Aurora's Sundry Notes

I'm currently reading (among other things) The Unknown Universe by Stuart Clark, which is about "what we know - and what we don't now - about time and space" and also the history of these things. Anyway, early on in the book, where it talks about comets and research into them, I discovered this quote:

"In the sixteenth century, German painter and astronomer Georg Busch published an extraordinary commentary that claimed comets 'are formed by the ascending from the earth of human sins and wickedness, formed into a kind of gas, and ignited by the anger of God. This poisonous stuff falls down again on people's heads, and causes all kinds of mischief, such as pestilence, sudden death, bad weather and Frenchmen.'"