The story
The bishop-fish, or sea bishop, is a sea creature described in 16th-century books as looking like a bishop in his robes, with a pointed head like a mitre.
In the best-known story, one was caught and taken to the King of Poland, who wanted to keep it. It was shown to a group of bishops, and it gestured to them to let it go. They agreed, and it made the sign of the cross and vanished into the sea. Another was said to have been caught in the sea near Germany in 1531; it refused to eat and died after three days. Conrad Gesner pictured it in his Historiae animalium.
The cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans thought the reports were based on a large, mangled squid. Like the sea monk, it belongs to an age when travellers' tales, drawings and doctored specimens passed from book to book with growing detail.
What was shown or claimed
- A pointed head like a mitre
- Fins draped like a bishop's cloak
- Hand-like gestures
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