answer to the theory of sundry naturalists that
comets are made up of "a certain fiery, warm, sulphurous, saltpetery,
sticky fog," he declaims: "Our sins, our sins: they are the fiery heated
vapours, the thick, sticky, sulphurous clouds which rise from the
earth toward heaven before God." Throughout the sermon Dieterich pours
contempt over all men who simply investigate comets as natural objects,
calls special attention to a comet then in the heavens resembling a long
broom or bundle of rods, and declares that he and his hearers can only
consider it rightly "when we see standing before us our Lord God in
heaven as an angry father with a rod for his children." In answer to the
question what comets signify, he commits himself entirely to the idea
that they indicate the wrath of God, and therefore calamities of every
sort. Page after page is filled with the records of evils following
comets. Beginning with the creation of the world, he insists that
the first comet brought on the deluge of Noah, and cites a mass of
authorities, ranging from Moses and Isaiah to Albert the Great and
Melanchthon, in support of the view that comets precede earthquakes,
famines, wars, pestilences, and every form of evil. He makes some parade
of astronomical knowledge as to the greatness of the sun and moon, but
relapses soon into his old line of argument. Imploring his audience not
to be led away from the well-established belief of Christendom and the
principles of their fathers, he comes back to his old assertion, insists
that "our sins are the inflammable material of which comets are made,"
and winds up with a most earnest appeal to the Almighty to spare his
people.(110)

(110) For Deiterich, see Ulmische Cometen-Predigt, von dem Cometen, so
nechst abgewischen 1618 Jahrs im Wintermonat erstenmahls in Schwaben
sehen lassen,... gehalten zu Ulm... durch Conrad Dieterich, Ulm, 1620.
For a life of the author, see article Dieterich in the Allgemeine
Deutsche Biographie. See also Wolf.

Similar efforts from the pulpit were provoked by the great comet of
1680. Typical among these was the effort in Switzerland of Pastor
Heinrich Erni, who, from the Cathedral of Zurich, sent a circular letter
to the clergy of that region showing the connection of the eleventh and
twelfth verses of the first chapter of Jeremiah with the comet, giving
notice that at his suggestion the authorities had proclaimed a solemn
fast, and exhorting the clergy to preach e