HALLEY'S COMET AND THE POPE'S "EXTRAVAGANT ACTS."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13996, 31 August 1907, Page 3

HALLEY'S COMET AND THE POPE'S "EXTRAVAGANT ACTS."

Sin,—Some time ago there appeared in your columns a contributed article on " The Heavenly Bodies and Superstitions." In many respects the article was a loose and declamatory treatment of sundry facts of scientific history. In the next following issue I requested the writer to justify the following specific statement in regard to the appearance, of Halley's oomci, in 1456, in so far as it referred to " tho reigning pontiff":-

"So awe-inspiring was it that, it , . . led to most extravagant acts on the part of the reigning' pontiff, who actually instituted a special form of prayer against its supposedly baneful influence, and thereby increased the terrors of the ignorant and superstitious." Thus far I have not been favoured with a reply. Even ft professed atheist, however much lie might disagree with it, would hardly venture to describe as " most extravagant " the mere fact of praying, or ordering prayers, for deliverance from an evil that is, though erroneously, supposed to bo impending. And in the ease here under consideration, the prophets of woo were the ''mathematicians" or scientific men of the time. Your readers aro thus left to discover for themselves, as best they may, what were the "extravagant acts" that were perpetrated by "the reigning pontiff" (Calixtus III.), wheh Halley's comet appeared during the plague, the disorganisation, anil the menaoe of an overwhelming Turkish invasion in 1456.

Your contributor was probably referring to the absurd fables that Pope Calixtna ordered the bolls to be rung to scare away the comet; that ho fulminated an anathema against the comet; and that ho even publicly excommunicated the comet at noon each day! Beyond this crowning insanity the fable could not well go. Now, " the reigning pontiff" did none of these things. Neither did he " institute a special form of prayer" against the "supposedly baneful influence" of tho comet. For all we really .know to the contrary, Pope Calixtus may have regarded eomete as his friend and contemporary, St. Antoninus, .Atcli bishop of Florence, did—namely, as natural phenomena, devoid of any " baneful influenoo " for mankind.

We fortunately have the pope's alleged "comet" Bull preserved in its entirety in tho page.? of Raynaldu6. From beginning to end there is not 60 much a3 a word in it about tho comet or its "supposedly baneful influence." It is a noble appeal to tile world for united prayer, not against the oomct, but against tho Turkish power, which then' threatened to overwhelm Christendom. Processions, public prayors, special masses, etc., were ordered in every dioccsc. and bells were to be rung, not to ."?care away the comet," but\ to assemble the" people in supplication against tho ailconquering Turk. Those of your readers who have not access to Raynal'dus will find tho document carefully summarised by Ludwig Pastor in tho English Translation of his great History of tho Topes (vol. ii). Accuracy and caution in accepting eonelusions are supposed to bo amongst the olementary qualifications of the trained scientist. But the fable of Popo Calixus and Ilalley's comet, while unknown to the genuine historian, seoms to be accepted by some scientific men with the sort of uninquiring gobemouehorie that, in the nureery. swallows ns historical truth tho story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Sundry scientists predicted woe and desolation to the eart.li from the impact o! Donati's comet in 1858. People "fancied these scientists knew whereof they wore speaking, and not unnaturally besought the liord and Ruler of the universe to avert tho threatened, ills. In Germany' and Switzerland' Jews, Cnlvanists, Lutherans, and Catholics assemHul in their various churches to pray. In Scotland (as an eyewitness informs me) Presbyterians and others did tho same. If there was any "extravagance" in all this, it must be laid at the door of the scientist, alarmists. And what about the dire prophecy of desolation that was cabled all over the world during the past twelve months aa impending from a collision between .the earth and a comet?— I am, etc., Editor N.Z. Tablet.