Wonders in the Sky (43 page)

226.

1 February 1620, Quimper-Corentin, France
Green flying creature

Many witnesses: thunder falls on the cathedral. A green “demon” is seen inside the fire.

“On Saturday a great disaster took place in the town of Quimper-Corentin; namely that a beautiful and tall pyramid (note: bell tower) covered with lead, being atop the nave of the great church, and over the cross of that said nave, was burnt by the lightning and fire from the sky, from the top down to the said nave, without any way to remedy it.

“And to know the beginning and the end, it is that about seven and a half to eight in the morning, there was a clap of thunder and terrible lightning, and at that instant was seen a horrible and frightening demon, taking advantage of a great downpour of hail, seizing the said pyramid from the top under the cross, being the said demon of green color, having a long tail of the same color. No fire or smoke appeared on the said pyramid, until about one in the afternoon, when smoke started coming out from the top of it, and lasted a quarter of an hour, and from the same place fire appeared, while it ran higher and lower, so that it became so large and frightening that it was feared the whole church would burn, and not only the church but the whole town.

“All the treasures of the church were taken outside; neighbors (of the church) had their goods transported as far as they could, in fear of the fire. There were more than 400 men to extinguish the fire, and they could not do anything to stop it. Processions went around the church and other churches, all in prayers. Finally, for all resolution, holy relics were placed on the nave of the said church, near and before the fire. Gentlemen of the Chapter (in absence of Monsignor the Bishop) began conjuring this evil demon, which everyone could see clearly in the fire, sometimes green, yellow, and blue. (They) threw
Agnus Dei
into it, and nearly a hundred and fifty barrels of water, forty or fifty carts of manure, yet the fire went on burning.

“For an ultimate resolution a loaf of rye bread worth four
sols
was thrown into it, within which a consecrated host had been placed, then holy water with the milk of a wet nurse of good morals, and all that was thrown into the fire; at once the demon was forced to leave the fire and before getting out it made such trouble that we all seemed to be burned, and he left at six hours and a half on the said day, without doing any damage (thank God) except for the total ruin of the said pyramid, which is of the consequence of twelve thousand
écus
at least.

“This evil being out, the fire was conquered. And shortly afterwards, the loaf of rye bread was found still intact, without any damage, except that the crust was somewhat blackened. And about eight or nine and a half, after the fire was out, the bell rang to assemble the people, to give graces to God. The gentlemen of the Chapter, with the choir and musicians, sang the
Te Deum
and a
Stabat Mater
, in the chapel of the Trinity, at nine in the evening.”

 

Source: Lengley-Dufresnoy Vol. I, Part 2, 109, citing
La Vision Publique d'un Horrible et très Epouvantable Démon, sur l'Eglise Cathédrale de Quimper-Corentin, en Bretagne, le Premier Jour de ce mois de Février 1620. Lequel Démon consuma une pyramide par le feu, et y survint un grand tonnerre et feu du Ciel
(A Paris, chez Abraham Saugrain, en l'Isle du Palais, jouxte la copie imprimée à Rennes par Jean Durand, rue Saint Thomas, près les Carmes, 1620).

227.

9 April 1620, Geneva, Switzerland
Flying hats and men in black

“Two suns were seen, one red and the other one yellow, hitting against each other (…) Shortly afterwards there appeared a longish cloud, the size of an arm, coming from the direction of the sun, which stopped near the sun, and from that cloud came a large number of people dressed in black, armed like men of war. Then arrived other clouds, yellow as saffron, from which emerged some ‘reverberations' (?) resembling tall, wide hats, and the earth was seen all yellow and bloody. The sun became double and it all ended with a rain of blood.”

 

Source:
Effroyable bataille aperçue sur la ville de Genesvre le dimanche des Rameaux dernier
…(brochure published in 1620) cited in
Les Soucoupes chez Heidi
(GREPI, 1977).

228.

13 October 1621, Nîmes, France
Fiery chariots, a great sun

“Over the city of Nîmes, about 9 to 10 P.M., over the amphitheater, was seen something like a great sun, very resplendent, which was surrounded by a number of other luminous torches.

“It seemed to want to move straight towards the Roman Tower, over which appeared something like fiery chariots surrounded by very bright stars.”

 

Source:
Les Signes Effroyables Nouvellement Apparus…
, Cited by Veronica Magazine (Gouiran & Lamblard, 1976). Also see Michel Bougard,
La chronique des OVNI
(Paris: Delarge Ed., 1977), 92-93.

229.

12 May 1624, Anhalt, Germany
Chariots in the sky

From six to eight o'clock in the evening a multitude of men and chariots were observed, emerging from the clouds over Gierstedt (Bierstedt), Anhalt, in Germany.

 

Source: L. Brinckmair,
The Warnings of Germany
(London: John Norton, 1638), 18-19.

230.

1634, Wiltshire, England
Dancing elves, a paralyzed witness

Mr. Hart was paralyzed and assaulted by a group of dancing elves at night. He woke up in a fairy ring.

The curate of a Wiltshire ‘Latin Schoole', Mr. Hart was assaulted by a group of elves one night in 1633 or 1634. Whilst walking over the ‘downes,' he saw “an innumerable quantitie of pigmies or very small people” dancing in a typical fairy ring “and making all maner of small odd noyses.” Mr. Hart, “being very greatly amaz'd, and yet not being able, as he sayes, to run away from them, being, as he supposes, kept there in a kind of enchantment,” fell to the ground in a daze. The “little creatures” surrounded their prey and “pinch'd him all over, and made a sorte of quick humming noyse all the time…” Hart awoke to find himself in the centre of a ring pressed into the grass—a fairy ring. “This relation I had from him myselfe, a few days after he was so tormented,” writes Aubrey.

 

Source: K. Briggs,
A Dictionary of Fairies
(London: Penguin Books, 1976).

231.

Circa 1635, Port-Louis, Brittany, France
A Procession of sky beings

A 60-year old man named Jean Le Guen, who lived in Riantec near Port-Louis, asserted that he had observed a procession of beings he took to be “angels” in the sky. They were going from Port-Louis to Caudan.

 

Source:
The Diary of Jesuit Father Julien Maunoir
, written in 1672, recording a statement about the case by the Lord of Lestour. Published as
Miracles et Sabbats. Journal du Père Maunoir, missions en Bretagne
(1631-1650) presented by Eric Lebec (Paris: Editions de Paris, 1997), 85.

232.