Ioannis Wolphii Tigurini de christiana perseverantia commentationis consolatoriae, ad N. captivos fratres liber unus. ...

...the misery of these times, which seemed to demand consolation and the strengthening of faith from me: mindful of that saying of the Greeks: ὡς μέγα τὸ μικρὸν ἐστιν ἐν καιρῷ διδόν how great a small thing is when given in due season, by which they signify that the smallest gifts, if given at the right time, can become the greatest. Who is so blind that they do not see that our present times are of such a nature that they require consolation? For even if we set aside the evils and calamities with which not only France, Belgium, and your own Sarmatian referring to regions in modern-day Poland/Eastern Europe territories, but the entire world is almost filled, and—to grasp everything at once in the words of Homer—πάντη κακὸν κακῷ ἐσείρητο everywhere evil is heaped upon evil: even if we set aside the stubborn persistence of men in continuing in crimes and sins, which have now progressed to the point that it is not only difficult not to write a Satire, but it is difficult for eternal punishments not to be already hanging over our necks. If I say we set these aside: behold, we have a prophet referring to the appearance of the Great Comet of 1577 placed before our eyes in the high region of the air, clearly predicting that many more and graver evils are now at our doors; a terrible comet, I say,