Nostradamus - Part 2 @~Continued from last issue In 1547, ten years after the death of his wife and children, Nostradamus settled in Salon. Now 45 years of age he longed once more for the love and stability of family life. He married Anne Posart Gemelle, a rich widow, and took up residence in a fine house in the rue de la Poissonerie in the Farrieoux quarter of the city. After many long years of wandering Nostradamus once more had a secure outer world. In Salon's agreeable climate his professional life was more relaxed and he was able to set up a highly successful cosmetic business. At the top of the house in the rue de la Poissonerie he had a floor remodelled into a private study and there he installed his treasured collection of forbidden magical devices - astrolabes, divining rods, magic mirrors, and a brass bowl and tripod designed after that used by the classical oracle Branchus. Widely respected as one of Salon's chief citizens and most devout Catholics, Nostradamus was zealous in his fasts and prayers and generous to the poor. But this reputation began to be called into question when the townspeople noticed the light burning in Nostradamus upstairs study throughout the night. Speculation grew at what the doctor could be up to in the dead of night while good Christians slept, and in ignorance and fear the people of Salon began to shun him. If they could have seen behind the heavy study window the worthy citizens of Salon would have seen Nostradamus consulting his ephemeris, plotting the night's course on a horoscope. If the aspects were auspicious, they would have seen him sitting on a brass tripod set over a brass bowl filled with steaming water and pungent herbs. Staring into a thin candle flame, he would empty his mind and slip into a trance. In this ecstatic state he saw visions projected in the rising mist before the candle light'; the strongest images were always of impending religious war in France, sparked off by a shattered lance piercing the golden visor of the French king... Should Nostradamus share this vision with his countrymen and risk persecution for it? His lengthy struggle with this dilemma resulted in the publication of this first almanac of prophecies in 1550. Immediately acclaimed, the almanac owed its popularity primarily to the section of 12 four-line poems called "quatrains", each poem giving a general prophecy for a month of the coming year. The success of this first almanac encouraged Nostradamus to continue and he produced an almanac every year for the rest of his life. Nostradamus had the idea of a book of prophecy that would predict the future of mankind until the end of time. The book, to be called The Centuries, would be set in 10 volumes, each containing 100 quatrains; the completed work would offer 1,000 predictions. Work on The Centuries began on the night of Good Friday, 1554 and after each night's work, Nostradamus descended from the study with eyes and voice still glowing from a prophetic trance. Century 1 through part of 4 were published in Lyons in 1555; the rest of Century 4 through 7 appeared later that year. The Centuries were received enthusiastically by the upper classes and the nobility, a readership already well established by the almanacs. Not all reaction to The Centuries was so favourable, however. The quatrains, written in a medley of French, Provencal, Greek, Latin, and Italian, contained riddles and epigrams of bewildering complexity. To ignorant peasants Nostradamus was a creature of the devil, his dark cryptic verses hellish babble; from philosophers he drew praise and curses, and poets were perplexed by the meaning of his wild crabbed verses. But for high society and the Parisian courts of Queen Catherine, a ruthless and ambitious head of state, had to appear in public as a devout Catholic. In private, however, she practised pagan religious rites, consulting her gods beyond the magic mirror and using forbidden arts to help her look into the future and plot her political intrigues. But at the time of Nostradamus' publication of the Centuries, Catherine was troubled by signs and portents which threatened her husband, King Henry II. If they were right, the future fortunes of their four sons and three daughters would also be in danger. Like the great Medicis before her, Catherine was driven by an ambitious plan to rule Europe through marrying her children into the most powerful royal families. When they met, Nostradamus made a deep and lasting impression on the ambitious queen. After Nostradamus had recovered from his first attack of gout Queen Catherine sent him to the royal chateau of Blois, where he met her seven children and was asked to draw up their horoscopes. Apparently, the Queen was satisfied with his prediction that all her sons would become kings but for Nostradamus this must have been a difficult interview since he had already written prophecies foretelling a tragic fate for each royal child. On his return to Paris Nostradamus was greeted by a waiting visitor whom he describes as a very honest, kind woman of noble birth. She warned him that the Justices of Paris wished to interrogate him about his magical secrets; sensing the Inquisition behind this sinister development Nostradamus determined to return to the safety of Salon with all speed. Although a few copies of the last three Centuries were printed in 1558 Nostradamus decided not to publish them widely while he was alive. This was probably due to a sense of foreboding about the king who in 1559 would be in his 41st and, according to the prophecy, his most perilous year. But at least one copy was sent to the royal couple, with a long dedication letter to Henry II. This "Epistle" is a most ambitious outline of future history, chronicling events from 1557 to possibly beyond the year AD 8000. Nostradamus' reputation as one of history's greatest prophets began with a royal tragedy. In 1559, ignoring all warnings against ritual combat, Henry II celebrated the dual marriage of his sister Marguerite to the Duke of Savoy, and his daughter by proxy to King Philip II of Spain, with a three-day tournament. On 28 June, thousands gathered from all over France to watch the jousts on the rue St Antoine outside Paris. Their king, mounted on a splendid charger, was resplendent in full armour and bore a great lion-decorated shield. After each victorious bout he rode fiercely up and down the lane, his golden visor raised to show his face, to receive the homage of the roaring crowd. But on that happy day Queen Catherine remembered Nostradamus' warning, written three years before. At sunset on the third day Henry prepared for his final bout against the young captain of the King's Scottish Guards, the formidable Count Montgomery. When the bout ended in a draw Henry called for a second match but his worthy opponent, aware of the prophecy, tried to excuse himself. Henry insisted and, as the second charge began, the crowd fell silent. Suddenly, there was a loud crack of shattered lances and a cry of horror rose from the crowd as a splinter from Montgomery's broken lance pierced the king's golden visor, lodging behind his left eye, blinding him and penetrating deep into the brain. After ten days of suffering in agony King Henry II died and Nostradamus' prophecy was fulfilled. It is reported that, on the night of the king's death, an angry mob gathered in a Paris suburb, ceremonially burnt an effigy of Nostradamus and called upon the Church Inquisitors to burn him as a heretic. At the second fulfilment of prophecy Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador, was moved to complain in a letter to Philip II, "These catastrophes have struck the court with stupor, together with the warning of Nostradamus, who it would be better to punish than to allow to sell his prophecies, which lead to vain and superstitious beliefs." The fulfilment of Quatrain 35's prophecy of Henry's death made Nostradamus famous throughout the courts of Europe but a year later admiration turned to suspicion. The author of so many tragic predictions was apparently expected to be sad and stern, so visitors to Salon were surprised to find instead the positive, good- tempered doctor. The contradiction engendered suspicion and books condemning Nostradamus as a charlatan and heretic began to appear. Nostradamus wrote in his own defence that the potential for human cruelty he foresaw in the future made the need for positive living in the present more important than ever. At this time he began writing quatrains for an extra Century 11 and 12, which he never finished. His house was frequently stoned by mobs of young Catholic peasants called Cabans. The threats of violence became so extreme that, for a time, he and his family were forced to seek voluntary imprisonment. @~To be continued - o -