Great and extraordinary meteors appeared in many places, and were regarded with superstitious horror. A pillar of fire, which on the 20th of December, 1348, remained for an hour at sun rise over the pope’s palace in Avignon;[43] a fireball, which in August of the same year was seen at sunset over Paris, and was distinguished from similar phenomena, by its longer duration,[44] (not to mention other instances mixed up with wonderful prophecies and omens), are recorded in the chronicles of that age. [43] _Villani._ Loc. cit. c. 119. p. 1000. [44] _Guillelm de Nanges_, Cont. alt. Chron. Loc. cit. p. 109. The order of the seasons seemed to be inverted,--rains, floods and failures in crops were so general, that few places were exempt from them; and though an historian of this century assures us, that there was an abundance in the granaries and storehouses,[45] all his contemporaries, with one voice, contradict him. The consequences of failure in the crops were soon felt, especially in Italy and the surrounding countries, where, in this year, a rain which continued for four months, had destroyed the seed. In the larger cities, they were compelled, in the spring of 1347, to have recourse to a distribution of bread among the poor, particularly at Florence, where they erected large bake-houses, from which, in April, ninety-four thousand loaves of bread, each of twelve ounces in weight, were daily dispensed.[46] It is plain, however, that humanity could only partially mitigate the general distress, not altogether obviate it. [45] _Guillelm de Nanges_ Cont. alt. Chron. Loc. cit. p. 110. [46] _Villani._ Loc. cit. c. 72. p. 954. Diseases, the invariable consequence of famine, broke out in the country, as well as in cities; children died of hunger in their mothers’ arms,--want, misery and despair, were general throughout Christendom.[47] [47] Anonym. Istorie Pistolesi, in _Muratori_, T. XI. p. 524. “Ne gli anni di Chr. 1346 et 1347, fu grandissima carestia in tutta la Christianità, in tanto, che molta genie moria di fame, e fu grande mortalità in ogni paese del mondo.”