“THE STAR THREATENS EVIL THINGS—ONLY TRUST!
GOD WILL MAKE IT TURN OUT WELL.”]
Others beside Halley took alarm at the Comet. They called it “The
Chariot of Fire.”
Dr. Whiston—he who succeeded Newton in the Lucasian chair of
mathematics at Cambridge—in a moment of prophetic vision fervently
declared that this Comet was God’s agent that would bring about the
General Conflagration by involving the world in flames.
In America, the Rev. Increase Mather, President of Harvard College, on
the appearance of the Comet in New England, preached his great sermon
on “Heaven’s Alarm to the World ... wherein is shown that fearful
sights and signs in the Heavens are the presages of great calamities at
hand.”
Increase Mather’s warning was handed down as an inspired prophesy,
in view of the fact that the English settlers in North America soon
afterwards got into bloody warfare with the Indians. The war raged at
its fiercest in the Carolinas, where the English settlers made war upon
the redskins simply for the purpose of taking them captive and selling
them into slavery in the West Indies.
To the Indians the Comet appeared as a sign of ill omen, as shown by
their frequent references to it during the parleys with the white men.
The Comet was shining at its fiercest when the six greatest chiefs of
the Susquehanna nation were enticed into a pretended council of peace
with the white men, only to be foully murdered with all their followers.
While this was going on in America, the Comet gave the signal in India
for the first hostilities there upon the white settlers from Portugal,
as well as for the outbreak of the bloody Mahratta War, which ravaged
India for a generation to come.
Nearer East, the Turks, under the leadership of Mohammed Bey, ravaged
Egypt, while, on the other side, a Turkish army under Kara Mustapha
carried war into Hungary, to the very gates of Vienna, until Emperor
Leopold felt constrained to call for help from Sobieski, the warrior
king of the Poles.
In Europe the French overran Alsace, and suddenly seized the German
city of Strasburg.
At the same time the bubonic plague broke out in North Germany. In the
little university town of Halle alone, within a few days, 4,397 people
died out of a total population of ten thousand.
It was then that medals were struck off in Germany with a design of
the comet on their face, and an inscription imploring God to avert the
evils threatened by the Comet:
“The star threatens evil things;
Only trust! God will make it right.”
1607
The Comet this year was seen all over Europe. The best observations of
it were made by Kepler and Longomontanus (Langberger). It was seen at
its brightest in England.
Shortly after its appearance over England, there came freshets and
floods which completely submerged the richest counties of England. In
Somersetshire and Gloucestershire the water rose above the tops of the
houses. This was followed by a visitation of the plague.
In Ireland the Comet was taken as an omen of the fate of Londonderry,
where the Irish rebels, suddenly seizing the city, massacred Sir George
Powlett and all his English garrison.
In Germany the Comet was taken as a token of the war then brewing
between the Emperor and the German Protestant Princes—the so-called
Protestant League—which ushered in the dreadful Thirty Years’ War in
Germany.
Off Gibraltar, a Dutch fleet completely destroyed a fleet of Spanish
war galleons, thereby crippling Spanish sea power for a generation to
come.
Meanwhile, in America, the early settlers in Virginia, led by John
Smith, found themselves beset by the redskins, who were incited to
war by the appearance of the Comet. They called it “Red Knife in the
Sky.” During the war, John Smith was taken prisoner, and escaped with
his life only through the intercession of Pocahontas, the daughter of
Powhattan.
1531
The Comet was first sighted by the German astronomer Bienewitz
(“Apianus”) in midsummer of this year. Zwingli preached about it as an
omen of disaster.
German astrologers regarded it as a herald of the wars between Spain
and France, which broke out in that year, and of the bloody war carried
into Hungary by the Turks under Soleyman, who ravaged the Danube
country to the very walls of Vienna. These wars were followed by a
visitation of the black plague.
In the Netherlands the breaking of the ocean dykes caused terrific
floods, in which over 400,000 people were drowned.
Toward the close of the year the Comet passed over to the Southern
Hemisphere.
To the aborigines of South America it proved a star of dreadful omen.
During this year the most cruel of Spanish conquerors did their
bloodiest work in the New World—Cortez in Mexico, Alvarado at the
Equator, and Pizarro in Peru. Before the Comet disappeared from view,
several hundred thousand wretched Incas and Aztecs had been slaughtered
by the Spaniards, while many more hundred thousands were worked to
death as slaves.
1456
The Comet this year was observed throughout Europe and also in China.
It came into view over Europe on the 29th of May, and was seen gliding
over the sky towards the moon.
Writers of that period say that it shone with exceeding brightness and
spread out a fan-shaped train of fire. The Arab astronomers describe
its shape as that of a Turkish scimitar, which, blazing against the
dark sky, was regarded as a sign from heaven of the war then raging
against the Christian infidels.
A clear story of the Comet’s appearance has been left by the Bavarian
Jesuit, Brueckner (Pontanus). He based his story on the record of
Georgos Phranza, Grandmaster of the Wardrobes to the Emperor of
Constantinople. There the Comet is described as “rising in the West;
moving towards the East, and approaching the Moon.”
By the Chinese this Comet was described as having a tail sixty degrees
long, and a head “which at one time was round, and the size of a bull’s
eye, the tail being like a peacock’s.”
Halley wrote of this Comet in 1686: “In the summer
of the year 1456 a Comet was seen, which passed in a
retrograde direction between the earth and the sun.
From its period and path, I infer that it was the
same Comet as that of the years 1531, 1607 and 1682.
I may therefore with confidence predict its return in
the year 1758.”
The appearance of the Comet in 1456 was so well remembered even 225
years later, because this was the scimitar-shaped Comet hailed by the
conquering Turks as their guiding star, against the evil influence of
which Pope Calixtus III. exhorted all Christians to pray to God.
This story has been denied by certain latter-day sceptics, but the
medieval historian Platina, who was living in Rome at the time, and who
knew whereof he spoke, wrote in his “Lives of the Popes” in 1470:
“A hairy and fiery star having then made its
appearance for several days, the mathematicians
declared that there would follow grievous pestilence,
dearth and some great calamity. Calixtus, to avert
the wrath of God, ordered supplications that if evils
were impending for the human race He would turn all
upon the Turks, the enemies of the Christian name. He
likewise ordered, to move God by continual entreaty,
that notice should be given by the bells to call the
faithful at midday to aid by their prayers those
engaged in battle with the Turk.”
In truth, all Christendom appeared indeed to have fallen under the
“wrath of God,” for the Turks; having wrested Constantinople away from
the Christians, now came ravaging up the Danube countries and laid
siege to the Christian city of Belgrade. Bloody battles were fought
between the Magyars and Turks on the Danube, until Hunyadi, the great
Magyar leader, at last overthrew the Turks under Mahomet II., under
the walls of Belgrade, in a great battle, in which no less than 24,000
Turks were slain. This was on July 21st, on the eve of which day the
Comet had been seen to blaze at its fiercest.
1378
The Comet appeared late in the year, and was seen at its brightest over
Northern Europe, in Scotland, Scandinavia, Russia and Poland.
All these countries, during the same period and immediately afterwards,
were cursed by the terrible pestilence called the “Black Death,” now
known to have been the worst visitation of the bubonic plague known in
history. Wherever the dread sickness appeared, the people “died like
rats.” So many succumbed to the disease, and so many others fled aghast
from the pestilence, that whole cities and towns were left empty, and
no labourers could be found to till the fields.
1301
The Comet this year was first observed by German and Flemish
astrologers during the late Summer and Autumn. It was interpreted as an
ill omen of the wars which then ravaged Europe. Immediately after the
appearance of the Comet, Emperor Albrecht of Germany ravaged the Rhine
lands with fire and sword. Afterwards the German astrologers explained
the Comet as a warning omen of the death of the Emperor’s son Rudolf,
who died within a twelvemonth of his coronation as King of Bohemia.
In Flanders the Comet was taken as a heavenly token of the fierce war
which followed the bloodstained massacre of 3,000 French soldiers by
the enraged people of Flanders.
Soon after this came Robert of Artois’ bloody defeat at Coutrai, the
famous “Battle of the Spurs,” so called from the thousands of gilt
spurs that were taken afterwards from the feet of the slain French
cavaliers.
1222
The Comet during this year is recorded by the Chinese astronomers
in the months of September and October. During these months, and
immediately afterwards, Jenghis Khan, the bloody Mongol conqueror, with
his fierce Mongol hordes, was ravaging all China, Persia, India and the
Caucasus country as far as the River Don.
The Comet was taken as a special omen of the terrible fate of the City
of Herat and its surrounding country, where the bloodthirsty conqueror
caused to be slaughtered over a million of people. Jenghis Khan, who
believed in stars and omens, having been born with bloodstained hands,
hailed the Comet as his special Star. Under its rays he extended his
immense Empire to its outermost boundaries from the China seas to the
banks of the Dniepr in Russia. After the Comet’s disappearance, Jenghis
Khan regarded the planets that had crossed its orbit as stars of ill
omen, betokening his death, so he set his face backward from his march
of conquest, and soon afterwards died in Mongolia.
1145
The Comet appeared over Europe early in Spring. It was seen at Rome in
March and April.
Inspired by the appearance of the Comet, Pope Eugenius III. called for
a crusade against the Moslems. St. Bernard in France took up the cry,
and preached a holy war all over France. On Easter Sunday, King Louis
VII. of France, his Queen and all his nobles, received the Cross from
St. Bernard at Vizelay.
In Rome, however, the Comet was taken as a token of the Pope’s
downfall. Arnold of Brescia preached against the Pope and aroused the
Roman populace against him. The Holy Father had to flee.
On the disappearance of the Comet, the Pope returned and excommunicated
the Patricians of Rome. Arnold of Brescia was taken and strangled in
his cell. Later historians, like Lubienitius, accordingly interpreted
the Comet as a sign of warning rather than as an ill omen.
1066
This is the most famous appearance of the Comet now known as Halley’s
Comet. Under its seven rays, that year, William the Conqueror felt
inspired to fall upon England, while Harold, the Saxon, on the other
hand, saw in the Comet a star of dread foreboding and of doom.
The medieval chronicles of this year all make special mention of the
Comet. A picture of the Comet, as it appeared to the doomed Harold, was
embroidered by Matilde of France, on the famous coloured tapestry of
the Norman Conquest, which is still preserved at Bayeux in Normandy.
Zonares, the Greek historian, in his account of the death of Emperor
Constantinus Ducas (who died in May, 1067), writes of the Comet as
“large as the full moon, and at first without a tail, on the appearance
of which the star dwindled in size.”
The Chinese astronomers have recorded that this Comet had seven tails,
and was seen for sixty-seven days, after which “the star, the blaze,
and the star’s tails all drew away.”
[Illustration: HALLEY’S COMET, 1066. (_From the Bayeux Tapestry._)]
The Christian chroniclers record that this Comet, “in size and
brightness equalled the full moon, while its tail, slowly lengthening
as it came near the Sun, spread out into seven rays and arched over the
heavens in the shape of a dragon’s tail.”
Sigebert of Brabant, the Belgian chronicler of that time, wrote of it:
“Over the island of Britain was seen a star of a wonderful bigness, to
the train of which hung a fiery sword not unlike a dragon’s tail; and
out of the dragon’s mouth issued two vast rays, whereof one reached as
far as France, and the other, divided into seven lesser rays, stretched
away towards Ireland.”
William of Malmesbury wrote how the apparition affected the mind of
a fellow monk of his monastery in England. His words were: “Soon
after the death of Henry, King of France, by poison, a wonderful star
appeared trailing its long tail over the sky. Wherefore, a certain monk
of our monastery, by name Elmir, bowed down with terror at the sight of
the strange star, wisely exclaimed, ‘Thou art come back at last, thou
that will cause so many mothers to weep; many years have I seen thee
shine, but thou seemest to me more terrible now that thou foretellest
the ruin of my country.’”
Another old Norman chronicler, by way of defending the divine right
of William of Normandy to invade England, wrote: “How a Starre with
seven long Tayles appeared in the Skye. How the Learned sayd that newe
Starres only shewed themselves when a Kingdom wanted a King, and how
the sayd Starre was yclept a Comette.”
William himself appealed to the Comet as his guiding star. It shone
at its brightest during the Summer months while William was preparing
his expedition at St. Valery. When the spirits of his followers failed
them, William pointed to the blazing Comet and bid monks and priests
who accompanied his expedition to preach stirring sermons on the
“wonderful Sign from Heaven.”
The trip across the English Channel, late in September, was lighted up
by the Comet, and under its lustre the Norman invaders first pitched
their camp at Pevensey.
Once more, when William’s Norman followers quailed at the fierce work
before them, William pointed to the Comet as a token of coming victory.
A fortnight later, directly after the disappearance of the Comet, the
Battle of Hastings was fought, in which King Harold and his Saxon
thanes lost their lives and their country.
Afterwards, when Queen Matilda and her court ladies embroidered the
pictorial story of her husband’s Conquest of England in the huge
tapestry of Bayeux, they did not forget the Comet. They represented
Harold cowering in alarm on his throne, whilst his people are huddled
together, pointing with their fingers at the fearful omen in the sky,
the birds even being upset at the sight. The Latin legend over the
picture “Isti Mirant Stella” (they marvel at the star), makes it all
plain.
As I. C. Bruce, the editor of “The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated,” has
said: “This embroidery is remarkable for furnishing us with the
earliest human representation we have of a Comet.”
The Comet of 1066 will ever be famous for ushering in a new era for
England. Even to-day Halley’s Comet is remembered as “The Comet of the
Conquest.”
[Illustration: WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. (An English Dream.)
Halley’s Comet appeared in 1066—When William the Conqueror took
England. Halley’s Comet is here to-day.—Kladderadatsch (Berlin).]
989
The appearance of the Comet this year was marked by bloody wars all
over Europe. The Lombards under Otho were harrying the ancient Roman
Empire, while the heathen Danes and Wends ravaged Germany.
912
The Comet appeared early in the year and was seen over Germany, as
noted in the chronicles of the monks of St. Gallus in Switzerland.
Immediately after the appearance of the Comet, Germany was ravaged by
war, both inside and outside, the Empire being invaded on all sides by
the Danes in the North, the Slavs in the Northeast, and the Magyars
from Hungary.
837
The Chinese Astronomers record two Comets for this year, one in
February, and the other in April. But the modern view is that this was
the same Comet, as seen going to the Sun, and afterward, when it was
coming away from the Sun.
Immediately after the appearance of the Comet there followed a
widespread rebellion in China with much bloodshed and fierce reprisals.
The only Christian record of the Comet we have is that of Eginard, an
astrologer employed at the Court of Louis the Debonair, in France. This
is Eginard’s account of the Comet: “In the midst of the holy festival
of Easter there shone forth in our sky a sign always ominous and of
sad foreboding. As soon as the Emperor—who was in the habit of gazing
up into the sky at night—first saw the Comet, he had me called before
him, together with another learned star gazer. As soon as I came
before him he asked me what I thought of the sign in heaven.”
“‘Let me have but a little time,’ I asked of him, ‘that I may study
this sign and see the exact constellation of the other stars around
it, thus to gather from the stars the true meaning of this portent,’
promising him that I would tell him on the morrow of the results of my
studies.
“But the Emperor, guessing that I was trying to gain time—as was
indeed the truth, lest I be driven to tell him something unlucky and
fatal to him—he said to me:
“‘Go up on the terrace of the palace and look. Then come back at once
and tell me what thou hast seen! For I did not see this star last
night; nor didst thou point it out to me; but I know that sign in
heaven is a Comet. Thou must tell me true what it forebodes to me!’
“Then, before I could say anything, he said: ‘There is another thing
thou art hiding from me. It is that changes in Kingdoms and the deaths
of rulers are foretold by this sign.’
“To soothe him I reminded the Emperor of the words of the Prophet
Isaiah, who said: ‘Fear not signs in the Heaven, like unto the Heathen.’
“But the Emperor smiled sadly and said: ‘We should believe only in God
on High, who has created us and also all Stars in Heaven. Since He has
sent this Star, and since this unlooked for Sign may be meant for us,
let us look upon it as a warning from Heaven.’”
Thereupon Louis the Debonair betook himself to fasting, prayers, and
the building of churches and shrines, he and all his Court. Shortly
thereafter he died.
The French chronicler, Raoul Glaber, afterward wrote in his chronicle:
“Comets never show themselves to man without foreboding surely some
coming event, marvellous or terrible.”
760
A Comet appeared in the Spring of this year, which without any doubt
whatever was Halley’s. It was recorded in detail both by European and
Chinese annalists, and its orbit has been calculated and identified by
Laugier.
A Greek record of Constantinople tells how “a Comet like a great beam”
and very brilliant was observed in the twentieth year of Emperor
Constantine V., surnamed Copronymus, first in the East and then in the
West, for about thirty days. Its appearance was followed next Winter
by a biting frost throughout the Orient, which endured 150 days, from
October until February, blighting all crops in Egypt and elsewhere in
the Eastern Empire.
684
Chinese annals record a Comet observed in the West in September and
October. This accords with the computed time for the course of Halley’s
Comet that year. Immediately after the Comet’s appearance, China and
the Far East were ravaged by the black plague. Millions died of it.
Baeda the Venerable, in his “Chronicle of the English People,” records
that the plague also reached England.
607
All Europe and the former Roman Empire were in such dire confusion
during this period that no records of this year, either astronomic
or historical, have come down to us. Messrs. Cowell and Crommelin,
however, have computed astronomically that the Comet must have appeared
during this year. All we know is that Italy and the Latin World were
overrun by ravaging Slavonian hordes from Hungary, who made all the
country run with blood.
530
Of the Comet this year, likewise, there is no astronomic record. All we
know is that the appearance of a Comet is noted in European chronicles.
It was followed by a virulent outbreak of the black plague.
In the legendary history of Merlin, the ancient British seer, it is
stated that on the appearance of a Comet this year he prophesied that
Uter, brother of Ambrosius, on the death of the latter, should rule the
kingdom; that a ray from the Comet which pointed toward Gaul presaged
a son who should be born to him and who should be great in power; and
that the ray “that goes toward Ireland represents a daughter, of whom
thou shalt be the father, and her sons and grandsons shall reign over
all the Britons.” These prophecies all came true.
451
The Comet which appeared over Europe this year has been proven by
Laugier to have been Halley’s Comet.
It was seen in France just before the monster battle on the Catalaunian
Fields (Châlons-sur-Marne), when Aetius, the last of the Romans,
together with King Theoderic and his Goths, stemmed the tide of Hunnish
invasion led by Attila, the “Scourge of God.”
Theoderic, together with 148,000 warriors on both sides, were slain in
this tremendous fight, which alone saved Europe from Tartar savagery.
373
Chinese annals of this year record a Comet seen in the northern
constellation of Ophiuchus in October. This year marks the beginning
of the tremendous migration of peoples, which started in Mongolia and
Tartary, and crossing the Volga gradually overflowed all the known
world, like a huge human deluge.
295
The appearance of a Comet this year (identified by Hind with Halley’s)
was followed by a bloody rebellion of the ancient Britons against the
Romans, and by another rebellion against Rome by the Egyptians. These
patriotic uprisings of the people were suppressed with fire and sword
and both countries ran with blood.
218
The Chinese catalogue of Ma-tuan-lin records a Comet with a path
exactly analogous with the orbit of Halley’s Comet computed for that
year by Hind. In the Chinese record the Comet is described as “pointed
and bright.” Its coming was connected with the death of Emperor Ween-te
directly afterward, and the Civil Wars between various claimants to the
throne of the Celestial Empire, which then rent China asunder.
Dion Cassius, the Roman historian, describes the Comet of this year as
“a very fearful star with a tail stretching from the West towards the
East.”
The Roman augurs explained the Comet as a portent of the bloody death
of Emperor Macrinus of Rome, who was murdered by his own soldiers on
the night after the disappearance of the Comet.
141
In this year the Chinese astronomers recorded a Comet in March and
April (the time computed for Halley’s Comet), which they described as
“a star six or seven cubits long and of a bluish-white colour.” The
coming of the Comet was followed by a virulent outbreak of the plague
in China and the Far East, which spread all over the known world. So
virulent was this pestilence that in the City of Naples alone 400,000
people died of the disease.
65-66
Halley’s Comet, according to astronomic calculations, must have made
its reappearance during the winter months of 65-66 A. D. The Chinese
have recorded “two Comets,” one in 65, which was seen for fifty-six
days, and “the other” in February, 66, which remained visible fifty
days.
This was the Comet which St. Peter and Josephus saw over the City of
Jerusalem, before the fall of the Holy City. Josephus wrote of it:
“Amongst other warnings, a Comet, of the kind called Xiphias, because
their tails appear to represent the blade of a sword, was seen above
the doomed city for the space of nearly a whole year.”
Jerusalem was ravaged by pestilence and famine and soon afterward was
stormed by the Roman soldiery led by Titus. The Temple was burned down
and the streets of the Holy City ran with blood. It was the end of
Jerusalem and of the Jews as a free city and people.