St. Didier, Vaucluse, near Avignon, France — 1699
Merging globes in the sky
A priest saw a large light and three globes coming from the sky and merging together: “As I arrived near the oratory I saw the sky open, a great light appeared and soon I observed three globes of fire. The middle one was higher than the other two. I thought, ‘here are the lights I have been told about.’ Immediately I fell to my knees and thanked God for such a great marvel. At the same time, two more lights appeared, but a bit higher than the place where the chapel is located (…) The two globes merged with the middle one and vanished.”
Source: L ‘histoire du diocese d’Avignon by Abbot Granget, cited by Michel Bougard, La chronique des OVNI (1977), 99-100. Epilogue to Part I-D From the scientific observations of several astronomers to the visions of Jane Lead, the 17th century is especially interesting to a researcher of unusual aerial phenomena because it gives us a complete template by which to parse the claims and sightings of today’s witnesses. This section of our Chronology records stories of abductions by little people (interpreted as “fairies” in Celtic countries, but similar in stature and behavior to today’s Aliens) as well as reports of partial paralysis and occasional healing powers among humans exposed to these phenomena. Such enigmas continued to be seen in the light of theology, to the grave detriment of poor witnesses accused of commerce with demons, but a new philosophical movement would soon remove the old religious backdrop in favor of a revolutionary, “experimental” mode of thinking. The observations recorded in Mirabilis Annus, an important document we have quoted on several occasions, provide a good illustration of the context of the prodigies and their interpretation for political or religious purposes. In his thoughtful analysis (An Age of Wonders, Prodigies, Politics and Providence in England 1657-1727, Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2002, 27-30) William E. Burns notes: Mirabilis Annus made clear its political point very early on. Rather than merely adducing specific prodigies to demonstrate divine displeasure, it adopted an apocalyptic tactic of delegitimizing the regime through the sheer quantity of prodigies alleged to have taken place in the preceding ‘Year of Wonders’ Whatever the physical nature of the unexplained objects that triggered the sightings, then interpretation allowed critics of the regime to vent their opposition: The prodigies that Mirabilis Annus actually recounted, which divided into the four categories of prodigies of air, fire, earth and water, and judgments on particular individuals, continued to undermine the regime’s legitimacy by depicting it as sinful and weak. One prominent technique for this was the use of historical parallels. Aerial phenomena were also used as symbols of desired events, historical changes that the compiler of the changes wished to see happen. Again, in the words of Burns: Mirabilis Annus claimed that a Surrey gentleman had a vision of a glorious cathedral in the sky beside a small church with a star inside it. The cathedral vanished, while the small church, whose star suggests the glory of God, was exalted. This symbolically represented the hope of dissenters that the Church of England would be overthrown and that the small gathered churches of the dissenters would triumph over it. Even less subtle was the appearance of a black cloud dropping fire over Westminster Palace and the Parliament House. We are left with the fact that the interpretation of the reported events is generally biased by the writer who recounts the cases, but that may be the price we have to pay for obtaining any knowledge of the underlying phenomena in the first place. As to the actual explanation for the sightings, it is left for us to discover. Early in the 17 century Descartes and Pascal in France, and Francis Bacon in England, had already introduced new methods of inquiry into the order of nature. By the end of the period people were beginning to think in new ways, inspired by the progress of science based on observation. The Age of Reason was imminent: in 1703 Isaac Newton would be elected President of the Royal Society; in 1705 Edmund Halley would predict that the comet last seen in 1682 would return in 1758 (it did) and in 1707 French inventor Denis Papin would invent the high-pressure boiler that would lead to the first steam-powered ship and would pave the way to James Watt’s steam engine and the industrial revolution. The new impetus in science in the closing years of the seventeenth century parallels a worldwide evolution in classical literature, in education and in the arts. When the year 1700 comes around, there are literate people everywhere who are eager to read intelligent reports of new ideas and discoveries. Magazines circulate throughout Europe and America; new journals are born. Naturally, reports of unusual aerial phenomena continue to thrive in this new enlightened culture. They are now reported in the pages of wellth edited periodicals like the Gentleman’s Magazine, the Annual Register or the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal society of London, “giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours of the ingenious in many considerable parts of the world. ” As we shall see, these “undertakings and labours” often had to do with an attempt by “the ingenious” to understand phenomena that were beyond the physics of the time - and still present us with a most interesting challenge today. PART I-E Eighteenth-Century Chronology Often called “The Century of Enlightenment,” the eighteenth century is characterized by intense interest for the rational study of nature, systematic investigation of “meteors,” the rise of an international community of scientists and “natural philosophers,” experiments with electricity, Benjamin Franklin’s demonstrations of the nature of lightning, the wide development of navigation, the worldwide recognition and imitation of the Royal Society, and early attempts to fly culminating in the first manned balloons. The search for new planets gave rise to numerous observations of unknown bodies by competent astronomers, both professionals and amateurs, eagerly reported in considerable detail in the pages of the new scientific journals and publications dedicated to an enlightened elite. The eighteenth century belonged to Newton and Lavoisier, to the triumph of Reason. Unlike modern “rationalists,” however, intellectuals who considered themselves enlightened were dedicated to careful observation of nature and did not recoil before its more mysterious aspects. On the contrary, unusual aerial phenomena were carefully documented, published and commented upon with an openness of mind that is sorely lacking in our “modern” era of institutionalized science. Case: W263