"whoever would know the comet's real
source and nature must not merely gape and stare at the scientific
theory that it is an earthy, greasy, tough, and sticky vapour and mist,
rising into the upper air and set ablaze by the celestial heat." Far
more important for them is it to know what this vapour is. It is really,
in the opinion of Celichius, nothing more or less than "the thick smoke
of human sins, rising every day, every hour, every moment, full of
stench and horror, before the face of God, and becoming gradually so
thick as to form a comet, with curled and plaited tresses, which at last
is kindled by the hot and fiery anger of the Supreme Heavenly Judge."
He adds that it is probably only through the prayers and tears of
Christ that this blazing monument of human depravity becomes visible to
mortals. In support of this theory, he urges the "coming up before God"
of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and of Nineveh, and especially
the words of the prophet regarding Babylon, "Her stench and rottenness
is come up before me." That the anger of God can produce the
conflagration without any intervention of Nature is proved from the
Psalms, "He sendeth out his word and melteth them." From the position
of the comet, its course, and the direction of its tail he augurs
especially the near approach of the judgment day, though it may also
betoken, as usual, famine, pestilence, and war. "Yet even in these
days," he mourns, "there are people reckless and giddy enough to pay
no heed to such celestial warnings, and these even cite in their own
defence the injunction of Jeremiah not to fear signs in the heavens."
This idea he explodes, and shows that good and orthodox Christians,
while not superstitious like the heathen, know well "that God is not
bound to his creation and the ordinary course of Nature, but must often,
especially in these last dregs of the world, resort to irregular means
to display his anger at human guilt."(109)

(109) For Celichius, or Celich, see his own treatise, as above.

The other typical case occurred in the following century and in another
part of Germany. Conrad Dieterich was, during the first half of the
seventeenth century, a Lutheran ecclesiastic of the highest authority.
His ability as a theologian had made him Archdeacon of Marburg,
Professor of Philosophy and Director of Studies at the University of
Giessen, and "Superintendent," or Lutheran bishop, in southwestern
Germany. In the year 1