Part 19

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