 In defending himself, Campanella firmly denied the accusation of rebellion, maintaining that he had not acted out of personal ambition or malevolence toward the king but rather had been following human and divine prophecies. Astrological tables had predicted an unusual succession of eclipses in the first years of the new century. According to a famous prognostication, De eversione Europae, attributed to Antonius Arquatus, that had foretold events such as the coming of Luther and the Sack of Rome, the Turks, after a period of continual ascent, at the time of their fifteenth sultan would be divided between the two sons of their sovereign—just as the moon, their emblem, halfway through its course begins to divide into two horns—one of whom would become an adherent of Christianity, while the other would be defeated by the king of Spain. Recently, the prophecy of Abbot Ubertino of Otranto had been miraculously recovered and predicted great political changes, the coronation of a new king in France and the beginning of the sixth age of the Church. The year 1600, moreover, appeared to be a crucial moment, a “great turning-point” in time, in that it was composed of a hundred times seven and nine, both of which were fatal numbers according to Pythagoras and Plato.