Page:The story of the comets.djvu/267

XIV. advantage over Mahomet, and compelled him to raise the siege of Belgrade; the remembrance of which Calixtus immortalised, by ordering the festival of the Transfiguration to be religiously observed throughout the Christian world. Thus was established the custom, which still exists in [Roman] Catholic countries, of ringing the bells at noon; and perhaps it was from this circumstance that the well-known cakes made of sliced nuts and honey, sold at the church-doors in Italy on Saints' days, are called comete."

Leonard Digges, a writer of the Elizabethan epoch, says that "Cometes signifie corruption of the ayre. They are signes of earthquakes, of warres, of changying of Kyngdomes, great dearthe of corne, yea a common death of man and beast."

John Gadbury, an astrological gentleman of the same epoch says that "experience is an eminent evidence that a comet like a sword portendeth war; and an hairy comet or a comet with a beard denoteth the death of Kings". He also gives a register of cometary announcements for upwards of 600 years, and adds in large Roman capitals: "as if God and Nature intended by comets to ring the knells of princes esteeming the bells in churches upon earth not sacred enough for such illustrious and eminent performances."

Close upon the heels of the two writers I have quoted comes the greatest of English writers, ancient or modern, Mr. William Shakespeare, whose works contain several noteworthy and very striking allusions to comets. Thus in Julius Cæsar:—

In Henry VI. we find the oft-quoted passage:—