Nostradamus Essay, Research Paper

Once, while passing through Italy, Nostradamus bowed before a young

Franciscan monk, addressing him as “His Holiness.” Others around him did

not understand his strange behavior and the reasons as to why someone would

call a mere monk by such a title. However, years later, and after

Nostradamus’ death, that monk became Pope Sixtus V. This was just one of

the hundreds of prophecies, or visions of the future, that the fifteenth-

century prophet made during his lifetime.

Nostradamus, born in the year of 1503 in France, spent his childhood

under the guidance of his two grandfathers. After going to the University

of Montpelier for three years, he received a bachelor’s degree in the study

of medicine. Around this time, there was an outbreak of the plague in

various parts of France, and he quickly earned a good reputation with the

use of his medicine. However, Nostradamus’ “medicines” were not ordinary,

as they consisted of psychological guidance and homemade formulas. Using

these methods, he cured many victims of the plague who were previously

labeled incurable. He later went back to Montpelier to earn his doctoral

degree in medicine.

Although Nostradamus was very interested in medicine, he began reading

books about the occult and took a fancy to predicting the future. In 1550,

he published his first book which contained prophecies for the coming year.

The almanac proved so successful and accurate that he began publishing

them annually. After several years, Nostradamus developed the idea of

writing a complete almanac, entitled Centuries. This book came to consist

of prophecies ranging in time from his present to the end of the world.

In Centuries there were one thousand quatrains, or verses of four

lines each. One which was particularly amazing was this:

A Captain of great Germany,

Shall come to yield himself by stimulating help,

To the Kings of Kings with the help of Hungary,

So that his revolt shall cause great bloodshed.

This quatrain has been interpreted, in modern day, to mean that Hitler

shall involve Hungary in a great battle with much killing. Many believe

that it is simply luck that Nostradamus had in predicting the future because

his prophecies are generalized and not exact. However, one of his writings

contained the man “Hister” who was to be very powerful in a revolt. This

obviously bears much resemble to Hitler, and if this is true, Nostradamus

clearly predicted someone that was not to be born until more than three

centuries after his own death.

Nostradamus had over a thousand predictions in various almanacs, most

of them in Centuries. However, not all of these prophecies are supposed to

have happened yet. Perhaps the most famous prediction he made lies in this

quatrain:

In the year 1999 and seven months,

From the skies shall come an alarmingly powerful king,

To raise again the great King of the Jacquerie,

Before and after, Mars shall reign at will.

A tremendous world revolution is foretold to take place in the year of

1999, with world-wide wars. Only time will tell if Nostradamus was once

again successful at his prophecies.