of the extra¬
ordinary events succeeding, there would perhaps be as many that
followed or accompanied as preceded some occurrences of im¬
portance." Throughout this year and the next notices of books
and letters on comets appear in this learned magazine. The num¬
ber for the 5th of May, 1681, was given over entirely to a discus¬
sion of the comet, but not a single word is to be found in it with
regard to the comet's influence. There is, on the other hand, an
exhaustive account of the observations made by M. Cassini at the
Paris Observatory. In the number for the 21st of July the obser¬
vations of Fontaney, professor of mathematics at the College of
Clermont, are reviewed, but there is no evidence that he had any¬
thing to say on the question of superstition. ^ On the 24th of
February an "Explication de la comète," written by "D, Anthelme
Chartreux à Dijon" is considered. ^ This author declares that
comets presage neither wars nor pestilence nor famine nor the
death of the great, "comme le Vulgaire le croit." ^
Several other interesting pamphlets appeared. One was ad¬
dressed to a lady by a "Gentil-homme de Province." * The author
supposes the lady to have asked the meaning of this comet. In
his attack on the superstition he aims particularly at the astrologer.
Astrology, he says, is a business to which a man with self respect
would not give himself, it is "un science vaine et trompeuse, et qu'à
l'égard de la nature des comètes les différent opinions sont toutes
incertaines." ® He aflirms that comets have a regular movement
^ Volume for 1681, p. 262.
'Explication de la Comète qui a paru sur la fin de l'année dernière et
au commencement de celle-cy, 1681. A Dijon. 1681.
® Volume for 1681, p. 55.
* Lettre d'un Gentil-homme de Province à une dame de qualité sure le
sujet de la comète. A Paris 1681. 2ipp,
^ Ibid., p. 10.
82
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
like Other celestial bodies and, therefore, cannot be the cause or
sign of any good or evil, either generally or in particular. "One
can rest comfortably and in perfect tranquillity so far as these
menaces of heaven are concerned." ^ Mention might also be made
at this point of the "Dissertation sur les Comètes" published in
1681 by Mallement de Messanges, professor of philosophy in the
College of Plessis in Paris. ^ This work was by a follower of Des¬
cartes, and was opposed to superstition.
The attitude of the average intelligent Frenchman is probably
best represented in the "Mercure Galant," the popular Parisian
weekly of the day. ® This magazine did not take things so seriously
as the "Journal des Sçavans," but in January, 1682, there appeared
among its articles a discourse on comets written by Claude Com-
iers, "chanoine de la cathédrale d'Embrum." ^ He declared that
comets have their courses as well regulated as the other planets,
although the principles governing their movements have not been
so well established. It is ridiculous to believe that comets can be
the cause or sign of misfortunes happening on the earth. A poet
bewailing the departure of a a 'belle' exclaims,
"Ce funeste départ me trouble et m'inquiète.
C'est là ce qu'il faut craindre et non pas la comète."
Another versifier reproaches men for laying the responsibility for
their mistakes on the comet,
"Et leur esprit ambitieuz
Veut dans une pauvre comète
Ou dans la matière des Cieux
Trouver l'autheur pernicieux
D'une faute qu'ils auront faite."
The climax is reached in a third "Impromptu," which records the
death of an elephant at Versailles as evidence that the comet has
a baneful eifect on the "great" ones of the earth.
Ibid., p. 17.
® See Bayle, Pensées diverses, §§ 13, 16 and La Grande Encyclopédie.
® This "hebdomadaire" was begun in 1672 and had a very great success.
Its purpose was to keep the "polite" world informed of happenings of
interest, especially those occurring at the court.
^Discours sur les comète, par lequel il est prouvé qu'elles ne prédisent
aucun malkmr. Comiers was a doctor of theology, and one of the prin¬
cipal editors of the Mercure Galant from 1681 to 1693. See La Grande
Encyclopédie.
SCEPTICISM IN FRANCE AND HOLLAND
83
"Assurez-vous que la comète,
Du ciel la funeste interprète,
Prédit toujours la mort d'un Grand.
Ne voila-t-il pas qu'à Versailles,
Étendu, couché sur la paille.
Vient de mourir un Éléphant?"
One of the most piquant attacks on the comet was made in a
comedy called "La Comète," which was acted during the latter
part of January, 1681, in Paris. The "Mercure Galant" advised all
who wished to be healed of the fear of the comet to see this
comedy ; "Elle fait connoistre qu'on n'a aucun lieu de s'en effrayer
et marque d'une manière très-enjouée l'opinion du fameux Des¬
cartes sur cette matière." The author of this play was the famous
Fontenelle. For forty years he was Secretary of the Academy of
Sciences, and in the "Éloges" of deceased members he gave the
most lucid summaries of the philosophic and scientific labors of
his day. His "Histoire des Oracles" (1687), "Entretiens sur la
Pluralité des Mondes" (1686) and the "Dialogue des Morts"
( 1683) prepared the ground for the rationalizing spirit of the next
century. Lanson ^ regards Fontenelle and Bayle as the two great
"précurseurs et initateurs de xviiie siècle." The comedy was first
acted on January 29th, and had only six representations. This
one-act play of seventeen scenes never created great interest, and
is of value chiefly as an excellent caricature of the nature of the
current superstition. ^
In this comedy Florice the daughter of an astrologer is about
to be married to M. de la Forest. The play opens with the valet
and the femme de chambre congratulating themselves on their
good prospects for "pourboires" in view of the approaching nup¬
tials. For the master is rich; "c'est un bon métier que d'être
astrologue." There is a delightful piece of ridicule of the alma¬
nac-makers when the valet confides to his companion the informa¬
tion that he is preparing an almanac of his own. There is doubt
in his mind as to whether he should add at the end a few biog¬
raphies of great men or directions for planting cabbages. Fran-
^ Histoire de la littérature française, Paris, 1896, pp. 624fï.
®For details, see Maigron, Fontenelle, l'homme A'oeuvre, l'inßuence. Paris
1906. The play is to be found in Oeuvres de M. de Fontenelle. 12 vols.,
Amsterdam, 1764.
84
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
coise advises him to keep to the cabbages. After the entrance of
the two lovers, M. de la Forest expresses his fear that the star¬
gazing father may put difficulties in their way, for astrologers, as
a rule, are men difficult to get on with. His prognostication
proves but too true as the father enters, crying, "What devasta¬
tions for the coming year ! What famine ! WJhat pestilence and
war !" And he declares that so long as the comet shall be in the
sky, so long as the least bit of its tail can be seen, his daughter
shall not marry. A hot discussion ensues in which M. de la Forest
is made to express the author's views. "We are favored with a
new star. Why should we not think that it announces good for¬
tune ? Are there not at present a thousand happy people who have
as much right to thank the comet for their joys as the unfortunate
have the right to consider it the cause of their trouble? When
there is not a comet it is necessary to regard all that occurs as due
to natural order; when a comet happens along why make it re¬
sponsible for evil ?" The discussion is rendered more intense by
the appearance of M. de la Forest's uncle, M. Taquinet ( !), who
has come to sign the marriage contract. After further acrimonious
conversation the uncle and nephew leave with the maledictions
of the astrologer, who remains impervious to the entreaties of his
daughter and servants. He even scouts the suggestion that the
nuptials be held in a cave so that the comet should be ignorant
of the proceedings.
A new cause of amusement is introduced with the appearance
of Mme. la Comtesse de Goustigan, who has rushed to the as¬
trologer's house "hors d'elle même," frightened by this "effroy¬
able comète, cette queue prodigieuse." She tells how she was
about to cross the Pont Neuf to go to her house in the Faubourg
St. Germain when she perceived this "épouvantable comète." She
stopped the carriage and, looking at the comet, found it to be just
above her house. Hastening home she gathered together her valu¬
ables, and rushed to the astrologer for "un asyle contre la
comète." The class of the merely curious is represented by the
appearance of Mme. Fraisier, who desires to ask the astrologer a
question. There has been a wager and she is anxious for a man
of the trade to decide the question ; should one say "la comète"
or "le comète." The astrologer regards her as frivolous, but to
her it is seemingly very important, as a mistake would "choquer
SCEPTICISM IN FRANCE AND HOLLAND
85
la Grammaire." She leaves after saying the significant words,
"People of quality do not trouble themselves about the nature of
the comet; they only desire to know its real name." Probably
Fontenelle is mirroring the general attitude of indifference in
France by this introduction of Mme. Fraisier.
After this lady's departure the astrologer enters on a "petit
discours" with the countess regarding comets, but it is interrupted
by a letter from Rome which brings the frightful news of a comet
in an egg (as Fontenelle puts it). The countess declares she will
eat no more eggs, and the valet remarks that it would certainly be
serious if one should eat an omelette of comets. But the astrologer
is now anxious to examine the comet to see if there are any new
evidences of its supernatural character. The valet says he will
put the henyard in shape, but finally the astrologer and the coun¬
tess, suitably attired for the winter's night, mount a platform on
a neighboring house for purposes of observation. When the two
star gazers return with bad colds they find that Florice, the
daughter, has eloped. The servants, previously bribed, declare
that ten men, heavily armed and sent by M. de la Forest, had car¬
ried her off after a severe struggle. The astrologer is now con¬
vinced of the evil effects of comets: "Ah! Comète, Comète, je te
reconnois." To the advice that he be reconciled with the young
couple, he indignantly replies, "Recevoir dans ma famille un
homme qui a traité outrageusement la comète!" And thus ends
a delightful little skit in which the comet and the astrologer are
certainly handled most outrageously.
Probably no better example of the French attitude could be
given than this happy handling of the problem by one of the chief
littérateurs of the day. France was not worried about the comet ;
she did not even have a sufficiently theological point of view to
be obsessed by the possibility that a problem lurked in the come-
tary appearance. The contrast between France and the other
countries we have considered could scarcely be greater. Only
one other French treatment of the comet remains to be considered.
This work, the "Pensées diverses" of Pierre Bayle, is the most
important of the publications that resulted from the appearance
of the great luminary of 1680. Bayle wroth this work in France
but published it in Holland, where he had gone to avoid religious
86
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
persecution. A discussion of his contribution will be made after
some account of the superstitions in Holland has been presented.
In turning from France to Holland to find the reaction occur-
ing there on the appearance of the Great Comet, we are struck
by the comparative complexity of the situation. In Holland the
two points óf view are in greater balance than in any of the coun¬
tries yet considered and, as a consequence, the contest is more
spirited. The Low Countries permitted a large measure of free¬
dom in speech and press. Here almost all the variations within
Protestantism had their adherents, although Calvinism was un¬
doubtedly the predominant faith. But Calvinism in Holland had
become very largely static, a.fter a rigidly orthodox position was
taken at the Synod of Dort in 1618. The Calvinist pastors during
this century were not inclined to be tolerant, and formed a dan¬
gerous opposition to the growing cause of toleration. Likewise,
the bulk of the people over whom they ministered were in a sim¬
ilar position. Although they were unable to repress freedom of
speech through governmental means, yet pressure was not infre¬
quently brought to bear against heretics through the church
courts, as we shall have occasion to illustrate. On the other hand,
the aristocracy, into whose hands the government of the country
fell, was quite otherwise disposed; so long as politics was not
confused with theology there was considerable freedom of opin¬
ion. They felt that the material prosperity of the country depend¬
ed on this exercise of freedom, and it was their policy to promote
conciliation. In Holland a rather sharp distinction can be made
between the tolerant, aristocratic class and the bulk of the people
who were under the strict control of their religious leaders. ^
This explains why superstition of a highly obscurantist char¬
acter existed alongside of much enlightenment. Pierre Bayle,
who published for several years at Rotterdam a learned journal,
"Nouvelles de la République des Lettres," writes in 1685 regard¬
ing its character that he finds it unnecessary to fill the pages of his
magazine with accounts of prodigies and things miraculous, for
"La Hollande n'est pas un pays de crédulité." ^ But Bayle was a
distinguished littérateur of foreign birth and education, mixing
only wifh the élite of a congenial society. His statement would
^ C. Serrurier, Pierre Bayle en Hollande, Lausanne, 1912, chapter two.
' Oeuvres diverses, La Haye^ 1737, I, 228.
SCEPTICISM IN PRANCE AND HOLLAND
87
apply only to the circle of society of which he was a member;
moreover, in a few years he was to suffer attacks for his free
thinking. Superstition was still flourishing in Holland when the
Great Comet made its appearance.
A well known clergyman of the time, Koelman, a sort of/
Dutch Savonarola, wrote in 1682 under the pseudonym of Chli-
arander some warnings and menaces for those who were not in¬
clined to bewail their sins on the appearance of a comet. ^ Another
famous clergyman, G. Cocq of Utrecht, published a volume in
that city in 1682 in which comets were shown to be ambassadors
sent from heaven. The work was sanctioned with the "approba¬
tions" of the faculties of theology and philosophy of the Academy
of Utrecht. The vouchers for this volume felt that this treatise
would "éveiller chez les hommes de ce siècle insouciant la crainte
de la Majesté effroyable de Dieu. . . . Elle portera le lecteur
attentif non seulement à s'étonner des oeuvres redoutables du
Très-Haut mais elle exhortera également à faire des réflexions
édifiantes à ce sujet, ce dont les spéculations gratuites de beaucoup
de philosophes n'ont détourné les hommes de nos jours que trop
souvent." ^ Another clergyman, Johann Holst, saw fit to publish
works on the comet in which Jeremiah furnishes the basis for the
preaching of superstition. ^
An interesting example of the superstitious point of view
is a broadside published February 3, 1681, in which in fluent
Dutch a certain Pieter de la Croix urges that this "Staart-star"
be regarded as a "Heaven-token" of wrath. ^ The opening lines
indicate the burden of the poet's song; "The star whose tail pic¬
tures a scourge in God's hand threatens these lands with plague
or sword or famine : it mjsses the "Cup" (a constellation) and also
misses plenty ; its home is near the "Raven,' which it wholly swal-
^ Serrurier, op. cit., p. 49. * Op. cit., pp. 49, 50,
® See Biblography II, B, Nos. 112, 113.
* This broadside is No. 32 of a scrap-book on Netherlands History
in the possession of the New York Public Library. The author of these
thirty-two lines of verse signs himself as P. D. L. Croix. Little apparently
is known of Pieter de la Croix. From 1681 to 1687 he had charge, along
with the better known Joan Pluimer, of the city theatre of Amsterdam.
See Niew Nederlandisch Biographisch Woordenhoek, Leiden, 1912, II, 746.
The place of publication is not indicated, but undoubtedly it was Ams¬
terdam.
88
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
lows Up; the "Korenschoof" (the handful of grain held by the
Virgin) seems to pale within its flames. Whoso with heaven-eye
beholds this heaven-token must be amazed, moved, admonished by
this sight to genuine pentinence." The author finds that the
House of Austria is particularly menaced, for the star portends
for this royal family as many years of trouble as days it shall be
seen ; "The speechless light declareth publicly. There follows me
as I appear a stream of troubles.' " The versifier notices with
disapproval those who teach that comets are natural results of the
workings of nature, and that no ill eflfects are to be expected from
their appearance. But he comforts himself with the example of
Jerusalem over which a comet brooded on the eve of its destruction
and with the words of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who heeded
the comet's warning in 1556. "So does a wise soul feel God's
hand before it strikes. Happy he who lets God's Waker waken
him, who lets this comet reach so deep within his heart that he
by virtue trims the gleaming of this light and changes woe to
weal, this (comet) to a false alarm." ^
The Dutch advócates of enlightenment were not silenced by
the superstition "de la foule et de la majorité des prédicateurs."
Three sturdy and famous advocates of the application of reason to
celestial phenomena, J. G. Graevius, Balthasar Bekker and Pierre
Bayle, resided in Holland. Johann Georg Graevius was a German,
having been born at Naumburg in 1632. In 1662 he became pro¬
fessor in the University of Utrecht, where he taught until his death
in 1703. Graevius was one of the most famous classical scholars
and teachers of his day. Pupils came to him from all over Europe.
So great was his reputation that flattering offers were received
from Heidelberg, Padua and Venice, all of which he declined. It
is a matter of the greatest significance that a man of such un¬
doubted international influence should have made an attack on
cometary superstition. In 1681 he published in Latin an "Oratio
de Cometis" at the express request of the Estates of Utrecht. ^
^ "Gelukkig die zieh door Gods wekker doet ontwaken,
Die deeze Staartstar laat zoo diep in't herte raaken,
Dat hy, door deugd, verdoost de Nastraal van dit licht,
En wis^lt wee in well, dit in een loogendicht"
I wish to express my indebtedness to Professor Walter M. Patton of Carle-
ton College for a translation of this Dutch broadside.
' See the dedication for the request of the Utrecht officials.
SCEPTICISM IN FRANCE AND HOLLAND
89
This attack on the common opinion that comets were ambassadors
of evil contained a good deal of reference to the historical aspect
of the problem and the relation of events to comets ; "Scrutamini
annales, evolvite temporum memorias, semper plurima bella,
paucos invenietis Cometas. Non quia Cometae fulserunt bella
sunt secuta, sed quia bella secuta sunt ea Cometis adscripserunt." ^
And then he adds a long list of events not portended by comets.
After this spirited and purely philosophical and literary attack on
the superstition, he concludes with the exhortation that his hearers
be freed from this fear, and show true repentance. ^ It was in
reply to this work by Graevius, officially championed by Utrecht,
that a year later G. Cocq published with the approbation of the
faculty of theology of that city his treatise upholding the older
theological view. The "Oratio" proved so successful that a Dutch
translation appeared in 1682.
A man who created an even greater stir, and who suffered
for it, was Balthasar Bekker, one of the most important precur¬
sors of rationalism. Born in 1634, he studied at Groningen and
Franeker, where he was rector of the Latin school and was made
doctor of theology in 1666. Bekker came under Cartesian in¬
fluence, and gave offence by his interpretations of theological
positions. He was accused of Socinianism, and was mixed up in
controversy a good deal of the time. Finally in 1679 he accepted
a call as preacher to Amsterdam, and it was while he was in that
city that the comet's appearance caused him to write a work
against popular superstition. ® This treatise, in view of Bekker's
already advanced views, added energy to the attacks of his ene¬
mies. Apparently much commotion was aroused by the publica¬
tion. His long-suffering clerical co-laborers were completely
aroused when he published in 1691 a work denying the existence
of sorcery, magic, possessions of the devil, and even the existence
of the devil himself. ^ The consistory of Amsterdam instituted a
^P. 14.
'P. 19. "Quid igitur cunctamini? Agite pavidi, ejicite ex animis vestris
hanc timoris calumniam, liberamini hos caecae superstitiones tormento,
quod vos dies noctesque sollicitos habet, et metu futurorum cruciat."
® Ondersock van de Betekeninge der Kometen^ Amsterdam, 1683.
*De Betoverde Wereld, Leeuwarden, 1691. Two years later the volume
was translated into German, and in 1694 a French rendering appeared.
90
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
formal process against Bekker, and this opponent of cometary
superstition and the witchcraft delusion was deposed in 1692.
However, he only retired to Friesland to write the last two books
of his work on the devil.
The third of the sceptical triumvirate is^^Pierre Bayle, whose
work possessed sufficient literary merit and attractiveness, and
was so extensive a treatment of the superstitions of the day that
it has remained the most important literary result of the appear¬
ance of the Great Comet. J)i.derót went so far as to say in the
"Encyclopédie" that Bayle's' treatise was the chief cause of the
comet's fame. A consideration of the "Pensées .diverses" has
been reserved for a separate chapter.
CHAPTER VII
The "Pensées Diverses sur la Comète" of Pierre Bayle
The life of Bayle was the uneventful career of a "savant
homme" dedicated to his books and to his "cabinet de travail."
It is of interest, however, to know of the way in which he arrived
at his sceptical position. ^ He was born at Carla in the County
of Foix, Southern France, in 1647, the son of the Protestant
minister of the town. Every opportunity was given him for his
intellectual development. In 1666 he was sent to the Academy
of Puylaurens, and three years later removed to the University
of Toulouse where he studied philosophy in the College of the
Jesuits. Although this seems not to have been strange, it resulted
disastrously; Bayle changed his religion, becoming a Catholic.
However, after eighteen months he came to himself and returned
to the Protestant fold. This episode in Bayle's life caused him
no little inconvenience later. But it appears to have been a
sincere experience, and probably led to an expansion of his scep¬
tical and critical type of mind. The chief modern biographer
of Bayle would go so far as to say that on leaving Toulouse
Bayle was no longer "un homme de foi." ^
He next moves to Geneva to continue his studies. Here his
Aristotelianism is discarded for the Cartesian point of view. The
ministry becomes decreasingly attractive. The atmosphere of
Geneva seems to have affected his voice, for he gives the weak¬
ness of that organ as one of the chief reasons for the discontinu¬
ance of his preparation for the ministry. After serving for
several years as a tutor in private families, he finally obtains the
chair of philosophy in the Academy of Sedan, a Protestant
^ The primary source for knowledge of his life apart from his writings,
is La Vie de M. Bayle par M. des Maiseaux, which is prefixed to the later
editions of Bayle's Dictionary.
® Jean Delvolve, Essai sur Bayle, religion critique et philosophie positive.
Paris, 1906, p. II.
—91—
92
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
college. Here at the age of twenty-eight he enters on an impor¬
tant teaching position. In the same school M. Jurieu was Pro¬
fessor of Theology. This famous Calvinist was later to prove
the most bitter enemy and the successful champion of orthodoxy
against his former colleague. It was while Bayle was teaching
in Sedan that the comet made its appearance, and that he wrote
his first draft of the work on the comet. In July, 1681, the
Academy of Sedan was closed by royal command, for Louis was
beginning his policy of repression which was to culminate in the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. This left Bayle
without a position, but before the end of the year he obtained
the professorship of philosophy and history in the École Illustre,
an Academy established at that time in Rotterdam; his co-lab¬
orer, Jurieu, became Professor of Theology. Bayle never
returned to his native land, but spent the remainder of his days
in Rotterdam, teaching and writing. It was here that his "Pen¬
sées diverses sur la comète" was published, and was later fol¬
lowed by numerous works, notably the famous letter on tolera¬
tion, "Commentaire philosophique sur ces paroles de Jesus-
Christ: Contrains les d'entrer," published in 1686, and the more
famous "Dictionnaire historique et critique," the first edition of
which appeared in 1697. He died in 1706.
After the appearance of the comet Bayle was troubled by
numerous inquiries as to its significance. "I found myself con¬
stantly exposed to the questions of those either curious or alarm¬
ed. I reassured them as well as I could, but I accomplished
little by philosophical reasoning. They always replied that God
showed these great luminaries to give sinners time to repent
before the punishments due them should fall on their heads. I
thought then that it would be worth while to employ an argu¬
ment showing that the nature of God was such that it would
not permit him to use comets in that way. I meditated on this,
and soon worked out the theological reason which is in this
writing. I do not remember to have seen it in any book. That
inspired me with the idea of writing a letter to be printed in the
'Mercure Galant.' " ^ The letter of Bayle became a treatise, but
^Froin the Ävertissement of the Third Edition (1699) of this work.
The most convenient and only critical edition of Bayle's work is the Pensées
diverses sur la Comète, edition critique, avec une introduction et des notes,
publiée par A. Frat, 2 vols., Paris, *911.
PIERRE BAYLE
93
it was sent, nevertheless, to the editor of the "Mercure Galant"
with the request that he procure its publication. But is was so
radical theologically that de Visé would not vouch for it, and it
was returned. In March 1682 it was published in Rotterdam
under the title, "Lettre à M. L. A. D. C. Docteur de Sorbonne,
ou il est prouvé par plusieurs raisons tirées de la philosophie, et
de la Théologie, que les comètes ne sont point le présage d'aucun
malheur." In the second edition, published a year later, the title
was changed to "Pensées diverses écrites à un Docteur de Sor¬
bonne à l'occasion de la Comète qui parut au mois de Décembre
1680," and this continues to be the name of the work as it reap¬
pears from time to time.
The work was published anonymously, the author being very
desirous of concealing the authorship. By the style he attempted
to give the impression that it was written by a Roman Catholic.
The volume is characterized by an unphilosophical and rambling
manner of presentation, calculated to add to the attractive¬
ness of the work for the ordinary reader. He makes thrusts
now and again at philosophy, and is very fond of the expres¬
sion "experience teaches us." ^ But this anti-philosophical man¬
ner is used largely to disarm the reader who is being gently in¬
oculated with Cartesian views all the time. A very noticeable
characteristic of these "Miscellaneous Thoughts" is their very
miscellaneous character. The author slides easily from one sub¬
ject to another altogether unrelated, and often digressions of a
lively character are inserted to ease the reader. This treatise,
which occupies two volumes octavo in its latest edition, is cut
«
up into two hundred and sixty-three sections to add still further
to the ease with which it could be read. The efforts of Bayle
to make the work popular were successful beyond all expectation.
It not only created "du bruit," but was so enthusiastically re¬
ceived that a second edition was called for within a year, and two
others appeared before the author's death in 1706. Its place,
therefore, in the fight against superstition, is one of great impor¬
tance; in the attack on delusions regarding comets it undoubt¬
edly occupies the first place.
Bayle opens his attack with a treatment of the question of
evidence (§§ 1-8), and then proceeds to a refutation of the idea
' See §§ 33, 46, 120, 134, 145-
94
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
that comets can have an actual effect on earthly happenings
(§§ 9-16), treating in this connection the subject of astrology
as the basis for these superstitious cometary beliefs (§§ 17-22).
In the next ten sections superstition in general, as it is expressed
in beliefs in omens, the power of good and bad days, and the
power of names, is considered. Thereupon he digresses (§§
34-44) to show that an examination of the events happening near
the year 1665 do not justify a belief in the effectiveness of the
comet of that year. He appends to this excursion some reflex¬
ions on the place of evidence and the danger of error in common
beliefs (§§ 45-49). Next there is introduced a discussion of
eclipses. With section fifty-seven the core of the work is reached,
the argument from religion; if God intended comets as presages
of calamities, he must have wrought miracles for the confirma¬
tion of idolatry. The excesses of pagan superstition are exposed
(§§ 57~78) with the inference that similar beliefs now found
within Christian circles are pagan survivals (§§ 79-101). In
the next hundred sections (nearly half the work) the author
forgets that his book is on comets ; he proceeds to a severe criti¬
que of Christian morals and a defence of atheism as no worse
than idolatry and Christianity. Atheism is no worse than idol¬
atry (§§ 102-132) ; it does not corrupt morals, and in this regard
it certainly could be no worse than Christianity which practically
fails in keeping them pure (§§ 133-193)- After this long digres¬
sion he reverts to comets as miracles and their relation to sec¬
ondary causes (§§ 194-238). After another digression on
comtemporary events, in which a large measure of praise
is meted out to Louis XIV (§§ 239-261), Bayle concludes
(§§ 262-263) with a recapitulation of the arguments against
cometary superstition. Certainly no better title could be given
to the work than "Pensées diverses." Probably the best charac¬
terization that could be made is the one with which the author
concludes the miscellany : "I stop here. Monsieur, not admiring
myself as I cast my eyes back over this lengthy work, especially
when I think of the strange medley that rules there. For, of
what have I not spoken? What a strange conglomerate of
ideas I have heaped up, obtained partly from my reading, partly
from conversation and partly from my own small store. You
will undoubtedly notice in this work the irregularity that is to be
PIERRE BAYLíE
95
found in a city. Because a city is not built all at once, but is
improved now in one place and now in another, so one often
sees a small house beside a large one, and an old building along¬
side a new structure."
In his attack on the cometary beliefs Bayle proposes to take
his stand on the arguments drawn from philosophy and from
ordinary experience. Theology, with the implications drawn
from it in its relations to morals, is reserved for the second por¬
tion of the Work. The author considers the idea of presage, in
the first place, by accepting its possibility and then treating the
evidence for and against it. Comets to be presages must be so
as signs or efficient causes. ^ Their efficiency to produce the
effect supposed would demand that they actually affect the earth.
But this is ridiculous as the atmosphere of a comet would have
to reach millions of leagues, while it is the common belief
that the earth's atmosphere has not more than three or four
leagues elevation at the most. ^ Their light could not have any
effect on the earth, for a dim lamp burning in an open field
illuminates and warms the air around more than the largest blaz¬
ing star. We might as well imagine that a candle stuck up in one
of the public places of the town would keep the inhabitants
warm, when a brisk fire in every one's chamber can hardly pre¬
serve them from the cold. ® In fact, this comet has been accom¬
panied by an excessively cold season. ^ In the second place, it
naturally follows that if it did aflfect the earth there is no reason
to believe that the result would be evil any more than beneficial.®
An important point m his presentation is that more evils
have not actually followed the appearance of comets. He recurs
to this again and again, and shows by an abundance of instances
that the general belief has not rested on the facts as they h^ave
actually occurred. It is naturally too early to argue from the
present comet, he says, but others that have appeared in the past
furnish an opportunity for testing the belief. The last great
comets were the two dreadful ones of 1664 and 1665. Bayle
extensively treats the events preceding and succeeding these
comets for a period of seven years, which is the term in which
the comet is generally supposed to actúas a presage.® If the
years following 1665 are considered, it is noticeable that they
263. " § 9. ® § 12. " § 16. ® § 16. ' §§ 34-44.
96
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
were years of blessing and not of trouble. ^ It is true that there
was a war between the Turks and the Venetians, in which the
latter lost the Island of Candia, but this island was in the process
of being subjugated long before 1665, and the treaty by which
it was granted in 1669 was a real blessing to Venice, In fact,
Venice got off cheaply. ^ The treaty ending the wars of Spain
and Portugal and freeing the latter country was a blessing ; Spain
began to lose Portugal as early as 1640, and thus the two comets
were certainly not guilty. The Dutch and English had a slight
contest, which was settled at the Peace of Breda. The Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle brought peace to the world, and therefore
blessing. An additional cause for satisfaction was the pacifica¬
tion of the Jansenists and Jesuits. Can it therefore be pretended
that the comets of 1664 and 1665 were followed by a dreadful
deluge of evils? May we not rightly ridicule the prophets who
presaged dreadful events to come and schisms and heresies in
the church ? One of them even advised the emperor to shut him¬
self up for twenty days in a palace built upon the strongest
foundations, in a gloomy vale surrounded by mountains.®
Bayle admits that there were some calamities at that time,
such as, for example, the London Fire, the eruption of Mt. Etna
and like "accidents." But they were not of general consequence.
It is easy to show that similar calamities have happened without
the assistance of comets, such as the burning of Moscow by the
Tartars in 1571, or the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631.^' Bayle
then goes on to treat one of the most common beliefs, that comets
are especially prejudicial to crowned heads. In this regard, the
comet of 1665 might be conceded to have done considerable
damage, for in two months time it had stricken to the earth a
Pope, a grand duke and the King of Spain. ® But the poor King
of Spain had been kept alive by dint of ingenuity so long that
most people were amazed that he had lived until that time. As
for the Pope, his death only gave way for his successor, and that
is not necessarily a calamity. In fact, deaths which are preju¬
dicial should be distinguished from those that are not. "Une
hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps." There are calamities without
comets ar\d comets without calamities. ®
One of the strongest arguments that can be used against the
'§35. '§36. "§41. '§43. ®§57- '§44.
PIERRE BAYLE
97
superstitious beliefs in comets is the fact that they appear so
frequently, and Bayle stressed this point very effectively. But
often they are so small or appear at such times that they are not
seen, and therefore the people do not consider them as presages. ^
But one comet should be as much a presage as another. There
were seven from the year 1298 to 1314, twenty-six from 1500 to
1543. People who are not astronomers imagine none appeared
between those of 1665 and this one of 1680. But the astronomers
observed comets in 1668, 1672, 1676 and 1677. ^ But comets of
that character are not true signs. Above all, why should they
be seen only by astronomers ? These, of all men, are the strang¬
est ones to whom to present presages, for they have no religion
themselves and are not likely to preach repentance to the world.
In this manner Bayle with great acuteness aided by his large
range of reading proves that if common sense and reason are
used in examining the facts, the idea of a portent is not to be
found in a cometary appearance.
But the belief is prevalent in spite of these facts. He, there¬
fore, attacks it as a superstition to be placed in the same class
with beliefs in eclipses, astrology, names, good and evil days,
and as subject to the same general criticism. This gives the
author the opportunity for some of his sharpest attacks on credul¬
ity. The direct basis of the belief is found in astrology, and to
Bayle never was there such a piece of impertinence, never any¬
thing so chimerical, never so great a scandal to human nature,
as this art which cheats practice and fools are credulous enough
to believe. ^ No one has ever more clearly shown up the whole
ridiculous scheme than Pierre Bayle. He mixes in a bewildering
jumble, the male signs and female signs, of which some are ter¬
restrial and others aqueous, some hot and some cold, some diur¬
nal and some nocturnal. Each planet is supposed to reign over
certain people and conditions, and he instances Saturn who rules
over Bavaria, Saxony, Spain, a part of Italy, Ravenna, Ingolstad,
Moors and Jews, lakes, churchyards, old age, spleens, things
of black and tan color, and those that are sour. ^ The signs of
the zodiac have their realms of influence on the earth, and so it
is necessary for a comet to have a horoscope. If it happens to
be in the Ram it portends dreadful wars, mortality, the humbling
'§56. ^Ibid, '§17. "§17.
98
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
of the great, and fearful droughts in the places subject to the
sign. "Consider, I pray, whether you are not renouncing all
shame and sincerity to advance such principles. Because the
comet appears in a group of stars that the ancients saw fit to call
Virgo, therefore shall our women be barren, or have frequent
miscarriages or die unmarried, if a comet appears in this con¬
stellation? I know nothing in the world that hangs so ill to¬
gether. Only the excesses of caprice could make out this sign
to be a Virgin anyhow. Even if it has human form, why a
woman and not a man, why a virgin and not a married woman ?" ^
"Yet this belief, which seems so ridiculous, has had great cur¬
rency in the past, and even among Christians today you do not
have to go far to find evidence of its existence. Have not Albert
the great Bishop of Ratisbon, Cardinal d'Ailly and some others
I could name had the boldness to take the horoscope of Christ ?" ^
But even France, guarded against superstitious practices by the
intrinsic character of the nation, is overrun with astrologers. ^
The real reason why astrology still gets credit is by a kind of
willful experience. ^ "An astrologer tells a person he shall die
soon. The man, simple enough to believe him, falls into a deep
melancholy and dies in good earnest. If a girl be told her horo¬
scope matches her with some particular man, she resolves upon
it, which brings the matter easily about, and fortifies the illusion."
In a similar manner Bayle treats the belief in eclipses, lucky
and unlucky days, and superstition in general, gathering together
much that is curious and interesting. The attack on the belief
that eclipses influence human lives was particularly valid in con¬
nection with the attack on comets. Eclipses were peculiar
heavenly phenomena, but on account of their frequency, and the
ability of astronomers to forteil their appearances, they had be¬
come less dreadful. ® And yet even in Bayle's time there was
considerable evidence of widespread belief in the power of
eclipses to affect human life. The great eclipse of August 12,
1654, was foretold by astrologers as likely to do all kinds of
damage. People were so terrified that they fled to cellars well
ventilated to provide against the damps of the eclipse. The ter¬
ror was áo great in one place that a country curate was unable to
confess all his parishioners who were preparing for the last hour.
^Ihid. "§20. '§21. loi. "§ S3-
PIERRE BAYLE
99
He, therefore, announced one Sunday that they need not be in
such a hurry ; the eclipse had been postponed for a fortnight. ^
Many curious instances are given of the use of certain days as
lucky and of others as the reverse, and Bayle shows that often
so-called lucky days are chosen by generals for sentimental rea¬
sons, or as best fitted to work up the passions of the soldiers. ^
In like manner names have come to be regarded as important.
"Even patron saints have been chosen because of their names.
Those troubled with sore eyes, such as glass grinders and lantern
makers, recommend themselves to St. Clare, and those troubled
with deafness to St. Ouie, and those with gout to St. Genou.
Probably St. Clare is as able to cure the weakness of the eyes
as anyone else, so that people might as well address him. But
it is the grossest superstition to imagine that because St. Clare
is called St. Clare, therefore God has given him the gift of
healing sore eyes." ®
Much more might be added from the curious superstitions
collected by Bayle, but sufficient has been given to show the way
he handled the problem in a book written over two centuries
ago. He found superstition rife. It existed from the old
grandam, who could tell you circumstantially of the death of
twenty or thirty of her acquaintances who died within a year
after the day they made the thirteenth at the table, and the world
of vexation that followed in the family after spilling the salt, ^ to
lawyers and clergymen, who borrowed a thousand fine smiles
from credulity. ® Yet all these beliefs, which are the common
opinions of the world, are contrary to experience, if one would
have the curiosity to make an examination. ®
Superstition in general, and in particular with reference to
comets, is fostered by the uncritical character of popular opinion,
and the faulty use of evidence. His attack from this side is very
forceful. Here he shows clearly how the historical point of view
had cured him of credulity, and his so-called scepticism consists
largely of the application of his historical feeling to the problem.
The belief in tradition is severely arraigned. Very few, he says,
make it their business to examine the common opinions; "Is it
not enough, say they, that our fathers believed it ?" This
argument from tradition is more commonly presented as the argu-
'§51. "§28. "§ 31. '§29. "§ 46. 'Ihid. 84.
100
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
ment from the opinion of the majority; "vox populi, vox dei."
But, in this regard, multitudes of people are guided often by the
opinions of one or two persons, and these impose their opinions
on many others whose natural sloth inclines them to accept what¬
ever is offered for belief. This means that the number who spare
themselves the trouble of examining an opinion increase daily.
"So it has come about that it is the sign of a good man not to
examine anything at all, but to refer himself wholly to tradi¬
tion." ^ But the authority of a hundred million of that kind are
referable to two or three persons. The probability of that opinion
is guaranteed, therefore, by a few persons only, those who orig¬
inally examined it impartially. We are not to reckon heads but
to weigh them. ^ But, on account of the difficulty of doing this
accurately, one man's vote is apt to pass for as much in value as
that of another. But in getting at the true meaning of authority
it is also necessary to remember that the learned are not always
to be taken more seriously than the peasant. How are we to
know that the reverend doctor, who advances a tenet, has taken
any greater care to inform himself than the peasant who accepts
a belief implicitly? If the doctor acts thus, his voice is of no
more importance than that of an ordinary person. ® An opinion
becomes probable, not by the number of those who follow it,
but as it appears true to persons, "independemment de toute pré¬
vention et par la seule force d'un examen judicieux, accompagné
d'exactitude, et d'une grande intelligence des choses." ^
Bayle finds the concept of natural law and the scientific de¬
velopments in the field of astronomy of value in furthering his
attack on superstition. Just because an event follows the appear¬
ance of a comet that affords no proof of an intrinsic relation.
Events in the world would happen just the same if no comet
appeared. It is the result of the wretched sophism, "post hoc,
ergo propter hoc." As well say that whenever a woman puts
her head out of a window in the Rue St. Honoré and sees some
carriages passing, she is to imagine that she is the cause of their
presence, and that her appearance at the window ought to be a
presage to the whole quarter. ® The independence of comets and
earthly «vents is, of course, referred to their dependence on
natural law. We must believe, he says, that comets are the ordi-
^§7. '§48. -^§47. *Ihid. '§§5,23.
PIERRE BAYLE
101
nary works of nature, which, without regard to the happiness or
misery of mankind, are transported from one part of the heavens
to another by virtue of the general laws of nature. ^ Bodies
acting on one another continually must produce a thousand sur¬
prising effects without forsaking general laws. ^ Even so-called
prodigies are the effect of a general providence. Nothing would
be more unworthy of a general cause than to violate simple and
uniform laws at every turn. Nothing gives us a higher idea of a
prince than to see, when the laws are enacted, that he maintains
them with vigor towards all and against all. ® To Bayle an effec¬
tive example of this concept is found in the periodic return of
eclipses and comets. Undoubtedly this has been one of the most
potent causes in lessening superstition, and even in his day when
the return of comets could not be positively affirmed, the feeling
that such was the case was felt to be an important fact in the
attack on superstition. As he says, any little astrologer can fore¬
tell an eclipse because they are under the constant law of nature. ^
The idea of the periodicity of comets was becoming common
property among scientists at least, and Bayle says that the belief
was much in vogue. ".We talk now of the return of the same
comets at stated times. Some assign them a revolution of forty-
six years. Others, as M. Cassini, believe that the comet which
recently appeared, is the same as that which appeared in 1577,
and shall appear again in 1784." ® Although M. Cassini did not
prove to be correct, yet Halley, who observed the comet of 1680
with him at the Paris Observatory, was, in the year of the pub¬
lication of this work, to observe a comet that was later to be
known by his name because he had correctly determined its
periodicity.
But Bayle could not affirm the naturalness of these heavenly
phenomena without having something to say on the question of
miracle and its relation to natural causes; for it was the idea of
the miraculous in comets that he was combating. He held, as a
general principle, that one should not have recourse to the mir¬
aculous if there can be a natural explanation. "Our schools of
theology as well as those of philosophy teach us not to multiply
miracles without a necessity. In accord9.nce with this maxim,
we must never have recourse to miracles, when we can explain
^§56. 107. ®§ 230. *§53- "§ 212.
102
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
a thing naturally." ^ "Let us take as our maxim, cui bono, when
men without a shadow of reason, would persuade us to believe
any miraculous fact. ^ God works no miracles useless in them¬
selves, or even repugnant to his holiness, sincerity and justice." ®
He held that it was unreasonable to condemn philosophy because
it held to natural causes. "They have a 'charactère d'esprit' who
do not believe easily 'que le soleil interrompe sa course pour
faire durer une bataille, ni que les murailles d'une ville s'abattent
tout à coup par le vertu d'une petite phiale.' " ^ It is not a de¬
privation of providence to ascribe something to nature. Nature
is nothing else than God himself acting under certain laws, which
he has established. The works of nature are the effects of the
power of God no less than the immediate miracles, and presup¬
pose as great a degree of power for their production. ® It does
not follow, therefore, that philosophers offend in keeping to
natural causes as long as they may.
Bayle, however does not discard the idea of miracle alto¬
gether. Working from the basis that God acts according to
reason, he regards a true miracle as an interposition that is abso¬
lutely necessary and not repugnant to God's holiness. ® "God
never acts supernaturally unless to manifest his will in a clear
and express manner for conquering the grossest ignorance." ^
Thus Bayle is led to distinguish two kinds of miracles ; there are
the speaking miracles which distinguish the true God from the
false, and are used to confirm the preaching of an apostle and to
testify to the truth of his doctrines, and there are others that
simply show a being above man of transcendent powers. ® These
latter signs he does not believe God would use in the countries
of infidels, and among such miracles he reckoned comets, hurri¬
canes, earthquakes, meteors and fearful prodigies formed by God
only. But Bayle had already expressly affirmed the naturalness
of such phenomena, as we have shown above. It must be borne
in mind that he is arguing as a Catholic ; probably he found little
value in the concept of miracle.
Other writers on comets more or less approximated to the
general line of attack adopted by Bayle up to this point, although
with littleof the thoroughness and acuteness of his consideration.
223. '§ 224. ®§ 225. *§97- '§91- *§ 223.
'§ 103. Cf. §§ 194, 195- '§§ 217, 218.
PIERRE BAYLE
103
He adds, in conclusion, the so-called argument from religion.
The introduction of the idea of the miraculous in comets leads
to the assertion that, if comets are presages, that is, miracles,
then God has worked miracles for the confirmation of idolatry.
For a miracle of this character can only tell of a transcendent
being in general, and infidels would be led, by the appearance of
comets, to worship other gods than the true one with an even
greater zeal. ^ Bayle draws the inference that since God would
not work in this way before the introduction of Christianity,
there is no reason to believe that he would change his plan with
the advent of Jesus Christ; therefore, comets are not presages
now. Bayle finds, at great length, that pagan life is shot through
with superstitious practices, many of which have been handed
over to Christianity. "Superstition has taken deep root in the
minds of men, and Christians, generally speaking, are as far
gone in the folly of finding presages in everything as the infidels
themselves." ^ This point is an interesting one, and was especi¬
ally pertinent in his attack on Catholic superstition, which is
made in the guise of a member of that church.
But its value to Bayle seems to lie in the excuse it gives
for an important digression. The theological argument leads
him to a lengthy consideration of the relation of paganism to
atheism, the relation of both to Christianity, and the moral value
to be attached to religion. Well over half of the work (§§ 57-
193) is given up to this discussion, and nothing whatever is
said about comets. Bayle argues with such manifest earnestness
in this part of the treatise, that he gives the reader the impres¬
sion that he was more concerned with the question of the relation
of religion and morals than with the subject of cometary super¬
stition. This portion of the "Pensées diverses" is very interest¬
ing and important for an understanding of Bayle's general point
of view, but a consideration of this digression would carry us
too far from the comet of 1680. ®
^§60. ^§79.
' The argument might be stated very briefly to give an idea of the way
the treatise is developed. Paganism is full of superstition, and the appear¬
ance of comets and other prodigies would but deepen the worship of other
gods than the true god. But the upholder of superstition might say that
these prodigies appeared in order to make atheists into idolaters on the
104
THE GREAT COMEîT OP 1680
Such is the elaborate and practically unanswerable treatment
of comets made by this famous precursor of rationalism. It de¬
served and received very wide circulation. This is well shown
by the demand for the book. The first edition, which appeared
in 1682, was exhausted within a year, and a second printing
occurred in 1683. Two other editions appeared in Bayle's life¬
time, the third in 1699 and the fourth in 1704. It was reprinted
in 1721, 1727 and 1737, and a critical edition appeared in 1911,
edited by A. Prat for the "Société des textes français modernes."
The work made its appearance in other languages as well. In
1708 an English translation in two volumes appeared, to which
was appended a life of the author. ^ In 1741 Gottsched, the undis¬
puted literary dictator of Germany during the second quarter of
the eighteenth century, translated the work into German. ^
A bitter controversy with his colleague, Jurieu, based on the
"Pensées diverses" was the cause for a further enlargement of
its influence. Jurieu had been at Sedan with Bayle, and went
to Rotterdam to teach in the same school to which Bayle was
called. He seemed to have been very different from Bayle in
ground that atheism is worse than idolatry, and that a conversion to the
true faith is more easily made from the ranks of the latter than the former.
This far-fetched point brings in atheism, which becomes the primary sub¬
ject of consideration from this time on. Atheism is elevated at the expense
of idolatry. Bayle argues at length that atheism does not necessarily lead
to a corruption of morals. This leads him to the chief point of this digres¬
sion, that a person's morality must be independent of his opinions; it is
independent of religion, which is largely useless in the attempt to correct
human conduct. The Christianity of his day is weighed in the balances and
found woefully wanting; his indictment is comprehensive and detailed.
To him the true basis of action is not found in men's religious beliefs, but in
their desires which, with the exception of a few, are unrestrained by relig¬
ious beliefs. The only real restraint is to be found in the civil laws of
the different countries. He, therefore, concludes that atheism is not a
necessary cause of a wicked life. However, after a rather enthusiastic
advocacy of irreligion, he half-heartedly condemns atheism, but it is
manifestly for prudential reasons. As we shall note later, it did not serve
its purpose.
^Miscellaneous Reflections Occasion'd by the Comet which appeared in
December 1680. Chieñy tending to explode Popular Superstitions. Writ¬
ten to a Doctor of the Sorbonne by Mr. Bayle. To which is added the
Author's Life. 2 vols. London, 1708.
® Verschieden Gedancken bey Gelegenheit der Cometen. Hamburg, 1741-
PIERRE BAYLE
105
character, for he was of the heresy-hunting type, a very bitter
controversialist, and an exceedingly orthodox Calvinist. In 1690
a work, appearing anonymously, "Avis Important aux Réfugiés
sur leur prochain rétour en France," contained a refutation of
republican theories advanced by Jurieu. He attributed the work
to Bayle, making it the basis of a venomous attack. There seems
to have been little ground for Jurieu's ascription. After several
strokes and counter-strokes, in which Bayle shows greater skill
and dignity, the attack of Jurieu is shifted to a charge of heresy,
which is set forth in the "Courte Revue des Maximes et des Prin¬
cipes de Religion de l'Auteur des Pensées Diverses.
Pour servir de Factum aux ecclésiastiques s'ils en veulent con-
noitre." In this way the "Pensées diverses" comes into this regret¬
table controversy. Jurieu gives elaborate extracts from Bayle's
work on comets with the purpose of showing that Bayle was an
atheist. The result of the attack was that the author of the
"Pensées diverses" was deprived of his professorship in October,
1693, without having been given an adequate opportunity to
defend himself before the Consistory. From this time on he
spends all his time in authorship ; it is not long before the famous
"Dictionnaire Historique et Critique" appeared. The contro¬
versy called forth lengthy "Addition aux Pensées Diverses," and
a still more lengthy "Continuation des Pensées Diverses." These
publications are valiant attempts to do away with the impression
that the author had shown himself to be an atheist in his initial
publication. They have nothing, however, to say about comets,
for they grew out of a discussion resulting from the digression
on the relation of religion and morals. ^
Such is the nature of this very interesting volume and the
uncommonly active life that it led in the closing years of the
century. If the author had not concerned himself so largely
with the question of religion and morals, the "Pensées diverses"
might not have become so well known; this thought-provoking
digression and the very piquant way in which the volume was
composed, caused a wide circulation. The preface of the English
translator quaintly advertises the work : "I am only to acquaint
the Reader that he is not, from the Titje of the following book
^ A. D. White's Doctrine of Comets is to be corrected at this point. It
was not Bayle's position on comets that led to the accusation of atheism.
106
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
to fancy it a dry philosophical Dissertation on the Nature of
Comets; far from it. Comets are the least of Mr. Bayle's care,
farther than as they afford him occasions of very uncommon and
suprizing Reflections and the most exquisite Satyr and Ridicule
on Things and Persons." It does appear to be a work where
comets are more the excuse than the real reason for the treatise.
However, that does not warrant one in going so far as the editor
of the recent critical edition, who believes that there was little
real superstition, and that Bayle used the opportunity for the
expression of his philosophical ideas. Bayle was genuinely inter¬
ested in the development of rationalism, and sufficient evidence
of superstition has been given to make it clear that the author
was not employing the bows and arrows of Hercules to shoot
larks.
As time went on, and the mèmory of the comet became dim¬
mer, this work loomed up as the one important outstanding pro¬
duct of the stir caused in 1680. We have already referred to the
remark of Diderot in the "Encyclopédie" to the effect that the com¬
et of 1680 was made famous by the "Pensées diverses" of Bayle.
It would be truer to say that the comet remained famous as a
result of this volume's influence. Voltaire found in Bayle his
great precursor, and says in his well known "Siècle de Louis XIV"
(chapter 31) ; "11 fallut que Bayle écrivit contre le préjugé vul¬
gaire un livre fameux, que les progrès de la raison ont rendu
aujourd'hui moins piquant qu'il ne l'était alors." Pingré in his
great "Cométographie" published shortly before the French Revo¬
lution, wrote, "Everybody knows the Letter on the Comet of
1680, of which the celebrated Bayle was the author. One should
guard against some 'écarts' in the work; but the author, in my
opinion, has reasoned very wisely and truly on the significance
of comets. If there still exist any comet-worshippers who have
read this work, I can only pity them for their 'peu de raisonne¬
ment.' " ^ It is without question the best refutation of the super¬
stition, and much credit is due the "Pensées diverses" for the
rapid decay of credulity in the closing years of the seventeenth
century.
^ Op. cit., I, 162.
CHAPTER VIII
The Victory of Science and Reason
It is evident from the treatises on the comet of 1680 that
fhe majority of people believed "a comett to be the embassador
of some extraordinary matter." ^ The legacy of the past had
been largely adhered to. However, as has been seen in the prev¬
ious chapters, in France and Holland the sceptics of the literary
world had begun to attack the superstition vigorously. But this
'treatment of the situation is not the only method of approach.
Alongside the more strictly philosophical criticism, there is pro¬
gressing the work of the observers of cometary phenomena, the
men of science. It would be unfair, and the impression created
would be incorrect, if the astronomers were not given their share
of the honor in bringing about the dissolution of an ancient
superstition. Their work served in this instance to furnish a
solid and spectacular foundation for a conviction that had been
taking strength with the gradual recognition of law in the
physical world.
The astrological character of astronomy did not receive any
substantial change until Galileo and Brahe and Kepler began to
accumulate their accurate and patient observations. The old
Aristotelian idea of the crystal spheres and the belief that comets
were below the moon had been the despotic master for cen¬
turies. To Brahe belongs the honor of showing that some of
these meteorsVas they were called commonly, were above the
moon. He broke the crystal spheres of Aristotle by a careful
determination of the parallax of the comet of 1572. But even
this blow was not enough to unsettle the older system; for an¬
other hundred years the Aristotelian ideas are in the field. In
1618 Kepler had made himself famous by the discovery of the
laws governing the movements of bodies around the sun; he
* R. Holme, Armoury, II, 42/2.
—107—
108
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
found that the planets moved in an orbit shaped like an ellipse,
the sun occupying one of the foci. But Kepler was unable to
apply this law to comets, as Newton later did, for he was under
the general misapprehension that they were transitory meteors.
Due to the great size of their orbits and the consequent long
length of their periods, it was not realized that some comets
returned on a former course. Besides, the comparatively short
time they were visible gave the observers a very small portion of
an immense and elongated course, with the result that the fact
that they moved in a manner similar to planets did not become
a matter of scientific knowledge for a century. Kepler supposed
they moved in straight lines, thus accounting for their appear¬
ance and disappearance. He does not seem to have tested this
theory seriously, feeling that the path of a body that would never
reappear was not a suitable object for serious study. ^
Besides, neither Brahe nor Kepler, with all their effort at
emancipation, were free from the astrological point of view. As
has already been noted, Kepler took the horoscope of the last
comet of 1618, and considered at length the question of cometary
influence. ^ Brahe was the royal astrologer of Rudolph II, took
the emperor's horoscope and served in what was regarded as an
important capacity. Throughout the seventeenth century this
semi-emancipation continues. Kirch, who discovered the comet
of 1680, Dorf el, the first to notice that this comet moved in a
parabola, Weigel, the world-famous Professor in Jena, and many
other astronomers and scientists held to portions of the older
superstition. It was only gradually that the significance of their
observations became so evident that they realized the need of a
thorough rejection of astrology. As a rule the scientists were
too much occupied in the observations to see their wider signi¬
ficance or to exercise any large amount of historical imagination.
The scientist who seems to have been the most important
in freeing the study of comets from the older astrological and
theological impedimenta was a Frenchman, Gassendi. It is
^ Berry, op. cit., p. 93.
" iVTaupertuis in his Lettre sur la Comète (1742) says of Kepler's belief,
that he held comets to be the monsters of the sky as whales were of the
sea : "Ces m«nstres étoient les comètes, et il explique comment elles sont
engendrés de l'excrémente de l'air par une faculté animal." P. 95.
THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE AND REASON
109
highly significant of the forces at work in accomplishing this
general end that Gassendi should have been at the same time an
astronomer and a philosopher. He violently discarded his Aris¬
totelian heritage when a little over thirty years old by the publi¬
cation of a polemic at Grenoble in 1624 entitled "Exercitationes
Paradoxicae adversus Aristoteleos." In place of Aristotle he
revived the doctrines of Epicurus, whose atomic philosophy
seemed to him more in accord with scientific knowledge. He
avoided the anathemas of the church by positing a God who
started the atoms, and gave them the quality of movement. He
was successively professor of philosophy in Aix, Canon of the
Church of Digne and for many years professor of mathematics
in the College Royal in Paris. His vigorous attacks on cometary
superstition did much to emancipate the scientists and the French
thinkers in particular. ^
From the middle of the century the development is rapid.
The spectacular and frequent comets, beginning with those of
1661, 1664 and 1665 and culminating in the phenomena of the
years 1680 and 1682, furnished abundant material for observa¬
tion. Several rival theories are advanced to explain cometary
movements, and the conflict of ideas based on increasingly accu¬
rate observations caused a cross-fertilization that brought forth
abundant fruit. One of the men most worthy of mention is
John Hevelius of Dantzig. A careful study of the comets appear¬
ing in the middle of the century led him to construct a system.
He agreed with his contemporaries that God started comets on
their courses. Although he noticed that their course was much
curved at its point of nearest approach to the sun, and even seems
to have thought the parabola might be the ordinary form of a
comet's path, yet he held in general to the theory of Kepler that
they moved in straight lines. ^ Of great importance in the devel¬
oping certitude regarding cometary movements is the work of
J. D. Cassini, who with his son and grandson and great grand¬
son directed in a distinguished manner the work of the Paris
Observatory for one hundred and twenty-two years. ® While
still in Italy he had come to believe that comets moved with the
^ See Pingré, I, looff for excerpts from his^hysica.
^Pingré, op. cit., I, 131, nS; Chambers, op. cit., p. 45.
® Pingré, op. cit., I, Ii2ff.
110
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
same regularity as planets, and were not transitory phenomena.
This was shown in a most spectacular manner during his observa¬
tions of the comet of 1664 in the presence of Queen Christiana
of Sweden, then resident in Rome. On the 23rd of December
he was able to predict with accuracy that the comet would be at
the point of its nearest approach to the earth on the 29th. One
more stage was reached in the approach to a true explanation
when Cassini affirmed that comets had orbits, although he was
mistaken in declaring that these orbits were circular. His actual
contributions to astronomical theory are not so important as his
commanding position in the scientific world and the general
influence of a highly rationalized point of view. His encourage¬
ment of the investigations of Newton contributed to the discovery
of the true system, and Halley, whose name is the most famous
in the history of cometary astronomy, observed the comet of 1680
together with Cassini at Paris.
The efforts of these two Englishmen, Newton and Halley,
are inextricably united in this final step in the progress we have
been tracing. ^ Isaac Newton had begun to investigate the force
of attraction or gravitation as early as 1665. For twenty years
he studied and observed with it as a basic explanation for plane¬
tary movements. The spectacular comet of 1680 called Newton's
attention to these wanderers, and led him to explain their move¬
ments by what he was pleased to call his "notions about motion."
It is interesting to note that the comet which is the subject of
this study is not infrequently called Newton's comet because of
the impetus that it gave to the completion of the Principia. ^ In
1684 Halley visited Newton at Cambridge, and persuaded him
to publish his conclusions regarding the motions of heavenly
bodies. Finally, his Principia, probably the most famous publi¬
cation in the history of science, appeared in 1687 under the pat¬
ronage of the Royal Society. In it the true explanation of the
motions of comets is worked out. "Newton was led to consider
whether a comet's motion could not be explained, like that of a
planet, by gravitation toward the sun. If so, then, as he had
^This is not the place to go at length into the astronomical side of the
subject. Therefore, no mention can be made of the contributions of men
even as important as Huygens, Dörfel, Borelli, Sturm or Bernoulli.
" See, e. g., article "Comète" in La Grande Encyclopédie.
THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE AND REASON 111
proved near the beginning of the Principia, its path must be
either an ellipse or one of two other allied curves, the parabola
or hyperbola. If a comet moved in an ellipse, which only differ¬
ed slightly from a circle, then it would never recede to any great
distance from the solar system, and would, therefore, be regu¬
larly visible. . . .If the ellipse were very elongated, then
the period of revolution might easily be very great, and, during
the greater part of it, the comet would be so far from the sun
and consequently also from the earth, as to be invisible. . . .
If, again, the path of the comet were a parabola, the comet would
not return at all, but would merely be seen once when in that
part of the path which is near the sun. But if the comet moved
in a parabola, with the sun in a focus, then its position when not
very far from the sun would be almost the same as if it moved
in an elongated ellipse. And consequently it would hardly be
possible to distinguish the two cases. Newton accordingly work¬
ed out the case of motion in a parabola, which is mathematically
the simpler, and found that, in the case of the comet of 1680, a
parabolic path could be obtained. It was thus established that in
many cases a comet's path was either a parabola or an elongated
ellipse. This reduction to rule of the apparently arbitrary
motions of comets, and their inclusion with planets as bodies
moving around the sun under the action of gravitation, may
fairly be regarded as one of the most striking of the innumer¬
able discoveries contained in the Principia." ^
The researches of Newton were soon enriched by the con¬
clusions of Edmund Halley. Having collected all the recorded
observations of planets, which seemed at all accurate, Halley
proceeded to work out with incredible labor the orbits of twenty-
four comets in the hope of detecting a luminary that had returned
to the center of our solar system. Three of these, on occount of
their similarity, seemed to be identical, the comet of 1682 which
he himself had observed, the comet of 1607, whose course was
recorded by Kepler, and that of 1531, recorded by Apion. His
opinion that these were but reappearances about every seventy-
six years of one comet was further strengthened by the record
of comets in 1305, 1380 and 1456. The amount of time between
^ Berry, op. cit., pp. 237-8. For a very fine statement of the work of
Newtop, in much more detailed fashion, see Grant, op. cit., pp. 15-41-
112
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
these recorded appearances was not exact, but he regarded the
difference as due to the disturbing action of the planets in accord¬
ance with the Newtonian theory. He, therefore, concluded that
a comet would return about the end of the year 1758, admitting
that its arrival might be retarded by the action of the planets.
His views were put forth in a "Synopsis of Cometary Astronomy"
published in 1705* With this publication the scientific treatment
of cometary phenomena had reached a point where the findings
of science could come to the substantial aid of a growing ration¬
alism. For Halley's calculations had such an appearance of ac¬
curacy that his conclusions had a very great effect. Maupertuis,
writing in 1742 and before the return of the comet, derides the
older superstition on the basis of Halley's calculations, which
he regards as containing "beaucoup de vraisemblance." ^ The
actual return of the comet in 1759—seventeen years after Hal¬
ley's death—but added the note of finality to a belief that had
become the common property of the educated classes. As the
time of its return approached, interest deepened, but no one seem¬
ed to have the courage to calculate the precise time of its reap¬
pearance, as conditioned by the actions of the planets. At length,
the French astronomer, Clairaut, undertook the task. After
laborious calculations, he determined that it should reach peri¬
helion on April 13th, 1759, adding that his reckoning might be
inaccurate by as much as a month either way. Halley's comet
appeared one month ahead of the date set by Clairaut. The
famous astronomer, Lalande, said at the time, with pardonable
enthusiasm, "The universe beholds this year the most satisfac¬
tory phenomenon ever presented to us by astronomy, an event
which, unique until this day, changes our doubts to certainty and
our hypotheses to demonstration." ^
^ Pp. 99, 108.
' Guillemin, op. cit., p. loi. It should be made clear that Halley was not
the first to predict the return of a comet; the belief in possible reappear¬
ances had been common among scientists from the middle of the seven¬
teenth century. , Bayle notes the belief in his "Pensées diverses," Cassini
reckoned the period of the comet of 1680 as 103 years, Pierre Petit pre¬
dicted the return of the comet of 1665, as did, also, Robert Hook of Gres-
ham College» Their only fault was insufficient accuracy and inadequate
theory. Even Halley made a mistake regarding the comet of 1680, giving
its terms as 575 years, whereas it probably has appeared but once in 88
centuries.
THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE AND REASON
113
Under this two-fold attack, that of a growing rationalism in
general, and the specific results of scientific observation, super¬
stition had a sorry time of it. The rapid dissolution of this age-
old belief is to be dated by the appearance of the great comet of
1680, and the numerous scientific and literary results of its visit.
It became simply out of the question to hold that celestial bodies
whose movements could be calculated with mathematical pre¬
cision could announce anything of an extraordinary character to
a world that was becoming more and more convinced of the uni¬
versal reign of law. It is difficult to say to what extent super¬
stition remained, for there are always to be found persons imper¬
vious to the influences of science and reason, or at least very
reluctant to give up precious ideas whose foundations are built
upon the sand. But it can be said of the superstition with regard
to comets that a credulity that received widespread literary ex¬
pression in 1681 became suddenly silent. Few superstitions have
disappeared with such great rapidity, for often they gradually
dissolve not so much because they have been disproved as be¬
cause they have become superfluous. For that reason the col¬
lapse of cometary superstition is all the more interesting.
Time and again the conservatives of 1681 had made bitter
remarks indicative of the growth of doubt. Increase Mather
could write apropos of the Great Comet that "this blazing star
is generally disregarded amongst men in the world." ^ What
would have been his consternation had he lived to read the words
of his son. Cotton Mather, given to the world in 1726; "Perhaps
there may be some need for me to caution you against being dis¬
mayed at the signs of the heavens, or having any superstitious
fancies upon eclipses or the like. ... I am willing that you
be apprehensive of nothing portentous in blazing stars. For my
part, I know not whether all the worlds, and even the sun itself,
may not fare the better for them." ^ These words are all the more
surprising when it is remembered that Cotton Mather was an
ardent advocate of witchcraft persecution in Salem and wrote
his "Wonders of the Invisible World" to confute all doubters.
Even John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and in many re¬
gards a superstitious man, gloried in this victory of science, re-
^ Op cit., p. 136.
" Manuductio, 45, 46, quoted in White, op. cit., p. 31.
114
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
ferring with approbation to "Sir Isaac Newton's calculations"
and the accomplishments of the "late ingenious and accurate Dr.
Halley." In one of his sermons he says of comets, "Certain we
are that they did not produce nor portend evil. They did not
(as many have fancied since),
'From their horrid hair
Shake pestilence and war.' "
And yet a century earlier he could have found no better text for
his earnest appeals to repentance than these strange visitors
from the depths of space. ^
After the departure of the two comets that were the bases of
the conclusions of Halley and Newton, no striking comets ap¬
peared for sixty years, until 1742 and 1744. The comet appear¬
ing the latter year was one of the most remarkable ever seen;
it was observed in full sunshine. ^ The reception of these visi¬
tors was quite different from the welcome given sixty years be¬
fore. Maupertuis writes in 1742 a significant statement of^he
situation, "Ces astres, après avoir été si longtemps la terreur du
monde, sont tombé tout-à-coup dans un tel discrédit, qu'on ne
les croit plus capable de causer que des rhumes. ... Le
cours reglé des comètes ne permet plus de les regarde comme des
présages particuliers, ni comme des flambeaux allumés pour
menaces de la terre." ® In that same year Bayle's "Pensées di¬
verses" was translated into German by Gottsched. This dis¬
tinguished leader in the German literary world exercised for sev¬
eral decades an almost undisputed literary dictatorship at the out¬
set of the Aufklärung movement; his efforts cannot but have
been of value, although a few curious works seem to have been
published in Germany on the comets of 1742 and I744- * Fred-
^ Works, N. Y. 1831, II, 28, 364. The importance of this witness to the
dissolution of cometary superstition is more noteworty if it is remembered
that he believed in casting dice or opening the Bible at random to find
God's will, and that he firmly accepted the belief in ghosts and the possi¬
bility of witchcraft, and the divine character of earthquakes, murrain, etc.,
But, as shall be noted, his acceptance of scientific findings regarding comets
gave an excellent basis for preaching repentance.
'Grant, op. cif., p. 305. cit., pp. 92, 114.
*See Carl, op. cit., p. 105. In his preface to the translation Gottsched
notes that there is wonder and anxiety at the comet's appearance, and de¬
clares that he will add, if there is a demand for a later edition, the true
theory of comets from Halley's "berühmten Comet géographie."
THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE AND REASON
115
erick the Great was beginning his rule in Prussia which was to
be so bénéficient for freedom of thought. In France the phil¬
osophers were becoming increasingly effective under the lead of
Voltaire, whose writings express in lucid fashion the changed
spirit of the day. ^ In 1767 Frederick had written to Voltaire,
"Bayle began the battle, a number of Englishmen followed in
his way. You are destined to finish the fight." ^ Among English
thinkers the Deistic movement had developed into religious scep¬
ticism, of which Hume's "Essay on Miracles"—^published in
1748—serves as an excellent illustration of the changed point of
view. The idea that even if a miracle did occur, how could it be
proved to be an evidence of God's direct and extraordinary
action, was as applicable to extraordinary events in the heavens
as on earth. Against this decided negation of older conceptions,
the Evangelical Revival arose as a protest, under the lead of
Wesley and Whitefield. But even where comet-superstition
might have been expected, the leader of the movement accepted
the conclusions of Newton and Halley, while vigorously oppos¬
ing a "lazy, indolent, epicurean deity." The victory of reason
aided by science seemed to have resulted in the practical annihil¬
ation of the earlier naive conception. The contrast between the
reception of the comet of 1680 and that of 1744 is very notice¬
able.
But old beliefs and feelings do not expire easily. And dur¬
ing much of the eighteenth century there is evidence of a new
^ Nowhere is the new point of view better expressed than in the "Dic¬
tionnaire Philosophique," published in 1765. For example, Voltaire writes
under the title "Providence;" "I was at the gate when Sister Fessue said
to Sister Confite, 'It is quite evident that Providence takes especial care
of me. You know how I love my sparrow; it would now be dead if I
had not said nine Ave Marias to bring it back to health,' A metaphysician
said to her, 'My sister, there is nothing so good as Ave Marias, especially
when a girl recites them in Latin in a suburb of Paris, but I do not believe
that God pays very much attention to your sparrow, pretty though he be.
Think of the other things he has to attend to. It is necessary that he direct
continually the course of sixteen planets, of the ring of Saturn, and at the
center he has placed the sun, which is as large as a million of earths like
ours. He has millions and millions of other suns, besides other planets
and comets to govern. His unchangeable laws cause all of nature to move ;
all is bound to his throne by an infinite chain of which no link can ever be
out of place.' " Oeuvres, Paris, 1879, XX, 294-295.
'Quoted in Thilly, History of Philosophy, New York, 1914.
116
THE GREAT OOMET OF 1680
sort of comet-fear replacing the old. This new terror witnesses
in a remarkable way to the complete change from the point of
view of 1681 and the absolute victory of Bayle and his co-lab¬
orers, for this subsequent fear was based on the work of Newton
and Halley. The belief became widespread that some comet,
following its ordinary course, might, in one of its periodic re¬
turns, hit the earth and cause the end of the world. In view of
this possibility it is not strange that theologians were willing to
accept the Newtonian innovations, for they found excellent bases
for many old themes. ^ For example, the call to repentance
could be advanced on the ground of a possible immediate dis¬
aster with even greater force than before, for now the danger
was real and physically conceivable. The man who was the earli¬
est and most vigorous advocate of this "scientific" fear was the
Reverend William Whiston, who published his "New Theory of
the Earth" in 1696. Again, it was the comet of 1680 that was
the cause of the disturbance. On the basis of Halley's errone¬
ous calculation that this comet had a period of 575 years, and
with the help of the current Biblical chronology, Whiston found
that a previous appearance of this comet coincided with the date
of the deluge (2349 B. C.). He concluded, after laboriously
constructing a most amazing theory with a decidedly scientific
"look," that the comet was the cause of the deluge. On Friday
noon under the meridian of Pekin—for it seems that Noah was
dwelling there before the flood—on November the 28th. 2^4Q
B. C., the conjunction took place, the comet being but three
thousand leagues from the earth. The effect was prodigious ; the
fountains of the great deep were broken up, the tail coming in
contact with the earth's atmosphere loaded it with aqueous par¬
ticles, and this caused the opening of all the "cataracts of heaven."
The result was a deluge whose waters were six miles in depth.
But Whiston did not rest with these conclusions. He looked
forward to the comet's next appearance (2255 A. D.) and found
that in this instance the result would be just the opposite; an in¬
tense degree of heat would be created, the diurnal and annual
motion of the earth would be destroyed; in short, the end of the
world would come. ^ Such havoc did the Newtonian theory and
* Berry, op. cit., p. 240.
* See Whiston's New Theory of the Earth; also, Guillemin, op. cit., pp.
THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE AND REASON
117
the comet of 1680 work in the hands of this eccentric theologian !
Whiston's treatise was in great demand, for five editions had
appeared by 1737, and it had been translated into German. It
seems to have been favorably received in German circles as well.
The general consequence of this work was that a vague feel¬
ing of the possibility of a collision grew, entirely apart from
Whiston's conclusions regarding the effect of the comet of 1680
in the year 2255, ^ fact that should not have aroused serious ap¬
prehension in eighteenth-century minds. An interesting example
of the theological use of this idea is found in the preaching of
John Wesley as the year for the return of Halley's comet ap¬
proached. In 1758, in preaching on the Great Assize, he specu-
ates regarding these "magazines of fire" and the need of being
"right with God" in view of a possible disaster. "How soon
may a comet, commissioned by Him, travel down from the most
distant part of the universe! And were it to fix upon the earth,
in its return from the sun, when it is some thousand times hotter
than a red-hot cannon ball, who does not see what must be the
immediate consequence ?" ^ Three years before he had published
"Serious Thoughts Occasioned by the Late Earthquake at Lis¬
bon," and effectively plays upon the fear of his readers that a
comet could set "the earth on fire and burn it to a coal." ^ After
a lively picture of the consequences of such an untoward event,
he appeals to his readers to so arrange their spiritual welfare
that they may be
"Secure amidst the jar of elements.
The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds."
48off. ; Delambre, Histoire de l'Astronomie au dixhuitième siècle, Paris,
1827, pp. spff.
^ Works, I, I32fï.
' "But, supposing the earthquake, which made such havoc at Lisbon,
should never travel so far as London, is there nothing else which can reach
us ? What think yôu of a comet ? Are we absolutely out of reach of this ?
You cannot say we are, seeing these move in all directions and through
every region of the universe. And would the approach of one of these
amazing spheres be of no importance to us? especially in its return from
the sun; when that immense body is (according to Sir Isaac Newton's
calculations) heated two thousand times better than a red-hot cannon-ball.
The late ingenious and accurate Dr. Halley fixes the return of the great
comet in 1758." Works, II, 238!?.
118
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
In view of these homiletic possibilities it is not to be wondered
that the new ideas were acceptable.
Again in the year 1773 a widespread panic was caused by
the fear of an imminent collision. The rumor seems to have
been created by a memoir which the astronomer, Lalande, had
read before the Academy of Sciences, the title of which was dis¬
quieting. ^ This astronomer found it necessary to insert a notice
in the "Gazette de France" for May 7, declaring that the next
comet was due in eighteen years and that there was no possibility
that it would harm the earth. ^ In a letter from Grenoble Vol¬
taire lavished his refined irony upon the terror-stricken; "Some
Parisians who are no philosophers—and if they are to be believed,
will not have time to become so—have informed us that the end
of the world is approaching, and that it will infallibly take place
on the 20th of this present month of May. On that day they
expect a comet which is to overturn our little globe, and reduce it
to impalpable powder, according to a certain prediction of the
Academy of Sciences, which has not been made. Nothing is more
probable than this event; for James Bernoulli in his 'Treatise on
the Comet' expressly predicted that the famous comet of 1680
would return with a terrible crash in 1719. ... If James
Bernoulli has made a mistake in the date, it is probably by no
more than fifty-four years and three days. Now an error so in¬
considerable being looked upon by all mathematicians as of no
account in the immensity of the ages, it is clear that nothing is
more reasonable than to expect the end of the world on the 20th
of the present month of May, 1773." ^ When in 1861 the earth
passed unscathed through the tail of a comet, one more conquest
of human fear had been achieved. The French physicist, Bab-
inet, apropos of this comet, relates an interesting and suggestive
conversation, " 'Monsieur, the newspapers inform us that we
have a comet.' 'Yes, Madame, a very beautiful comet; the his¬
tory of astronomy has never recorded one more beautiful.' 'What
does it predict?' 'Nothing at all, Madame.' 'Is it a fine even¬
ing, Monsieur?' 'Yes, Madame, splendid, and you have only to
go into the garden to observe the comet.' 'Oh, if it can do one
^ Réflexi&ns sur les comètes qui peuvent approcher de la terre.
^ Guillemin, op, cit., pp. 455ff.
® Quoted in Guillemin, op. cit., pp. 456-7.
THE VICTORY OF SCIENCE AND REASON
119
neither good nor harm, it is not worth while.' And the lady
retires to bed. You will say to me, Of what use is astronomy?
I reply. It is of use, inasmuch as we are able to go to bed with¬
out fear in 1861, even when a superb comet is in sight. This
was not the case six hundred years ago or even three hundred." ^
It is not germane to this study to detail the many curious
ideas attached to beliefs in comets subsequent to the work of
Bayle and Newton and Halley, such as, for example, the belief
that they were inhabited worlds, ^ the idea that comets were
"flying hells", places of exquisite punishment for the reprobate, ®
the feeling that long remained that they had a physical influence
on the crops, as instanced by the so-called "wine-comet" of 1811, ^
the use made by Napoleon of the comets of 1769 and 1811 as
presages in the one instance, of his career and, in the second
place, of the Russian campaign, ^ or the opinions advanced by a
modern eccentric, Ignatius Donnelly, in his "Ragnarok, the Age
of Fire and Gravel." ® Fear of comets still exists ; many instances
show the strength of the old beliefs. In 1872 there was a wide¬
spread alarm in Georgia especially among the colored people. ''
The "Revue des Deux Mondes" (for July i, 1873) reported rem¬
nants of superstition among some nuns in Moscow. The United
States Weather Bureau in Manila felt impelled to publish a
pamphlet for the benefit of the Filipinos in 1910 on the eve of
the return of Halley's comet. ® But these and similar instances
are to be found among groups not directly in the course of intel¬
lectual progress, but on the periphery of the literate class. When
Halley's comet appeared in 1910 there were probably few intel¬
ligent people who were not able to go to bed without fear. So
far removed are we from the men and environment that could
consider these celestial visitors as heavenly "alarm clocks" that
it is difficult to realize the great change that has taken place. It
was with the appearance of the comet of 1680 that the rapid
dissolution of this old and hallowed superstition had begun.
^ Ihid., pp. 491-2.
^This idea was advanced by Maupertuis, Fontenelle in his Dialogue
des Marts, Lambert, the astronomer, and many others.
® See White, op. cit., p. 41. * See Chambers, op. cit., p. 131.
^ Ibid., p. 20Sff. ®New York, 1883. ^ See Chambers, op. cit., p. 215.
® The Return of Halley's Comet and Popular Apprehensions, by George
M. Zwack, S. J., secretary of the Weather Bureau, Manila, 1910.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I
General Works
E. Weigel, Speculum Uranicum Aquilae Romanae Sacrum, das ist, Him¬
mels-Spiegel, Jena, 1661.
S. Lubienietzky, Theatrum Cometicum, Amsterdam, 1667.
M. Martini Lipenii, Bibliotheca Realis Theoligica omnium materiarum,
rerum et titulorum in universo sacros auctae theologiae studio occuren-
tium, Franckfurt, 1685.
Weidler, Historia Astronomiae, Vitembergiae, 1741.
Maupertius, Lettre sur la Comète, Paris, 1742.
Pingré, Cométographie, ou Traité historique et théorique, 2 vols., Paris, 1783.
Delambre, Histoire de l'Astronomie au dix-huitème siècle, Paris, 1827.
Robert Grant, History of Physical Astronomy, London, 1852.
Maurice Champion, La Fin du Monde et les Comètes, Paris, 1859.
L. F. A. Maury, La Magie et l'Astrologie, ou étude sur les superstitions
païennes, qui se sont perpétuées jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, i860.
Ph. Carl, Repertorium der Cometen-Astronomie, München, 1864.
A. Guillemin, Les Comètes, Paris, 1875 (translated by Glaisher under title.
The World of Comets, London, 1877).
Rudolph Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, München, 1877.
A. D. White, A History of the Doctrine of Comets, Papers of the Am. Hist.
Assn., vol. 2, pp. 109-147, New York, 1887 (incorporated in his History
of the Warfare of Science with Theology, New York, 1896, vol. I,
pp. 171-208).
Rudolph Wolf, Handbuch der Astronomie, Zürich, 1893.
E. Arber, The Term Catalogues, 1668-1709, A Contemporary Bibliography
of English Literature, London, 1903.
Chas. Evans, American Bibliography ; a chronological Dictionary of all
Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications printed in the U. S. A.
from 1Ó39 to 1820, Chicago, 1903.
G. F. Chambers, The Story of Comets Simply Told for General Readers,
Oxford, 1909.
Arthur Berry, Short History of Astronomy, New York, 1910.
C. Serrurier, Pierre Bayle en Hollande, Lausanne, 1912.
II
Contemporary Publications on the Comet of 1680
(A)—appearing in germany and switzerland
1 Andreae, Wolfg., Cometa Nuperus, 1680.
2 Bayer, Joh., Vorstellung des jüngst erschienenen Cometen, Ulm, 1681.
3 Baedicker, J., Christliche Bericht von Cometen, als der grosse Comet
1680 und 1681 geleuchtet, Cöln, 1681.
4 Beutel,ST., Eine Beschreibung von den neu-observirten Cometen (No.
7 in Unterschiedliche Beschreibungen).
—120—
BIBLIOGRAPHY
121
5 Blumer, Hans H., published a pamphlet at Glarus in 1682 (Wolf,
Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 184).
6 Bommeister, Simon, Vertheidigte Cometen-Betrachtung, Nürnberg,
1681.
7 Brand, J. G., Vernunft und Schriftm'ássiger Bericht von Cometen, und
insonderheit von demjenigen Schweif-Stern, der sich 1680, 1681 hat
sehen lassen, Marburg, 1681.
8 Büthner, Fred., Astronomische und Astrologische Beschreibung und
Betrachtung, seltsamer Begebenheiten des Cometen,
nebenst deren Muthmassung oder Bedeutung, Dantzig, 1681.
9 Büthner, Fred., Beschreibung des Cometen, Dantzig, 1681.
10 Bütner, G., Naturgemässer Bericht von Cometen insegemein, worunter
absonderlich der grosse Wunder Comet 1680 beschrieben wird, Alten¬
burg, 1681.
11 Cnyrimius, J. N., Disquisitio astronómica de hypothesi cometarum pro¬
pria. . . . cometarum annis 1680, i'ó8i et 1682 conspectorum his¬
toria írodííMr, Marburgi, 1683.
12 Damerwaldt, M., Wunderneuer Glücks-Comet, nebst zwei besondern
und fleissigen Observationibus, 1681.
13 Damerwaldt, M., Abriss und Beschreibung des wunderneuen Glücks-
Cometen, Franckfurt am Main, 1681.
14 Dobrzenski, J., Judicium Astrologicum de Cometa Anni 1680 et 1681.
15 Dörfel, S. G., Astronomische Betrachtung des grossen Cometen welcher
im ausgehenden 1680 und angehenden 1681 Jahr höchst verwunder¬
lich und entsetzlich erschienen. Flauen, 1681.
16 Englemann, J. F., Billiches Bedencken über den Cometen, Budissin,
1681.
17 Erni, Pastor of Zürich Cathedral, Buss mandat, Zürich, 1680.
18 Frick, Joh., Philosophisches und Theologisches Bedencken, in welchem
die vornehmste Meynungen von den Cometen vorgetragen, Ulm, 1681.
19 Funcii, Gh., Cometoscopia, Gorlicii, 1682.
20 (Gerlach, Benj.), B. G. Unvorgreifliches Urtheil, von der Cometen
Würckung und Bedeutung, Schweidnitz, 1681.
21 (j M., Geistliche Ausslegung des Komet-Prophetens, 1681.
22 Hagens, J. H., Bemerkung der jüngst Comet-Erscheinungen, Bayreut,
1681.
23 Henischius, G., Kurtze Erinnerung von dem Cometen, welcher im Oc¬
tober dieses 1680 Jahres erschienen ist, Augsburg, 1680.
24 Holtermann, A. M., Astrologus Christianus Cometas insolitae figurae
stupens, Marburgi, 1681.
25 Honold, J., Monitor hominum novissimus, das ist, Kurtzer Bericht von
dem ungewöhnlich grossen Cometen, welcher in verwichner Winters-
Zeit erschienen. . . . und dann was seiner Bedeutung halben von
uns Christlich und erbaulich zu merker seye, Ulm, 1681.
26 Horben, J. H., Christliche Cometen-Predigt, Franckfurt, 1681.
27 H , W. J., Novus hominum excitator, das ist Kurtze Vorstellung
dess ungewöhnlich grossen Cometen, Ulm.
28 Kahler, J., Dissertatio de Cometis, Rintheiii, 1681.
29 Kirch, G., Neue Himmels-Zeitung . ^ . von den zweyen neuen
grossen in 1680 Jahr erschienenen Cometen • • ; , einem
Gespräch mit beygefüget worden Etliche unvorgreifliche Muthmas¬
sung, Nürnberg, 1681.
122
THE GREAT COMET OP 1680
30 Langemann, J. L., Cometen Predigt, Franckfurt, 1681.
31 Leisten, N., Cometen-Predigf, Franckfurt, 1681.
32 Lips, Fr., Cometo-Graphia Franco-Orientalis d. i die Fränckische
Kometen Vorstellung, Rotenburg, 1681.
33 Lips, Fr., Ohnvorgreiiñiche Gedancken ueher den Cometen, Rotenburg,
1681.
34 Lips, Fr., Series Judiciorum, etc., Rotenburg, 1681.
35 List, N., Zetter Schreier, in einer Predigt. Sambt Anmerckungen von
der Cometen Ursprung, Darmbstadt, 1681.
36 Loyson, J. J. von. Ausführlicher Bericht von deme am 26 December
1680 erschienenen Cometen.
27 Madeweis, F., Die Wieder-Erscheinung der ungewphnlich-grossen
Stern-Ruthe, verstehe des Neuen Cometen, Berlin, 1681.
38 Madeweis, F., Nigellae Cadmi ñliae de sydere crinito, Berlin, 1681.
39 Madeweis, F., Redux apparitio novi cometae 1680 et 1681, Berlin, 1681.
40 M.2iSchk\opñ, Einfältige und Christschuldigste Betrachtung des sonder¬
baren und wunderbaren Cometen-Liechts oder Erscheinungen,
Torgau, 1681.
41 Mayer, J., Vorstellung dess jüngst-erschienen Cometen, Ulm, 1681.
42 Megerlein, D., Abriss dess Anno 1680 enstandenen Cometen, Bazel.
43 Menzer, B., Beschreibung des Cometen so Anno 1680 erschienenen,
Franckfurt, 1681.
45 (Mentzer), Kurtze Beschreibung des Er schröcklichen Cometen, Franck¬
furt, 1682.
45 Müller, J. J., Theologisch Bedencken über das jungsthin ohne Anzeig
des Auctoris Zeit und Ort in Druck gegebene, also genandte: Ein¬
fältige Bedencken von Cometen: aus fälschlich eingebildeten und,
ohne Grund der Schrifft ausgeruffenen Buss-Predigern, Augsburg,
1681.
46 Nisslenus, T., Heliocometes, oder Bericht, etc., Nürnberg, 1681.
47 Olearius, J., Dissertatio de Mantice Cometica, Leipzig, 1681.
48 Flauer, And., Cometa coeli, Tubingae, 1682.
49 Polzius, J. M., Eine neue grosse Himmels-Lampe, Rostock, 1681.
50 Polzius, J. M., Himmlischer Dencks-Zettel, Rostock, 1681
51 Polzius, J. M., Gedächtniss-seul vom Cometen Anno 1680 erschienen,
Rostock, 1681.
52 Praetorius, J., Programma historiam exhibens observationum Cometae.
53 Prebisius, V., Merckwürdiger Bericht des Wunderzeichen, welche zeit¬
während des neuen Cometen zugleich observiret. Hall, 1681.
54 Paulus, R., Geistl. Betrachtung der Cometen, Marp., i'ó8i.
55 Reiser, Ant., Cometes Index, Dux et Judex, oder 3 Cometen Predigten,
Hamburg, 1681.
56 Rudrauff, Kilian, Christliche Cometen-Predigt über den grossen gress-
lichen Cometen, Franckfurt, 1681.
57 Sanden, B. von. Einfältige Predigt ueber die Worte: Ufir haben seinen
Stern gesehen, nebenst beigefügter Application auff den Cometen,
Königsberg, 1681.
58 Stattmaryi, J. J., Christliche Cometen Betrachtung, Schwäbisch Hall,
1681.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
123
59 Schultzen, J., Coelum Planetarum, das ist Planeten Himmel, darinnen
zugleich eine Beschreibung dess neuen grossen Cometen
nebst dessen muthmasslicher Bedeutung und Beygefügter Erzeh-
lung aller Cometen. . . . Göttingen.
60 Schultzen, J,, Coeli planetarum continuatio, Göttingen.
61 Schnitze, G., Astronomisches judicium ueber gegenwärtigen Cometen,
Regenspurg, 1681.
62 Stansel, Legatus Uranicus, Prague, 1683.
63 Strauch, E., Von der Weisen auss Morgenland Alten und dem neuen
Wunder-Stern, Dantzig, 1681.
64 Sturm, J. C., Cometa nuperus, an, et quae, mala terris aut illaturus
ipsemet inñuxu physico, aut aliunde justo Dei judico inferenda
portendere saltem et praesigniñcare, credendus sit? Altdorffii, 1681.
65 Sturm, J. C., Cometarum, Natura, Motus et Origo, Altdorffii.
66 Tausten, J. G., Cometa Redivivus das ist der aus der Aschen aufs neue
sich unserem Gesichte praesentirende Unglücks Prophète, Hall, 1681.
67 Tausten, J. G., Der von Abend gegen Morgen lauffende Unglücks¬
prophet, Hall, 1681.
68 Cometen-Spiegel, Herausgegeben von Chr. Uranophilo, Wolfenbüttel,
1681.
69 Veiel, Dr. Elias, Cometen-Predigt, Ulm, 1681.
70 Virling, S., Der Wackere Stab des Herren . . . vorgestellet durch
dem am 18 Dec. 1680 . . . hervorstrahlenden Cometen, Erfurt,
1681.
71 Voigt, J. H., Cometa Matutinus et Vesperinus, Hamburg, i68i.
72 Vulpius, J., Letzgier früh aufgestiegene blechgestriemelter Wunder¬
stern.
73 Vulpius, J., Das neulich früh, letzt aber abends, vielfältig gesehene
langeschwäntzte Schrekk-Liecht, Hall in Sachsen.
74 Wagner, J. C., Cometa disparens, das ist. Gründlicher Bericht von dem
fernem Lauff des Komet-Sterns, Augspurg, 1681.
75 Wagner, J. C., Gründlicher und warhaffter Bericht von dem Ursprung
der Cometen, Augspurg, 1681.
76 Weigel, Er, Himmels Zeiger, Jehna, 1681.
77 Weigel, E., Fortsetzung des Himmels Zeigers, Jehna, 1681.
78 Weigel, E., Forsetzung des Himmels Spiegels, Jehna, 1681.
79 Zimmerman, J. J., Cometo-Scopia oder Himmel-gemäser Bericht
. . . dess grossen Wundersterns und Cometens, Stuttgart, 1681
80 Abriss und Beschreibung des Cometen 1680, Hamburg, 1680.
81 Beschreibung und Bedeutung des cometen . . .in Leipzig.
82 Betrachtung und Bedencken über den Cometen.
83 Brevis in Cometam An. 1680 et 1681 animadversio, 1681.
84 Christlich-vernüniftige Cometen-Betrachtung, Nürnberg.
85 Comet, welcher 1680 erschienen und durch eine kurtze Deutung als ein
Gewissen-Wecker vorgestellt worden von einem Diener Gottes.
86 Cometa adumbratus; oder Einige Vorstellung des erschrecklichen
cometen undt wundersterns . . . 1680-1681. (A ms.)
87 Cometa scepticus; oder Kurtzer discttrsz über jüngst-erschienenen
Cometen, 1681.
88 Der erschreckliche un/d wunderseltsamgeschwäntzte Comet, welcher
am 16 Nov. 1680 in Meissen . . . gesehen worden.
124
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
89 Einfältiges Bedencken von Cometen.
90 Ein Gespräch zwischen einem Naturkündiger, Politico und Geistlicher,
von dem neulich gesehenen ungewöhnlichen und erschrecklichen
Comet-Stern, Nürnberg, 1681.
91 Historische Exempel, was auf die meisten Cometen von Christi Geburt
hero erfloget. Nebst einem Diseurs ueber den 1680 erschienenen
Cometen, Nürnberg, 1681.
92 Kurtze Beschreibung des fast niemals erhörten grossen Cometens,
welcher erschienen im Christmonat 1680, 1681.
93 Leipzigsche Wahrnehmung des wunderbaren Cometens, Leipzig, 1681.
94 Neuer Cometstern, welcher im Nov. 1680 erschienen und zu Plauen
observirt worden.
95 Observatio Cometa, oder Beobachtung des Cometen 1681.
9Ó Prognosticon ueber den 1680-1681 erschienenen greulichen und unerhör¬
ten langen Cometen, Hamburg, 1681.
97 Underricht von dem Wundergrossen Comet Stern, von einem Priester
der Societät Jesu, 1681.
98 Unterschiedliche Beschreibung- und Bedeutungen, so wohl der Cometen
ins Gemein, als insonderheit des . . . Wunder-Cometen mit
ßeiss zusammen getragen, und gedruckt im Jahr 1681. (This collec¬
tion consists of nine (^istinct descriptions.)
99 Wiederholtes Bedencken von der Cometen Bedeutung, wider die bei
einer unter dem Namen Zetter-Schreier ausgegangenen Cometenpre-
digt angehängten Anmerckungen 1681.
(B)—APPEARING IN FRANCE AND^ HOLLAND
100 D. Anthelme Chartreux à Dijon, Explication de la Comète qui a paru
sur la fin de l'année dernière et au commencement de celle-cy, 1681,
Dijon, 1681.
101 Bayle, P., Pensées diverses sur la comète, Rotterdam, 1682.
102 Bekker, B., Ondersoek van de Betekinge der Cometen, Amsterdam,
1683.
103 Bernoulli, J., Conamen Novi Systematis Cometarum, Amsterdam, 1682.
104 Bonfa, J., Observations de la comète des années 1680 et 1681, Marseille,
1681.
105 Cassini, G. D., Observations sur la Comète qui a paru au mois de Dé¬
cembre, 1680, Paris, 1681.
106 Comiers, C., Discours sur les Comètes (In Mercure Galant, Jan. 1681.)
107 Cocq, G., published a work at Utrecht in 1682 upholding superstition
regarding comets.
108 Croix, P. D. L., Staartstar, Amsterdam, 1681.
109 Fontaney, J. de. Observations sur la comète de i'ó8o et 1681, faites au
Collège de Clermont, Paris, 1681.
110 Fontenelle, La Comète, Paris, 1681.
111 Graevius, J. G., Oratio de Cometis, contra vuigi opinionem cometas
esse malorum nuncios, Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1681.
112 Holst, J., Van de Tekenen des Hemels, ende in't bysonder van de Staart-
sterren. over J er. X v. 8, Leeuvvard, 1681.
113 Hoist, J., Aanhanghsel zynde het Gevolgh op de Staart-sterr, getoont
op den Danck-ende Bede-Dagh den xxii Martii 1682 over de Woorden
Amos V. V. 8, Leeuvvard, 1682.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
125
114 Koelman wrote upholding superstition in 1682 (Serrurier, op. cit.,
p. 49.).
115 Mallement de Messanges, Dissertation sur les Comètes, Paris, 1681.
116 Rennes, Guépin de, Traité des météores et de la comète apparue en
l'an 1680.
117 Lettre d'un Gentilhomme de Province à une dame de qualité sur le
sujet de la comète, Paris, 1681.
118 Si les Comètes présagent des malheurs (In Journal des Sçavans for
January, 1681.)
(C)—APPEARING IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA
119 (Edwards, John), Cometomantia. A Discourse concerning Comets
shewing . . . more especially their Prognosticks, Significations
and Presages. Being a brief Resolution of a seasonable Question,
vis. Whether the Apparition of Comets be the Sign of Approaching
Evil? London, 1684.
120 Goad, J., Astro-Meteorologica, or Aphorisms and Discourses of the
Bodies Celestial, their Natures and Influences. . . . Comets, their
Origin and Duration. London, 1686.
121 Halley, E., Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis, London, 1705.
122 Knight, W., Vox Stellarum, or the Voice of the Stars. . . . Like¬
wise how to Judge of the Affairs of the World by Revolutions,
Eclipses, Great Conjunctions and Biasing Stars, London, 1681.
123 Mather, Increase, Heaven's Alarm to the World or a Sermon, wherein
is Shewed, that Fearful Sights and Signs in Heaven, are the Pre¬
sages of the great Calamities at hand. Preached at the Lecture of
Boston in New-England January 20, 1681, Boston, 1681.
124 Mather, Increase, The Latter Sign Discoursed of, in a Sermon Preach¬
ed at the Lecture of Boston in New-England, August 31, 1682.
Wherein is shewed, that the Voice of God in Signal Providences, es¬
pecially when repeated and Iterated, ought to be Hearkned unto.
Boston, 1682.
125 Mather, Increase, Kometographia, or a Discourse Concerning Comets;
Wherein the Nature of Biasing Stars is enquired into: with an His¬
torical Account of all the Comets, which have appeared from the
Beginning of the World unto this present Year . . . and the
Remarkable Events which hasve followed in the World. . . . As
also two Sermons, Occasioned by the late Biasing Stars. By Increase
Mather, Teacher of a Church at Boston in New-England. Boston,
1683.
126 Newton, Isaac, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, London,
1687.
127 Whiston, Wm., Nova Telluris Theoria, London, 1696.
128 Willard, S., The Fiery Tryal no strange thing; delivered in a sermon
preached in Charlestown, February 16, 1681. Being a Day of Humili¬
ation. Boston, 1682.
129 Wiswall, Ichabod, A Judicious Observation of the Dreadful Comet
which appeared on November 18, 1680. . . . Wherein is shewed
the Manifold Judgments that are like to attend upon most parts of
the world. Written by J. W. in New^ngland. London, 1683.
130 A Judgment of the Comet which became first generally visible to us in
Dublin Decem. 13 about fifteen minutes before five in the evening.
By a Person of Quality, Dublin, 1682.
126
THE GREAT COMET OF 1680
131 Memento's to the World; or an Historical Collection of divers wonder¬
ful Comets and Prodigious Signs in Heaven, that have been seen
. . . By W. G. Minister of the Gospel. Likewise, Stella Nova; or
the New Star; or. An Account of the Natural Significance of the
Comet, or Blazing Star, that ... is yet hanging over our Heads.
By William Knight, Student in Astrology, London, 1680.
132 On the Comet in the year 1680, as also on the blading star, now seen,
this present month of August, 1682, London, 1682.
133 The Signs of the Times, or Wonderful Signs of Wonderful Times;
being a faithful Collection and impcmtial Relation of several Signs
and Wonders, called properly Prodigies {together with some Philo¬
sophical and Theological Descants upon them) which have been seen
in the Heavens, on the Earth and in the Waters. . . . All of
which have happened within the Compass of this last year 1680,
London, 1681. (The author signs himself C. U.)
134 Surprizing Miracles of Nature and Art, in 2 parts. Containing the
Miracles of Nature, or the Wonderful Signs and Prodigious Aspects
and Appearances in the Heavens, Earth and Sea, with an account of
the most famous Comets and other prodigies since the birth of our
Saviour, London, 1683.
135 The True Fortune Teller or Guide to Knowledge. . . .To which
is added Aristotle's Observations on the Heavens, of Meteors,
Thunder, Lightning, Eclipses, Comets, Earthquakes and Whirlwinds,
London, 1685.
(D)—APPEARING IN ITALY
136 Celius, M. A., Copia di lettere seritte sopra I'osservazioni e i moti
apparenti d'una cometa . . . dell' anno 1680, Roma, 1681.
137 Guillelmini, Dom., Epistolica dissertatio de cometarum natura et ortu,
Bononiae, 1681.
138 Kavina, P. M., De Cometa ann. 1680 et 1681, Faventiae, 1681.
139 Montanari, G., Copia di due letteresopra i moti, e le apparenze, delle
due comete apparse sul fine di nov. 1680, Venezia, 1681.
140 Ponthaeus, J. D,, Cometicae Observationes, habitae ab Academia physico
mathematica Romana ann. 1680 et 1681.
141 Rossetti, Cometa di Donato, Taurini, 1681.
VITA
James Howard Robinson was born July 17, 1885 in Red¬
wood Falls, Minnesota, where he graduated from high school in
1904. In 1908 he received the degree of A. B. from Hamline
University, St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1911 the degrees of B. D.
from Union Theological Seminary and A. M. from Columbia
University. During his Senior year in Union he won the Hitch¬
cock Prize in Church History with an essay on the "Sources and
Composition of Jerome's De Viris Illustribus." From 1911 to
1915 he was Professor of Church History in the Wesleyan Theo¬
logical College, Montreal, Canada, an institution aflîliated to
McGill University, and for the last three years of this time was
a member of the faculty of the (four) Co-operating Theological
Colleges Affiliated to McGill University. During the school year
1915-1916, he was in attendance at Columbia University, working
under the direction of Professor James Harvey Robinson. In
September, 1916, he became Professor of History in Carleton
College, Northfield, Minnesota.