Index Previous
Next
Epistle to Henry II
EPISTLE TO HENRY II
TO THE MOST INVINCIBLE MOST POWERFUL AND MOST CHRISTIAN HENRY,
KING OF FRANCE THE SECOND: MICHEL NOSTRADAMUS, HIS VERY HUMBLE
AND VERY OBEDIENT SERVANT AND SUBJECT, WISHES VICTORY AND HAPPINESS
Ever since my long-beclouded face first presented itself before
the immeasurable deity of your Majesty, O Most Christian and
Most Victorious King, I have remained perpetually dazzled by
that sovereign sight. I have never ceased to honor and venerate
properly that date when I presented myself before a Majesty so
singular and so humane. I have searched for some occasion on
which to manifest high heart and stout courage, and thereby obtain
even greater recognition of Your Most Serene Majesty. But I saw
how obviously impossible it was for me to declare myself.
While I was seized with this singular desire to be transported
suddenly from my long-beclouded obscurity to the illuminating
presence of the first monarch of the universe, I was also long
in doubt as to whom I would dedicate these last three Centuries
of my prophecies, making up the thousand. After having meditated
for a long time on an act of such rash audacity, I have ventured
to address Your Majesty. I have not been daunted like those mentioned
by that most grave author Plutarch, in his Life of Lycurgus,
who were so astounded at the expense of the offerings and gifts
brought as sacrifices to the temples of the immortal gods of
that age, that they did not dare to present anything at all.
Seeing your royal splendor to be accompanied by such an incomparable
humanity, I have paid my address to it and not as those Kings
of Persia whom one could neither stand before nor approach.
It is to a most prudent and most wise Prince that I have dedicated
my nocturnal and prophetic calculations, which are composed rather
out of a natural instinct, accompanied by a poetic furor, than
according to the strict rules of poetry. Most of them have been
integrated with astronomical calculations corresponding to the
years, months and weeks of the regions, countries and most of
the towns and cities of all Europe, including Africa and part
of Asia, where most of all these coming events are to transpire.
They are composed in a natural manner.
Indeed, someone, who would do well to blow his nose, may reply
that the rhythm is as easy as the sense is difficult. That, O
Most Humane king, is because most of the prophetic quatrains
are so ticklish that there is no making way through them, nor
is there any interpreting of them.
Nevertheless, I wanted to leave a record in writing of the
years, towns, cities and regions in which most of the events
will come to pass, even those of the year 1585 and of the year
1606, reckoning from the present time, which is March 14, 1557,
and going far beyond to the events which will take place at the
beginning of the seventh millenary, when, so far as my profound
astronomical calculations and other knowledge have been able
to make out, the adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Church will
begin to multiply greatly.
I have calculated and composed all during choice hours of
well-disposed days, and as accurately as I could, all when Minerva
was free and not unfavorable. I have made computations for events
over almost as long a period to come as that which has already
passed, and by these they will know in all regions what is to
happen in the course of time, just as it is written, with nothing
superfluous added, although some may say, There can be no truth
entirely determined concerning the future.
It is quite true, Sire, that my natural instinct has been
inherited from my forebears, who did not believe in predicting,
and that this is natural instinct has been adjusted and integrated
with long calculations. At the same time, I freed my soul, mind
and heart of all care, solicitude and vexation. All of these
prerequisites for presaging I achieved in part by means of the
brazen tripod.
There are some who would attribute to me that which is not
mine at all. The eternal God alone, who is the thorough searcher
of humane hearts, pious, just and merciful, is the true judge,
and it is to him I pray to defend me from the calumny of evil
men. These evil ones, in their slanderous way, would likewise
want to inquire how all your most ancient progenitors, the Kings
of France, have cured the scrofula, how those of other nations
have cured the bite of snakes, how those of yet other nations
have had a certain instinct for the art of divination and still
others which would be too long to recite here.
Notwithstanding those who cannot contain the malignity of
the evil spirit, as time elapses after my death, my writings
will have more weight than during my lifetime. Should I, however,
have made any errors in my calculation of dates, or prove unable
to please everybody, I beg that your more than Imperial Majesty
will forgive me. I protest before God and his Saints that I do
not propose to insert any writings in this present Epistle that
will be contrary to the true Catholic faith, whilst consulting
the astronomical calculations to the best of my ability.
Such is the extent of time past, subject to correction by
the most learned judgment, that the first man, Adam, came 1,242
years before Noah (not reckoning by such Gentile calculations
as Varro used, but simply by the Holy Scriptures, as best my
weak understanding and astronomical calculations can interpret
them.) About 1,080 years after Noah and the universal flood came
Abraham, who, according to some, was a first-rate astrologer
and invented the Chaldean alphabet. About 515 or 516 years later
came Moses, and from his time to that of David about 570 years
elapsed. From the time of David to that of out Savior and Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, born of the unique Virgin, 1,350 year elapsed,
according to some chronographs. Some may object that this calculation
cannot be true, because it differs from that of Eusebius. From
the time of the human redemption to the detestable heresy of
the Saracens about 621 years elapsed. From this one can easily
add up the amount of time gone by.
Although my calculations may not hold good for all nations,
they have, however, been determined by the celestial movements,
combined with the emotion, handed down to me by my forebears,
which comes over me at certain hours. But the danger of the times,
O Most Serene King, requires that such secrets should not be
bared except in enigmatic sentences having, however, only one
sense and meaning, and nothing ambiguous or amphibological inserted.
Rather they are under a cloudy obscurity, with a natural infusion
not unlike the creation of the world, according to the calculation
and Punic Chronicle of Joel: I will pour out my spirit upon all
flesh and your sons and daughters will prophesy. But such Prophecy
proceeded from the mouth of the Holy Ghost who was the sovereign
and eternal power, together with the heavens, and caused some
of them to predict great and marvelous events.
As for myself, I would never claim such a title, never, please
God. I readily admit that all proceeds from God and render to
Him thanks, honor and immortal praise. I have mixed therewith
no divination coming from fate. All from God and nature, and
for the most part integrated with celestial movements. It is
much like seeing in a burning mirror, with clouded vision, the
great events, sad, prodigious and calamitous events that in due
time will fall upon the principal worshippers. First, upon the
temples of God; secondly, upon those who, sustained by the earth,
approach such a decadence. Also a thousand other calamitous events
which will be known to happen in due time.
For God will take notice of the long barrenness of the great
dame, who thereupon will conceive two principal children. But
she will be in danger, and the female to whom she will have given
birth will also, because of the temerity of the age, be in danger
of death in her eighteenth year, and will be unable to live beyond
her thirty-sixth year. She will leave three males, and one female,
and of these two will not have had the same father.
There will be great differences between the three brothers,
and then there will be such great cooperation and agreement between
them that the three and four parts of Europe will tremble. The
youngest of them will sustain and augment the Christian monarchy,
and under him sects will be elevated, and suddenly cast down,
Arabs will be driven back, kingdoms united and new laws promulgated.
The oldest one will rule the land whose escutcheon is that
of the furious crowned lions with their paws resting upon intrepid
arms.
The one second in age, accompanied by the Latins, will penetrate
far, until a second furious and trembling path has been beaten
to the Great St. Bernard Pass. From there he will descend to
mount the Pyrenees, which will not, however, be transferred to
the French crown. And this third one will cause a great inundation
of human blood, and for a long time Lent will not include March.
The daughter will be given for the preservation of the Christian
Church. Her lord will fall into the pagan sect of the new infidels.
Of her two children, one will be faithful to the Catholic Church,
the other an infidel.
The unfaithful son, who, to his great confusion and later
repentance, will want to ruin her, will have three widely scattered
regions, namely, the Roman, Germany and Spain, which will set
up diverse sects by armed force. The 50th to the 52th degree
of latitude will be left behind.
And all will render the homage of ancient religions to the
region of Europe north of the 48th parallel. The latter will
have trembled first in vain timidity but afterwards the regions
to its west, south and east will tremble. But the nature of their
power will be such that what has been brought about by concord
and union will prove insuperable by warlike conquests.
In nature they will be equal, but very different in faith.
After this the barren Dame, of greater power than the second,
will be received by two of the nations. First, by them made obstinate
by the onetime masters of the universe. Second, by the latter
themselves.
The third people will extend their forces towards the circuit
of the East of Europe where, in the Pannonias, they will be overwhelmed
and slaughtered. By sea they will extend their Myrmidons and
Germans to Adriatic Sicily. But they will succumb wholly and
the Barbarian sect will be greatly afflicted and driven out by
all the Latins.
Then the great Empire of the Antichrist will begin where once
was Attila's empire and the new Xerxes will descend with great
and countless numbers, so that the coming of the Holy Ghost,
proceeding from the 48th degree, will make a transmigration,
chasing out the abomination of the Christian Church, and whose
reign will be for a time and to the end of time.
This will be preceded by a solar eclipse more dark and gloomy
than any since the creation of the world, except that after the
death and passion of Jesus Christ. And it will be in the month
of October than the great translation will be made and it will
be such that one will think the gravity of the earth has lost
its natural movement and that it is to be plunged into the abyss
of perpetual darkness.
In the spring there will be omens, and thereafter extreme
changes, reversals of realms and mighty earthquakes. These will
be accompanied by the procreation of the new Babylon, miserable
daughter enlarged by the abomination of the first holocaust.
It will last for only seventy-three years and seven months.
Then there will issue from the stock which had remained barren
for so long, proceeding from the 50th degree, one who will renew
the whole Christian Church. A great place will be established,
with union and concord between some of the children of opposite
ideas, who have been separated by diverse realms. And such will
be the peace that the instigator and promoter of military factions,
born of the diversity of religions, will remain chained to the
deepest pit. And the kingdom of the Furious One, who counterfeits
the sage, will be united.
The countries, towns, cities, realms and provinces which will
have abandoned their old customs to gain liberty, but which will
in fact have enthralled themselves even more, will secretly have
wearied of their liberty. Faith lost in their perfect religion,
they will begin to strike to the left, only to return to the
right. Holiness, for a long time overcome, will be replaced in
accordance with the earliest writings.
Thereafter the great dog, the biggest of curs, will go forth
and destroy all, the same old crimes being perpetrated again.
Temples will be set up again as in ancient times, and the priest
will be restored to his original position and he will begin his
whoring and luxury, and will commit a thousand crimes.
At the eve of another desolation, when she is atop her most
high and sublime dignity, some potentates and warlords will confront
her, and take away her two swords, and leave her only the insignia,
whose curvature attracts them. The people will make him go to
the right and will not wish to submit themselves to those of
the opposite extreme with the hand in acute position, who touch
the ground, and want to drive spurs into them.
The people of the world from this benevolent slavery to which
they had voluntary submitted. He will put himself under the protection
of Mars, stripping Jupiter of all his honors and dignities, and
establish himself in the free city in another scant Mesopotamia.
The chief and governor will be cast out from the middle and hung
up, ignorant of the conspiracy of one of the conspirators with
the second Thrasibulus, who for a long time will have directed
all this.
Then the impurities and abominations, with a great shame,
will be brought out and manifested in the shadows of the veiled
light, and will cease towards the end of the change in reign.
The chiefs of the Church will be backward in the love of God,
and several of them will apostatize from the true faith. Of the
three sects, that which is in the middle, because of its own
partisans, will be thrown a bit into decadence. The first one
will be exterminated throughout all Europe and most of Africa
by the third one, making use of the poor in spirit who, led by
madmen to libidinous luxury, will adulterate.
The supporting common people will rise up and chase out the
adherents of the legislators. From the way realms will have been
weakened by the Easterners, it will seem that God the Creator
has loosed Satan from the prisons of hell to give birth to the
great Dog and Dogam, who will make such an abominable breach
in the Churches that neither the reds nor the whites without
eyes or hands will know what to make of it, and their power will
be taken from them.
Then will commence a persecution of the Churches the like
of which was never seen. Meanwhile, such a plague will arise
that more than two thirds of the world will be removed. One will
be unable to ascertain the true owners of fields and houses,
and weeds growing in the streets of cities will rise higher than
the knees. For the clergy there will be but utter desolation.
The warlords will usurp what is returned from the City of the
Sun, from Malta and the Isles of Hyhres. The great chain of the
port which wakes its name from the marine ox will be opened.
And a new incursion will be made by the maritime shores, wishing
to deliver the Sierra Morea from the first Mahometan recapture.
Their assaults will not all be in vain, and the place which was
once the abode of Abraham will be assaulted by persons who hold
the Jovialists in veneration. And this city of "Achem"
will be surrounded and assailed on all sides by a most powerful
force of warriors. Their maritime forces will be weakened by
the Westerners, and great desolation will fall upon this realm.
Its greatest cities will be depopulated and those who enter will
fall under the vengeance of the wrath of God.
The sepulcher, for long an object of such great veneration,
will remain in the open, exposed to the sight of the heavens,
the Sun and the Moon. The holy place will be converted into a
stable for a herd large and small, and used for profane purposes.
Oh, what a calamitous affliction will pregnant women bear at
this time.
For hereupon the principal Eastern chief will be vanquished
by the Northerners and Westerners, and most of his people, stirred
up, will be put to death, overwhelmed or scattered. His children,
offspring of many women, will be imprisoned. Then will be accomplished
the prophecy of the Royal Prophet, Let him hear the groaning
of the captives, that he might deliver the children of those
doomed to die.
What great oppression will then fall upon the Princes and
Governors of Kingdoms, especially those which will be maritime
and Eastern, whose tongues will be intermingled with all others:
the tongue of the Latins, and of the Arabs, via the Phoenicians.
And all these Eastern Kings will be chased, overthrown and exterminated,
but not altogether, by means of the forces of the Kings of the
North, and because of the drawing near of our age through the
three secretly united in the search for death, treacherously
laying traps for one another. This renewed Triumvirate will last
for seven years, and the renown of this sect will extend around
the world. The sacrifice of the hole and immaculate Wafer will
be sustained.
Then the Lords of "Aquilon" [the North], two in
number, will be victorious over the Easterners, and so great
a noise and bellicose tumult will they make amongst them that
all the East will tremble in terror of these brothers, yet not
brothers, of "Aquilon" [the North].
By this discourse, Sire, I present these predictions almost
with confusion, especially as to when they will take place. Furthermore,
the chronology of time which follows conforms very little, if
at all, with that which has already been set forth. Yet it was
determined by astronomy and other sources, including Holy Scriptures,
and thus could not err. If I had wanted to date each quatrain,
I could have done so. But this would not have been agreeable
to all, least of all to those interpreting them, and was not
to be done until Your Majesty granted me full power to do so,
lest calumniators be furnished with an opportunity to injure
me.
Anyhow, I count the years from the creation of the world to
the birth of Noah as 1,506, and from the birth of Noah to the
completion of the Ark, at the time of the universal deluge, as
600 (let the years be solar, or lunar, or a mixture of the ten)
I hold that the Sacred Scriptures use solar years. And at the
end of these 600 years, Noah entered the Ark to be saved from
the deluge. This deluge was universal, and lasted one year and
two months. And 295 years elapsed from the end of the flood to
the birth of Abraham, and 100 from then till the birth of Isaac.
And 60 years later Jacob was born. 130 years elapsed between
the time he entered Egypt and the time he came out. Between the
entry of Jacob into Egypt and the exodus, 430 years passed. From
the exodus to the building of the Temple by Solomon in the fourth
year of his reign, 480 years. According to the calculations of
the Sacred Writings, it was 490 years from the building of the
Temple to the time of Jesus Christ. Thus, this calculation of
mine, collected from the holy writ, comes to about 4,173 years
and 8 months, more or less. Because there is such a diversity
of sects, I will not go beyond Jesus Christ.
I have calculated the present prophecies according to the
order of the chain which contains its revolution, all by astronomical
doctrine modified by my natural instinct. After a while, I found
the time when Saturn turns to enter on April 7 till August 25,
Jupiter on June 14 till October 7, Mars from April 17 to June
22, Venus from April 9 to May 22, Mercury from February 3 to
February 24. After that, from June 1 to June 24, and from September
25 to October 16, Saturn in Capricorn, Jupiter in Aquarius, Mars
in Scorpio, Venus in Pisces, Mercury for a month in Capricorn,
Aquarius and Pisces, the Moon in Aquarius, the Dragon's head
in Libra: its tail in opposition following a conjunction of Jupiter
and Mercury with a quadrature of Mars and Mercury, and the Dragon's
head coinciding with a conjunction of the Sun and Jupiter. And
the year without an eclipse peaceful.
But not everywhere. It will mark the commencement of what
will long endure. For beginning with this year the Christian
Church will be persecuted more fiercely than it ever was in Africa,
and this will last up to the year 1792, which they will believe
to mark a renewal of time.
After this the Roman people will begin to re-establish themselves,
chasing away some obscure shadows and recovering a bit of their
ancient glory. But this will not be without great division and
continual changes. Thereafter Venice will raise its wings very
high in great force and power, not far short of the might of
ancient Rome.
At that time the great sails of Byzantium, allied with the
Ligurians and through the support and power of "Aquilon"
[the Northern Realm], will impede them so greatly that the two
Cretans will be unable to maintain their faith. The arks built
by the Warriors of ancient times will accompany them to the waves
of Neptune. In the Adriatic great discord will arise, and that
which will have been united will be separated. To a house will
be reduced that which was, and is, a great city, including "Pampotamia"
and "Mesopotamia" of Europe at 45, and others of 41,
42 and 37 degrees.
It will be at this time and in these countries that the infernal
power will set the power of its adversaries against the Church
of Jesus Christ. This will constitute of the second Antichrist,
who will persecute that Church and its true Vicar, by means of
the power of three temporal kings who in their ignorance will
be seduced by tongues which, in the hands of the madmen, will
cut more than any sword.
The said reign of the Antichrist will last only to the death
of him who was born at the beginning of the age and of the other
one of Lyon, associated with the elected one of the House of
Modena and of Ferrara, maintained by the Adriatic Ligurians and
the proximity of great Sicily. Then the Great St. Bernard will
be passed.
The Gallic Ogmios will be accompanied by so great a number
that the Empire of his great law will extend very far. For some
time thereafter the blood of the Innocent will be shed profusely
by the recently elevated guilty ones. Then, because of great
floods, the memory of things contained in these instruments will
suffer incalculable loss, even letters. This will happen to the
"Aquiloners" [the Northern People] by the will of God.
Once again Satan will be bound, universal peace will be established
among men, and the Church of Jesus Christ will be delivered from
all tribulations, although the Philistines would like to mix
in the honey of malice and their pestilent seduction. This will
be near the seventh millenary, when the sanctuary of Jesus Christ
will no longer be trodden down by the infidels who come from
"Aquilon" [the North]. The world will be approaching
a great conflagration, although, according to my calculations
in my prophecies, the course of time runs much further.
In the Epistle that some years ago I dedicated to my son,
Cisar Nostradamus, I declared some points openly enough, without
presage. But here, Sire, are included several great and marvelous
events which those to come after will see.
During this astrological supputation, harmonized with the
Holy Scriptures, the persecution of the Ecclesiastical folk will
have its origin in the power of the Kings of "Aquilon"
[the North], united with the Easterners. This persecution will
last for eleven years, or somewhat less, for then the chief King
of "Aquilon" will fall.
Thereupon the same thing will occur in the South, where for
the space of three years the Church people will be persecuted
even more fiercely through the Apostatic seduction of one who
will hold all the absolute power in the Church militant. The
hole people of God, the observer of his law, will be persecuted
fiercely and such will be their affliction that the blood of
the true Ecclesiastics will flow everywhere.
One of the horrible temporal Kings will be told by his adherents,
as the ultimate in praise, that he has shed more of human blood
of Innocent Ecclesiastics than anyone else could have spilled
of wine. This King will commit incredible crimes against the
Church. Human blood will flow in the public streets and temples,
like water after an impetuous rain, coloring the nearby rivers
red with blood. The ocean itself will be reddened by another
naval battle, such that one king will say to another, Naval battles
have caused the sea to blush.
Then, in this same year, and in those following, there will
ensue the most horrible pestilence, made more stupendous by the
famine which will have preceded it. Such great tribulations will
never have occurred since the first foundation of the Christian
Church. It will cover all Latin regions, and will leave traces
in some countries of the Spanish.
Thereupon the third King of "Aquilon" [the North],
hearing the lament of the people of his principal title, will
raise a very mighty army and, defying the tradition of his predecessors,
will put almost everything back in its proper place, and the
great Vicar of the hood will be put back in his former state.
But desolated, and then abandoned by all, he will turn to find
the Holy of Holies destroyed by paganism, and the old and new
Testaments thrown out and burned.
After that Antichrist will be the infernal prince again, for
the last time. All the Kingdoms of Christianity will tremble,
even those of the infidels, for the space of twenty-five years.
Wars and battles will be more grievous and towns, cities, castles
and all other edifices will be burned, desolated and destroyed,
with great effusion of vestal blood, violations of married woman
and widows, and sucking children dashed and broken against the
walls of towns. By means of Satan, Prince Infernal, so may evils
will be committed that nearly all the world will find itself
undone and desolated. Before these events, some rare birds will
cry in the air: Hui, Hui [Today, today] and some time later will
vanish.
After this has endured for a long time, there will be almost
renewed another reign of Saturn, and golden age. Hearing the
affliction of his people, God the Creator will command that Satan
be cast into the depths of the bottomless pit, and bound there.
Then a universal peace will commence between God and man, and
Satan will remain bound for around a thousand years, and then
all unbound.
All these figures represent the just integration of Holy Scriptures
with visible celestial bodies, namely, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars
and others conjoined, as can be seen at more length in some of
the quatrains. I would have calculated more profoundly and integrated
them even further, Most Serene King, but for the fact that some
given to censure would raise difficulties. Therefore I withdraw
my pen and seek nocturnal repose.
Many events, most powerful of all Kings, of the most astounding
sort are to transpire soon, but I neither could nor would fit
them all into this epistle; but in order to comprehend certain
horrible facts, a few must be set forth. So great is your grandeur
and humanity before men, and your piety before the gods, that
you alone seem worthy of the great title of the Most Christian
King, and to whom the highest authority in all religion should
be deferred.
But I shall only beseech you, Most Clement King, by this singular
and prudent humanity of yours, to understand rather the desire
of my heart, and the sovereign wish I have to obey Your Most
Serene Majesty, ever since my eyes approached your solar splendor,
than the grandeur of my labor can attain to or acquire. From
Salon, this 27th of June, 1558.
Done by Michel Nostradamus at Salon-de-Crau in Provence.
Next |