Free Wonders in the Sky by Jacques Vallee Page B

The Life of Charlemagne, trans. Samuel Epes Turner (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1880).
    56.
    813, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Mysterious star
    One night, a hermit named Pelayo heard music in a wood and saw a peculiar shining star above Mount Libredon, a former Celtic sacred site. Because of this sighting the place was called, in Latin, “Campus Stellae,” field of the star , a name that was later turned into Compostela .
    A modern brochure adds: “Bishop Teodomiro , who received notice of that event, instituted an investigation, and so the tomb of the Apostle was discovered. King Alphonse II declared Saint James the patron of his empire and had built a chapel at that place (…) More and more pilgrims followed the way of Santiago, the ‘Path of Saint James,’ and the original chapel soon became the cathedral of the new settlement, Santiago de Compostela.”
    Â 
    Source: Santiago, History and Legends
    (http://www.red2000.com/spain/santiago/history.html).
    To the best of our knowledge, the story first appeared in the Concordia de Antealtares , a text dated from 1077.
    57.
    814, China, exact location unknown
Stars emerge from an object
    A luminous object rises, lights up the ground. Many small “stars” emerge from it.
    Â 
    Source: Biot, Catalogue des étoiles filantes en Chine (1846), op. cit.
    58.
    Circa 815, Lyons, France
Saint Agobard and the abductees from Magonia
    Saint Agobard was born about 769 in Languedoc, came to Lyons at age 20, was ordained in 804 and succeeded Archbishop Leidrade when the latter retired in 814.
    Archbishop Agobard was an enlightened, intelligent man who took an active role in the political debates of his time: he became involved on Lothaire’s side in his fight against his father and even wrote a book supporting him. This cost him his position when Louis the Pious came to power, but he was reinstated two years later, in 837. He died in 840.
    A serious philosopher and early-day “rationalist,” Agobard left no less than 22 books, including several treatises against superstitions and heretical beliefs, along with political pamphlets and volumes of poetry. The anonymous French translator of his work (actually Antoine Péricaud, Sr.) entitled De Grandine et Tonitruis or “About Hail and Thunder” notes in his introduction:
    â€œAll of his writings, whose style is consistently correct and often elegant, deserve the honor of being translated, for they make known to us the mores and customs of the first half of the ninth century, better than those of any other writer of the time. In particular one must acknowledge that he fought the prejudices and superstitions of his time more strongly and with a higher sense of reason than anyone else. It is against one of these prejudices that he compiled “About Hail and Thunder”.
    The book was first partially translated from the Latin as a piece published in L’Annuaire de Lyon for 1837. The translation was then revised and reprinted as an essay, with very limited distribution, in 1841 (Lyon: Imprimerie de Dumoulin, Ronet et Sibuet, Quai St. Antoine). It is this volume we have studied in the Lyons municipal library.
    The main purpose of De Grandine et Tonitruis is to debunk popular misconceptions about the weather. In particular, the Archbishop of Lyons fought against the idea that winds and storms were due to the influence of sorcerers (appropriately named “tempestari” by the vulgar people): his main argument is that “Whoever takes away from God His admirable and terrible works, and attributes them to Man, is a false witness against God Himself.” It is in this context that he raises his voice against those who are insane enough to believe that there could be ships (“naves”) flying through the clouds: “ Plerosque autem vidimus et audivimus tanta dementia obrutos, tanta stultitia alienates, ut credant et dicant: quandam esse regionem, quae dicatur MAGONIA,