Winter, 1664–1665 • 21Astrology was a respectable practice despite the skepticism of some literate
people, and medical astrologers read the seasons and stars for advice on pub-
lic health as well as public affairs. A conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1663
had been followed by the approach of Saturn to Mars on November 12 , 1664 ,
surely an ominous sequence. Almanacs for 1665 prophesied war between the
two great maritime powers, England and Holland, plus fire, famine, earth-
quakes—and “pestilence.” William Andrews’s almanac,News from the Stars,
predicted “amortality,which will bring manyto their Graves.”^8
At his comfortable home in Covent Garden, the wealthiest parish in
Greater London, Thomas Rugge remarked on the “great discourse” about the
comet all around town as he entered a friend’s doggerel verse “Upon the Blaz-
ing Starr” in his gossipy diary. The friend mused about the comet as a possible
portent:
To treat of Comets or the Starres
That doe portend as some say Warrs
If anyone wish Pestilence or other change
That unto many, may seem strange
Bee it what it will if God decree
So pleaseth him, it pleaseth me.^9
Many Londoners, especially religious dissenters, took the comet’s appear-
ance more seriously. Upset by the Restoration’s crushing of the religious lib-
erty they had enjoyed under Cromwell, they consoled themselves that this
comet foretold God’s punishment of their oppressor ruler and his profligate
court.^10 Dissenters in the countryside echoed these sentiments. In Leicester-
shire, the youthful Theophilus Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, received word
from a friend at court that the “gallants” of London would soon pay for mak-
ing light of the “astereal portents of great calamities.”^11
Prophesying continued into March, when a second comet appeared in the
skies of southern England.^12 In Southwark, just south of London Bridge, an
alchemist and astrologer named John Allin observed the blazing star, night
after night, “riseing about northeast at one or 2 of ye clocke in ye morning,
and continuing till day light hides it.” Allin did not know what to make of it.
He was apt to see any unnatural change in the heavens or on earth as a sign
of God’s judgment. In January, he had heard that Secretary of State Morice’s
cistern of water had turned to blood overnight. An “ominous matter,” he de-
clared.^13 But the remaining months of 1665 , despite all the untoward signs,
frightened people less than did 1666. Astrologers warned that this next year
was really the one to look out for, because 666 was the number of the Beast
of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation.