Fig. 50.—What our Ancestors saw in a Comet.
After Ambroise Paré (1528).
Fig. 51.—Prodigies seen in the Heavens by our Forefathers.
Omens of battle, 1547.
Deer and warriors, July 19, 1550.
Cavalry, and a bloody branch crossing the sun, June 11, 1554.]
Our fathers saw many other prodigies in the skies; their descendants, less credulous, can study the facsimile reproduced in Fig. 51, of the drawings published in the year 1557 by Conrad Lycosthenes in his curious Book of Prodigies.
So, too, it is asserted that Charles V renounced the jurisdiction of his Estates, which were so vast that "the Sun never slept upon them," because he was terrified by the comet of 1556 which burned in the skies with an alarming brilliancy, into passing the rest of his days in prayer and devotion.