After the sign in the sun that had
been foretold was seen, many portents appeared in the sky as well as on
the earth and excited not a few who were previously indifferent to the
Crusade. We thought that some of these signs could be usefully inserted
here: to give all of them would be very tedious. About the fifth of
October we saw a comet in the south, its tail extending sideways like a
sword. In the third year after these events, on February 24, we saw
another star in the east changing its position by leaps and bounds after a
long interval.
We and many witnesses attest to have seen
blood-red clouds rising from the west as well as the east and rushing
together in the center of the sky, as well as brilliant fires from the
north in the middle of the night, and frequently even sparks flying
through the air.
Not many years before, a priest of
venerable life by the name of Siger one day at about three in the
afternoon saw two knights charging against each other in the sky and
fighting for a long time. The one who was carrying a good-sized cross with
which he struck the other turned out the victor.
At the same time
the priest G. (now a monk with us, paying the humble service of a proud
man to Christ for the sins of our first parents) was walking in the woods
with two companions about noon. He saw a sword of marvelous length,
arising from an unknown source, borne off into the heavens in a whirlwind.
Until the distance hid it, he heard its din and saw its steel. Others who
kept watch feeding horses reported that they saw the likeness of a city in
the air and that they beheld various crowds hurrying to it from different
places both on horseback and on foot.
Some showed the sign of the cross stamped
by divine influence on their foreheads or clothes or on some part of their
body, and by that mark they believed themselves to be ordained for the
army of God. Others who were converted by a sudden change of heart or
instructed by a vision in the night sold their manors and household
possessions and sewed the sign of mortification on their clothes. In the
midst of all of this, more people than can be believed ran to the churches
in crowds, and the priests blessed and handed out swords, clubs, and
pilgrim wallets in a new ritual.
Why should I report that at that
time a woman, pregnant for two years, gave birth to a son already speaking
when her womb finally opened? Why should I speak of the infant
born with two members in all parts, or of another with two heads, or of
the lambs with two heads, or of the foals who at birth put forth the large
teeth which are commonly called "equine," and which nature grants only to
three-year-olds?
Translated from RHC. Hist. occ.
5:18—19.