Almost everyone has heard of the famous fifteenth century French ‘prophet’ and astrologer Nostradamus. He is credit with everything from predicting the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933 (1) to the feminist movement (2) to the creation of Israel (3) to 9/11 (4) to a coming Islamic invasion of Europe. (5)
However not many know that Nostradamus is well-known to have been jewish – this was well-known even to his contemporaries as it happens – and that academic research – published largely in French – has exposed Nostradamus to be both a fraud and a conman preying on the credulity of the desperate and the gullible to make money.
Let’s begin at the start of Nostradamus’ life which began in mid or late December 1503 - either on the 14th or 24th December – (6) in the French town of Saint Remy to his parents (Jaume de Nostredame and Reyniere de Saint-Remy) who traditionally are both believed to have been jewish. (7) This has predictably led to wild claims that that both the de Nostredames and the de Saint-Remys were actually Marranos (8) and continued practicing Judaism in private. (9) As well as more correctly that Nostradamus’ jewish ancestry comes from the well-establish jewish community of Provence. (10)
However recent research has corrected this false assumption as Lemesurier points out:
‘Their father was Jaume (that is, James) de Nostredame, a local merchant and self-made lawyer. He in turn was the son of one Peyrot de Nostredame, formerly known as Guy Gassonet, an Avignon merchant who, some half-a-century earlier, had converted from Judaism and adopted a new “Christian” name to match. The boy’s mother, Reyniere de Saint-Remy, seems to have come from a purely Christian family.’ (11)
The truth then is only the de Nostradame’s were of recent jewish origin while the de Saint-Remys have no known jewish members in their line at all. This then means we can hardly see the de Nostradame’s as a Marrano family in the typical sense, because Marranos typically married other Marranos or jews not non-jews because they were still ‘secret jews’ as Joachim Prinz famously put it.
Further - as Wilson explains - the de Nostradames seem to have been largely successful in distancing themselves from their jewish origins and by 1540 had formally become citizens of France: (12)
‘All the indications, therefore, are that the de Nostradames were a healthy, well-educated, well-adjusted and financially comfortable family, and that despite their Jewish roots they achieved essentially complete acceptance as upright Christian citizens of St-Remy and its surrounds.’ (13)
Thus, Nostradamus was not overtly jewish when he was growing up, but from where do we get the idea that – as Haley and Ward independently claim – (14) that Nostradamus was ‘steeped in secret jewish learning’ and had – to use Wigal’s expression – ‘access to occult powers’? (15)
The truth is that this comes from Nostradamus himself who played on his jewishness to promote his publications as well as his reputation and the origin of the myth of his access to ‘secret jewish teachings’ is the letter he wrote to King Henri II of France circa 1557/1558; where he boasted that:
‘By my natural instinct for predicting which was bestowed upon me by my ancestors, by calibrating this natural instinct with my long computations, and by freeing soil, spirit and courage of all care, anxiety and worry.’ (16)
This isn’t overtly obvious but by this point Nostradamus’ jewish origins were well-known in both court and educated circles both in Paris and in France more generally. (17) The reason for this is Nostradamus’ own desire to widely publicise his jewish origins as a selling point/marketing tool for his written wares – he was also an extremely narcissistic character as it happens – (18) is linked to jews being widely believed to access to powerful hidden (and usually dark/black) magic that non-jews didn’t have access to (19) as Wilson is at pains to point out:
‘And partly, because of the mystique of the dark ancestral ‘magic’ with which popular superstition associated Jews (much like that which would become associated with gypsies in our time), every town would have had a clientele ready to part with cash in the belief that such remedies actually for them what was claimed.’ (20)
Yet Nostradamus’ jewishness wasn’t just a marketing tool that he sought to use to increase the sales of his publications, but rather was a sincere thing since throughout his life Nostradamus chose to pray to and ask not for the intercession of his namesake the Virgin Mary and instead openly prayed to St. Michael the Archangel who was the ‘helper of the Chosen people’ (i.e., the jews). (21)
In other words: Nostradamus chiefly identified not as a Catholic Christian but rather as a jewish Christian his whole life meaning that he saw himself as a jew who had converted to Christianity but was still to all intents and purposes a jew and not as a Catholic Frenchman!
The next time we meet Nostradamus in the historical record is when he began studying at the University of Avignon in either 1518 or 1519 for his degree in the regular trivium of Latin grammar, rhetoric and logic, which would have then later led to a later mathematical quadrivium of geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy/astrology. It is likely he finished the first trivium but unlikely to have finished the quadrivium because the University of Avignon was closed in 1520 due to the coming of the plague. (22)
Nostradamus was then sent out by his father Jaume to train as an apothecary, which was regarded as a manual trade at the time and for which no university degree was required. (23) Becoming an apothecary required a 5–12-year apprenticeship and thus it isn’t likely a graduate would have taken such a position which is how we know that Nostradamus didn’t in fact graduate from the University of Avignon. (24)
Nostradamus then arrived at the city of Montpellier circa 1529 and appears on the Medical School’s ‘Liber Scholasticorum’ for 23rd October 1529 as ‘Michelet de Nostre-Dame’. (25)
Further there is a note appended to his name – which is crossed out – in the ‘Liber Scholasticorum’ by the faculty tutor Guillaume Rondelet in Latin, which reads as follows:
‘Note, reader, that he whom you see here struck out has been an apothecary or pharmacist. And this we have been assured by Chante, an apothecary of this town, and by students who heard him speak badly of doctors. This is why, by decree, and according to regulations, I am required to strike him from the book of students. Guillaume Rondelet, Proctor.’ (26)
This entry in the University of Montpellier has come in for much speculation and comment over the years with Wilson wondering if Francois Rabelais – the famous author of the multi-volume medieval novel ‘Gargantua and Pantagruel’ - and Nostradamus got to know each other at the University of Montpellier as Rabelais completed his medical licentiate at Montpellier in 1530. (27) While Charles Ward promptly charged off into the realm of complete fantasy and claimed that Nostradamus was actually a Professor at the University of Montpellier on no evidence whatsoever. (28)
Despite Wilson’s wondering about why the University of Montpellier’s records are otherwise completely silent about Nostradamus. (29)
This is simply incorrect because as Lemesurier explains:
‘Whether he had assumed that, at eight years’ removed, nobody would be able to check up on the qualifications that he had failed to obtain at Avignon, or whether he assumed that, with eight years’ experience as a trainee apothecary, he was probably as well qualified as anybody to treat the sick (which was quite possibly true) is unknown. But the inevitable followed: his past caught up with him. The Student Registrar, Guillaume Rondelet, discovered from his fellow students and a local apothecary that Nostredame himself had been an apothecary – and one, moreover, who in his time had been rude about doctors. He was thus doubly disqualified from being admitted, because (according to Robert Benazra’s research) both apothecaries and surgeons (the latter at the time being simple barbers, given that they were the ones with all the sharp instruments) were banned from the Faculty as being mere manual workers – not least, no doubt, because almost by definition they didn’t have the necessary First Degrees. On investigation, his name was angrily struck out by Guillaume Rondelet (who was in due course to become Chancellor) on behalf of the university authorities. In short, he was expelled. For this, too, the written evidence still exists in the Faculty library.
Thus it was that Nostredame would apparently spend the next 23 years on the fringes of the medical profession, rather than at its center (let alone, as he himself put it, at its summit). We have the literary fruits of those years in his so-called Traite des fardemens et confitures of 1555, in whose 1552 “Proem” (Preface) he points out that he had been exercising his current profession for 31 years – which takes us directly back to the year immediately after he left Avignon and seemingly became an apothecary. An apothecary, in consequence, he had evidently remained ever since.’ (30)
So, in other words; we know precisely why Nostradamus was thrown out of the University of Montpellier’s medical school sometime after 23rd October 1529 and that is because he tried to con his way into the university and had also broken the university’s admissions criteria as well as the laws of the medical profession of the time.
We are dependent for what happens next in Nostradamus life on the account of his disciple and secretary Jean-Aime de Chavigny, who claimed that Jules-Cesar Scaliger of Agen – a fairly famous doctor – caused Nostradamus to stay with him in his hometown circa 1533/34. (31)
The truth within de Chavigny’s claim is that Nostradamus actually served Scaliger as his subordinate apothecary, (32) while Nostradamus claimed to be a doctor but wasn’t actually one for the purpose of sales so that his patients would trust him and part with their money for ‘medicines’ (33) which were fairly ridiculous – in terms of the medicinal value – even for the time. (34)
An example of such is a treatment is afforded by Nostradamus’ recipe for his ‘rose pills’ – published in 1555 - that allegedly treated the plague with Peter Lorie and Manuela Dunn Mascetti desperately trying to rationalize their effectiveness (and Nostradamus’ medical reputation) by (falsely) claiming that they ‘released lots of vitamin C’ into the body to help cure his patients (35) despite the fact that it was (and is) utter nonsense. (36)
By contrast Scaliger’s ability as a doctor was never in doubt as is shown by the fact that when Rabelais attacked Scaliger in November 1532 in a letter to Erasmus claiming Scaliger did ‘not have a good reputation’ yet Rabelais had to admit – remember Rabelais was also a qualified doctor - ‘some knowledge of medicine’ but ‘was an atheist’. (37) Rabelais’ charge of atheism against Scaliger is – as it happens - backed up by the fact that Scaliger came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church as a potential Protestant/Freethinker in 1538. (38)
Nostradamus’ reason for seeking out – or willingly offering his services as an apothecary - to Scaliger is obvious enough, but in truth he owes much of his later reputation as an astrologer to Scaliger.
Since for example in his 1555 book ‘Treatise of Cosmetics and Jams’ Nostradamus refers to Scaliger as ‘a second Marsilio Ficino in Platonic philosophy.’ (39)
Marsilio Ficino – for those who don’t know - was a prominent fifteenth century Italian neo-platonic philosopher who was accused of heresy by the Catholic Church in 1492. Ficino translated a book in 1462 called the ‘Corpus Hermeticum’ written by Hermes Trismegistus and allegedly based on the Cabala but is actually a second or third century text of uncertain providence or authorship. (40) We further know Scaliger had a copy of Ficino’s translation of the ‘Corpus Hermeticum’ in the 1530s so this may well be where Nostradamus read or became aware of it. (41)
Thus, we can locate that where Nostradamus was introduced to the mysticism and ideas behind - and beliefs around - astrology in any detail was while he was working with Scaliger combating the plague in Agen circa 1533/1534. We further know from de Chavigny that Nostradamus and Scaliger allegedly had a quarrel in Agen which had led Nostradamus to leave the town; (42) quite possibly over Nostradamus’ false claims to be a doctor or over – as we have seen that he did between 1520 and 1529 – Nostradamus libelling doctors as being fools (and possibly attacking Scaliger likewise).
Haley’s point that ‘Nostradamus was a plague doctor in demand all over Provence’ (43) as well as Wigal’s claims that Nostradamus was a ‘well-respected doctor’ (44) are thus in a sense well-founded because while Nostradamus was not actually a doctor – although he does appear to have repeatedly claimed he was one – but rather an apothecary; he was very much in demand as such all over Provence because he was willing to work in towns and cities afflicted by the plague which many medical personnel in medieval France were not willing to do and as such he was accorded a significant amount of respect by the local communities.
We next encounter Nostradamus in the village of Port-Sainte-Marie near Agen in 1538 as Wilson observes:
‘As for Nostradamus, the charges against him show that in 1538 he was living and working as a doctor at Port-Sainte-Marie, a small village on the Garonne twelve miles (20 km) to the west of Agen. This village still has some quaint houses dating from the time. Nostradamus’ accusers were three Franciscan friars from Agen, who identified that around 1533 or 1534, when he had apparently been living in Agen, he had made some ill-considered criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church’s cult of saints. (This incidentally is our sole, and thereby highly important, historical confirmation that Nostradamus had arrived at Agen no later than this time.)
In particular, observing the making of a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary, Nostradamus had reportedly remarked that this was little short of idolatry.’ (45)
This run-in with the three Franciscan friars in Agen in 1533/1534 would come back to haunt Nostradamus, but it also serves to demonstrate the latter’s strident jewishness – since jews have long stridently opposed the Catholic Church’s ‘Cult of Saints’ but most especially the Virgin Mary – (46) especially because Nostradamus was quite literally named after the Virgin Mary (‘de Nostre Dame’ = ‘of the Blessed Lady’) so this is decidedly odd and suggests how little in sync with the Christianity of the Catholic church that Nostradamus really was despite Ward’s protestations to the contrary (47) and in sync with his jewishness. (48)
Next, we encounter Nostradamus in the town of Aix in June 1546 where he was paid by the town’s treasurer for treating citizens with the plague. (49)
Indeed Nostradamus – showcasing his extreme narcissism as well as his blatant dishonesty - later claimed in 1555 related to his treatment of the plague in Aix that:
‘No other medicament is to be found which is more protective against the plague than this recipe. All those who swallowed it were protected.’ (50)
That this was complete and utter nonsense is worth pointing out in large part because many of Nostradamus’ patients would have subsequently died of the plague – or perhaps other related/unrelated illnesses/conditions – and were unable contradict his claims and in any case many of them were sufficiently literate to know what lies Nostradamus was spinning about them in his publications.
We next find Nostradamus in 1547 in the nearby town of Salon de Cru – now Salon-de-Provence – once again ‘treating the plague’. (51)
Indeed, it was in Salon de Cru that Nostradamus’ life changes into the man that we know from popular legend and folklore as it was there that he met and married his second wife Anne Ponsarde (aka ‘Gemelle’ literally ‘the Twin’) on 11th November 1547 with Anne’s cousin Etienne Hozier – a lawyer - officiating. (52) Anne was likely much younger than Nostradamus – and thus easily beguiled by his narcissism and claims to be a doctor of great reputation - and bore him six children over the next fourteen years. (53)
It is also worth pointing out at this juncture that Nostradamus first wife (possibly named Henriette d'Encausse) and two children appear to have died of the plague in 1533/1534; (54) hence his subsequent remarriage to Anne Ponsarde – who was herself a wealthy widow – in 1547.
It is after his marriage to his second wife Anne that Nostradamus settles down in Salon de Cru to become the Nostradamus of legend. Since he obviously could no longer easily support himself as a wandering apothecary specialising in visiting – and preying on – plague ridden cities, towns and villages in and around the area Provence; Nostradamus used his wife’s money to settle down and took up a new primary occupation: that was of an author and astrologer.
What Nostradamus chose to produce was a type of literature that will be foreign to many today, but Wilson has helpfully concisely explained it for the modern reader as follows:
‘Of those writings, in actuality the work by which Nostradamus became best known in his own lifetime was not the famous Prophecies, as it is so often supposed. Instead it was a series of popular throwaway Almanacs that he composed annually prior to each new year, in the manner of present-day calendar diaries and calendars.’ (55)
He further goes on to explain that these:
‘Contained his predictions of the main news and weather events that he anticipated happening day by day during the forthcoming year. Taking his inspiration from preordained astrological tables for calculating the planetary positions for each day, and noting any unusual conjunctions these might involve, Nostradamus would write up his forecasts in the top-floor study of his Salon-de-Provence home.’ (56)
These almanacs were then printed in Lyon or Paris for Nostradamus to sell (57) and then:
‘The printer might decide to add certain filler items such as road distances between towns, gardening tips, a mini-chronicle of world history from the Creation, the dates of forthcoming fairs, and suchlike. This was partly to provide the almanac’s purchaser with extra value, but also, given that printing then, as today, was done in multiples of eight to sixteen pages, to fill in any pages that might otherwise be blank.’ (58)
This is important because we have to bear in mind that Nostradamus was trying to sell his books to a sixteenth century French audience and he wasn’t actually writing for posterity at all despite many a myth to the contrary. (59)
Nostradamus first compiled an almanac in 1549 (for the year 1550) and continued till the year of his death (1566) where he had his last one already ready by mid-1566 for 1567 which was printed and sold the year after by his family. (60)
The reason for Nostradamus’ choice of almanacs was because they were reliable money makers to write at the time (61) and – perhaps predictably - these have been examined by modern scholars and have been discovered to be almost entirely wrong in both their claims and the material produced suggesting Nostradamus’ general incompetence. (62) Despite this we know it was for his annual almanacs that Nostradamus was well known among his contemporaries. (63)
The most famous person whose attention Nostradamus attracted via his publication of almanacs was the then Queen of Francis Catherine de Medici – who was deeply superstitious and fascinated by astrology – (64) who appears to have read Nostradamus’ ‘Prognostication’ (his almanac) for 1555 (65) and then sent for Nostradamus.
So Nostradamus went to Paris to see Catherine de Medici and her husband King Henri II in 1557-1558 he spent lavishly on his journey to Paris leading to be very short of money when he arrived in Paris, where he borrowed two Rose nobles and two crowns from the noted French scholar and disciple of Erasmus Jean Morel d’Embrun on the receipt of which Nostradamus then promptly ran off without repaying and refused to either communicate or repay his debt to Morel until Morel angrily went, found and confronted him in person in 1561. (66)
Nostradamus’ tale that he ‘had to flee’ for weird non-specific reasons are a fantasy spun for Morel to ‘explain’ why he ran off with his money and never tried to repay him and are typical for conmen and confidence tricksters the world over. (67)
We know Nostradamus’ tale to Morel in 1561 is nonsense because when King Charles IX and the Queen Regent – Catherine de Medici - visited Salon de Cru in October 1564 Nostradamus wrote prophecies for them and presented it to them where they were stayed in the Chamber of Honour at the nearby Chateau del’Emperi. (68)
Nostradamus then – predictably perhaps - claimed that he had been made ‘Medecin du Roy’ (lit. ‘Doctor to the King’) which he uses as his title in his almanac for 1565. (69) It is also worth pointing out here that Wigal’s weird claims that Nostradamus was Catherine de Medici’s lover are completely groundless. (70)
It is somewhat doubtful if Nostradamus was ever actually bestowed with the title of ‘Medecin du Roy’ – since in the firstly place he wasn’t a doctor and never had qualified as such – as well as secondly Nostradamus was no stranger to simply forging official titles/documentation given that – for example – he was arrested by the Governor of Provence on the orders of the Judiciary of Paris on 16th December 1561 for having produced an almanac without Royal ascent of which illegal copies had been appearing on the streets of Paris and had formally forbidden him for writing any more almanacs/prognostications by 18th December 1561. (71)
This is despite the fact that there were a lot of fake Nostradamus almanacs being published under his name since – for example - Hans Rosenberger – the astrologer to the Holy Roman Emperor – wrote to Nostradamus on 15th December 1561 that:
‘I have written to Lyons to try to obtain this. I now know of many miscreants who adulterate your almanacs (whose truthfulness is confirmed from daily experience), and who print their corrupted versions under your name. This had made it so difficult to find authentic copies that I have given up trying.’ (72)
Indeed, Elizabethan England actually had a minor industry going in producing Nostradamus forgeries (73) while Henry Cobham – an English diplomatic envoy in Bilbao, Spain – wrote to his superior Sir Thomas Challoner in November 1562 of an almanac written by a Spanish priest and published under Nostradamus’ name. (74)
This Europe-wide popularity is well-attested in the documentary record since – for example - 26th August 1559 Sir Thomas Challoner – then England’s envoy to the Spanish Netherlands – reported back to London that:
‘The foolish Nostradamus, with his threats of tempests and shipwrecks this month, did put these sailors in great fear.’ (75)
Similarly, the Norman farmer Gilles de Gouberville mentions Nostradamus four times in his diary between 1558 and 1562 writing: (76)
‘29th November 1558
Saturday 29th, I did not budge from my seat. I am going to starting sowing at the Haulte-Vente, on the two sides of the Capplier. Nostradamus said in his almanac that it will be good to work on this day.
19th November 1560
Sanson was at Bayeux… and brought back a lamp of copper from Lambert’s haberdashery, for which I have paid nothing, and an almanac by Nostradamus, which cost 8d.’ (77)
Similarly, an English astrologer named Francis Cox wrote in his 1559 ‘Short Treatise declaring the Detestable Wickedness of Magical Sciences’ that:
‘So waver, the whole realm was so troubled and so moved with blind enigmatical and devilish prophecies of that heaven-gazer Nostradamus… that even those which in their hearts could have wished the glory of God and his Word most flourishing… doubted God had forgotten his promise.’ (78)
In addition to this, Dr. Matthew Parker – explaining why he didn’t want to become Archbishop of Canterbury in a letter to his friend Sir Nicholas Bacon – wrote in 1559 that:
‘I pray you think not that the prognostication of Mr Michael Nostre Dame reignth in my head. I esteem that fantastical hodge-podge not so well as I credit Lucian’s book De veris narrationibus; nor yet all other vain prophecies.’ (79)
Parker here is referring here to Lucian’s ‘Of True Stories’ (80) and essentially calling Nostradamus’ work a pack of lies.
Indeed, the Spanish Ambassador to France reported back to the Spanish crown in January 1560 (81) and the Venetian ambassador Suriano (82) also reported back about the popularity of Nostradamus prophecies and the negativity they predicted and caused.
Looping back to Matthew Parker’s dismissal of Nostradamus as a charlatan now; in 1560 Michel de L’Hopital – then Chancellor of France – declared in a Latin poem that:
‘There appear from afar the roofs of stony Salon,
Here Nostradamus conjures up ambiguous prophecies for people who ask him these.
Already – what madness! – his utterances govern the spirits and the hearts of the sovereigns and nobility.
This seeing into the future does not come from God.
For it is forbidden for mortals to know in advance the events that are to come.’ (83)
This targeting of Nostradamus by others was predictable since he was credited by Catherine de Medici, but it also caused people to start into Nostradamus’ work with Parisian society undecided if he was a genius, a fake or a sorcerer. (84)
Now this was to be expected but what his contemporaries worked out has subsequently been validated by academic research – although largely in French which is why its findings largely hasn’t translated over into the English language literature on Nostradamus – was that he was astrologically incompetent (85) and that he was using some method other than astrology to make his predictions. (86)
This has led to vague statements in the popular literature about how Nostradamus was sincere in his prophecies, (87) had ‘special precognitive skills’ (88) and/or was being deliberately ‘totally incomprehensible’ so that his ‘prophecies’ won’t be understood till after they have prophesised occurs. (89)
The almost pitiful defence of Nostradamus as a ‘sincere prophet’ is however pretty ridiculous in the light of research into his life and his works since as Wilson points out: Nostradamus heavily plagiarised other people’s work in his ‘Prophecies’ citing specific examples. (90)
He writes that:
‘Further, some of Nostradamus’ remarks in his ostensibly original and personal letter to Cesar [his son] in the Prophecies Preface can be to be lifted almost word for word from Crinitus, [Florentine author Peter Crinitus’ ‘De honesta disciplina’ - KR] complete with misspellings and grammatical errors, a point which incidentally indicates that Nostradamus was far from being as original as some Nostradamians claims.’ (91)
He continues by pointing out that:
‘Such criticisms of Nostradamus’ forecasting and obscurity of expression were far from exceptional. Other clients repeatedly complained that he provided them with exasperatingly incomplete information and, not least, that he set it down in well-nigh intelligible handwriting.’ (92)
As well as that:
‘It is often assumed that Nostradamus must have been outstanding amongst his fellow-astrologers at making all the necessary preliminary mathematical calculations. Yet this was certainly not how many of his contemporaries saw it. Rather, they were horrified at his sloppiness.’ (93)
Wilson then goes into some detail about how we know this by explaining how:
‘Early in 1558, Vidal [Laurens Vidal who was Nostradamus’ rival – KR] issued from his home town of Avignon a powerful pamphlet, with an impressive run of 6,000 copies, entitled A Declaration of Michel Nostradamus’ Ignorant Abuses and Sedition. In this he pulled absolutely no punches. He expressed suspicion – very likely to have been well-founded, according to astrologically proficient modern scholar Professor Brind’Amour – that Nostradamus used ephemeris table prepared for the meridian of Venice, and consistently failed to adjust them to make his calculations applicable to the meridian of Lyons. He also accused Nostradamus of going through mere pretences of observing the night sky for the writing of his almanacs, remarking, ‘It is certain that you have no idea how to calculate by the sky, nor by any tables.’’ (94)
Lemesurier supports Wilson’s analysis of Vidal’s attack on Nostradamus writing:
‘Well-known doctor and astrologer Laurens Vidal, after all, who actually taught at Avignon, attacked him as early as 1558 for his quite staggering astrological incompetence. Nor is this incompetence too surprising if what we have surmised about his virtually non-existent astrological studies at Avignon is true, let alone his lack of any doctorate training at Montpellier.’ (95)
As Lemesurier points out Vidal is extremely specific and documents examples of outright incompetence by Nostradamus and continues by writing that:
‘The criticism is damning – but, as modern analysis reveals, fully justified. Nostradamus, it is perfectly clear, was a rank amateur where astrology was concerned. Not only was he incapable of drawing up his own tables calculating the Ascendant (the celestial point of the eastern horizon), as any professional astrologer could have done (all of his astrological data are easily traceable back through their figures to their true, published authors), he was even incapable of correctly applying the data actually published by those same astrologers when he freely picked and chose from among them rather than calculating (as he sometimes claimed) his own apparently assuming, for example, that the astrological houses covered exactly the same areas of the sky as the astrological signs, and as a result frequently putting the planets in the wrong ones.’ (96)
And continuing further by stating that:
‘As for the acres of predictions that he seemingly deduced from each seasonal chart in his Almanachs, these were of course sheer fantasy having far more to do with “psychic” impressions than with any systematic interpretation of the data. Indeed, the mere fact that they claim to make predictions on the basis of astrology rules them out as valid astrological interpretations in the first place, because one of the basic principles of judicial astrology (which was what Nostradamus claimed to be using is and was that astrology cannot predict future events, but only the propitiousness of the moment of a birth, a coronation, a war, or whatever. Any other sort of astrology, as he himself points out in the preface to his Prophecies, was condemned by the Church as by definition reeking of magic.’ (97)
Vidal’s analysis has been validated by academic researchers and in addition Nostradamus’ charts and predictions for individuals have to been shown to be just as bad by other researchers. (98)
Rather interestingly Nostradamus never actually referred to himself as an ‘astrologer’ but rather as an ‘astrophile’ (i.e., a ‘lover of the stars’) (99) which suggests Nostradamus had some idea – however much he didn’t want to admit it – that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing where astrology was concerned.
Nor was Vidal alone in making such public criticisms of Nostradamus as another critic under the pseudonym ‘Hercules le Francois’ wrote and published a tract titled ‘The First Invective of Lord Hercules the Frenchman against Monstradamus’ in two editions: one of 1557 and one of 1558. (100)
Aside from accusing Nostradamus of heresy (101) as well as sorcery (102) Hercules writes that he:
‘Preys so well upon people’s simple credulity… that by his babble, his double meanings and double entendres… he reduces to superstitious events the days for getting married, for travelling, for transacting business, even for when to wear a white shirt.’ (103)
Hercules is essentially accusing Nostradamus of being an astrological/occult conman, which is a charge echoed by another anonymous pamphlet against Nostradamus by an author under the pseudonym Jean de la Daguniere titled ‘The Monster of Abuse’ published in 1557-1558. (104)
He wrote how:
‘Nothing can disguise your ignorance by which you complicate your utterances with obscure, ambiguous and rarely used language. In place of a little knowledge you have come to give us none at all.’ (105)
De la Daguniere also picked up on Nostradamus’ jewishness ‘pointing out that the seer’s annual almanacs, filled as they were with ‘evident lies’, were ‘still steeped up to their neck in Judaism’.’ (106)
Indeed, there was even a popular anti-Nostradamus Latin ditty doing the rounds at the time in France that has come down to us, which translates to:
‘Michel Nostradamus:
We give/damn ourselves when we give out words,
For deceiving comes naturally to us;
And when with words we give/damn ourselves,
No on one does it better than Nostradamus.’ (107)
Even Nostradamus’ old friend Scaliger got in on the act writing no later than October 1558 (when Scaliger died) – although only published posthumously in 1574 – (108) that:
‘Credulous France, what do you hope for, what are you waiting for, hanging on to the words that are hurled out with such fury by his [Nostradamus’] Jewish art? … Don’t you see how much the language of this vile driveller is inane? How can you support this man who mocks you with his self-confidence? Who in the end is the dumber – this evil buffoon, or you who spend too much time fawning on his impostures?’ (109)
So many, pointed and popular were these attacks that in desperation Nostradamus even wrote to King Henry II – husband of Nostradamus’ main patroness Catherine de Medici - pleading for his protection and claiming that his critics would in time engage in subversion against the throne. (110)
Indeed, even the Roman Catholic Church got in on the act when the Inquisition in France began investigating Nostradamus for sorcery (111) as well as atheism; (112) the basis for the charges against Nostradamus were in part the earlier charges against him by the Franciscans in Agen - that we previously discussed - regarding his comments about statues of the Virgin Mary being idolatrous. (113)
The motive force behind these charges appears to have been Cardinal Charles of Guise – of the famous Guise family; the leaders of the French ultra-Catholic faction – who seems to have regarded Nostradamus as a political-cum-religious subversive against the French monarchy and state. (114)
This anti-Nostradamus fervour reached its height in 1561 when Nostradamus was subjected to ‘mob-fury’ as he was widely believed to be a Protestant heretic. (115)
We know about this because Nostradamus wrote about it in a letter to his German correspondent Lorenz Tubbe in 1561:
‘Amongst us in this town [Salon], as everywhere arguments and hatred are growing on matters of faith and religion… A certain Franciscan, quite an orator when he gets in the pulpit, is always inflaming opinion against Lutherans, inciting people to violence and even to full-scale massacres. On Good Friday [1561] 500 ruffians armed with iron rods burst into the church. Along with a number of Lutherans they named Nostradamus. Everyone thus suspected left the town. In my case, in face of such disturbing rage, I fled to Avignon… I was absent for two months or more until the governor of Provence, the Count of Tende, an individual of great humanity, restored the peace.’ (116)
In support of legal documents which prove Nostradamus rented a house on the Rue de la Serveillerie in Avignon on 14th April 1561 for a year have been discovered. (117)
However, by now all this was taking its toll on our increasingly desperate and aging conman with Nostradamus is complaining in letters in 1564 about ‘how much money and time puts out making horoscopes’ and ‘has so much work’ (118) which – as we have seen in the foregoing discussion – is likely simply an attempt to get more money out of his clients for less work as Nostradamus was never exactly the most honest of people and frequently conned his clients. We also know – as we shall see in a few moments – why Nostradamus’ protestations are hollow because his ‘prognostications’ didn’t require ‘a lot of work’ to compose at all.
Since while starts producing less material around this time; (119) Nostradamus may well have lied about ‘his labours’ and what trouble he took to conduct his observations as Wilson adroitly observes. (120)
The truth however is that Nostradamus was in fact engaging in an obscure predictive practice called bibliomancy which works by simply picking a random book of the shelf, putting it on its spine and letting it fall open and then randomly selecting a passage/passages as your prophecy/prophecies. (121)
Indeed, in validating this all of Nostradamus’ ‘prophecies’ have been tracked back to their work of origin by academic researchers and are provided in full complete with their originating text by Lemesurier. (122)
Further it is worth pointing out that by far the commonest origin of Nostradamus’ ‘prophecies’ is from the edition of the anonymous book the ‘Mirabilis Liber’ of 1542-43 with 137 of Nostradamus’ prophecies coming from this. (123)
Further out of 942 Quatrains only 18 are tied down to a particular date, (124) which in turn means only 18 of his Nostradamus’ ‘prophecies’ can be actually tied down and confirmed or debunked rather than simply twisted to fit whatever event occurs after the fact which is what has normally happened and led to Nostradamus sustained popularity and use. (125)
The problem you see is that people have forgotten that – as Ovason observes - Nostradamus was trying to sell his books to a sixteenth century French audience (126) and most of those talking about the predictions in the Anglophone world ‘know next to nothing either about Nostradamus, the texts, or even the sixteenth century French in which they are written.’ (127)
The truth is then – as mid-twentieth century British historian Ellic Howe wrote – that:
‘Any attempt to pierce the sense of Nostradamus’ verses is like trying to solve an immensely difficult crossword puzzle clue, and at the end of one’s labours one can never be sure that the ‘interpretation’ is correct.’ (128)
Thus, we can see that Nostradamus was a jew, a conman and a fraud all in one and most certainly not the ‘prophet’ many people believe him to have been to this day.
References
(1) Francis King, Stephen Skinner, 1996, ‘The Prophecies of Nostradamus and the World’s Greatest Seers and Mystics’, 1st Edition, Paragon: Bristol, pp. 50-51; Mario Reading, 2006, ‘Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies for the Future’, 1st Edition, Watkins: London, p. 128; as to why this is complete and utter rubbish see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/did-nostradamus-predict-the-rise
(2) Peter Lorie, Manuela Dunn Mascetti, 1995, ‘Nostradamus: Prophecies for Women’, 1st Edition, Bloomsbury: London, p. 28
(3) See my article, which is demonstrates how this claim is complete and utter nonsense: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/did-nostradamus-predict-the-rise
(4) Ian Wilson, 2003, ‘Nostradamus: The New Evidence’, 1st Edition, Orion: London, p. xiv; Peter Lemesurier, 2010, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer: The Man, The Myth, The Truth’, 1st Edition, New Page Books: Pompton Plains, pp. 19; 38
(5) Peter Lemesurier, 2000, ‘Nostradamus in the 21st Century Featuring the Coming Invasion of Europe’, 2nd Edition, Piaktus: London, pp. 5-7
(6) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., p. 9
(7) Ned Halley, 1999, ‘The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus’, 1st Edition, Wordsworth: Ware, p. xi; Charles Ward, 1940, ‘Oracles of Nostradamus’, 1st Edition, Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, p. 2
(8) Wilson, Op. Cit., pp. 3; 14
(9) Donald Wigal, 1998, ‘Visions of Nostradamus and Other Prophets’, 1st Edition, Ottenheimer: Owings Mills, p. 18
(10) Wilson, Op. Cit., pp. 5-6
(11) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., p. 9
(12) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 16
(13) Ibid., p. 15
(14) Haley, Op. Cit., p. xi; Ward, Op. Cit., p. 3
(15) Wigal, Op. Cit., p. 20
(16) Quoted in Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 165
(17) Ibid., pp. 146-149
(18) Ibid., p. 312
(19) See my articles: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-malleus-maleficarum-witches-and and https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jews-witches-and-montague-summers
(20) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 20
(21) Ibid., p. 121
(22) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., p. 10
(23) Ibid., pp. 10-11
(24) Ibid., p. 11
(25) Ibid.; Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 22
(26) Quoted in Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 22
(27) Ibid., pp. 28; 40-41
(28) Ward, Op. Cit., p. 37
(29) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 40
(30) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., pp. 11-12
(31) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 42
(32) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., pp. 51-53
(33) Ibid., p. 53
(34) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 32
(35) Lorie, Mascetti, Op. Cit., p. 15
(36) King, Skinner, Op. Cit., p. 8
(37) Quoted in Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 45
(38) Ibid., p. 46
(39) Quoted in Ibid., p. 48
(40) Ibid., pp. 48-49; also see Brian Copenhaver, 1992, ‘Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction’, 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, p. xlviii
(41) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 51
(42) Ibid., p. 59
(43) Haley, Op. Cit., p. xii
(44) Wigal, Op. Cit., pp. 15; 17
(45) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 47
(46) See Elliot Horowitz, 2006, ‘Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence’, 1st Edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton, pp. 149-181
(47) Ward, Op. Cit., pp. 4; 21
(48) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 121
(49) Ibid., p. 64
(50) Ibid., p. 66
(51) Ibid., p. 68
(52) Ibid., pp. 68-69
(53) Ibid., p. 69
(54) Edgar Leroy, 1993, [1972], ‘Nostradamus: Ses Origines, Sa Vie, Son Oeuvre’, 1st Edition, Laffite Reprints : Marseille, pp. 61-72
(55) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 77
(56) Ibid.
(57) Ibid.
(58) Ibid., p. 81
(59) David Ovason, 1997, ‘The Secrets of Nostradamus: The Medieval Code of the Master Revealed in the Age of Computer Science’, 1st Edition, Century: London, p. 6
(60) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 82
(61) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., p. 13
(62) Ibid., p. 15
(63) Ibid., p. 14
(64) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 117
(65) Ibid., p. 118
(66) Ibid., pp. 128-129
(67) Ibid., pp. 130-131
(68) Ibid., pp. 267-268
(69) Ibid., p. 270
(70) Wigal, Op. Cit., p. 24
(71) Wilson, Op. Cit., pp. 216-217
(72) Quoted in Ibid., p. 246
(73) Ibid.
(74) Ibid., p. 247
(75) Ibid., p. 185
(76) Ibid.
(77) Quoted in Ibid., p. 186
(78) Quoted in Ibid., pp. 186-187
(79) Quoted in Ibid., p. 187
(80) For Lucian’s views on the jews see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/lucian-of-samosata-on-the-jews
(81) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 207
(82) Ibid., p. 208
(83) Ibid., p. 196
(84) Wigal, Op. Cit., p. 25
(85) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., p. 48
(86) King, Skinner, Op. Cit., p. 11
(87) Halley, Op. Cit., p. x
(88) Ward, Op. Cit., p. viii
(89) Ovason, Op. Cit., pp. 3-4
(90) Wilson, Op. Cit., pp. 102-103
(91) Ibid.
(92) Ibid., p. 144
(93) Ibid., p. 145
(94) Ibid., pp. 145-146
(95) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., p. 59
(96) Ibid., p. 60
(97) Ibid., pp. 60-61
(98) Ibid., pp. 62-63
(99) Ibid., pp. 63-64
(100) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 146
(101) Ibid.
(102) Ibid., p. 147
(103) Quoted in Ibid.
(104) Ibid.
(105) Quoted in Ibid., p. 148
(106) Ibid.
(107) Ibid.
(108) Ibid., pp. 148-149
(109) Quoted in Ibid., p. 149
(110) Ibid., p. 165
(111) Wigal, Op. Cit., p. 27
(112) Wilson, Op. Cit., p. 105
(113) Ibid., p. 121
(114) Ibid., pp. 191-192
(115) Ibid., p. 210
(116) Quoted in Ibid., p. 211
(117) Ibid.
(118) Ibid., p. 285
(119) Ibid., p. 286
(120) Ibid., p. 299
(121) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., pp. 82-86
(122) Ibid., pp. 92-274
(123) Ibid., pp. 78-79
(124) Ibid., pp. 20-21
(125) Ibid., p. 21
(126) Ovason, Op. Cit., p. 6
(127) Lemesurier, ‘Nostradamus, Bibliomancer’, Op. Cit., p. 23
(128) Ellic Howe, 1965, ‘Nostradamus and the Nazis: A Footnote to the History of the Third Reich’, 1st Edition, Arborfield Products: London, p. 21