Europe in Poems

Nostradamus’ status

E. Boyer, PH.D., Nicodemus,

If all Nostradamian verses would have no better than a reasonable accuracy of fulfillment, his fame as a prophet would not be great. However, this is not the case. How often a quatrain which has seemed vague or even nonsensical to the early commentators would suddenly become, after the events, a very specific one through some anagram or a tricky expression which was incomprehensible before! Then why did Nostradamus write verses with only a reasonable resemblance with events to come, if he was truly a great prophet or perhaps even a rime traveler from a remote future century? For some of the “reasonably accurate” quatrains a better interpretation may be found in the future; for some quatrains with “miniature events” described, for instance, intrigues and skirmishes in small towns (possibly referring to true but forgotten incidents of the Calvinist- Catholic Civil War in France which took place in the 16th century after Nostradamus’ death), the true interpretation remains unknown because the commentators of Nostradamus simply don’t have the immense knowledge of history which would be required to resolve the secrets of each verse; and other “vague quatrains” may be intended as a “smokescreen” behind which Nostradamus, secretive (and cautious) by nature, “withheld his tongue from the vulgar” (Preface, #5) and hid the magnificence of his most specific prophecies from “the profane and ignorant herd of astrologers, idiots and barbarians” (Vl-lOO).[1]

Nostradamus became very famous in his lifetime, despite the competition he had and the accusations leveled at him. Perhaps a fair number of the quatrains and Presages about the 16th century, which came true in his lifetime, were better understood at that time than in our days. A number of excellent interpretations may have been forgotten. There are very few scholars of history of the 16th century who are interested in Nostradamus, and even those know much less about that period than the contemporary people did, especially as to various colorful little details of events of which Nostradamus was so fond to prognosticate.[2]
 

Hister, Ister, Hitler, Hilter

(b) In a more narrow sense of selection, the prophecy should be about Hitler himself, either identifiable as an anagram (such as Hister) or as a description of some action or event where he was involved, specific enough for such identification. Sometimes such prophecies mention Germans or their “Barbarian sect” (the Nazis), although it should be remembered that not all actions of the Germans (even in the period 1933-45) have something to do with Hitler. From 95 prophecies in Table V, 51 quatrains or. presages appear to contain references to Hitler himself (those with an entry in the second vertical column of Table V marked “Designation of Hitler”). This, then, is a more narrow subset of prophecies.—those about Hitler himself, although some references to Hitler are direct and specific, whereas others are indirect and identified as such through the general content of the prophecy.[3]

Let us see first if we can add any quatrain to the subset (b) by finding another quatrain with Hitler’s anagram Hister. Hister or Ister is the ancient Roman name for-the Danube. Hitler was a “man of the Danube;” he was born near the Danube and spent the formative years of his life in Vienna, on the banks of the Danube. Is there any other good reason to assume that Hister is an anagram for Hitler? Because ir follows from the content of the prophecies. Even before the meaning of the verses was properly understood, several commentators realized that the Danube could not have been intended; “Hister” must stand for a person in almost all verses. Thus, in 11—24, most of the people of a region “will be against Hister;” he, the great one, will order the training (or dragging along, as on rattling tracks) in iron cages (tanks). How could the people oppose the Danube, and how could the Danube order a tank attack or training? In V—29, the Italian commonwealth has to suffer because of Hister. Here again Hister must be a person, since the Danube is not in Italy, and it is difficult to imagine how it could make the Italians suffer. If Hister is Hitler, however, these prophecies have an excellent interpretation, as we saw above. If the Danube is really intended, it is so named by its more recent, actual name, as in VI—49 where it is predicted that the leader of the party of Mammon (godless) will subjugate the countries around the Danube (in the original. “les confins du Danube”). In addition, Hitler (“Hister”) was a “man of Hysteria;” his hysterical fits are described in many books. [4]

In Presages 15 and 31 (see above, Table V) Hitler is identified as “the Barbarian Hister;” since he is also identified as “the Barbarian” in many quatrains, but the Epistle (#22, Table IV) informs us that the Germans will be defeated (in East Europe, Hungary, Sicily, the Adrthtic) and their Barbarian sect will be chased out by the Western nations, the identity of “the Barbarian Hister” is confirmed. [5]

Napoleon the King

Application of historical inference

Nostradamus liked to wrap his best anagrams in a mantle of obscurity, impenetrable for his contemporaries but easily removed after the event. A famous example is VI1I—1 where the seer of France predicted that “PAU, NAY, LORON will be more of fire than of blood, to swim in praise. . .“ The rest of the quatrain predicts that he, the fiery character, “PAU, NAY, LORON”, will hold Pius (the name revealed by another anagram) confined at a confluence of rivers in France. The people of Nostradamus’ time could not decipher the secret, but when Napoleon came along and held the Pope Pius captive in France at a confluence of two rivers, sooner or later somebody realized that “PAU, NAY, LORON” is an excellent anagram for NAPAULON ROY (Napoleon the King). Until the events came to pass, however, it seemed that “PAU, NAY, LORON” were merely three French towns (Pau, Nay, and Oloron), although the content of the prophecy fitted better the actions of a person. There is a strong analogy between hiding the anagram of Napoleon under the names of three French towns and the veiling of Hitler’s name by the ancient Roman name for the Danube. True to Nostradamus’ Delphic style, “Hister” identifies Hitler in three ways: (a) an anagram; (b) the man of the Danube; (c) the HYSTERical “Führer.” Nostradamus wrote as clearly as he could (in his best prophecies) without a serious interference with future history. What would have happened if he should have explicitly stated: “Adolf Hitler, born on April 20, 1889, at Braunau-on-lnn, will become the dictator of Germany and will lose his war with Stalin”? If this knowledge would have been revealed in so explicit terms before Hitler’s birth, someone would have assassinated him before he became the Chancellor, or he would have avoided the war with Stalin, and the predicted events would not have come to pass. The only way to reveal the knowledge without interference with its realization is to use apparently obscure terms, which, however, are fully understood after the events; “for although they (the prophecies) are written under a cloud, the meanings will be understood, when the time comes for the removal of ignorance” (Preface, #33). For the prophecies concerning “Hister”-Hitler, this time of clarification has arrived now. [6]

 

The only other prophecy of Nostradamus where the name of “Hister” has been mentioned (and which is not listed in Table V) is the quatrain IV — 68. Since the meaning of this verse is somewhat obscure, the French text (as in the original) besides the English translation will be given. [7]

V—68

“En lieu bien proche esloigne de Venus,
“Les deux plus grands de l’Asie et d’Aphrique
“Du Rhin et Hister qu’on dire sont venus,
“Cris, pleurs a Make, et coste ligustique.” [8]

IV—68

“In a place quite near to remote Venus,
“The two great ones of Asia and Africa:
“It will be said that they have come from the Rhine and Hister,

“Cries, tears at Malta and the Ligurian coast.” [9]
 

CHAPTER SIX
THE LIFE OF NOSTRADAMUS
AND A SUMMARY OF HIS PROPHECIES

The mystery which shrouds the true meaning of many of Nostradamus’ prophecies and the methods of obtaining them partially envelops the data about his ancestors. About his own life, many facts are known with certainty, although there are periods during Nostradamus’ extensive travels through Europe which are largely blank to us concerning his occupation and places of temporary residence.[10]

Guy Gassonet (? -1503), possibly a Sephardic, grand-father of Nostradamus converted as “Peyrot  Nostredame”[11]

“Michel de Nostredame[‘s] grandfather was Guy Gassonet, a merchant in Avignon town and the son of the cereal's merchant Arnoton De Velorgne. In June 14 of 1463 was declared null the marriage [sic][the marriage was declared unlawful]  between Guy Gassonet and his wife Benastruga, daughter of Ricavus, because she refused to convert to [The] christian [sic] faith. Guy Gassonet converted and took his name from "Nostre-Dame" [from a] parish, (Our Lady [English trans.]). He married a catholic woman, Blanche De Sainte-Marie, that gave [bore] him 5 [five] sons: [One of those son’s names was] Jaume o[r] Jacques (Father of Michel De Nostredame); Marguerite (M.N[‘s]. aunt) that will get marry [sic] in Avignon and hosted [sic] young Nostradamus during the years of his high school.”[12]

In 1481Provence (formerly a territory of the Anjoux Archduke), [sic] was conquered by the French Crown, and soon they [The French administration mirroring the conduct Catholic Monarch’s of Iberia]  began to apply their ancient laws [conversos statutes of 1390? or 1391, result of the 1391 Seville riots & later Inquisition: officially begun 1478]  against Hebrews. That, in the case of a refusal to convert to Christian religion and to pay bleeding taxes, were [sic] sentenced to the seizure of their belongings and to expulsion from the kingdom (1501 Edict by Louis XII).”[13] Programs of ‘suggested’ conversions and subsequent Jewish southwestern European emigration is typically referred too have begun in Seville, a result of anti-Jewish riots that would begin to spread across Spain. Anti-Jewish riots erupted in Toledo and Barcelona in 1391. Many Jews evacuated Barcelona following these massacres, though a large number remained in the city. More than three-hundred Jews had been massacred in Barcelona. Some groups of Jews then settled in Algeria. Although, many Jewish historians accredit this sentiment to beginning of the Latin’s Church’s political programs (which in reality was mainly against Muslim overlord collusion), the native Iberian’s wrote that Jews remained insular, ambivalent, and prefigured ( with Prestige) with their former Muslim leaders’ in the south – in which they had prospered due to their efforts of continuous rigorous self-education – power and access to the Islamic courts corrupted the Jewish leaders, Catholic Iberian’s proclaimed.[14] For France, there were expulsions dating back all the way through time, and some important European dates referred too are of 1306 in France, of 1290 and of 1348-‘50 when some plagues were blamed on the Jews by opportunists whom saw a escape-goat in the making by falsely accusing Hebrews of poisoning the waters, when in fact it was more likely mosquitoes infected that were transferred from trade operations of unknown or speculated far-east and northern Asian sectors on the Silk Road, according the modern investigation. Contemporarily known as the Marrano Diaspora, Sephardic emigrations[15] into France after the 1390s became alternatives to remain settled in mid-southwest of Europe. (By the middle of the thirteenth century, and when the Christians could boast of almost compete military success, the overwhelming majority of Iberian Jews lived within the kingdom of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre (Gampel 390).). Ultimately, anti-Jewish sentiment met with French concerns as the proto-Spanish Empire became strong under the Portuguese progenititation and these houses of the Catholic Monarchs which “would” began to influence European politics after Gassonet’s conversion (appx. 1455). It is understood that Pierre de Nostredame took on a Christian persona and eventually assimilated enough for his grandson to grow up without the knowledge of practicing Jewristic customs. Further, Nosrtadamus’ works do not appear to be influenced by works of Jewish Intellectuals, Moshe Ben Maimon (1135 ―1204), Abraham Ben Meir Ibn Ezra: Toledo, Spain (b. 1092-3―1167). Nostradamus appears to affiliate himself mainly in native French intellectual circles.

“Jacques went to work as a notary in Saint-Rémy, and had to pay the "Tax over [to] the Ancestry", as is clearly registered in a document with date [a date of]  21/12/1512 [ December 21st of 1512, greg.?]. Then he married with a woman from an Hebrew [allegedly] family, Renée de Saint-Remy, (daughter of Reymier de Saint-Rémy and Beatrice Tourriel) and they had 3 sons: Michel, Jean and Bertrand. Jean (1507-1577) became procurator in the parliament of Lion, and wrote: Vies des plus Cèlébres et Anciens Poétes Provencaux , Bertrand became a public notary in Avignon and married Thonine de Roux.”[16]

“Michel was born in [on] Hoche street (now renamed Rue des Barri), in a simple building,[.]” His Christian baptism was registered five days after his birth.[17]  

Michel de Nostredame, better known in various publications by the Latinized name of Michael Nostradamus, was born at noon on December 14, 1503 [December 24, 1503 greg. cal.?], at Saint-Rémy in Provence, the southern part of France. He died in Salon, a town of Provence, early in the morning of July 2, 1566. For those readers who, with Nostradamus, might admit the possible influence of the zodiacal constellations or planetary configurations on human lives, especially at the day of birth as supposedly revealed by a horoscope, it should be mentioned that these dates are given in the Julian calendar which was in force during Nostradamus’ life and a little longer (until 1582 in the Catholic lands of West Europe and until the early 20th century in Russia). Edgar Leoni writes in his book “Nostradamus: Life and Literature” (Exposition Press, N.Y., p. 15,[18]) that Nostradamus’ birthdate would have been December 23 by the Gregorian calendar. However, as it can be found in an encyclopedia (for example, “The Standard International Encyclopedia,” New York, 1956, Vol. 111, p. 778), not nine but ten days were deducted from the year 1582, when the Gregorian calendar was established, by which October 5 of the old calendar became October 15 of the new. Consequently, Nostradamus’ birthdate was December 24 and the date of his death was July 12 by the Gregorian calendar. The difference of the two calendars grew to 13 days at the beginning of the 20th century,’ as it can be seen from numerous Russian books which give the same date by the two calendars, because the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were leap years by the Julian but not by the Gregorian calendar. The difference between the two calendars grew from 9 to 10 days in 1500 (i.e., before the birth of Nostradamus), which was a leap year by the Julian calendar but would not have been such if the more accurate Gregorian calendar had existed at that time. In contrast, 1600 was a leap year according to both julian and Gregorian calendars. Perhaps this is not a very important point; however, it seemed interesting enough for the benefit of fans of astrology to establish that Nostradamus was born at noon on the day which would have been Christmas Eve by the new calendar. As mentioned before, this seems to explain the middle name of the author “Olivarius.” The birth- dates from about November 22 to December 21 are under the zodiacal sign of Sagittarius, but from December 22 to January 19 they are sup-
posedly ruled by the restless and troublesome Capricorn,2 the horny, wild goat of the sky.[19]

“Michael Nostradamus demonstrated the gifts of his excellent mind at an early age. His parents were Christianized Jews of high social standing, descended from the “lost” tribe of Issachar. The men of this tribe, according to Smith and Fuller’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” had “understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do.” According to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, they “knew the things that were to happen.” If there was indeed a prophetic gift characteristic of some men of the tribe of Issachar, Michael Nostradamus must have inherited it.”[20] Nostradamus repeatedly commented he received his prophetic abilities from his mothers’ side of the family. [ ref here]. “Michael’s mother’s father Jean de Saint-Rémy was a jewish [allegedly[21]] doctor and astrologer in the court [ more possibly employed as a local doctor by ordinance ]  of René the Good (1434-1480) who was [then] King of Naples, Duke of Anjou and Lorraine, Count of Provence, and the ruler of several other provinces. This grandfather Jean played an important role in Michael’s early education, with emphasis on mathematics, astrology, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.” [22]

 
Michael Nostradamus was sent by his parents (the prosperous notary Jacques de Nostredame and his wife Renée, Jean’s daughter) to study the liberal arts in Avignon [at the age of sixteen years-old], a celebrated center of Renaissance learning. He excelled in grammar, philosophy and rhetoric, but most of all in astrology, earning the nickname of the “little astrologer” given by his classmates [this is alleged].

“In Avignon in 1520 he got the title of "Maitre des Arts", ([…][ equivalent to today’s high-]school diploma) and this gave him the right to teach letters and philosophy in the schools.”[23] Nostradamus stated “[I]n his Traité des fardemens et confitures that he spent the years from 1521 to 1529 wandering the countryside in search of cures and remedies [apparently for the plague(s)]. There is no record at Montpellier of his presence there during this time - and when he finally turned up in 1529 [ to reenlist to graduate school at the University of Montpellier ] he was promptly booted out again[24] for having, as an apothecary, been rude about doctors! His written enrolment survives, as does the record of his expulsion again...”[25] [26] During the interval, in 1525, we can propose that “Michael Nostradamus established a phenomenal reputation as a fearless and successful physician by fighting the plague (the Black Death) which had again broken out in Southern France.”[27]

“He was never afraid to visit cities where virtually everybody was sick, dying, or dead. He used completely new prescriptions which had a remarkable effect. It remains an open question whether these prescriptions were preserved in his professional works or not; although he published some books about medicine, Nostradamus was secretive by nature, as it is amply shown by the enigmatic nature of his prophecies. Perhaps the successful new prescription had more a psychological effect than the medical effect of modern drugs. Nostradamus himself was never touched by the plague. He traveled from Montpellier to Narbonne and then to Carcassonne. After that, he stayed for a while in Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Avignon; in the former papal residence he probably came upon Marsilio Ficino’s translation of “De mysterus Aegypt orum” which seems to have served as his handbook for obtaining prophetic inspiration. He continued his life of traveling physician to the most virulent nests of the Black Plague until the pestilence had abated in 1529. Then Michael Nostradamus returned to Montpellier kind obtained his doctorate by a thesis and a new series of examinations. Biographers of Nostradamus report that, as his thesis, he successfully defended the merits of his new prescriptions which had won a wide acclaim during the plague and presumably had saved his own life, unless he was naturally immune. Dr. Nostradamus, a rising star in the field of medicine, became a member of the faculty of the celebrated University of Montpellier.”[28]

Understanding How Astrology Became Part of Education

Charles V of France (1338-1380) suggested Melathesia (( begun at Paris University) otherwise known as medical astrology, The Moon's position is the signifier of the diagnosis. Wherever the moon governed on the body that hour the patient's problem lay there, the diagnosis was attended as comparable. No bleeding if the moon was in a water sign. The moon spelt trouble, but this also minimized the days for bleeding which actually didn't do anything positive anyway. But bleeding was a middle age fad (Nostradamus did not promote the use of this method) and people bleed themselves even when they were not sick. They just cut their veins. Signs governed parts of the body. Aries was the top of the head and of course, Pisces was the feet. Universities taught astrology for this purpose - from the thirteenth century until the seventeenth century, when Astrology started to be legislatively restricted.). There is little to no evidence that Nostradamus was concerned with the lunar position when treating these plagued victims – a practice that all physicians and doctors were required to have known upon an analysis of each patient. Unorthodoxly, Nostradamus investigated medicinal applications of herbs and roots. Since pharmacology was particularly unknown as well as frowned upon by the medical establishment; Nostradamus gained no peer-friends in the Medical field, as parlance of his treatment from the University of Montpellier establishment. Nostradamus capitalized on methods which worked, and the healed, or the ones whom were healed paid little to no attention to orthodox medical practices. As result, Nostradamus gained fame, and the other doctors remained bane. This could be explained in that a certain freedom was exhibited in the field during these plague outbreaks, and established medical practices had proved feudal as result. Nostradamus certainly admitted many of his experiments did not work, but he was persistence, brave, and applied practical measures in the field which possible helped abate the spread of the plague. These practical applications such as burring deceased underground and applications of quicklime to restrict infection reduced further spread of potential vireos. “He advised [townspeople] to burn trash (food for rats and their infecting fleas). Also he asked to everybody to have a scrupulous cleaning of hands, to change clean dresses often, filtrating masks, etc [as well as open windows for fresh air]. His potion of garlic and Aloe that he recommended as ointment for massages and also for ingestion got an excellent reputation for defending from plague infection. (Actually, scientist[s] have widely proven the excellent antibacterial action of garlic and the immunostimulator effect of Aloe).”[29] The plague brought local rioting, the professors of the University of Montpellier, the faculty, and the students abandoned school until the plague abated in “1529”[30], in which we know Nostradamus reapplied as a graduate student at the famed medical university. To fight disorder,  Louis XII of Italy brought in troops.[31] In 1528, Nostradamus was fighting the plague in Bordeaux.

Michel de Nostredame was accepted as a student by the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier. On October 23, 1529, professor Antoine Romier registers Nostradamus in the Liber procuratoris studiosorum or Delivers of Procurateur of the students.[32] As worthy, Nostradamus had to prove he came from a legitimate marriage, was a Catholic and never engaged in manual labor. Since Nostradamus contributed to the plague as an apothecary, considered a manual labor enterprise, Nostradamus did not qualify for admittance. As Benazra intends, Nostradamus enquired in each town its apothecaries, in the search for all kinds of medicinal herbs.[33] As result, Nostradamus was forced to leave as is speculated. The proof that he was expelled as a result of unknown circumstances, the results of his practicing fighting the plague(s) remain well documented and celebrated. Chronologically, we have no idea why persons addressed letters to him as Doctor, or he used the title on his publications. We do know he assumed royal patronage with the official title of Physician in Ordinary and, sometimes is referred too as a physician is some correspondence to him, we also have conflicting correspondence addressing Michel as Doctor in these correspondences.

As Nostradamus investigates remedies’ of nature, his cosmetic and jams constitute a diversion into what we can assume as a personal Doctorate of Pharmacology, an unknown professional title at that time. As Boyer intends, the absent of Chronology in Chavigny’s biographical account can be attributed to Nostradamus’ secrecy. Only speculatively we can deduce that Nostradamus either realized his failure at controlling the plague or his restriction to attend the University of Montpellier or something he had realized some time ago which allowed him to wander aimlessly in search of some knowledge he had known to be troubling him. Apparently, Nostradamus understood he would be criticized for his unorthodox methodology back at the University. As Boyer intends, “Nostradamus tried to introduce other unorthodox improvements in his field of science; for one thing, he was opposed to the senseless bleeding of patients practiced by the mediaeval doctors. His innovations met some opposition by the “establishment” of the faculty, and Nostradamus’ restless spirit, typical for a man of Capricorn,[34] urged him to leave everything and move on. In 1532, he traveled to Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Toulouse, and Agen. He settled to live near the residence of a new friend Jules-Cesar Scaliger who was, like Nostradamus himself, a Faust and a Humboldt, a master of many sciences and one of the most learned men of Europe.”[35] One of Scaliger’s many interests was astronomy of the emphasis on positions of stars.

“A long time later, in 1594, Nostradamus’ friend and disciple Chavigny wrote a biography of the seer of France in which he mentioned that in Agen Nostradamus married a girl “of high estate, very beautiful and very amiable.” They had a son and a daughter, and for three years the whole family enjoyed a pleasant and prosperous life. Then a pestilence broke out again (it might have been the bubonic plague or a different contagious disease this time), and Nostradamus’ new medicine did not help; his wife and his children died. Again, as before, he was untouched by the pestilence. He quarreled with Scaliger for an unknown reason. In later years, Scaliger attacked Nostradamus in his publications, but the seer of France did not retaliate. Even in 1552, is his book “Traicté des fardemeas,” Nostradamus praised his former friend.” [36]

Legends

Nostradamus criticised a workman who was casting a bronze statue of the Virgin. This fact became known to the Inquisition, and probably there were other accusations by his enemies. An official order was sent to him to appear before the Inquisitor at Toulouse. Rather than to rely on the tender mercies of the infamous Inquisition, Michael Nostradamus relinquished an established position, practice of medicine, and residence for a second time in his life. He left everything behind, saddled his mule and set Out Ofl remote travels which lasted for six years (1538-1544). This is a period about which we know the least. From scanty references in his later works, it is known that he visited Lorraine, Venice, and Sicily. Probably he met numerous physicians, pharmacists, alchemists, astrologers, and perhaps even sorcerers during his wanderings. Many Nostradamian legends stem from this period, including the tale about his prediction that a young Franciscan Felice Peretti, a former swineherd, would become His Holiness the Pope (which happened in 1585, after Nostradamus’ death, when this Italian from Ancona was crowned with the papal tiora as Sixtus V). In paragraph 5 of his “Epistle to Henri, King of Second France”, Nostridamus mentions the years 1585 and 1606 as important years of his (‘perhaps formerly oral) prophecies without giving any details. Perhaps these enigmatic years could refer to the election of the Pope Sixtus V (1585) and to the begin- fling of the struggle (in 1606) between another recently (1605) elected Pope Paul V and the government of Venice over a question vital to the Christian world of those times: the jurisdiction of the Pope or of the local government over the clergy. With France on the side of Venice, the Pope lost the dispute, and thus 1606 became an important year in the process of secularization of the former Ecclesiastic power, manifested in our century as the persecution and imprisonment of several Cardihals and Archbishops and executions or deportations of numerous priests of East Europe, with the Vatican powerless to do anything about it. This growth of the secular power, initiated in Italy in 1606 and continued even in the 20th century, might have been important enough for Nostradamus to mention this year in the Epistle (#5) with the remark that from then on and going far beyond the beginning of the seventh “millenary” (1797; see details below), the “adversaries of Jesus Christ and His Church will begin to multiply greatly.” Nostradamus also reveals the importance of the year 1606 astrologically in paragraph 41 of his “Epistle,” the start of the 2nd series of prose prophecies. It is said by the biographers of Nostradamus that the seer of France knelt when the young man Peretti happened to pass by. Nostradamus’ companions asked the reason for this strange veneration, and the prophet replied that he had to bend a knee “before His Holiness.” Since his other oral prophecies, although reported by biographers, are more difficult to support by data in his own writings, there is no point to repeat here the various Nostradamian legends.

For a while, Nostradamus stayed at the Cistercian Abbey of Orval in Belgium. He was called back from his travels to his home country by a new outbreak of the plague. First he went to Marseilles (in 1544) and then to various towns of Provence. This was the third period of his life when he fought the Black Death or a similar pestilence, displaying remarkable courage and allegedly saving the lives of many people. In his “Opuscule” printed at Lyons in 1552 and 1555, Nostradamus described many details of his work; hetrusted his medicine or his lucky star enough to be shut in with hundreds of patients for many months. Other achievements of his work as a physician were reported by his son of the second marriage, Caesar Nostradamus, in his book “Histoire de Provence” (Lyons, 1614), as well as by Bareste and other biographers. While the houses were “abandoned and empty, men disfigured, women in tears, children bewildered... (and) the bravest vanquished,” with the sick wrapping themselves in two white winding sheets while still alive, lamenting their fate, Nostradamus would appear on the road leading to the stricken town, a familiar figure in the Provence with his dark robe, long heard, and a stately, calm appearance. He waded right into the nests of the plague, distributing his “rose pills”, consoling the dying and saving — if possible — the sick. He never weakened his patients by bleeding or by poisonous compounds of sulfur and mercury advocated by the ignorant authors of the mediaeval science.

From Aix, the capital of Provence, Nostradamus moved to Salon, where he settled down. Once more he had to go to Lyons, where a new outbreak of the pestilence threatened to wipe out the population. The pestilence was allegedly controlled by a massive distribution of Nostradamus’ new drugs produced by the local pharmacist René Hepiliervard. If one is to credit the accounts of his numerous biographers, Nostradamus helped to control the plague in the 16th century so that it did not decimate the population of Europe to that extent as the Black Death of the 14th century.

 The “Revue du Lyonnais pour 1835” also mentions that Nostradamus fought an epidemic of whooping cough in Lyons in 1547. Most remarkable appears to be his own immunity to various plagues, which smacks almost of the miraculous since no other doctors evidently were able to duplicate his feats of self-confidence and indomitable courage for such long years. Finally, in late 1547, the dangers were over. Nostradamus, loaded with honors and gifts, returned to the little town of Salon in Provence, where he married a rich widow Anne Ponsarde Gemelle on November 11, 1547. The famous doctor developed a successful practice of medicine in Salon and published several professional books. His special cosmetic preparations were well paid for by the wealthy gentry.[37]