Wonders in the Sky (50 page)

April 1662, Tedworth, Wiltshire, England
The humanoid threat?

Numerous incidents of bedroom visitations, knocks and reports of witness paralysis by lights and humanoid entities.

 

Source: Rev. Joseph Glanvill,
Saducismus Triumphatus
(1681).

276.

11 May 1662, near Salt Ash, Cornwall, England
A great star and a black square object

At St. Stephens near Salt Ash, a “very great star” was reported, with the likeness of two red “legs” and a black square object. The star moved to and fro.

 

Source:
Mirabilis Annus Secundus
(1662).

277.

Late July 1663, Saint Martin, Brittany, France
Flying red cross

In the parish of Saint-Martin, near Quimper, a man named François Carré, from Bodeau, saw a red cross in the sky. It seemed to fly away from Saint Martin church and headed towards the chapel of Saint Michel.

Jérome de Lestour, a priest in Caudan in the diocese of Vannes, reports that “fearing to be the victim of an illusion, Carré called his wife without saying anything else than to look in the same direction. ‘Do you see anything?' he asked. ‘Yes, a red cross heading towards the chapel of Saint-Michel,' she answered.”

 

Source:
The diary of Jesuit Father Julien Maunoir
, written in 1672, kept in the library of the Society of Jesus in Rome. Translation of this passage is by Yannis Deliyannis.

278.

15 August 1663, Roboziero near Bieloziero, Russia
Fiery object with burning beams

Farmer Levko Federov and others saw a fiery object estimated at 40 meters in diameter, with burning beams. It returned one hour later. A formal report from Saint Cyrille monastery reads:

“To His Highness the Archimandrite Nikita, to His Eminence the Starets Paul, to their Highnesses the Starets of St. Cyril Monastery, Most Venerable lords, salutations from your humble servant Ivachko Rievskoi.

“The farmer Lievko Fiedorov, from the village of Mys of Antusheva of your monastery estate Losy, has related to me the following facts: On this Saturday, the 15th day of August of the year 7171 (that is 7171 year of old style or 1663 of modern style), the faithful from the district of Bieloziero, Robozierskaya volost, had assembled in great number in the church of the village of Roboziero, in the present holyday of Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

“While they were inside, a great sound arose in the heavens and numerous people came out of God's house to watch it from the square. There, Lievko Fiedorov, the farmer in question, was among them and witnessed what follows which for him was a sign from God. At noon, a large ball of fire came down over Roboziero, arriving from the clearest part of the cloudless heavens. It came from the direction whence winter comes, and it moved toward midday (south) along the lake passing over water surface. The ball of fire measured some 140 ft. from one edge to the other and over the same distance, ahead of it, two ardent rays extended. The people seeing the terror of God gathered in the church and prayed to God and the Blessed Virgin, with tears and crying, and the big fire and two smaller ones disappeared.

“Less than an hour later, the people again came out to the square and the same fire suddenly reappeared over the same lake, from the same place where it first disappeared. It darted from the south to the west and must have been 1500 ft. away when it disappeared. But it appeared, in a short while, back again, from that another place, moving this time to the west; the third time the same fire ball appeared more terrific in width, and disappeared having moved to the west and it had been remaining over Roboziero, over water, for an hour and a half. And the length of the lake is about 7000 ft., and the width is 3500 ft.

“As the fire ball was coming over water, peasants who were in their boat on the lake, followed it, and the fire burned them by the heat not allowing them to get closer. The waters of the lake were illuminated to their greatest depth of 30ft and the fish swam away to the shore, they all saw that. And where the fire ball came the water seemed to be covered with rust under the reddish light; it was then scattered by the wind and the water became clean again.

“And I, your humble servant, sent a message to the priests in Robozierskya district, exactly for this reason, and they responded to me with a letter confirming that they had such sign in that day. And you, most Venerable lords, would know about this. And this Robozierskaya district is about 6 miles away from Antusheva village of your monastery estate Losa.”

 

Source:
Arkheografischeskaia Kommissiia,
Vol. 4 (covering years 1645-1676) (Saint Petersburg, 1842), 331-332. Courtesy of Thomas Bullard.

279.

February 1665, Vienna, Austria: Flying box-like object

An object resembling a coffin was seen in the air, causing much anxiety.

 

Source: Walter G. Bell,
The Great Plague in London in 1665
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1924).

280.

8 April 1665, Stralsund, Germany: Domed flying saucer

Aerial ships and a saucer-shaped object with dome were reported flying over the church of this town located near the Baltic Sea, and hovered there till evening. Witnesses were left trembling, with pain in their head and limbs. The case is described in researcher Illobrand Von Ludwiger's book
Best UFO Cases – Europe
published by the National Institute for Discovery Science in 1998.

Fig. 23: The Stralsund phenomenon

Several fishermen first reported seeing a big swarm of starling birds flying in the sky about 2 P.M., coming from the north over the sea. They changed to battle ships fighting one another. A lot of smoke developed. New ships kept appearing, small and big ones, and the battle lasted for a few hours. Once the initial vision had vanished, the scenario changed. Writer Erasmus Francisci (whose real name was Erasmus Finx) describes the scene:

“After a while out of the sky came a flat round form, like a plate, looking like a big man's hat…Its color was that of the rising moon, and it hovered right over the church of St. Nicolai. There it remained stationary till evening. The fishermen, worried to death, didn't want to look further at the spectacle and buried their faces in their hands. On the following days they fell sick with trembling all over and pain in head and limbs. Many scholarly people thought a lot about that.”

The Berliner
Ordinari und Postzeitungen
also wrote about the vision: “One of these fishermen had been sick on his feet. All of the citizens who have observed this are reliable. Yesterday, Herr Colonel von der Wegck and Docter Gessman interrogated two of the 6 fishermen. May God change this miracle for the best.”

German researcher Von Ludwiger adds: “What the fishermen saw was a plate with a dome (man's hat) orange in color (like the rising moon) which hovered motionless for a long time and acted on the witnesses as if they became sick from strong radiation. (…) Erasmus Francisci hesitated to believe this account, because he could not find a suitable explanation: ‘I read it at that time in the usual printed newspaper. But, to tell the truth, I didn't believe in that story, and I thought the fishermen had fished it out of the air or from a deceived imagination….'”

Francisci reported this account because between 1665 and 1680 several battles took place between the Swedes and the Prussians, and the spectacle could be given the meaning of a sign for an imminent war. Francisci states (p. 625): “After the sea was colored with so much blood after that time, the affair now seems to me believable. What the disk-like thing means to the good city shouldn't be hard to guess, if one remembers how the tower of St. Nicolai Church was destroyed in 1670 during wartime….'”