The Widecombe tract describes the beginning of the event as follows (antiquated spellings maintained): Without a lightning rod to provide a path for the electricity to go to ground, the energy would be released explosively in the church tower and church itself, with often deadly results. In Germany, for example, during one period of just thirty-five years, 386 churches were struck by lightning and more than one hundred bell ringers were killed.Ĭongregating in a church in a thunderstorm was, in the day, essentially making oneself a target. Saint Thomas Aquinas declared “the tones of the consecrated metal repel the demon and avert storm and lightning.” This was surely not effective. When a thunderstorm was approaching, church bells were rung to ward off lightning. In the Middle Ages, desperate and futile measures were taken for protection, as one book notes : The high steeples and towers of churches were prime targets for strikes, being the shortest path for electricity to travel from cloud to ground, or vice-versa. No copy of the original pamphlet survives, so most discussions of the tragedy refer to the “two Widecombe Tracts.”īefore we begin, it is worth noting that the Widecombe tragedy occurred about 100 years before the lightning rod was invented and, indeed, before lightning was truly understood as an electrical phenomenon. A third tract, with some more details, was printed on November 27th. There were evidently three of these the first, printed on 17th November, apparently sold out immediately, leading to a reprinting on the 19th of November. We will draw directly from the contemporary accounts of the event, the so-called “Widecombe Tracts” of 1638. It was a stunning, unthinkable tragedy and, thanks to its instant notoriety, its effects were painstakingly documented. At least four people were killed and around 60 injured when lightning struck the a church during service, and ball lightning burst through the window and fell among the parishioners. The most devastating example of this is the tragedy that struck during the Great Thunderstorm at Widecombe-in-the-Moor on October 21, 1638. Hartwig, “The Aerial World” (London, 1886).
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