Quimper-Corentin: Where “Thunder Fell”

    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.

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_