On the Material Cause of Meteors.

Indeed, it is not in the manner that those Pagans original: "Ethnici"; referring to pre-Christian Greek and Roman philosophers whose natural philosophy the author is contrasting with Christian doctrine. wrote in their spurious books, but rather that GOD has His own peculiar treasuries for these previously mentioned types, from which He produces winds and storms, as in Jeremiah 10 and 51, and that He makes His angels spirits and His ministers flaming fires, as in Psalm 134 This refers to Psalm 104:4 in modern Bibles: "Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.". GOD, I say, to bring about a variety of storms, has His own peculiar treasuries and angels, as well as spirits, through whose mediation He brings about all those things we see: namely, how wonderfully storms arise, how miraculously the thunderstone original: "lapis ceraunius"; a stone or fossil traditionally believed to fall from the sky during a lightning strike. (or lightning stone) solidifies, and by what reason heat and cold generate thunder so that it reaches even houses, citadels, and trees, etc. And although our effort might perhaps seem of very little importance to the foolish, yet if they consider the matter a little more accurately, they will indeed perceive that it concerns the divine honor. It is vital that the children of GOD truly and fundamentally know and understand that storms and other related operations do not occur by their own motion, or by chance, or by such foolish ways as the erroneous books of the Pagans imagine. Rather, they are brought in and proceed from divine providence and the treasuries of the divine vaults, and are sent down from above into this lower world. Thus, when dangerous storms arise, or morbid and pestilential meteors In this period, "meteor" referred to any atmospheric phenomenon, including rain, wind, and plague-bearing vapors, not just falling stars. are scattered through the air, we may call upon GOD, that He might mercifully turn away that danger of meteors, storms, and contagious air from us, and in their place grant us benign and healthy meteors, while simultaneously defending, protecting, and preserving the fruits of the earth, along with humans and livestock, from all evil.

We conclude, therefore, that since all things were created through the Word of GOD, and by that same Word are directed, governed, moved, and led in the course originally implanted in them at creation, it is also necessary that the Air (which is Pan A reference to the Greek god Pan, used here as a personification of "Universal Nature" or the "All." or Universal Nature) remains in the Word of GOD. It must be led by the angels of GOD appointed for this purpose, whenever, wherever, and however GOD wills. Thus also, by divine command through Moses, the powerful meteors were moved—for instance, the winds, clouds, hail, the pillar of cloud and fire, thunders, and other things of this sort—according to the divine will. Finally, this must be especially observed: that air is the material origin of any thing, as it is that which contains all the elements within itself. Consequently, it is the mother of all things, just as the Word of God is their father. For Thin air is the element of fire, which by condensation produces fiery meteors subject to our sight, such as Comets, Spears A term for a specific type of linear aurora or atmospheric light phenomenon., lightning flashes, etc. Furthermore, moderate air is the intermediate spirit between the fiery element and that of visible water. Thick air is mist, cloud, and rain, and consequently water. However, the Earth is the thickness of water or the "dregs" of water, as can be seen in the thunderstone or lightning stone. From this it happens that earth, through thinning, can become thick air or water; and water, through rarefaction, becomes moderate air; and that air is again sublimated into thin and rare air, or fire, by further attenuation. And this is the circle in nature, which the Word of God, through the mediation of angels, revolves according to the divine will. Therefore you see that all things, as far as their matter is concerned, are made of air through the operation of the Word.

CAP. VI.

How meteors are also generated in the earth and waters, and concerning their nature.

In the preceding sections, we have declared that all things, as far as their substance is concerned, are originally forged from air, and nothing exists without its benevolent breath, since nothing can live without it. For thin air nourishes the spirit of things; in its moderate substance, it feeds the humors; and it daily refreshes thick, solid bodies. By these differences of air, those things remain as they were created. Air therefore abounds, and that most fluently, in every thing: namely in the earth, in the water, in crags, in stones, in man and other animals, and also in every plant. Just as we see that every animal is filled with air and spirit and daily breathes in air for the sustenance of its life, so also the life of the earth, the sea, and the waters consists in air, through which they subsist and are perpetually refreshed. Nor indeed is air present only in the empty places of the earth itself—just as it is in the spaces and hollows of the human body—but it is certain that it penetrates the pores of the earth, stones, and metals everywhere, filling them spiritually. Furthermore, the substances of the waters are also full of air, seeing as they originally proceeded from air, no differently than we have our blood (both arterial and venous) filled everywhere with aerial spirit. Just as we said that in the space between the sphere of the Moon and the earth, the air is uniform in itself but ordered into parts of different quality, so also the air contained in water or earth observes a similar order. Namely, it is thicker and denser near the center of the earth, from which minerals forged from thick and heavy water are generated; but in the heart of the earth, the air is thinned and congeals into stones; a little higher it turns into spring water and is condensed, upon which vegetables chiefly depend; and joining itself at the surface of the earth with the open aerial sea of the world, it is converted into vapor useful for the generation of animals. And the earth claimed this proportion of air for its own existence at the primordial moment of its creation. But truly, this air in the earth and