Star-Showers of Former Times. 361 
darting on all sides. * * * Most remarkably, thirty or forty were 
seen to shoot or fall at the same instant, so that two or three 
would fly together in the same track. Of course, if these had 
been real stars, (which no man of sense supposes, ) not one would 
have been left in the sky. It belongs to the astrologers to inter- 
pret this portentous appearance ; but to all the beholders it was a 
most stupendous and wonderful spectacle.” 
“Et eodem anno, videlicet septimo Calend. Angusti, fuit nox 
serenissima, aérque purissimus, ita quod Lactea, sicut solet placi- 
dissima nocte hyemali contingere, manifesté apparebat, Luna ex- 
istente octava. Et ecce stelle cadere de celo videbantur, velo- 
citer sese jaculantes hac et illac. Non tamen, ut de more contin- 
git, quedam facule per modum stellarum subruentes (quod, sicut 
determinatum est in libro Metheorum Aristotelis, naturaliter con- 
tingit,) sicut fulgur ex tonitru: sed in uno instanti, preter soli- 
tum, triginta vel quadraginta saltitare vel cadere viderentur, ita 
wilicet, quod duz vel tres simul uno tramite, volare se mentiren- 
tur. Unde, si vere stella: fuissent (quod nullius sapientis est sen- 
tite) nee una in coelo remansisset. Considerent Astrologi, quid 
hujusmodi portentum significet ; sed omnibus intuentibus, vide- 
batur nimis stupendum et prodigiosum.*—Matt. Paris ase 
Alb. Angli Hist. Major. fol. Lond. 1640, p. 602. 
“1243. Eodem mense [i.e. Julii] discursus Siderum de nocte 
Visus est in Festo Sancti Jacobi [26to.] ita ut unum contra alte- 
Tum quasi hostem insurgerent, et inter se hostiliter dimicarent.” 
—Ric. de St. Germano _atespsasnang in Muratori, Rer. Ji. Ser. 
Uvii, p. 1052. 
(31 ) A. D. 1366, Oct. 22. “In the year 1366, on the day 
after the festival of the eleven thousand virgins, [Oct. 22,] from 
midnight until daylight, stars were seen falling in streams from 
heaven, and in such multitudes that no man could count them.” 
‘Bodem anno (i. e. 1366) die sequenti post festum x1 millia 
virginum, ab hora matutina usque ad horam primam} vise sunt 
quasi stelle de ecelo cadere continua [continue ?] et in tanta mul+ 
Peeks quod nemo narrare sufficit.”——Chronicon E'cclesie Pra- 
33, p. 35 
t The hour of matins ranged aaa midnight and one o’clock in the morn- 
ing; the © prime began at day break or sometimes at sunrise. There is no reason 
to suppose that. this display was seen in the day tim ; 
* This = ueeation was published in my paper of November, 1837, (this Jour. Vol. 
8.) 
