The young astronomer, though Apian's pupil, was an avowed Copernican and the destined master and friend of Kepler.

Yet, in the treatise embodying his observations, he felt it necessary to save his reputation for orthodoxy by calling the comet a "new and horrible prodigy," and by giving a chapter of "conjectures on the signification of the present comet," in which he proves from history that this variety of comet betokens peace, but peace purchased by a bloody victory.

That he really believed in this theological theory seems impossible; the very fact that his observations had settled the supralunar character and regular motion of comets proves this.

It was a humiliation only to be compared to that of Osiander when he wrote his grovelling preface to the great book of Copernicus.
Maestlin had his reward: when, a few years, later his old teacher, Apian, was driven from his chair at Tubingen for refusing to sign the Lutheran Concord-Book, Maestlin was elected to his place.
Not less striking was the effect of this theological pressure upon the minds of students.

Noteworthy as an example of this is the book of the Leipsic lawyer, Buttner.