Victorious King, since my Face, who had been cloudy a great while, did
present it self before your immeasurable Majesty. I have been ever since
perpetually dazled, continually honouring and worshipping that day, in
which I presented my self before it, as before a singular humane Majesty;
now seeking after some occasion, whereby I might make appear the goodness
and sincerity of my heart, and extend my acquaintance towards your most
Excellent Majesty; and seeing that it was impossible for me to declare it
by effects, as well because of the darkness and obscurity of my mind, as
for the enlightning it did receive from the face of the greatest Monarch
in the World; I was a great while before I could resolve to whom I should
Dedicate these three last Centuries of my Prophecies, which make the
compleat thousand, and after I had a long time considered, I have with
a great temerity made my address to your Majesty, being no ways dainted
by it, as the grave Author _Plutarch_ related in the Life of _Lycurgus_,
that seeing the offerings and gifts that were Sacrificed in the Temples
of their Heathen Gods, durst not come thither no more, least the people
should wonder at the costs and charges. Notwithstanding, seeing your
Royal Splendour joyned with an incomparable Humanity, I have made my
address to it, not as to the Kings of _Persia_, of whom to come near, it
was forbidden, but to a most Prudent and Wise Prince I have Dedicated
my Nocturnal and Prophetical Supputations, written rather by a natural
instinct, and Poetical furour, then by any rules of Poetry; and most
part of it written and agreeing with the Years, Months and Weeks, of the
Regions, Countreys and most part of the Towns and Cities in _Europe_;
touching also some thing of _Africa_, and of a part of _Asia_, by the
change of Regions that come near to those Climats, and compounded of
natural faction. But some body may answer (who hath need to blow his
Nose) the Rime to be as easie to be understood, as the intelligence of
the sence is hard and difficult, and therefore O most humane King, most
of the Prophetical Stanza’s are so difficult, that there is no way to
be found for the Interpretation of them; nevertheless being in hope of
setting down the Towns, Cities, and Regions, wherein most of those shall
happen, especially in the year 1585. and in the year 1606. beginning from
this present time, which is the 14. of _March_ 1557. and going further to
the fulfilling of those things, which shall be in the beginning of the
seventh Millenary, according as my Astronomical Calculation, and other
Learning could reach, at which time the adversaries of Christ and of his
Church shall begin to multiply; all hath been composed and calculated in
days and hours of Election, and well disposed, and all as accurately as
was possible for me to do. And the whole _Minerva libera & non invita_,
Calculating almost as much of the time that is come, as of that which
is past, comprehending it in the present time, and what by the course
of the said time shall be known to happen in all Regions punctually
as it is here written, adding nothing superfluous to it, although it
be said; _Quod de futuris contingentibus, non est determinata omnino
veritas_. It is very true Sir, that by my natural instinct given me by
my Progenitors, I did think I could foretel any thing; but having made
an agreement between this said instinct of mine, and a long Calculation
of Art, and by a great tranquility and repose of mind, emptied my Soul
of all care and carefulness, I have foretold most part of these _ex
tripode æneo_, though there be many who attribute to me some things that
are no more mine, then what is nothing at all. The only Eternal God,
who is the searcher of men’s hearts, being pious, just, and merciful,
is the true Judge of it, whom I beseech to defend me from the calumny
of the wicked men, who would as willing calumniously inquire for what
reason all your ancient Progenitors Kings of _France_ have healed the
disease called the _Kings-evil_, and some other Nations have cured the
biting of venomous Beasts; others have had a certain instinct to foretell
things that are to come, and of several others, too tedious to be here
inserted; notwithstanding those in whom the malignancy of the wicked
spirit shall not be suppressed by length of time; after my decease my
work shall be in more esteem, then when I was alive; nevertheless if I
should fail in the supputation of times, or could not please some, may it
please your most Imperial Majesty to forgive me, protesting before God
and his Saints, that I do not intend to insert any thing by writing in
this present Epistle, that may be contrary to the true Catholick Faith,
in conferring the Astronomical Calculation, according to my learning;
for the space of times of our Fathers that have been before us, are
such, submitting my self to the correction of the most Learned, that
the first man _Adam_ was before _Noah_, about one thousand two hundred
forty two years, not computing the time according to the supputation
of the _Gentiles_, as _Varro_ did, but onely according to the Sacred
Scriptures, and the weakness of my wit in my Astronomical Calculations.
After _Noah_ and the universal Flood about a thousand and fourscore years
came _Abraham_, who was a supreme Astrologer, according to most mens
opinion, and did first invent the _Chaldæan_ Letters; after that came
_Moses_, _viz._ some five hundred and fifteen or sixteen years after, and
between the time of _David_ and _Moses_ have passed about 570. years.
After which between the time of _David_ and that of our Saviour and
Redeemer Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin _Mary_, have passed (according
to some Chronographers) a thousand three hundred and fifty years. Some
body may object, that this supputation is not true; because it differeth
from that of _Eusebius_. And from the time of humane redemption, to that
of the execrable seduction of the _Saracens_, have passed six hundred
and four and twenty years, or thereabouts. From that time hitherto,
it is easie to collect what times are past, if my supputation be not
good among all Nations; because all hath been calculated by the course
of the Cœlestial bodies, joyned with motion, infused in me at certain
loose hours, by the motion of my ancient Progenitors; but the injury
of the time (most excellent King) requireth, that such secret events
should not be manifested, but by an enigmatical Sentence, having the
only sense, and one only intelligence, without having mixed with it
any ambiguous or amphibological calculation, but rather under a Cloudy
obscurity, through a natural infusion, coming near to the Sentence of
one of the Thousand and two Prophets, that have been since the Creation
of the World, according to the supputation and punical Chronick of
_Joel_. _Effundam spiritum meum super omnem, & carnem & prophetabunt
filli vestri & filiæ vestræ_: But such a Prophecy did proceed from the
mouth of the Holy Ghost, who was the Supreme and eternal Power, which
being come with that of the Cœlestial bodies, hath caused some of them to
foretel great and wonderful things; as for my part I challenge no such
thing in this place, God forbid, I confess truly, that all cometh from
God, for which I give him thanks, honour, and praise, without having
mixed any thing of that divination, which proceedeth _a Fato_, but only
of that which proceedeth _a Deo & Natura_, and most of it joyned with
the motion and course of the Cœlestial Bodies; insomuch that seeing
as in a burning Glass, and through a Cloudy Vision, the great and sad
events, the prodigious and calamitous accidents, that shall befall the
Worshippers, first of God, and secondly, those that are Earthly propped
up, with a thousand other calamitous accidents, which shall be known
in course of time; for God will take notice of the long barrenness of
the great Dame, who afterwards shall conceive two principal Children:
But being in danger, she that shall be added to her by the temerity of
age, running a danger in the 18, and not able to go beyond the 36, shall
leave behind her three females, and he shall have two that never had any
of the same father, the differences between the three Brothers shall be
such, and then shall they be united and agreed, insomuch that the three
and four parts of _Europe_ shall quake: by the lesser in years shall
the Christian Monarchy be upheld and augmented, Sects shall rise, and
presently be put down again, the _Arabians_ shall be put back, Kingdoms
shall be united, and new Laws made. Concerning the other Children; the
first shall possess the furious Crowned Lions, holding their Paws upon
the Escutcheons. The second, well attended, will go so deep among the
Lions, that the second way shall be open, all trembling and furious going
down, to get upon the _Pyrenæan_ Mountains. The ancient Monarchy shall
not be transferred, the third innundation of humane blood shall happen,
and for a good while _Mars_ shall not be in Lent. And the Daughter
shall be given for the preservation of the Church, the Dominator of it
falling into the _Pagan_ Forces of the new unbelievers, she shall have
two Children, one from faithfulness, and the other from unfaithfulness,
for the confirmation of the Catholick Church; and the other, who to his
confusion and late repentance, shall go about to ruine her. There shall
be three Regions by the extreme differences of the leagues, _viz._ the
_Roman_, the _German_, and the _Spanish_, who by a Military hand shall
make divers Sects, forsaking the 50 and 52 degrees of altitude, and all
those of remote Regions shall do homage to the Regions of _Europe_, and
of the North of 40 Degrees Altitude, who by a vain fright shall quake,
after that those of the West, South, and East shall quake because of
their power, insomuch that what shall be done, cannot be undone by
Warlike power. They shall be equal in Nature, but much different in
Faith. After this, the barren Dame of a greater power then the second,
shall be admitted by two people, by the first obstinate that had power
over the others; by the second, and by the third, that shall extend his
Circuit of the East of _Europe_, as far as the _Hungarians_, vanquished
and overcome, and by a Maritine Sail, shall make his excursions into
the _Trinarrian_ and _Adriatick_ Sea, by his _Mirmidons_, and _Germany_
shall fall, and the _Barbarian_ Sect shall be wholly driven from among
the Latines. Then the great Empire of Antichrist shall begin in the
_Attila_, and _Xerxes_ to come down with an innumerable multitude of
people, insomuch that the coming of the Holy Ghost, proceeding from
the 48 Degree, shall transmigrate, driving away the abomination of the
Antichrist, who made War against the Royal, who shall be the great Vicar
of _I. C._ and against his Church, and his Kingdom, _per tempus, & in
occasione temporis_, and before this shall precede a Solar Eclipse, the
most dark and obscure that was since the Creation of the World, till the
death and passion of _I. C._ and from him till then, and it shall be in
the Month of _October_, when such a great Translation shall be made, that
every body will think that the weight of the Earth, shall have lost its
natural motion, and be swallowed up in perpetual darkness. In the Spring
before and after this, shall happen extraordinary changes, mutations of
Kingdoms, and great Earth-quakes, with pullulation of the new _Babylons_
miserable daughter, increased by the abomination of the first Holocaust,
and shall last only 73 years and 7 Months, then from that Stock she
that had been long time barren, proceeding from the fifth Degree, who
shall renew all the Christian Church, and then shall be a great Peace,
Union and Concord, between one of the Children of the wandring and
seperated foreheads by divers Kingdoms, and such Peace shall be made,
that the Instigator and Promoter of Military function, by diversity of
Religions, shall be tied to the bottom of the deep, and the Kingdom of
the _Rabious_, who shall counterfeit the wise, shall be united. And the
Countreys, Towns, Cities and Provinces, that had deserted their first
ways to free themselves, captivating themselves more deeply, shall be
secretly angry at their liberty and Religion lost, and shall begin to
strike from the left, to turn to the right, restoring the holiness beaten
down long before with their former writing; so that after the great Dog,
shall come forth the biggest Mastif, who shall destroy all that was done
formerly, then Churches shall be built up again as before, the Clergy
shall be restored to its former state, and shall begin to Whore, and
Luxuriate, and to commit a Thousand Crimes. And being near unto another
desolation, when she shall be in her higher and more sublime dignity,
there shall rise powers and Military hands, who shall take away from
her the two Swords, and leave her only the Ensigns, from which by the
means of the crookedness that draweth them, the people causing it to go
straight, and not willing to submit unto them by the end opposite to
the sharp hand that toucheth the Ground, they shall provoke till that
a branch shall proceed from the barren, which shall deliver the people
of the World from that meek and voluntary slavery, putting themselves
under the protection of _Mars_, depriving _Jupiter_ of all his honours
and dignities, for the free City established and seated in another
little _Mesopotamia_. And the chief Governour shall be thrust out of
the middle, and set in the high place of the Air, being ignorant of the
conspiracy of the Conspirators, with the second _Thrasibulus_, who long
before did manage this thing, then shall the impurities and abominations
be objected with great shame, and made manifest to the darknes of the
darkened light, and shall cease towards the end of the change of his
Kingdom, the chief men of the Church shall be put back from the love of
God, and many of them shall apostatise from the true faith, and from the
true Sects, the middlemost of which by her worshippers, be a little put
into ruine; the first, wholly in all _Europe_, and most part of _Africa_
undone by the third, by the means of the poor in Spirit, who by madness
elevated, shall through libidinous luxury, commit adultery. The people
will rise and maintain it, and shall drive away those that did adhere to
the Legislators, and shall seem by the Kingdoms spoiled by the Eastern
men, that God the Creator hath loosed Satan from his Infernal Prison, to
cause to be born the great _Dog_ and _Doham_, who shall make so great
and abominable a fraction in the Churches, that the Red nor the White,
without Eyes and without Hands, shall not judge of it, and their power
shall be taken away from them. Then shall be a greater persecution
against the Church than ever was, and in the mean time shall be so great
a Plague, that two parts of three in the world shall fail, insomuch that
no body shall be able to know the true owners of fields and houses, and
there shall happen a total desolation unto the Clergy, and the Martial
men shall usurpe what shall come back from the City of the Sun, and
from _Molita_, and the _Stæchades_ Islands, and the great Chain of that
Port shall be open, which taketh its denomination from a Sea Oxe, and a
new incursion shall be made through the Sea Coasts, willing to deliver
the _Castulan_ Leap from the first Mahometan taking, and the assaulting
shall not altogether be in vain, and that place where the habitation of
_Abraham_ was, shall be assaulted by those, who shall have a respect for
the Jovials. And that City of _Achem_, shall be encompassed and assaulted
on all sides, by a great power of Armed men; their Sea Forces shall be
weakened by the Western men, and to that Kingdom shall happen great
desolation, and the great Cities shall be depopulated, and those that
shall come in, shall be comprehended within the vengeance of the wrath of
God, and the Sepulchre held in so great veneration, shall remain a great
while open to the universal Aspect of the Heavens, Sun and Moon, and the
sacred place shall be converted into a Stable for small and great Cattle,
and put to prophane uses. O what a calamitous affliction shall be then
for women with Child, and chiefly by the principal Easterly head, being
for the most part moved by the Northern and Westerly men, vanquished and
put to death, beaten, and all the rest put to flight, and the Children he
had by many women, put in Prison, then shall be fulfilled the Prophecy
of the Kingly Prophet. _Ut audiret gemitus compeditorum, ut solveret
filios interemptorum_, what great oppression shall be made then upon the
Princes and Governours of Kingdoms, and especially of those that shall
live Eastward and near the Sea, and their Languages inter-mixed very
sociably. The Language of the _Arabians_ and Latines by the _African_
communication, and all the Eastern Kings shall be driven away, beaten and
brought to nothing, not altogether by the means of the strength of the
Kings of the North, and by the drawing near of our age, by the means of
three secretly united, seeking for death by ambushes one against another.
And the renewing of the Triumvirate shall last seven years, while the
fame of such a sect shall be spread all the world over, and the Sacrifice
of the Holy and immaculate Host shall be upheld: And then shall the
Lords be two in number victorious in the North against the Eastern ones,
and there shall be such a great noise and Warlike tumult, that all the
East shall quake for fear of those two Brothers, not Northern Brothers.
And because, Sir, by this discourse, I put all things confusedly in
these predictions, as well concerning the event of them, as for the
account of the time which followeth, which is not at all, or very little
conformable to that I have done before, as well by Astronomical way,
as other of the sacred Scriptures which cannot erre, I could have set
down to every quatrain the time in which they shall happen, but it would
not please every body, much less the interpretation of them, till, Sir,
your Majesty hath granted me full power so to do, that my Calumniators
may have nothing to say against me. Nevertheless reckoning the years
since the Creation of the World to the Birth of _Noah_ have passed 1506.
years, and from the Birth of _Noah_ to the perfect building of the Ark
near the universal Flood have passed 600. years, whither solary, or
lunary, or mixed, for my part according to the Scriptures, I hold that
they were solary. And at the end of those 600. years _Noah_ entered into
the Ark, to save himself from the Flood, which Flood was universal upon
the Earth, and lasted a year and two months; and from the end of the
Flood, to the birth of _Abraham_ did pass the number of 295. years; and
from the birth of _Abraham_ to that of _Isaac_ did pass 100. years, and
from _Isaac_ to _Jacob_ 60. years; and from the time that he went into
_Ægypt_ till he came out of it, did pass 130. years; and from the time
that _Jacob_ went into _Ægypt_ till his posterity came out of it did
pass 430. years; and from the coming out of _Ægypt_ to the building of
_Salomon_’s Temple in the fourth year of his Reign did pass 480. years;
and from the building of the Temple till Jesus Christ, according to the
supputation of the Chronographers, did pass 490. years; and so by this
supputation, which I have gathered out of the Holy Scriptures, the whole
cometh to about 4173. years, eight Months more or less. But since the
time of I. C. hitherto, I leave it because of the diversity of Opinions.
And having calculated these present Prophecies according to the order
of the Chain, which containeth the revolution, and all by Astronomical
Doctrine, and according to my natural instinct, and after some time, and
in it comprehending since the time that _Saturn_ shall turn to come in on
the 7 of the Month of _April_, till the 25 of _August_; _Jupiter_ from
the 14 of _June_ to the 7 of _October_; _Mars_ from the 27 of _April_
till 22 of _June_; _Venus_ from the 9 of _April_ to the 22 of _May_;
_Mercury_ from the 3 of _February_ till the 24 of the same; afterwards
from the 1 of _June_ till the 24 of the same; and from the 25 of
_September_ till the 16 of _October_, _Saturn_ in _Capricorn_, _Jupiter_
in _Aquarius_, _Mars_ in _Scorpio_, _Venus_ in _Pisces_, _Mercury_ within
a Month in _Capricorn_, _Aquarius_ in _Pisces_, _Luna_ in _Aquarius_, the
_Dragons head_ in _Libra_, the Tail opposite to her sign according to a
Conjunction of _Jupiter_ and _Mercury_, with a quadrin Aspect of _Mars_
to _Mercury_, and the head of the _Dragon_ shall be with a Conjunction
of _Sol_ and _Jupiter_: the year shall be peacefull without Eclipse, and
in the beginning of that year shall be a greater persecution against the
Christian Church than ever was in _Affrica_, and it shall last till the
year 1792. at which time every body will think it a renovation of Age.
After that the _Roman_ people shall begin to stand upright again, and to
put away some obscure darknesses, receiving some of its former light,
but not without great divisions, and continual changes. _Venice_ after
that with great strength and power shall lift up her Wings so high, that
she will not be much inferiour to the strength of the old _Rome_, and
in that time great _Bizantine_ Sails, joyned with the _Ligustiques_, by
the Northern help and power shall give some hinderance, whereby those
of _Crete_ shall not keep their faith, the Arches built by the antient
Martial men, will keep company together with _Neptun_’s Waves. In the
_Adriatick_ shall be a great discord, what was united shall be parted
asunder, and what was before, and is a great City, will go near to becom
a house, including the _Pempotan_, and the _Mesopotamia_ of _Europe_ to
45, and others to 41, 42, and 37. And in that time, and Countrey, the
Infernal power shall rise against the Church of I. C. with the power of
the Enemies to his Law, which shall be the second Antechrist, who shall
persecute the said Church and its Vicar by the means of the power of
Temporal Kings, who through their Ignorance shall be seduced by Tongues
more sharp than any Sword in the hands of a mad man. The said Reign
of Antichrist shall not last but till the ending of him, born by Age,
and of the other in the City of _Plancus_, accompanied by the Elect of
_Modone_, _Fulcy_ by _Ferrara_, maintained by _Adriatick_, _Liguriens_,
and the proximity of the great _Trinacria_, and after that shall pass
over the Mount _Jovis_. The _Gallique Ogmyon_ followed with such a
number, that even from afar off the Empire of the great Law, shall be
presented to him, and then, and after shall be profusedly spilled the
blood of the Innocent by the Nocent, raised on high; then by great
Floods the memory of those things contained by such Instruments, shall
receive an innumerable loss, as also shall learning towards the North by
the Divine Will, Satan bound once more, and an universal Peace shall be
among men, and the Church of I. C. shall be free from all tribulation,
although the _Azosrains_ would fain mix among it the Honey of their
pestilent seduction, and this shall happen about the seventh Millinary;
so that the Sanctuary of I. C. shall be no more trodden down by the
unbelievers that shall come from the North, the world being near to
some conflagration, although by my supputations in my Prophecies, the
course of the time goeth much further. In the Epistle that within the
late years I have dedicated to my Son _Cæsar Nostradamus_, I have openly
enough declared some things, without prognosticating. But here (Sir) are
comprehended many great and wonderful events, which those that come after
us shall see. And during the said Astrological supputation, conferred
with the sacred Scripture, the persecution of the Clergy shall have its
beginning from the power of Northern Kings, joyned with the Eastern
ones; that persecution shall last Eleven years and a little less, at
which time the chief Northern King shall fail, which years being ended,
shall come in his united Southern one, who shall yet more violently
persecute the Clergy by the Apostatical seduction of one that shall
have the absolute power over the Militant Church of God: And the Holy
people of God and keeper of his Law, and all order of Religion shall be
grievously persecuted and afflicted, insomuch that the blood of the true
Ecclesiastical men shall float all over, and unto one of those horrid
Kings this praise shall be given by his followers to have spilt more
humane blood of the Innocent Clergymen, than any body can do Wine, and
the said King shall commit incredible crimes against the Church; humane
blood shall run through publick streets and Churches, as water coming
from an impetuous Rain, and the next Rivers shall be red with blood, and
by another Sea fight the Sea shall be red, insomuch that one King shall
say to another, _Bellis rubuit navalibus æquor_. After that in the same
year, & those that follow, shall happen the most horrid Plague, caused
by the precedent famine, and so great tribulations as ever did happen
since the first foundation of the Christian Church through all the Latine
Regions; some marks of it remaining in some Countreys of _Spain_. At
that time the Northern King hearing the complaint of the people of his
principal title, shall raise up so great an Army, and shall go through
the straights of his last Ancestors and Progenitors, that he will set up
all again in their first state, and the great Vicar of the Cope, shall
be restored in his former estate, but desolate and altogether forsaken,
and then shall the _Sancta sanctorum_ be destroyed by Paganism, and
the old and New Testament be thrust out and burnt, after that shall
Antechrist be the infernal Prince, and once more for the last all the
Kingdoms of Christendom and also of the unbelievers shall quake for the