And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour [it] upon the dry [land]: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry [land].
Ver. 9. Shall become blood.] In the year 874, in Brixia in Italy, it rained blood for three days and three nights. In 1505, there appeared in Germany, upon the garments of men and women various prints and tokens of the nails, of the sponge, of the spear, of the Lord's coat, and of bloody crosses. Maximilian, the Emperor, had, and showed the same to Francis Mirandula, who thereupon wrote his "Staurestichon," and therein thus -
“Non ignota cane, Caesar monstravit, et ipsi
Vidimus; innumeros prompsit Germania testes.” a
In the third year of Queen Mary, William Pikes being at liberty after imprisonment, and going into his garden, took with him a Bible: where sitting and reading, there suddenly fell down upon his book four drops of fresh blood, and he knew not from whence it came. Whereat he being sore astonished, and wiping out one of the drops with his finger, called his wife and said, In the virtue of God, wife, what meaneth this? Will the Lord have four sacrifices? I see well enough the Lord will have blood; his will be done, and give me grace to abide the trial, &c.
a Baleus Centur., 8. Func., Chronol. Act. and Mon., fol. 769, 1853.