The Black Dog of Bungay

On Sunday 4 August 1577, during morning service in the parish church of Bungay, a violent storm of rain, lightning and thunder made the church seem to quake, and a black dog, or the devil in its likeness, appeared among the congregation. Abraham Fleming’s pamphlet, reprinted by Hone, says it ran down the body of the church and wrung the necks of two people kneeling at prayer, so that they died where they knelt. Another man it gripped by the back was drawn together and shrunk up like leather scorched in a fire, but lived. The black dog is still Bungay’s emblem.