CICERO de Divinatione, Lib. 1. "--gentem quidem nullam video, neque
tam humanam atque doctam: neque tam immanem tam; barbaram, quae non
significari futura, & a quibusdam intelligi, praedicique posse censeat".
i. e. I know of no country, either so polished and learned, or so
rude, barbarous and uncivilized, but what always allowed that some
particular persons are gifted with an insight into futurity, and are
endued with a talent of prediction.
To pass by the prophesies of holy writ, the prophesies of Nostradamus
do foretel very strangely; but not easily understood till they are
fulfilled. The book is now common.
Peter Martyr, in his Decades, tells us, that there was a prophet among
the Salvages in America, that did foretel the coming in of strangers
in ships, which they had not known.
The prophesies of St. Malachi, are exceeding strange. He describes the
Popes by their coats of arms, or their names, or manners: if his
prophesies be true, there will be but fifteen Popes more. It is
printed in a book in Octavo, entituled "Bucelini Historiae Nucleus,
1654, in calce Libri" thus, "Prophetia Malachiae Monachi Bangorensis, &
A. Episcopi Ardinensis, Hiberniae Primatis". 1665, in two leaves.
Mr. Lancelot Morehouse, in the time of the civil wars, rescued a sheet
of parchment in quarto, most delicately writ, from a taylor's sheers.
It was a part of a book, and was a prophecy concerning England in
Latin Hexameters; I saw it, 1649. It pointed at our late troubles: he
gave it to Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, and is lost among other
good papers.
In a book* of Mr. William Lilly's, are hieroglyphick prophecies, viz.
of the great plague of London, expressed by graves and dead corpses;
and a scheme with ascending (the sign of London) and no planets in the
twelve houses. Also there is a picture of London all on fire, also
moles creeping, &c. Perhaps Mr. Lilly might be contented to have
people believe that this was from himself. But Mr. Thomas Flatman
(poet) did affirm, that he had seen those hieroglyphicks in an old
parchment manuscript, writ in the time of the monks.
* Monarchy: or, No Monarchy, 4to.
In the nave of the cathedral church at Wells, above the capitals of
two pillars, are the head of the King, and the head of a Bishop: it
was foretold, that when a King should be like that King, and a Bishop
like that Bishop, that Abbots should be put down, and Nuns should
marry: above the arch, is an abbot or monk, with his head hanging
downwards; and a nun with children about her. The inside of the arch
is painted blue, and adorned with stars, to signify the power and
influence of the stars. This prophecy was writ in parchment, and hung
in a table on one of those pillars, before the civil wars. Dr. Duck
(who was chancellor of Wells) said, that he had seen a copy of it
among the records of the tower at London. It was prophesied 300 years
before the reformation. Bishop Knight was Bishop here at the
reformation, and the picture (they say) did resemble him.
In the Spanish history, it is mentioned, that a vault being opened in
Spain, they found there Moors' heads, and some writings that did
express, when people resembling those heads should come into Spain,
they would conquer that country; and it was so. See this story more
at large in James Howell's Letters.
There is a prophecy of William Tyndal, poor vicar of Welling, in the
county of Hertford, made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign.
I have seen it: it is in English verse, two pages and an half in
folio. It foretold our late wars. I know one that read it forty years
since.
A Prophecy.
Sexte verere Deos; vitae tibi terminus instat,
Cum tuus in media ardebit Carbunculus igne.
0 thou sixth King to God due honours pay,
Remember Prince soon after thou'lt expire,
When thou behold'st thy carbuncle display,
Blaze against blaze amidst the red'ning fire.
These verses were made by George Buchanan; but (perhaps) the
prediction was made by some second-sighted person. King James, of
Scotland, the sixth, was taken with an ague, at Trinity-College in
Cambridge; he removed to Theobald's; (where he died)sitting by the
fire, the carbuncle fell out of his ring into the fire, according
to the prediction. This distich is printed in the life of King James.
Before the civil wars, there was much talk of the Lady Anne Davys's
prophesies; for which she was kept prisoner in the tower of London.
She was sister to the Earl of Castle-heaven, and wife to Sir John
Davys, Lord Chief Justice in Ireland; I have heard his kinsman
(Counsellor Davys of Shaftesbury) say, that she being in London,
(I think in the tower) did tell the very time of her husband's death in
Ireland.