Who were these factions?
April 1561: The people of Nuremberg watched fantastic displays in the sky above their town. In case you don’t have a hobby of translating renaissance-era German, I’m providing a translation for myself and the rest of us.
In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes. These all started to fight among themselves, so that the globes, which were first in the sun, flew out to the ones standing on both sides, thereafter, the globes standing outside the sun, in the small and large rods, flew into the sun. Besides the globes flew back and forth among themselves and fought vehemently with each other for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth 'as if they all burned' and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west. Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen.
By Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg. [Translation per Wikipedia]
Thank you, Hanns! Without your witness testimony, people wouldn’t believe you. Oh, wait, they don’t anyway! Believe it or not, this feels like an honest report of something the people just couldn’t comprehend. What would they have seen in the sky that would have given them that idea otherwise? It’s even complete with the usual round of humble Christian fear of the wrath of almighty God - even though they were not directly harmed and had no idea how they had committed any offense.
The good news? Our planet is special. So special that they are fighting over us? I don’t know if that makes you want to swoon, or not. Earth is chock full of resources, but somebody out there is willing to fight for some reason up there.
I’m struck by the fact that there were so many different kinds of shapes represented, that are still reported in modern times - the cigar or pipe shape sometimes dropping balls of light out, balls of light, and these stubby looking equilateral crosses. They even captured the smoking ruins on the landscape.
I’m low grade disturbed by that enormous black spear in the sky, because it kind of creeps me out. The same for those two red crescents. Neither of these ship shapes have been observed in modern times, that I’m aware of, and maybe that’s a good thing? Allegedly, the Nordic White faction won that battle, but nobody knows.
What I’m saying is that I believe something had to have occurred or there’s no reason for the illustration or the text. It’s not asking for money, it’s not about politics, there’s nothing about your car’s extended warranty. Considering the subject matter, the commentary is as dry reading as what journalism used to be.
Crosses? Flying crosses? Oh, snap! Didn’t Constantine see a cross in the sky before the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 CE? According to Eusebius, Constantine and his army saw a cross of light in the sky above the sun, accompanied by the words “In this sign, conquer” (Latin: In hoc signo vinces). The vision changed his life and the tide of his war, or so the story goes.
Funny how these things keep happening. I wonder what it was that Constantine saw? The other story is that it was just a dream that he had, but I don’t think that version of the story sold as many bibles.
