From no less than eighty-six biblical texts he proves the Almighty's purpose of using the heavenly bodies for the instruction of men as to future events, and then proceeds to frame exhaustive tables, from which, the time and place of the comet's first appearance being known, its signification can be deduced.

This manual he gave forth as a triumph of religious science, under the name of the Comet Hour-Book.( 104) (104) For Maestlin, see his Observatio et Demonstration Cometae, Tubingen, 1578.

For Buttner, see his Cometen Stundbuchlein, Leipsic, 1605.
The same devotion to the portent theory is found in the universities of Protestant Holland.

Striking is it to see in the sixteenth century, after Tycho Brahe's discovery, the Dutch theologian, Gerard Vossius, Professor of Theology and Eloquence at Leyden, lending his great weight to the superstition.

"The history of all times," he says, "shows comets to be the messengers of misfortune.