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 my self 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 thou-
sand. 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 aproach.
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 calcu- lations corresponding to the years, months and weeks
of the regions, coun- tries 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 pro- found astronomical calculations and other knowledge
have been able to make out, the adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Church will begin to
multi- ply greatly.
I have calculated and composed all during choice hours of well-dis- posed 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 writ- ten, 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 in- stinct 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 as- tronomical
calculations to the best of my abilty.
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 calcu- lations 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 timeof 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. Byt 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 amphibolog- ical
inserted. Rather they are under a cloudy obscurity, with a natural infusion not unloke 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; second- ly, 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 co-operation and agreement between them that the three and four parts of Europe will
tremble. The youngest of them will sus- tain 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 seperated 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.
And hereupon it is that there is born of a branch long sterila one who will deliver 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 Doham, 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 Hyères. 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
More¤a 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 sepulchre, 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 arount 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 enetered
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 yearss. According ot 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 seperated. 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 throdden 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, César 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
commited 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 splendour, 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.
