Bartolomeo Platina - Halley's Comet

Halley's Comet

As a paragraph from Platina's Vitæ Pontificum first gave rise to the legend of the excommunication of Halley's comet by Pope Callixtus III, we here give the legend briefly, after recalling some historical facts. After the fall of Constantinople (1453), Nicolas V appealed in vain to the Christian princes for a crusade. Callixtus III (1455–1458), immediately after his succession, sent legates to the various courts for the same purpose; and, meeting with no response, promulgated a bull June 29, 1456, prescribing the following:

1. all priests were to say during Mass the oratio contra paganos;
2. daily, between noon and vespers, at the ringing of a bell, everybody had to say three Our Fathers and Hail Marys;
3. processions were to be held by the clergy and the faithful on the first Sunday of each month, and the priests were to preach on faith, patience, and penance; to expose the cruelty of the Turks, and urge all to pray for their deliverance.

The first Sunday of July (July 4), the first processions were held in Rome. On the same day the Turks began to besiege Belgrade. On July 14 the Christians gained a small advantage, and on the twenty-first and twenty-second the Turks were put to flight.

In the same year Halley's comet appeared. In Italy it was first seen in June. Towards the end of the month it was still visible for three hours after sunset, causing great excitement everywhere by its extraordinary splendour. It naturally attracted the attention of astrologers as may appear from the long judicium astrologicum by Avogario, of Ferrara, dated June 17, 1467; it was found again by Celoria among the manuscripts of Paolo Toscanelli, who had copied it himself. The comet was seen till July 8. It is evident, from all the documents of that time, that it had disappeared from sight several days before the battle of Belgrade. These two simultaneous facts–the publication of the bull and the appearance of the comet–were connected by Platina in the following manner:

Apparente deinde per aliquot dies cometa crinito et rubeo: cum mathematici ingentem pestem: charitatem annonæ: magnam aliquam cladem futuram dicerent: ad avertendam iram Dei Calistus aliquot dierum supplicationes decrevit: ut si quid hominibus immineret, totum id in Thurcos christiani nominis hostes converteret. Mandavit præterea ut assiduo rogatu Deus flecteretur in meridie campanis signum dari fidelibus omnibus: ut orationibus eos juvarent: qui contra Thurcos continuo dimicabant (A maned and fiery comet appearing for several days, while scientists were predicting a great plague, dearness of food, or some great disaster, Callistus decreed that supplicatory prayers be held for some days to avert the anger of God, so that, if any calamity threatened mankind, it might be entirely diverted against the Turks, the foes of the Christian name. He likewise ordered that the bells be rung at midday as a signal to all the faithful to move God with assiduous petitions and to assist with their prayers those engaged in constant warfare with the Turks).

Platina has, generally speaking, recorded the facts truly; but is wrong at one point, viz., where he says that the astrologers' predictions of great calamities induced the pope to prescribe public prayers. The bull does not contain a word on the comet, as can be verified in the original, authenticated document.

A careful investigation of the authenticated Regesta of Callixtus (about one hundred folios), in the Vatican archives, shows that the comet is not mentioned in any other papal document. Nor do other writers of the time refer to any such prayers against the comet, though many speak both of the comet and of the prayers against the Turks. The silence of St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence (1446–1459), is particularly significant. In his Chronicorum libri tres he enumerates accurately all the prayers prescribed by Callixtus; he also mentions the comet of 1456 in a chapter entitled, De cometis, unde causentur et quid significent – but never refers to prayers and processions against the comet, although all papal decrees were sent to him. Aeneas Sylvius and St. John Capistrano, who preached the crusade in Hungary, considered the comet rather as a favourable omen in the war against the Turks.

Hence it is clear that Platina has looked wrongly upon the bull as the outcome of fear of comets. The historians of the 16th and 17th centuries contented themselves with quoting Platina more or less accurately (Calvisius 1605, Spondanus 1641, Lubienietski 1666). Fabre (1726) in his continuation of the Histoire Ecclésiastique by Fleury gave a somewhat free paraphrase. Bruys (1733), an apostate (who afterwards entered the Church again), copies Fleury-Fabre adding que le Pape profita en habile homme de la superstition et de la crédulité des peuples. It is only when we come to Laplace's Exposition du Système du monde, that we find the expression that the pope ordered the comet and the Turks to be exorcized (conjuré), which expression we find again in Daru's poem L'Astronomie. Arago (Des Comètes en général etc. Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes 1832, 244) converts it into an excommunication. Arago's treatise was soon translated into all the European languages after which time the appearance of the comet (1456) is hardly ever mentioned, but this historical lie must be repeated in various shapes. Smyth (Cycle of celestial objects) speaks of a special protest and excommunication exorcizing the Devil, the Turks, and the comet. Grant (History of physical astronomy) refers to the publication of a bull, in which Callixtus anathematized both the Turks and the comet. Babinet (Revue des deux mondes, 23 ann., vol. 4, 1853, 831) has the pope lancer un timide anathème sur la comète et sur les ennemis de la Chrétienté, whilst in the battle of Belgrade les Frères Mineurs aux premiers rangs, invoquaient l'exorcisme du pape contre la comète. In different ways the legend is repeated by Chambers, Flammarion, Draper, Jamin, Dickson White, and others.