iStarShowers 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. Augusti, fuit nox 

 serenissima, aerque purissimus, ita quod Lactea, sicut solet placi- 

 dissima nocte hyemali contingere, manifeste apparebat, Luna ex- 

 istente octava. Et ecce Stellas cadere de ccelo videbantur, velo- 

 citer sese jaculantes hac et iliac. Non tamen, ut de more contin- 

 git, qusedam faculas per modum stellarum subruentes (quod, sicut 

 determinatum est in libro Metheorum Arisfofelis, naturaliter con- 

 tingit,) sicut fulgur ex tonitru : sed in uno instanti, prseter soli- 

 tum, triginta vel quadraginta saltitare vel cadere viderentur, ita 

 scilicet, quod dues vel tres simul uno tramite, volare se mentiren- 

 tur. Unde. si verse stellse fuissent (quod nullius sapientis est sen- 

 tire) nee una in coelo remansisset. Considerent Astrologi, quid 

 hujusmodi portentum significet; sed omnibus intuentibus, vide- 

 batur nimis stupendum et prodigiosum.* — Matt. Paris Mon. 

 Alb. Angli Hist. Major, fol. Lond. 1640, p. 602. 



" 1243. Eodem mense [i. e. Jiilii] discursus Siderum de nocte 

 visus est in Festo Sancti Jacobi [26to.] ita ut unum contra alte- 

 rum quasi hostem insurgerent, et inter se hostiliter dimicarent." 

 — Ric. de St. Germano Chronicon, in Muratori, Rer. It. Scr. 

 t. vii, 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." 



" Eodem anno (i. e. 1366) die sequenti post festum xi millia 

 virginum, ab hora matutina usque ad horam primamf visas sunt 

 quasi stellae de coelo cadere continua [continue ?] et in tanta mul- 

 titudine, quod nemo narrare sufScit." — Chronicon Ecclesice Pra- 



* This quotation was published in my paper of November, 1837, (this Jour. Vol. 

 .33, p. 358.) 



t The hour of matins ranged between midnight and one o'clock in the morn- 

 ing; ihQ -prime began at day break or sometimes at sunrise. There is no reason 

 to suppose that this display was seen in the day time. 



