I first posted this back in 2012 so many may have missed it. I've added a little more to the piece but I think it important to remember that Dr Vallee brought this account into Ufology whereas it is more properly a folk or faery tale.
Ufology is so full of confusion and will never "solve" the mystery because it is a huge mixing pot of case histories that have nothing to do with UFOs. For example: someone who has had some possible poltergeist activity in their house saw a Light-in-the-sky (LITS) therefore there may possibly be a UFO connection with said activity....even if the LITS might just have been a satellite or meteor.
Anyway.....
This is another case that the learned Dr Vallee has presented as evidence of “otherworldly” visitors. The inference is that some form of craft and an entity were seen (the “demon”) at Quimper-Corentin [1]. It needs to be ascertained just what did happen, if possible.
If the object involved was a fireball during a storm or even a meteorite this must be found out. However, this all hinges on whether or not the object in question did fly off after what must have been several hours if we take into account what is said to have happened.
The account.
In the year 1620, the cathedral at Quimper-Corentin, France, had a lead covered pyramidal object on its roof. Between 19:00-20:00 hours, 1st February, 1620, ”thunder fell” on this structure the pyramid caught fire, exploded and then fell to the ground with a tremendous noise.
From various parts of the town people ran to the site but, according to Vallee, what they saw was no ordinary fire. For in “the midst of the lightning and smoke, a demon, of a green colour, with a long green tail, doing his best to keep the fire going”. According to Lenglet-Dupresney [2], this ‘demon’ was seen by all the observers within the fire, ”sometimes green, sometimes blue and yellow”.
The local authorities gathered and into the “roaring fire” was thrown a quantity of Agnus dei (Agnus dei was the name given to certain discs of wax impressed with the figure of a lamb and blessed at stated seasons by the Pope), nearly 150 buckets of water and 40-50 cartloads of manure –all of which must have taken some considerable time to gather as one would doubt that 40-50 cartloads of manure were luckily just hanging about. When this did not work a consecrated host was placed within a loaf of bread and thrown into the fire –it did not work. Next, blessed water was mixed with milk given by a nurse “of above reproach” and this was spread (thrown) over the ‘demon’ and burning pyramid. The ‘demon’ then whistled in a most “horrible fashion” and flew off [3].
One has to assume that whatever this ‘demon’ was, if this account is correct, there must have been great energy at work to not just strike and explode a structure but to then continue burning for a considerable time thereafter.
We are not told of weather conditions –could this have been a type of fireball? If so, were 150 buckets of water and 40-50 cartloads of manure really unable to dampen the fire?
An important event worth re-examining even if it turned out not to be what Vallee claims. As with the 1790 Liabeuf report of a crashed “UFO”, if this was a true incident then its ramifications could be major –especially if it were ascertained from accounts just what the “demon” looked like.
I forwarded a copy of Vallee’s account along with an enquiry to the French Academy of Sciences Archivist. A brief exchange of e-mails took place. The year of the incident was checked. The documents were checked for the location. Sadly, that was it. Quimper-Corentin references could not be found though it was known that in one year there was a fire in the steeple following a lightning strike.
It appears that, yet again, Dr. Vallee was guilty of quoting some rather suspicious sources.* Still widely quoted on the internet –some quoting the “original source” as though they have just discovered the account.
There was no “craft” hitting the church and neither was any “alien” observed though lightning may have caused a slow fire to start and there is an interesting "green devil" theme in old stories which are mentioned, along with this incident at Strange History: http://www.strangehistory.net/2011/06/19/4395/
There was still no UFO nor alien, though!
Ufology is so full of confusion and will never "solve" the mystery because it is a huge mixing pot of case histories that have nothing to do with UFOs. For example: someone who has had some possible poltergeist activity in their house saw a Light-in-the-sky (LITS) therefore there may possibly be a UFO connection with said activity....even if the LITS might just have been a satellite or meteor.
Anyway.....
___________________________________________________
This is another case that the learned Dr Vallee has presented as evidence of “otherworldly” visitors. The inference is that some form of craft and an entity were seen (the “demon”) at Quimper-Corentin [1]. It needs to be ascertained just what did happen, if possible.
If the object involved was a fireball during a storm or even a meteorite this must be found out. However, this all hinges on whether or not the object in question did fly off after what must have been several hours if we take into account what is said to have happened.
The account.
In the year 1620, the cathedral at Quimper-Corentin, France, had a lead covered pyramidal object on its roof. Between 19:00-20:00 hours, 1st February, 1620, ”thunder fell” on this structure the pyramid caught fire, exploded and then fell to the ground with a tremendous noise.
From various parts of the town people ran to the site but, according to Vallee, what they saw was no ordinary fire. For in “the midst of the lightning and smoke, a demon, of a green colour, with a long green tail, doing his best to keep the fire going”. According to Lenglet-Dupresney [2], this ‘demon’ was seen by all the observers within the fire, ”sometimes green, sometimes blue and yellow”.
The local authorities gathered and into the “roaring fire” was thrown a quantity of Agnus dei (Agnus dei was the name given to certain discs of wax impressed with the figure of a lamb and blessed at stated seasons by the Pope), nearly 150 buckets of water and 40-50 cartloads of manure –all of which must have taken some considerable time to gather as one would doubt that 40-50 cartloads of manure were luckily just hanging about. When this did not work a consecrated host was placed within a loaf of bread and thrown into the fire –it did not work. Next, blessed water was mixed with milk given by a nurse “of above reproach” and this was spread (thrown) over the ‘demon’ and burning pyramid. The ‘demon’ then whistled in a most “horrible fashion” and flew off [3].
This is all Vallee tells us [4].
One has to assume that whatever this ‘demon’ was, if this account is correct, there must have been great energy at work to not just strike and explode a structure but to then continue burning for a considerable time thereafter.
We are not told of weather conditions –could this have been a type of fireball? If so, were 150 buckets of water and 40-50 cartloads of manure really unable to dampen the fire?
An important event worth re-examining even if it turned out not to be what Vallee claims. As with the 1790 Liabeuf report of a crashed “UFO”, if this was a true incident then its ramifications could be major –especially if it were ascertained from accounts just what the “demon” looked like.
I forwarded a copy of Vallee’s account along with an enquiry to the French Academy of Sciences Archivist. A brief exchange of e-mails took place. The year of the incident was checked. The documents were checked for the location. Sadly, that was it. Quimper-Corentin references could not be found though it was known that in one year there was a fire in the steeple following a lightning strike.
It appears that, yet again, Dr. Vallee was guilty of quoting some rather suspicious sources.* Still widely quoted on the internet –some quoting the “original source” as though they have just discovered the account.
There was no “craft” hitting the church and neither was any “alien” observed though lightning may have caused a slow fire to start and there is an interesting "green devil" theme in old stories which are mentioned, along with this incident at Strange History: http://www.strangehistory.net/2011/06/19/4395/
There was still no UFO nor alien, though!
*When I say dubious accounts I am not referring to those written at the time of the fire. Those exist. I think the problem is that Vallee put his own interpretation on the event or, at worst, took someone elses interpretation. But either way, including it in his book meant that every Ufologist that has never done an ounce of serious research work cites it as a CE IIIK or UFO crash because Dr Vallee says so.
References:
[1] La Vision Publique d’un Horrible et
Tres-Epourcentable Demon sur L’Eglise
Cathedrale de Quimper-corentin en Bretagne,Paris,1620
[2] Lenglet-Dupresney, Recueli de Dissertations
sur les Apparitions, Leloup, Paris,
1751:volume 1,parts 2;p.109
[3] Gabriel-Robinet, L.,Le Diable,sa vie sun
oeuvre, Lugdunum,1944
[4] Vallee,Jacques, Passport To
Magonia, Tandem,London,1975:p.63
Taken from Some Things Strange & Sinister by Terry Hooper-Scharf
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/some-things-strange-sinister/14958906?productTrackingContext=author_spotlight_338105_
Taken from Some Things Strange & Sinister by Terry Hooper-Scharf
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/some-things-strange-sinister/14958906?productTrackingContext=author_spotlight_338105_
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