NostradamusFor four centuries Nostradamus’s prophecies have inspired fear andcontroversy.
His followers say he predicted the French Revolution, thebirth and rise of Hitler, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Did he,as his believers claim, predict some of history’s most monumental events -from the Great Fire of London to the launch disaster of the space shuttleChallenger? Nostradamus was typical of the Renaissance time period. He mademany prophecies and was a major contributor to not only the Renaissance butthe ‘Spirit of the Renaissance’. Michel de Nostrodame (or his more used Latin name of Nostradamus) was borna Jew in the small town of St. Remy de Province in southern France on the14th of December 1503.
Little is known about Nostradamus’s family apartfrom Jean his youngest brother became Procurer of the Parliament ofProvince. As a small boy Nostradamus underwent significant changes in his life. WhileNostradamus was a child his family was forced to convert to RomanCatholicism. Around this time he was sent to live with his grandfather whotaught him the basics of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Mathematics and Astrology.
A few years later Nostradamus’s grandfather died and he went to Avignon tofinish his schooling. Whilst at Avignon he also believed as did Galileothat the Earth was round and circled the sun. Nostradamus used his ability to help people through harsh times and did noteven fear for his own life. In 1525 he received his Bachelor’s degree forMedicine and went to help the fight against the ‘Black Death’ that wasfeared throughout the Renaissance period. After traveling for almost four years helping the sufferers of the Plague,he returned to Avignon and won fame for his eagerness for learning whichties in with the spirit of the Renaissance.
In 1532 he earned his Doctorate and became a Professor at the MontipellierUniversity but resigned within the same year. He then moved to Agen,married and had a son and daughter. His life now seemed complete until anoutbreak of the Plague in Agen that killed his wife and children. In 1538, he was accused of heresy because of a remark about a statue of theVirgin Mary being like a devil that he had made years before.
TheInquisitors sent him to Toulouse to stand trial. Leoni, Edgar stated that in 1554 Nostradamus settled in Marseilles afterwandering for six years keeping well clear of the church authorities. During these time legends started to appear about his foreseeing powers. Itwas not until later however that he received his fame with his propheticvisions of the future – 942 cryptic poems called The Centuries – that havepreoccupied generation after generation of readers. The Centauries (ten in total) were written in poem like form and containedhard-to-break codes that were use to stop attention being drawn to him selfas the church authorities could not arrest him for writing in gibberish,because in that time prophecies were considered as witch craft or devilwork.
The Centauries were written by night as not to be seen in 1555. He eventually settled down in the town of Salon, France in 1554 where he Married his second wife, Anne Ponsart Gemelle, with whom he rose six Children – three boys and three girls. Do these writings actually predict the death of popes, rise of tyrants, andnatural disasters to come? The code in which the prophecies were writtencould be comprehended to mean many things, but if the people who claim tobe able to crack the code of Nostradamus’ work are right then World WarThree will reach its climax in the year 1999. Bio-warfare will be used -which will virtually wipe out most of humanity with minimal survivors withthe human race living until the year 3797. Nostradamus travelled to Paris and booked in at a hotel on the 15th ofAugust 1556 and the queen at the time sent a message to Nostradamus askinghim to see her.
The queen talked to Nostradamus privately for two hours,nothing is know about what they talked about. Two weeks later Nostradamuswas again summoned to speak with the queen. This time she asked him to givehoroscopes on all her children – all turned out correct except onehoroscope, her youngest child who died before taking the throne. In 1564Nostradamus was appointed Royal Physician to King Charles IX. On the 1st of July 1566 he sent for the local priest to give him thismessage, “I will not be seen alive again”. That night Nostradamus died.
It was rumoured that Nostradamus’ coffin contained the a document thatwould decode his long cryptic writings and give the answers. This proved tobe untrue because in 1700 Nostradamus’ body was moved to a different placein the church, and while it was being moved a priest looked inside thecoffin to reveal an amulet on his skeleton with the year 1700 on it. In1791, during the French Revolution, soldiers broke into the church insearch for money. While in the church the soldiers found food and alcoholthat they ate and drank.
Claims that a soldier drank wine out ofNostradamus’s skull, and the next day the soldier was shot. Now over four hundred years after the death of Nostradamus theinterpretations on his prophecies have continued to come true. Nostradamusmade a total of 942 prophecies in his book The Centauries. A vast majorityof these predictions are in our past but there are some in the near futurethat may let us know that; A} he was not a prophet but just wrote gibberish, orB} his prophecies have not been interpreted correctly.
No matter which of these is the case he helped many people through theirbad times and with the suffers of the plague. He also had a keen eagernessto learn and with the help he gave that has fitted him in with ‘The Spiritof the Renaissance’. Bibliography1. Barlow,Steve. , Skidmore,Steve. (1993).
The Unsolved Mysteries ProjectBook. England: Hodder and Stoughton. 2. Crystal, David (1994).
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Perry, Philippa (1995). Spine-Tingling Tales. London: Two-CanPublishing. 6.
Powell, Jillian (1996). Mysteries of the Supernatural. London: AladdinBooks Ltd. 7. Stone, Reuben (1993). Mysteries of the Unexplained.
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