Here is an English translation of the Epistle to Henry II that was published as a preface to the last three centuries in 1568.



TO THE MOST INVINCIBLE
MOST POWERFUL AND MOST CHRISTIAN
HENRY, KING OF FRANCE THE SECOND:
MICHEL NOSTRADAMUS,
HIS VERY HUMBLE AND VERY OBEDIENT SERVANT AND SUBJECT,
WISHES VICTORY AND HAPPINESS

Ever since my long-beclouded face first presented itself before the
immeasurable deity of your Majesty, O Most Christian and Most Victorious King,
I have remained perpetually dazzled by that sovereign sight. I have never
ceased to honor and venerate properly that date when I presented my- self
before a Majesty so singular and so humane. I have searched for some occasion
on which to manifest high heart and stout courage, and thereby obtain even
greater recognition of Your Most Serene Majesty. But I saw how obviously
impossible it was for me to declare myself.

While I was seized with this singular desire to be transported sudden- ly from
my long-beclouded obscurity to the illuminating presence of the first monarch
of the universe, I was also long in doubt as to whom I would dedicate these
last three Centuries of my prophecies, making up the thou- sand. After having
meditated for a long time on an act of such rash audacity, I have ventured to
address Your Majesty. I have not been daunted like those mentioned by that
most grave author Plutarch, in his Life of Lycurgus, who were so astounded at
the expense of the offerings and gifts brought as sacrifices to the temples of
the immortal gods of that age, that they did not dare to present anything at
all. Seeing your royal splendor to be accompanied by such an incomparable
humanity, I have paid my address to it and not as those Kings of Persia whom
one could neither stand before nor ap- proach.

It is to a most prudent and most wise Prince that I have dedicated my
nocturnal and prophetic calculations, which are composed rather out of a
natural instinct, accompanied by a poetic furor, than according to the strict
rules of poetry. Most of them have been integrated with astronomical calcu-
lations corresponding to the years, months and weeks of the regions, coun-
tries and most of the towns and cities of all Europe, including Africa and
part of Asia, where most of all these coming events are to transpire. They are
composed in a natural manner.

Indeed, someone, who would do well to blow his nose, may reply that the rhythm
is as easy as the sense is difficult. That, O Most Humane king, is because
most of the prophetic quatrains are so ticklish that there is no making way
through them, nor is there any interpreting of them.

Nevertheless, I wanted to leave a record in writing of the years, towns,
cities and regions in which most of the events will come to pass, even those
of the year 1585 and of the year 1606, reckoning from the present time, which
is March 14, 1557, and going far beyond to the events which will take place at
the beginning of the seventh millenary, when, so far as my pro- found
astronomical calculations and other knowledge have been able to make out, the
adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Church will begin to multi- ply greatly.

I have calculated and composed all during choice hours of well-dis- posed
days, and as accurately as I could, all when Minerva was free and not
unfavorable. I have made computations for events over almost as long a period
to come as that which has already passed, and by these they will know in all
regions what is to happen in the course of time, just as it is writ- ten, with
nothing superfluous added, although some may say, There can be no truth
entirely determined concerning the future.

It is quite true, Sire, that my natural instinct has been inherited from my
forebears, who did not believe in predicting, and that this is natural in-
stinct has been adjusted and integrated with long calculations. At the same
time, I freed my soul, mind and heart of all care, solicitude and vexation.
All of these prerequisites for presaging I achieved in part by means of the
brazen tripod.

There are some who would attribute to me that which is not mine at all. The
eternal God alone, who is the thorough searcher of humane hearts, pious, just
and merciful, is the true judge, and it is to him I pray to defend me from the
calumny of evil men. These evil ones, in their slanderous way, would likewise
want to inquire how all your most ancient progenitors, the Kings of France,
have cured the scrofula, how those of other nations have cured the bite of
snakes, how those of yet other nations have had a certain instinct for the art
of divination and still others which would be too long to recite here.

Notwithstanding those who cannot contain the malignity of the evil spirit, as
time elapses after my death, my writings will have more weight than during my
lifetime. Should I, however, have made any errors in my calculation of dates,
or prove unable to please everybody, I beg that your more than Imperial
Majesty will forgive me. I protest before God and his Saints that I do not
propose to insert any writings in this present Epistle that will be contrary
to the true Catholic faith, whilst consulting the as- tronomical calculations
to the best of my abilty.

Such is the extent of time past, subject to correction by the most learned
judgment, that the first man, Adam, came 1,242 years before Noah ( not
reckoning by such Gentile calculations as Varro used, but simply by the Holy
Scriptures, as best my weak understanding and astronomical calcu- lations can
interpret them.) About 1,080 years after Noah and the universal flood came
Abraham, who, according to some, was a first-rate astrologer and invented the
Chaldean alphabet. About 515 or 516 years later came Moses, and from his time
to that of David about 570 years elapsed. From the time of David to that of
out Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, born of the unique Virgin, 1,350 year
elapsed, according to some chronographs. Some may object that this calculation
cannot be true, because it differs from that of Eusebius. From the timeof the
human redemption to the detestable heresy of the Saracens about 621 years
elapsed. From this one can easily add up the amount of time gone by.

Although my calculations may not hold good for all nations, they have,
however, been determined by the celestial movements, combined with the
emotion, handed down to me by my forebears, which comes over me at certain
hours. Byt the danger of the times, O Most Serene King, requires that such
secrets should not be bared except in enigmatic sentences having, however,
only one sense and meaning, and nothing ambiguous or amphibolog- ical
inserted. Rather they are under a cloudy obscurity, with a natural infusion
not unloke the creation of the world, according to the calculation and Punic
Chronicle of Joel: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and
daughters will prophesy. But such Prophecy proceeded from the mouth of the
Holy Ghost who was the sovereign and eternal power, together with the heavens,
and caused some of them to predict great and marvelous events.

As for myself, I would never claim such a title, never, please God. I readily
admit that all proceeds from God and render to Him thanks, honor and immortal
praise. I have mixed therewith no divination coming from fate. All from God
and nature, and for the most part integrated with celestial movements. It is
much like seeing in a burning mirror, with clouded vision, the great events,
sad, prodigious and calamitous events that in due time will fall upon the
principal worshippers. First, upon the temples of God; second- ly, upon those
who, sustained by the earth, approach such a decadence. Also a thousand other
calamitous events which will be known to happen in due time.

For God will take notice of the long barrenness of the great dame, who
thereupon will conceive two principal children. But she will be in danger, and
the female to whom she will have given birth will also, because of the
temerity of the age, be in danger of death in her eighteenth year, and will be
unable to live beyond her thirty-sixth year. She will leave three males, and
one female, and of these two will not have had the same father.

There will be great differences between the three brothers, and then there
will be such great co-operation and agreement between them that the three and
four parts of Europe will tremble. The youngest of them will sus- tain and
augment the Christian monarchy, and under him sects will be elevated, and
suddenly cast down, Arabs will be driven back, kingdoms united and new laws
promulgated.

The oldest one will rule the land whose escutcheon is that of the furious
crowned lions with their paws resting upon intrepid arms.

The one second in age, accompanied by the Latins, will penetrate far, until a
second furious and trembling path has been beaten to the Great St. Bernard
Pass. From there he will descend to mount the Pyrenees, which will not,
however, be transferred to the French crown. And this third one will cause a
great inundation of human blood, and for a long time Lent will not include
March.

The daughter will be given for the preservation of the Christian Church. Her
lord will fall into the pagan sect of the new infidels. Of her two children,
one will be faithful to the Catholic Church, the other an infidel.

The unfaithful son, who, to his great confusion and later repentance, will
want to ruin her, will have three widely scattered regions, namely, the Roman,
Germany and Spain, which will set up diverse sects by armed force. The 50th to
the 52th degree of latitude will be left behind.

And all will render the homage of ancient religions to the region of Europe
north of the 48th parallel. The latter will have trembled first in vain
timidity but afterwards the regions to its west, south and east will tremble.
But the nature of their power will be such that what has been brought about by
concord and union will prove insuperable by warlike conquests.

In nature they will be equal, but very different in faith.

After this the barren Dame, of greater power than the second, will be received
by two of the nations. First, by them made obstinate by the onetime masters of
the universe. Second, by the latter themselves.

The third people will extend their forces towards the circuit of the East of
Europe where, in the Pannonias, they will be overwhelmed and slaughtered. By
sea they will extend their Myrmidons and Germans to Adriatic Sicily. But they
will succumb wholly and the Barbarian sect will be greatly afflicted and
driven out by all the Latins.

Then the great Empire of the Antichrist will begin where once was Attila's
empire and the new Xerxes will descend with great and countless numbers, so
that the coming of the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the 48th degree, will make
a transmigration, chasing out the abomination of the Christian Church, and
whose reign will be for a time and to the end of time.

This will be preceded by a solar eclipse more dark and gloomy than any since
the creation of the world, except that after the death and passion of Jesus
Christ. And it will be in the month of October than the great translation will
be made and it will be such that one will think the gravity of the earth has
lost its natural movement and that it is to be plunged into the abyss of
perpetual darkness.

In the spring there will be omens, and thereafter extreme changes, reversals
of realms and mighty earthquakes. These will be accompanied by the procreation
of the new Babylon, miserable daughter enlarged by the abomination of the
first holocaust. It will last for only seventy-three years and seven months.

Then there will issue from the stock which had remained barren for so long,
proceeding from the 50th degree, one who will renew the whole Christian
Church. A great place will be established, with union and concord between some
of the children of opposite ideas, who have been seperated by diverse realms.
And such will be the peace that the instigator and promoter of military
factions, born of the diversity of religions, will remain chained to the
deepest pit. And the kingdom of the Furious One, who counterfeits the sage,
will be united.

The countries, towns, cities, realms and provinces which will have abandoned
their old customs to gain liberty, but which will in fact have enthralled
themselves even more, will secretly have wearied of their liberty. Faith lost
in their perfect religion, they will begin to strike to the left, only to
return to the right. Holiness, for a long time overcome, will be replaced in
accordance with the earliest writings.

Thereafter the great dog, the biggest of curs, will go forth and destroy all,
the same old crimes being perpetrated again. Temples will be set up again as
in ancient times, and the priest will be restored to his original position and
he will begin his whoring and luxury, and will commit a thousand crimes.

At the eve of another desolation, when she is atop her most high and sublime
dignity, some potentates and warlords will confront her, and take away her two
swords, and leave her only the insignia, whose curvature attracts them. The
people will make him go to the right and will not wish to submit themselves to
those of the opposite extreme with the hand in acute position, who touch the
ground, and want to drive spurs into them.

And hereupon it is that there is born of a branch long sterila one who will
deliver the people of the world from this benevolent slavery to which they had
voluntary submitted. He will put himself under the protection of Mars,
stripping Jupiter of all his honors and dignities, and establish himself in
the free city in another scant Mesopotamia. The chief and governor will be
cast out from the middle and hung up, ignorant of the conspiracy of one of the
conspirators with the second Thrasibulus, who for a long time will have
directed all this.

Then the impurities and abominations, with a great shame, will be brought out
and manifested in the shadows of the veiled light, and will cease towards the
end of the change in reign. The chiefs of the Church will be backward in the
love of God, and several of them will apostatize from the true faith. Of the
three sects, that which is in the middle, because of its own partisans, will
be thrown a bit into decadence. The first one will be exterminated throughout
all Europe and most of Africa by the third one, making use of the poor in
spirit who, led by madmen to libidinous luxury, will adulterate

The supporting common people will rise up and chase out the adherents of the
legislators. From the way realms will have been weakened by the Easterners, it
will seem that God the Creator has loosed Satan from the prisons of hell to
give birth to the great Dog and Doham, who will make such an abominable breach
in the Churches that neither the reds nor the whites without eyes or hands
will know what to make of it, and their power will be taken from them.

Then will commence a persecution of the Churches the like of which was never
seen. Meanwhile, such a plague will arise that more than two thirds of the
world will be removed. One will be unable to ascertain the true owners of
fields and houses, and weeds growing in the streets of cities will rise higher
than the knees. For the clergy there will be but utter desolation. The
warlords will usurp what is returned from the City of the Sun, from Malta and
the Isles of Hyères. The great chain of the port which wakes its name from the
marine ox will be opened.

And a new incursion will be made by the maritime shores, wishing to deliver
the Sierra More¤a from the first Mahometan recapture. Their assaults will not
all be in vain, and the place which was once the abode of Abraham will be
assaulted by persons who hold the Jovialists in veneration. And this city of
"Achem" will be surrounded and assailed on all sides by a most powerful force
of warriors. Their maritime forces will be weakened by the Westerners, and
great desolation will fall upon this realm. Its greatest cities will be
depopulated and those who enter will fall under the vengeance of the wrath of
God.

The sepulchre, for long an object of such great veneration, will remain in the
open, exposed to the sight of the heavens, the Sun and the Moon. The holy
place will be converted into a stable for a herd large and small, and used for
profane purposes. Oh, what a calamitous affliction will pregnant women bear at
this time.

For hereupon the principal Eastern chief will be vanquished by the Northerners
and Westerners, and most of his people, stirred up, will be put to death,
overwhelmed or scattered. His children, offspring of many women, will be
imprisoned. Then will be accomplished the prophecy of the Royal Prophet, Let
him hear the groaning of the captives, that he might deliver the children of
those doomed to die.

What great oppression will then fall upon the Princes and Governors of
Kingdoms, especially those which will be maritime and Eastern, whose tongues
will be intermingled with all others: the tongue of the Latins, and of the
Arabs, via the Phoenicians. And all these Eastern Kings will be chased,
overthrown and exterminated, but not altogether, by means of the forces of the
Kings of the North, and because of the drawing near of our age through the
three secretly united in the search for death, treacherously laying traps for
one another. This renewed Triumvirate will last for seven years, and the
renown of this sect will extend arount the world. The sacrifice of the hole
and immaculate Wafer will be sustained.

Then the Lords of "Aquilon" [the North], two in number, will be victorious
over the Easterners, and so great a noise and bellicose tumult will they make
amongst them that all the East will tremble in terror of these brothers, yet
not brothers, of "Aquilon" [the North].

By this discourse, Sire, I present these predictions almost with confusion,
especially as to when they will take place. Furthermore, the chronology of
time which follows conforms very little, if at all, with that which has
already been set forth. Yet it was determined by astronomy and other sources,
including Holy Scriptures, and thus could not err. If I had wanted to date
each quatrain, I could have done so. But this would not have been agreeable to
all, least of all to those interpreting them, and was not to be done until
Your Majesty granted me full power to do so, lest calumniators be furnished
with an opportunity to injure me.

Anyhow, I count the years from the creation of the world to the birth of Noah
as 1,506, and from the birth of Noah to the completion of the Ark, at the time
of the universal deluge, as 600 ( let the years be solar, or lunar, or a
mixture of the ten ) I hold that the Sacred Scriptures use solar years. And at
the end of these 600 years, Noah enetered the Ark to be saved from the deluge.
This deluge was universal, and lasted one year and two months. And 295 years
elapsed from the end of the flood to the birth of Abraham, and 100 from then
till the birth of Isaac. And 60 years later Jacob was born. 130 years elapsed
between the time he entered Egypt and the time he came out. Between the entry
of Jacob into Egypt and the exodus, 430 years passed. From the exodus to the
building of the Temple by Solomon in the fourth year of his reign, 480 yearss.
According ot the calculations of the Sacred Writings, it was 490 years from
the building of the Temple to the time of Jesus Christ. Thus, this calculation
of mine, collected from the holy writ, comes to about 4,173 years and 8
months, more or less. Because there is such a diversity of sects, I will not
go beyond Jesus Christ.

I have calculated the present prophecies according to the order of the chain
which contains its revolution, all by astronomical doctrine modified by my
natural instinct. After a while, I found the time when Saturn turns to enter
on April 7 till August 25, Jupiter on June 14 till October 7, Mars from April
17 to June 22, Venus from April 9 to May 22, Mercury from February 3 to
February 24. After that, from June 1 to June 24, and from September 25 to
October 16, Saturn in Capricorn, Jupiter in Aquarius, Mars in Scorpio, Venus
in Pisces, Mercury for a month in Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, the Moon in
Aquarius, the Dragon's head in Libra: its tail in opposition following a
conjunction of Jupiter and Mercury with a quadrature of Mars and Mercury, and
the Dragon's head coinciding with a conjunction of the Sun and Jupiter. And
the year without an eclipse peaceful.

But not everywhere. It will mark the commencement of what will long endure.
For beginning with this year the Christian Church will be persecuted more
fiercely than it ever was in Africa, and this will last up to the year 1792,
which they will believe to mark a renewal of time.

After this the Roman people will begin to re-establish themselves, chasing
away some obscure shadows and recovering a bit of their ancient glory. But
this will not be without great division and continual changes. Thereafter
Venice will raise its wings very high in great force and power, not far short
of the might of ancient Rome.

At that time the great sails of Byzantium, allied with the Ligurians and
through the support and power of "Aquilon" [the Northern Realm], will impede
them so greatly that the two Cretans will be unable to maintain their faith.
The arks built by the Warriors of ancient times will accompany them to the
waves of Neptune. In the Adriatic great discord will arise, and that which
will have been united will be seperated. To a house will be reduced that which
was, and is, a great city, including "Pampotamia" and "Mesopotamia" of Europe
at 45, and others of 41, 42 and 37 degrees.

It will be at this time and in these countries that the infernal power will
set the power of its adversaries against the Church of Jesus Christ. This will
constitute of the second Antichrist, who will persecute that Church and its
true Vicar, by means of the power of three temporal kings who in their
ignorance will be seduced by tongues which, in the hands of the madmen, will
cut more than any sword.

The said reign of the Antichrist will last only to the death of him who was
born at the beginning of the age and of the other one of Lyon, associated with
the elected one of the House of Modena and of Ferrara, maintained by the
Adriatic Ligurians and the proximity of great Sicily. Then the Great St.
Bernard will be passed.

The Gallic Ogmios will be accompanied by so great a number that the Empire of
his great law will extend very far. For some time thereafter the blood of the
Innocent will be shed profusely by the recently elevated guilty ones. Then,
because of great floods, the memory of things contained in these instruments
will suffer incalculable loss, even letters. This will happen to the
"Aquiloners" [the Northern People] by the will of God.

Once again Satan will be bound, universal peace will be established among men,
and the Church of Jesus Christ will be delivered from all tribulations,
although the Philistines would like to mix in the honey of malice and their
pestilent seduction. This will be near the seventh millenary, when the
sanctuary of Jesus Christ will no longer be throdden down by the infidels who
come from "Aquilon" [the North]. The world will be approaching a great
conflagration, although, according to my calculations in my prophecies, the
course of time runs much further.

In the Epistle that some years ago I dedicated to my son, César Nostradamus, I
declared some points openly enough, without presage. But here, Sire, are
included several great and marvelous events which those to come after will
see.

During this astrological supputation, harmonized with the Holy Scriptures, the
persecution of the Ecclesiastical folk will have its origin in the power of
the Kings of "Aquilon" [the North], united with the Easterners. This
persecution will last for eleven years, or somewhat less, for then the chief
King of "Aquilon" will fall.

Thereupon the same thing will occur in the South, where for the space of three
years the Church people will be persecuted even more fiercely through the
Apostatic seduction of one who will hold all the absolute power in the Church
militant. The hole people of God, the observer of his law, will be persecuted
fiercely and such will be their affliction that the blood of the true
Ecclesiastics will flow everywhere.

One of the horrible temporal Kings will be told by his adherents, as the
ultimate in praise, that he has shed more of human blood of Innocent
Ecclesiastics than anyone else could have spilled of wine. This King will
commit incredible crimes against the Church. Human blood will flow in the
public streets and temples, like water after an impetuous rain, coloring the
nearby rivers red with blood. The ocean itself will be reddened by another
naval battle, such that one king will say to another, Naval battles have
caused the sea to blush.

Then, in this same year, and in those following, there will ensue the most
horrible pestilence, made more stupendous by the famine which will have
preceded it. Such great tribulations will never have occurred since the first
foundation of the Christian Church. It will cover all Latin regions, and will
leave traces in some countries of the Spanish.

Thereupon the third King of "Aquilon" [the North], hearing the lament of the
people of his principal title, will raise a very mighty army and, defying the
tradition of his predecessors, will put almost everything back in its proper
place, and the great Vicar of the hood will be put back in his former state.
But desolated, and then abandoned by all, he will turn to find the Holy of
Holies destroyed by paganism, and the old and new Testaments thrown out and
burned.

After that Antichrist will be the infernal prince again, for the last time.
All the Kingdoms of Christianity will tremble, even those of the infidels, for
the space of twenty-five years. Wars and battles will be more grievous and
towns, cities, castles and all other edifices will be burned, desolated and
destroyed, with great effusion of vestal blood, violations of married woman
and widows, and sucking children dashed and broken against the walls of towns.
By means of Satan, Prince Infernal, so may evils will be commited that nearly
all the world will find itself undone and desolated. Before these events, some
rare birds will cry in the air: Hui, Hui [Today, today] and some time later
will vanish.

After this has endured for a long time, there will be almost renewed another
reign of Saturn, and golden age. Hearing the affliction of his people, God the
Creator will command that Satan be cast into the depths of the bottomless pit,
and bound there. Then a universal peace will commence between God and man, and
Satan will remain bound for around a thousand years, and then all unbound.

All these figures represent the just integration of Holy Scriptures with
visible celestial bodies, namely, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and others conjoined,
as can be seen at more length in some of the quatrains. I would have
calculated more profoundly and integrated them even further, Most Serene King,
but for the fact that some given to censure would raise difficulties.
Therefore I withdraw my pen and seek nocturnal repose.

Many events, most powerful of all Kings, of the most astounding sort are to
transpire soon, but I neither could nor would fit them all into this epistle;
but in order to comprehend certain horrible facts, a few must be set forth. So
great is your grandeur and humanity before men, and your piety before the
gods, that you alone seem worthy of the great title of the Most Christian
King, and to whom the highest authority in all religion should be deferred.

But I shall only beseech you, Most Clement King, by this singular and prudent
humanity of yours, to understand rather the desire of my heart, and the
sovereign wish I have to obey Your Most Serene Majesty, ever since my eyes
approached your solar splendour, than the grandeur of my labor can attain to
or acquire. From Salon, this 27th of June, 1558.

Done by Michel Nostradamus at Salon-de-Crau in Provence.