without danger to the moral government of the world. Reasons, then, partly scriptural, partly theological, led men to cherish the belief in the portentous character of comets as absolutely essential, religiously and morally. To say nothing of the many examples in the earlier mediæval period, comets in the tenth century strengthened the belief in the approaching end of the world, and increased the distress and terror of all Europe. The charters of that age constantly refer to this. In the middle of the eleventh century a comet was thought to accompany the death of Edward the Confessor, and to presage the Norman Conquest; the traveler in France to-day may see this belief as it was then wrought in the Bayeux tapestry.[1]
Nearly every decade of years saw Europe plunged into alarm by appearances of this sort; but the culmination was reached in 1456. At that time, the Turks, after ages of effort, had made good their footing in Europe. A large statesmanship or generalship might have kept them out; but, while different religious factions were disputing over petty shades of dogma, the Turks had advanced, had taken Constantinople, and were pressing on to secure their foothold in Europe. Now came the full bloom of this superstition. A comet appeared. The Pope of that period, Calixtus III, was a man of more than ordinary ability, but saturated with the ideas of his time. By virtue of his position as the infallible head of Christendom, he publicly and solemnly anathematized both the Turks and the comet, bidding all the faithful beseech the Almighty to turn the monster in the heavens away from the Christians and against the Turks. In the litany was incorporated the prayer, "From the Turk and the comet, good Lord deliver us." Thence, it is generally supposed, dates the midday Angelus, the bell calling the faithful to prayer against the powers of evil.
Never was the object of a papal fulmination more unfortunately chosen; for the Turk has held Constantinople from that day to this, and the comet, being that now known under the name of Halley, so far from heeding the infallible anathema, has returned imperturbably at short periods ever since.[2]
- ↑ For effects of comets in the eleventh and following centuries, see "Chronicles" of Raoul Glaber, William of Nangis, and others passim.For the Bayeux tapestry, see Bruce, "Bayeux Tapestry elucidated" (London, 1856), Plate VII, and text, p. 86; also Guillemin, p. 24; also Champion, p. 89. This tapestry, wrought by the wife of William the Conqueror and her ladies, is now preserved in the town museum of Bayeux.
- ↑ The usual statement is that Calixtus excommunicated the comet by a papal bull. A statement to this effect is made by such authorities as Arago, Guillemin, Watson, and many others; and this suggested the shrewd parallel made on a noted occasion by President Lincoln. An examination of various Bullaria has as yet failed to discover any formal bull; and, though this by no means proves that such a bull was not issued, it is most likely that the utterance of the Pope was in the nature of a general anathema, an appeal to Christian peoples against the comet, as stated in the "Historia B. Platinæ de vitis Pontificum, Coloniæ, MDC," p. 317, for which I am indebted to Dr. Gilette, Librarian of the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
