Indundation of water and three suns and a shower of blood (Croyland Chronicle}

In the year also from the Incarnation of our Lord, 1467, in
the month of January there was so great an inundation of the
waters, by reason of the snows and continued rains, that no
man living in our times could recall to mind the like. Through^
out the whole of this county, and in Hoyland especially, there
was scarcely a house or building, but what the streams of
water made their way and flowed through it. Kor must you
suppose that this happened hurriedly and in a cursory manner
only : but continuously, during a whole month, the waters
either stood there without flowing off, or else, being agitated
by strong gusts of wind, swelled and increased still more and
more day after day. Kor. on this occasion did the embauk-

^ The Te Deum, said to have been composed by Saint Ambrose, on tbe
docasion of the baptism of Saint Augustin. There is, however, little doubl
that it was composed a century later than his lime. .

444 coNmnTATioN of the histoby of CBOTLAKD. a.o. 1467.

ments offer any effectual resistance, but, on the contrary,
though materials had been brought from oUier quarters for the
Jiurpose of strengthening them, they proved of very little
Service for that purpose ; and, however diligently the work
might have been attended to in the day time, as the waters
swelled and rose, the spot under repair was completely laid bare
during the night. Then was there grief and lamentation among
all, and outcries and tumult among the Hoylanders. In the
meantime, prayers were put up to God in behalf of the Church,
and daily processions were formed for the purpose of obtaining
more propitious weather.

In the same year also, there were shown certain wondrous
signs in England ; and in divers places there appeared unto
many persons, terrible prognostics, replete with, no better aus-
pices. For, one day, there were seen in the heavens three suns,
and a shower of blood; as the grass and the linen clothes stamed
therewith, abundantly testified to all beholders. This latter
came down in manner just like a gentle shower. Besides this,
horsemen and men in armour were seen rushing through the
air; so much so, that Saint George himself, conspicuous with
the red cross, his usual ensign, and attended by a vast body of
armed men, appeared visibly to great numbers. To show that we
ought not to refuse our belief to what has been just mentioned,
those persons, to whom revelations of this nature were made,
were subjected to a most strict examination before the venerable
father Thomas, the lord archbishop of Canterbury. A certain
woman too, in the county of Huntingdon, who was with child
and near the time of her delivery, to her extreme horror, felt
the embryo in her womb weeping as it were and uttering a
kind of sobbing noise. The same was also heard by some
other women, who were surprised in no slight degree thereat
This we know to have happened but seldom indeed, although
we read that the most holy forerunner^ of our Lord, through
joy at our approaching salvation, leaped in the womb of his
mother. We may, however, not “vidthout very fair reason,
suppose, that now possibly, under circumstances directly the
reverse, even the children unborn deplored our impending ca-
lamities, upon the approach of the scourge of Divine vengeance,
our sins requiring the same.