ng
in his diary the following passage: "Lord, fit us for whatever changes
it may portend; for, though I am not ignorant that such meteors proceed
from natural causes, yet are they frequently also the presages of
imminent calamities." Interesting is it to note here that this was
Halley's comet, and that Halley was at this very moment making those
scientific studies upon it which were to free the civilized world
forever from such terrors as distressed Thoresby.

(100) For John Knox, see his Histoire of the Reformation of Religion
within the Realm of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1732), lib. iv; also Chambers,
Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. ii, pp 410-412. For Burton, see his
Anatomy of Melancholy, part ii, sect 2. For Browne, see the Vulgar and
Common Errors, book vi, chap. xiv.

The belief in comets as warnings against sin was especially one of those
held "always, everywhere, and by all," and by Eastern Christians as well
as by Western. One of the most striking scenes in the history of the
Eastern Church is that which took place at the condemnation of Nikon,
the great Patriarch of Moscow. Turning toward his judges, he pointed to
a comet then blazing in the sky, and said, "God's besom shall sweep you
all away!"

Of all countries in western Europe, it was in Germany and German
Switzerland that this superstition took strongest hold. That same depth
of religious feeling which produced in those countries the most terrible
growth of witchcraft persecution, brought superstition to its highest
development regarding comets. No country suffered more from it in the
Middle Ages. At the Reformation Luther declared strongly in favour of
it. In one of his Advent sermons he said, "The heathen write that the
comet may arise from natural causes, but God creates not one that does
not foretoken a sure calamity." Again he said, "Whatever moves in the
heaven in an unusual way is certainly a sign of God's wrath."

And sometimes, yielding to another phase of his belief, he declared them
works of the devil, and declaimed against them as "harlot stars."(101)

(101) For Thoresby, see his Diary, (London, 1830). Halley's great
service is described further on in this chapter. For Nikon's speech, see
Dean Stanley's History of the Eastern Church, p. 485. For very striking
examples of this mediaeval terror in Germany, see Von Raumer, Geschichte
der Hohenstaufen, vol. vi, p. 538. For the Reformation period, see Wolf,
Gesch. d. Astronomie;