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Archbishop Agobard
Category: Religious
Agobard of Lyon (c. 769–840) was archbishop of Lyon, during the Carolingian Renaissance. A native of Spain, Agobard moved to Lyon in 792. He was ordained as a priest c. 804.
He was well-liked by the archbishop of Lyon, Leidrad (r. 799–816),who ordained him as assistant bishop. In 814, the ageing Leidrad retired into a monastery and appointed Agobard as his successor. Archbishop Leidrad died in 816, leaving Agobard as the new archbishop.
Wonders In The Sky - Unexplained Aerial Objects From Antiquity To Modern Times - and Their Impact on Human Culture, History, and Beliefs - Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck
Agobard was born …. 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 Pericaud, Sr.) entitled De Grandine et Tonitruis or "About Hail and Thunder" notes in his introduction:
"All 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 Tonitnus was 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 believe that there could be ships ("naves") flying through the clouds:
We know from the number of observations on the site that indeed, 'weather control' is a skill of shamans. As such this battle of Archbishop Agobard was a battle of new religion against old. In other words, we have not included Archbishop Agobard for his spiritual experiences, but because he provides us with a record of possible UFO sightings.
Perhaps more fascinating is the detail in the account, which indicates that there was interaction between us humans and ‘the ships that sail through the clouds’. The appearance of these "ships" was linked, in the popular mind, to atmospheric disturbances [thunder and lightning] and to the stealing of fruits, plants and animals by beings from the sky, indicating collusion and co-operation between the old 'sorcerors' and the inhabitants of the UFOs. One destroyed the crops by manipulating the weather, and the other then took the resulting damaged produce.
French physicist Arago states that until the time of Charlemagne it was a common custom to erect long poles in the fields to protect them from ‘the hail and the thunderstorms’. These poles were not lightning rods, as one might suppose, but magical devices intended to keep the ships at bay.
A passage in a book by J. J. Ampere (in Histoire Litteraire de la France ) states: "it was believed that certain men, called Tempestaires,' raised storms in order to sell the fruits hit by hail and the animals who had died as a result of storms and floods, to mysterious buyers who came by way of the air." Charles Fort in his studies of UFOs came to the conclusion we were being farmed too.
Magonia - the mythical land in the sky where these ships were said to come from - is featured in Jacques Vallee's book Passport to Magonia, which explores the link between modern UFO visitations and reports from antiquity of contact with these "space beings" where he quotes Agobard's description
Wonders In The Sky - Unexplained Aerial Objects From Antiquity To Modern Times - and Their Impact on Human Culture, History, and Beliefs - Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck
What distinguishes this episode from many folklore tales of ships sailing in the sky is the availability of a precise reference, the authority of a known and respected historical figure who has written extensively on many other subjects, and the fact that the Archbishop, while he testified to the authenticity of a first-hand report, remained a skeptic about the reality of the objects themselves.
Since we do not have access to the statements made on the other side of the argument, we will never know what the "cloudships" looked like, or why the witnesses thought that the three men and one woman had in fact come from these ships and should be stoned to death. Naturally the mere fact of alighting from a "cloudship" may have been proof of sorcery.
Most importantly, Agobard's book shows that as early as the ninth century there was a belief in a separate region from whence these vessels sailed, and about the possibility for men and women to meet with them. We must be thankful to him for saving the lives of these four poor people, an episode that shows that the skeptics, in this field, can do some good after all.
Observations
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