my pen from paper. But, later on, I thought I would enlarge a little,
and declare in dark and abstruse sayings in consideration of [_pour_]
the vulgar advent [vid. Le Pelletier, i. 163] the most urgent of its
future causes, as perceived by me, be the revolutionary changes what
they may, so only as not to scandalize the auricular frigidity (of my
hearers), and write all down under a cloudy figure that shall essentially
and above all things be prophetical. Although “_Abscondidisti hæc a
sapientibus, et prudentibus, id est, potentibus et regibus, et enucleasti
ea exiguis et tenuibus._”[24] By the grace of God and the good angels,
the Prophets have had committed to them the spirit of vaticination, by
which they see things at a distance, and are enabled to forecast future
events. For there is nothing that can be accomplished without Him, whose
power and goodness are so great to all His creatures as long as they put
their trust in Him, much as they may be [exposed] or subject to other
influences, [yet] on account of their likeness to the nature of their
good guardian angel [or genius] that heat and prophetic power draweth
nigh to us, as do the rays of the sun which cast their influence alike
upon bodies that are elementary and non-elementary. As for ourselves
personally who are but human, we can attain to nothing by our own
unaided natural knowledge, nor the bent of our intelligence, in the way
of deciphering the recondite secrets of God the Creator. “_Quia non
est nostrum noscere tempora, nec momenta_,”[25] etc. Although, indeed,
now or hereafter some persons may arrive to whom God Almighty may be
pleased to reveal by imaginative impression some secrets of the future,
as accorded in time past to judicial astrology, when [_que_ for _quand_]
a certain power and volitional faculty came upon them, as a flame of
fire appears.[26] They grew inspired, and were able to judge of all
inspiration, human and divine, alike. For the divine works, which are
absolutely universal, God will complete; those which are contingent, or
medial, the good angels direct; and the third sort come under the evil
angels.[27]
Perhaps, my son, I speak to thee here a little too occultly. But as
to the hidden vaticinations which come to one by the subtle spirit of
fire, or sometimes by the understanding disturbed, [it may even be,
by] contemplating the remotest stars, as being intelligences on the
watch, even to giving utterance to declarations [that] being taken down
in writing declare, without favour, and without any taint of improper
loquacity, that all things whatsoever proceed from the divine power of
the great eternal Deity from whom all goodness emanates. Further, my son,
although I have inserted the name of prophet, I do not desire to assume a
title of so high sublimity at the present moment. For he who “_Propheta
dicitur hodie, olim vocabatur videns_;”[28] for, strictly speaking, my
son, a prophet is one who sees things remote from the knowledge of all
mankind. Or, to put the case; to the prophet, by means of the perfect
light of prophecy, there lie opened up very manifestly divine things
as well as human; which cannot come about, seeing that the effects of
future prediction extend to such remote periods. Now, the secrets of God
are incomprehensible, and their efficient virtue belongs to a sphere
far remote from natural knowledge; for, deriving their immediate origin
from the free will, things set in motion causes that of themselves could
never attract such attention as could make them recognized, either by
human augury, or by any other knowledge of occult power; it is a thing
comprised only within the concavity of heaven itself, from the present
fact of all eternity, which comes in itself to embrace all time.
Still, by the means of some eternal power, by an epileptic Herculean
agitation, the causes by the celestial movement become known. I do
not say, my son, in order that you may fully understand me, that the
knowledge of this matter cannot yet impress itself upon thy feeble brain,
that very remote future causes may not come within the cognizance of a
reasonable being; if they are, notwithstanding, purely the creation of
the intellectual soul of things present, future things are not by any
means too hidden or concealed. But the perfect knowledge of causes cannot
be acquired without divine inspiration; since all prophetic inspiration
derives its first motive principle from God the Creator, next from good
fortune, and then from nature. Wherefore the independent causes being
independently produced, or not produced, the presage partially happens,
where it was predicted. For the human understanding, being intellectually
created, cannot penetrate occult causes, otherwise than by the voice of
a genius by means of the thin flame (vid. page 76) [showing] to what
direction future causes incline to develop themselves. And further, my
son, I implore you never to apply your understanding on such reveries and
vanities as dry up the body and bring perdition to the soul and disturb
all the senses. In like manner, I caution you against the seduction of a
more than execrable magic, that has been denounced already by the sacred
Scriptures, by the divine canons of the Church—although we have to exempt
from this judgment Judicial Astrology. By the aid of this it is, and by
divine revelation and inspiration, united with deep calculations, we
have reduced our prophecies to writing. And, notwithstanding that this
occult philosophy was _not_ reproved by the Church, I have felt no desire
to divulge their unbridled promptings. Although many volumes have come
before me, which had laid hidden for many ages. But dreading what might
happen in the future, after reading them, I presented them to Vulcan,
and as the fire kindled them, the flame, licking the air, shot forth an
unaccustomed brightness, clearer than the light is of natural flame,
resembling more the explosion of powder, casting a subtle illumination
over the house as if the whole were wrapped in sudden conflagration.—So
that at last you might not in the future be abused by searching for the
perfect transformation, lunar or solar, or incorruptible metals hidden
under the earth, or the sea, I reduced them to ashes.—But as to the
judgment which perfects itself by means of the celestial judgment, that
I am desirous to manifest to you: by that method you may have cognizance
of things future, avoiding all fantastic imaginations that may arise,
and limiting the particularity of the topics by divine and supernatural
inspiration; harmonizing with the celestial figures these topics, and
that part of time, which the occult property has relation to, by the
potential virtue and faculty divine, in whose presence the three aspects
of time are clasped in one by eternity—an evolution that connects in
one causes past, present, and future—“_quia omnia sunt nuda et aperta_,
etc.”[29]—
From all which, my son, you can easily comprehend, notwithstanding
your tender brain, the things that are to happen can be foretold by
nocturnal and celestial lights, which are natural, coupled to a spirit of
prophecy,—not that I would assume the name or efficacy of a prophet, but,
by revealed inspiration, as a mortal man the senses place me no farther
from heaven than the feet are from the earth. “_Possum non errare, falli,
decipi_,”[30] (albeit) I am the greatest sinner in this world, and heir
to every human affliction. But being surprised sometimes in the ecstatic
work, amid prolonged calculation, and engaged in nocturnal studies of
sweet odour, I have composed books of prophecies, containing each one
hundred astronomic quatrains of forecasts, which I have tried to polish
through obscurely, and which are perpetual vaticinations, from now to
the year 3797. It is possible that this figure will make some lift up
their forehead, at such a vast extent of time, and variety of things to
take place under the concave journey of the moon; and this universal
treatment of causes, my son, throughout the earth, which, if you reach
the natural age of man, you will see in your climate, under the heaven of
your proper nativity, as things that have been foreseen.
Although the everlasting God alone knows the eternity of the light
proceeding from Himself, I say frankly to all to whom He has decreed
in long and melancholy inspiration to reveal His limitless magnitude,
which is beyond both mensuration and comprehension, that by means of
this occult cause divinely manifested, principally by two chief causes,
comprised in the understanding of the inspired one who prophesies. One is
that which comes by infusion, which clarifies the supernatural light, in
him who predicts by astral process, or forecasts by inspired revelation,
which is practically a participation in the divine eternity, by which
means the prophet comes to judge of that which his share of divine spirit
has given him, by means of communication with God the Creator, and the
natural endowment accorded him. It is to know that what is predicted is
true, and has had a heavenly origin; that such light and the thin flame
is altogether efficacious; that it descends from above, no less than does
natural clearness; and natural light renders philosophers quite sure of
their principles, so that by means of the principles of a first cause
they have penetrated the profoundest abysses and attained the loftiest
doctrines.
But to this end, my son, that I may not wander too profoundly for the
future capacity of thy senses, and also because I find that letters shall
suffer great and incomparable loss, and that I find the world before
the universal conflagration, such deluges and deep submersion, that
there will remain scarcely any land not covered with water, and that
for so long a period, that everything will perish except Ethnographies
and Topographies. Further, after and before these inundations, in many
districts the rains will have been so slight, and there will fall from
heaven such an abundance of fire and incandescent stones, that scarcely
anything will remain unconsumed, and this will occur a short time before
the last conflagration. Further, when the planet Mars completes its
cycle, at the end of his second period, he will recommence his course.
But some will gather in Aquarius through several years, and others in
Cancer, which will be of still longer duration. Now that we are conducted
by the moon, under the direction of the Creator, and before she has
finished her entire circuit the sun will come, and then Saturn. Now,
according to the celestial signs, the reign of Saturn shall come back
again, so that, all calculated, the world is drawing on towards its
anaragonic revolution.
From the time I am writing this, before 177 years 3 months and 11 days,
by pestilence, long famine, and wars, and more still by inundations, the
world between this day and that, before and after, shall be diminished,
and its population so reduced that there will hardly be hands enough to
attend to agriculture, and the lands will be left as long without culture
as they have been under tillage. This, so far as celestial judgment
manifests, that we are now in the seventh millenary, which completes all
and introduces us to the eighth, where is the upper firmament of the
eighth sphere, which, in a latitudinary dimension, is where the Almighty
will come to complete the revolution, where the celestial figures will
return to their courses, and the upper motion which renders the earth
stable for us and fixed, “_non inclinabitur in seculum seculorum_,”[31]
unless His will be accomplished, and no otherwise.
Although by ambiguous opinions exceeding all natural reason by
Mahometical dreams, also sometimes God the Creator by the ministry of
angels of fire, and missive flame, presents to the external senses,
even of our eyes, the causes of future predictions, that indicate the
future event which must manifest itself to him who presages anything.
For the presage which is made by the exterior light comes infallibly to
judge partly with and by means of the exterior flame; although truly the
part which seems to come by the eye of the understanding springs only
from the lesion of the imaginative sense. The reason is too evident,
the whole is predicted by the afflatus of divinity, and by means of the
angelic spirit inspired to the man prophesying, rendering him [as it
were] anointed with vaticinations, visiting him to illuminate him, and,
stirring the forefront of his phantasy by divers nightly apparitions no
less than daily certitude, he prophesies by astronomic administration
conjoined with the holiest future prediction, taking nothing into his
consideration but the hardihood of his free courage.
Come at this hour to understand, my son, that I find by my revelations
[astral], and which are in accordance with revealed inspiration, that
the sword of death is on its way to us now, in the shape of pestilence,
war (more horrible than has been known for three generations of men),
and famine, that shall fall upon the earth, and return upon it at
frequent intervals. For the stars accord with such a revolution, and with
the written word, “_Visitabo in virgâ ferrea iniquitates eorum, et in
verberibus percutiam eos._”[32] For the mercy of God, my son, will not
be spread abroad for a time, till the major part of my prophecies shall
have been accomplished, and have become by accomplishment resolved. Thus
oftentimes in the course of these sinister storms the Lord will say,
“_Conteram ego, et confringam, et non miserebor._”[33] And a thousand
other accidents will come by waters and continual rain, as I have more
fully and at large set forth in my other Prophecies, which are drawn
out at length, _in solutâ oratione_;[34] (in these I) designate the
localities, times, and terms prefixed, that all men who come after
may see, recognizing the circumstances that come about by infallible
indications. As we have marked by the others where we speak more clearly,
for although they are covered with a veil of cloud, they are clear
enough to be comprehended by men of good intelligence: “_Sed quando
submoventa erit ignorantia_,”[35] the total will stand out with greater
clearance still. Making an end here, my son, take now this gift of thy
father, Michael Nostradamus, hoping to expound to thee each several
prophecy of these quatrains here given, beseeching the immortal Father
that He will endue thee with a long life of happy and prospering felicity.
From Salon, this 1st of March, 1555.
EPISTLE TO HENRY II.
To the most invincible, very puissant, and most Christian Henry King of
France the Second: Michael Nostradamus, his most humble, most obedient
servant and subject, wishes victory and happiness.
For that sovereign observation that I had, O most Christian and very
victorious King, since that my face, long obscured with cloud, presented
itself before the deity of your measureless Majesty, since that in that
I have been perpetually dazzled, never failing to honour and worthily
revere that day, when first before it, as before a singularly humane
majesty, I presented myself. I searched for some occasion by which to
manifest good heart and frank courage, by the means of which I might
grow into greater knowledge of your serene Majesty. I soon found in
effect it was impossible for me to declare it, considering the contrast
of the solitariness of my long obnubilation and obscurity, and my being
suddenly thrust into brilliancy, and transported into the presence of the
sovereign eye of the first monarch of the universe. Likewise I have long
hung in doubt as to whom I ought to dedicate these three Centuries to,
the remainder of my Prophecies amounting now to a thousand. I have long
meditated on an act of such audacity. I have at last ventured to address
your Majesty, and was not daunted from it as Plutarch, that grave author,
relates in the life of Lycurgus, that, seeing the gifts and presents that
were made in the way of sacrifice at the temples of the immortal gods in
that age, many were staggered at the expense, and dared not approach the
temple to present anything.
Notwithstanding this, I saw your royal splendour to be accompanied with
an incomparable humanity, and paid my addresses to it, not as to those
Kings of Persia whom it was not permissible to approach. But to a very
prudent and very wise Prince I have dedicated my nocturnal and prophetic
calculations, composed out of a natural instinct, and accompanied by a
poetic fervour, rather than according to the strict rules of poetry. Most
part, indeed, has been composed and adjusted by astronomical calculation
corresponding to the years, months, and weeks, of the regions, countries,
and for the most part towns and cities, throughout Europe, Africa, and
a part of Asia, which nearest approach [or resemble] each other in all
these climates, and this is composed in a natural manner. Possibly some
may answer—who, if so, had better blow his nose [that he may see the
clearer by it]—that the rhythm is as easy to be understood, as the sense
is hard to get at. Therefore, O most gracious King, the bulk of the
prophetic quatrains are so rude, that there is no making way through
them, nor is there any interpreter of them. Nevertheless, being always
anxious to set down the years, towns, and regions cited, where the events
are to occur, even from the year 1585, and the year 1606, dating from
the present time, which is the 14th of March, 1557.
Then passing far beyond to things which shall happen at the commencement
of the seventh millenary, deeply calculated, so far as my astronomic
calculus, and other knowledge, has been able to reach, to the time when
the adversaries of Jesus Christ and of His Church shall begin to multiply
in great force. The whole has been composed and calculated on days and
hours of best election and disposition, and with all the accuracy I could
attain to. At a moment [blessed] “_Minerva libera et non invita_,”[36] my
calculations looking forward to events through a space of time to come
that nearly equals that of the past even up to the present, and by this
they will know in the lapse of time and in all regions what is to happen,
all written down thus particularly, immingled with nothing superfluous.
Notwithstanding that some say, “_Quod de futuris non est determinata
omnino veritas_,”[37] I will confess, Sire, that I believed myself
capable of presage from the natural instinct I inherit of my ancestors,
adjusted and regulated by elaborate calculation, and the endeavour to
free the soul, mind, and heart from all care, solicitude, and anxiety,
by resting and tranquilizing the spirit, which finally has all to be
completed and perfected in one respect _tripode æneo_ [by the brazen
tripod]. With all this there will be many to attribute to me as mine,
things no more mine than nothing. The Almighty alone, who strictly
searches the human heart, pious, just, and pitiful, is the true Judge;
to Him I pray to defend me from the calumny of wicked men. Such persons,
with equal calumny, will bring into question how all your ancient
progenitors the Kings of France have cured the evil; how those of other
nations have cured the bite of serpents; others have had a certain
instinct in the art of divination, and other faculties that would be too
long to recount here. Notwithstanding such as cannot be restrained from
the exercise of the malignancy of the evil spirit, [there is hope that]
by the lapse of time, and after my extinction here on earth, my writings
will be more valued than during my lifetime.
However, if I err in calculation of ages, or find myself unable to please
all the world, may it please your Imperial Majesty to forgive me, for
I protest before God and His saints, that I purpose to insert nothing
whatever in writing this present Epistle that shall militate against the
true Catholic Faith, whilst consulting the astronomical calculations to
the very best of my knowledge. For the stretch of time of our forefathers
[_i.e._ the age of the world] which has gone before is such, submitting
myself to the direction of the soundest chronologists, that the first
man, Adam, was about one thousand two hundred and forty years before
Noah, not computing time by Gentile records, such as Varro has committed
to writing, but taking simply the Sacred Scriptures for the guide in my
astronomic reckonings, to the best of my feeble understanding. After
Noah, from him and the universal deluge, about one thousand and fourscore
years, came Abraham, who was a sovereign astrologer according to some; he
first invented the Chaldæan alphabet. Then came Moses, about five hundred
and fifteen or sixteen years later. Between the time of David and Moses
five hundred and seventy years elapsed. Then after the time of David
and the time of our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, born of a pure
Virgin, there elapsed (according to some chronographers) one thousand
three hundred and fifty years.
Some, indeed, may object to this supputation as not true, because it
varies from that of Eusebius. Since the time of the human redemption to
the hateful apostacy of the Saracens, there have been six hundred and
twenty-one years, or thereabouts. Now, from this it is easy to gather
what time has elapsed if my supputation be not good and available for
all nations, for that all is calculated by the celestial courses,
associated in my case with an emotion that steals over me at certain
subsecival hours from an emotional tendency handed down to me from a
line of ancestors. But the injuriousness of our time, O most serene
Sovereign, requires that such secret events should not transpire, except
in enigmatic sentences, having but one sense and one only meaning, and
quite unmingled with calculation that is of ambiguity or amphibology.
Say, rather, under a veiled obscurity from some natural emotional
effusion, that resembles the sentential delivery of the thousand and two
Prophets, that have been from the Creation of the world, according to
the calculation and Punic Chronicle of Joel: “_Effundum spiritum meum
super omnem carnem, et prophetabunt filii vestri, et filiæ vestræ._”[38]
But this prophecy proceeded from the mouth of the Holy Spirit, which was
the sovereign power eternal, in conjunction with the celestial bodies,
has caused some of the number to predict great and marvellous events.
As to myself in this place, I set up no claim to such a title—never,
please God. I fully confess that all proceeds from God, and for that
I return Him thanks, honour, and immortal praise, and have mingled
nothing with it of the divination which proceeds _à fato_, but _à Deo, à
naturâ_,[39] and for the most part accompanied with the movement of the
celestial courses. Much as, if looking into a burning mirror [we see], as
with darkened vision, the great events, sad or portentous, and calamitous
occurrences that are about to fall upon the principal worshippers. First
upon the temples of God, secondly upon such as have their support from
the earth [_i.e._ by the kings], this decadence draweth nigh, with a
thousand other calamitous incidents that in the course of time will be
known to happen.