Nostradamus
 (alias of Michel de Nostra-Dame)
 1503-66

 by [·Razta·/·Visage·]

 ( ikke helt færdig !!!! )

The Centuries

 Nostradamus' work acts like a myth; those who
believe, plunge into it and reveal themselves
in it.


 Nostradamus was born in St.  Rémy in
Provence.  He practised as a doctor before
studying astrology and publishing his
Centuries, a book of rhymed prophecies, in
1555.  It was a great success; Henry II,
Catherine de'Medici and François II consulted
him, and he was appointed personal physician
and adviser to Charles IX.
 Nostradamus' work is in the form of a
thousand questions and is supposed to foretell
events to the year 3797.  The predictions are
coded in an early sort of backslang (e.g.
`Rapis' = Paris), or puns (e.g.  Dort-léans =
d'Orléans) etc.  Nostradamus claimed that
Centuries came to him by divine, supernatural
inspiration at night; he excused the verse by
explaining that it was composed by natural
instinct and with poetic fervour, rather than
according to poetic rules.

The use of prophecy
 The Centuries have been the subject of many
commentaries and have been exploited by
numerous individuals as a means of justifying
their (sometimes dubious) ends.  In this way,
the priest Torné-Chavigny, in L'Histoire
prédite et jugée par Nostradamus (1860-62)
used the Centuries for political purposes.
This happened again when the French socialist
government came to power in 1981, and
Nostradamus was used to start rumours of
impending catastrophe.

St.Malachi and others
 Nostradamus had many precursors.  In 1175,
Geoffrey of Monmouth published the prophecies
of Merlin, dating from around 465.  These
announced the coming of a great king who would
reign over all the world, and mark the birth
of the myth of the 'King of the World'.
 Commenting on the apocalypse in the 13th
century, Joachim de Flore predicted the coming
of the reign of the spirit.  A century later,
a monk called Liberatus discovered historical
prophecies in his work, which he revealed in
Vaticinia Joachimi (1303).  However, the most
famous of all predictions are those of St.
Malachi (1097-1148), who drew up a list of 111
popes, beginning with Celestine II, elected in
1143, and going right up to the Last
Judgement.  René Thibeau, the theologian,
calculated, on this basis, that the world
would end in 2012.

 An example of interpretation In 1938, Dr.
Fontbrune suggested that this quatrain of
Nostradamus had foretold Hitler.

  Nine years that thin man would hold in peace
  Then he will fall into thirst so bloody
  For their peoples he will die without faith
      or law
  Killed by one much more mild and
      goodnatured.

 According to Dr.  Fontbrune, the third line
obviously refers to Hitler.  For confirmation,
he directs us to the first line:  Hitler must
be the 'thin man' because he was a vegetarian!