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Nostradame entered the famed Faculté de Médecin of the Université de Montpellier soon after leaving Avignon. Naturally he had to register with the Chancellor of the university, since he already had a Master of Arts degree his registering was a foregone conclusion. He had to testify that he had not ever practiced any of the manual arts. These arts are nowadays known as the arts of the artisan – carpentry, masonry, metalwork and other such manual works deemed to be too important to the state to allow their practitioners to leave them. One may ask why such work was deemed so important. The answer is obvious when one considers the game of kings – warfare. The works of the artisan were instrumental in the making of weapons, armor and walls. Of course, Nostradame never practiced any of those manual trades. He did have a keen interest in the art of the apothecary, a fact that caused not a few of the facility to look down on the young student. But as young Nostradame did not try to look down on medicine as so many apothecaries did and showed a critical, if accepting attitude towards the art of the apothecary, he was accepted in the hallowed halls.
During the years 1521 to 1524, Nostradame was a student in the university. During this time, Nostradame worked ceaselessly while attending to his studies. On the one hand he had his medical studies. From the first bell he had to attend numerous lectures. The main topic was the medical philosophy of Aristotle, mixed with the teachings of Hippocrates and Galen; this all medical students had to pass in order to obtain their Bachelor of Medicine. For him there was also, at the same time, his studies under the various Apothecaries that he would do in the evening. That is, if he was not aiding the university in raiding a fresh tomb to obtain a corpse that would be publicly disected at the university amphitheater or some other medical study at the university. This was an enormous, stress filled workload. Under such stress, one would think that he would have to let one or the other go. It is certainly a valid point. Nostradame himself wrote that he often fretted because he feared he was falling behind in his bookwork. But he kept it up and somehow was able to successfully continue his studies.
In 1524, Michel received his Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine. This granted him the right to practice medicine in a limited capacity, but only in the countryside or the small towns. This served to encourage medical practice in areas a normal Doctor of Physique would normally not go to, filling a very real need at the time. He certainly did not have the full capability to practice medicine that a doctor with a full medical license had but he did have the lawful ability to practice medicine in the countryside. This ability to practice medicine to this degree would serve him well, allowing him to dispense cures around the countryside of southern France for the next few years of his life.
In 1524, the first of a double blow hit southern France. The province of Provence, Nostradame’s home province, was invaded by the Imperial Army. The Imperial Army meant that it was the official army of the Holy Roman Empire. Backed to the hilt by all of Hapsburg power, the army laid waste to much of Provence.
The next year, a sickness originated in Italy and spread like wildfire to southern France. It was a very deadly sickness. What it is we have no way of knowing, but in that spiritual day any sickness that caused massive numbers of death was called the plague. Named such after the fabled plagues that hit Egypt during the time of the Exodus, this sickness was certainly a killer. But while we know it was deadly, we know it was not the deadly disease caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium. We know this because Nostradame had some success in treating it. As he would be forced to actually study the real plague at Aix years later, it is likely that this was some other sickness given the name of plague by the victims.
1521-1529 were miserable years for southern France. As one sickness dissipated, another rose to take its place. The invasion of Provence by the Holy Roman Empire in 1524 helped to spread chaos and death. Also, in 1527-1528 there was a war that hit France, causing much devastation; sicknesses always seem to thrive in wartime. Capping these events, the Protestant Revolution was beginning, causing fraction and strife throughout Europe; this chaos created an atmosphere where sickness could easily thrive. Working ceaselessly, Nostradame, like other students from Montpellier with their own Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine, traveled from town to town dispensing his cures, tending to the sick. By his hand, people were surviving.
Nostradame is reputed to have wondered among the towns and villages of the Garonne region of France. We know a little about these travels because he wrote a Treatise concerning Pastries and Candies which talked about some of the sweet foods of the region he was traveling in. Also, in addition to practicing medicine, he was adding to his apothecary knowledge, though we know he was critical of what he learned.
1529 came and the sicknesses broke. Peace and security returned. Nostradame was very concerned. He wanted to obtain is full doctorate, but he was worried that his time away from his book studies could hurt his chances. Nevertheless, he had to proceed onward, so back to Montpellier he went.
He attempted to reregister with the university and received a very nasty shock. The university Procurator was opposed to his returning. The position of Procurator was an important position given to a student who was deemed to be very responsible because he had specific duties he had to perform. He had to enforce the rules of the university, he had to register new entrants into the university rolls, he had to collect the student fees and make sure they were delivered to the Chancellor of the university, all within a very specific time period. In 1529, the Procurator was no other than Guillaume Rondelet.
Rondelet had a remarkable future ahead of him. He would be the author of a remarkable book, L'histoire entière des poissons (The Complete Story of Fish). He would be a teacher at the Faculté de Médecin, becoming the Dean of that institution for the last ten years of his life, though the Plague of 1543 that Nostradame would fight so valiantly against in Aix would almost end Rondelet's career in Montpellier. He had already studied at Montpellier for a number of years but had left to obtain a theological degree at the Collège de Sorbonne in Paris, probably the most prestigious college in France at the time. He had graduated and had returned to Montpellier because he was now very interested in studying medicine. It was his first year back and he had been given the prestigious post of Procurator. He certainly deserved the post. Yet it must be noted that Rondelet was four years younger than Nostradame.
Rondelet noted where Nostradame had registered, noted that he was a practitioner of the art of apothecary and, utilizing his authority to enforce the rules of the university, struck him from the rolls.
It is unlikely that Rondelet really knew Nostradame well when he struck him from the rolls. Yes, it was true that Nostradame was studying apothecary, his own writings testify to this fact. Yet the university already knew it and had turned a blind eye to it mainly because unlike most other apothecaries, Nostradame did not condemn medicine, in fact he was critical of the apothecary, neither embracing it completely nor rejecting it completely but taking bits and pieces as valid. But Rondelet, rejecting what could have been an investigative enquiry, scratched Nostradame simply because Nostradame had some knowledge of the apothecary – an impurity to the straight-laced mind of Rondelet.
Why would the apothecary studies of Nostradamus suddenly play a role in stopping him from entering Montpellier when before it did not? There are multiple reasons, but when all is said and done, what matters is that it proved to be only a minor setback. We do not know what Nostradame did to circumvent this problem, but the fact remains that Nostradame eventually successfully registered into the rolls of the Faculté de Médecin. Very likely one of the professors of the Faculté de Médecin took Rondelet aside and explained to him that Nostradame already had his Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine and was trying to integrate the knowledge of the apothecary with the knowledge of medicine. Besides, it is likely that Nostradame influence Rondelet because later in his life Rondelet spent a lot of his time trying to get a botanical garden so the university could study the medicinal properties of certain herbs.
Again, he had to state to the chancellor of the university that he was born of legitimate marriage, was a professed Catholic and that he had never worked in some manual art. All of this, especially the last, was quite true, for Nostradame never did apply himself to any of the manual trades. He had never done carpentry, tailoring, masonry, or any of the other trades of the artisan, which is what this strange (to our ears) requirement meant. In those days, one devoted oneself to one trade or profession. No artisan could ever apply to become a Doctor of Physique, nor could a Doctor of Physique could ever learn any of the manual trades and become an artisan. Also, contrary to the suppositions of certain skeptics, apothecary was never considered to be a manual art.
October 23, 1529 was a major date in the life of Michel Nostradame. On that day he was officially re-admitted into the university and what remained of its course of study. He was granted the student number of 943 and chose Antoine Romier as his patron (nowadays counselor).
Much bookwork remained for Nostradame. He had his Bachelors of Medicine which allowed him to practice medicine in the countryside, but now he had to go for his License. The license would allow him to practice medicine anywhere in France, even though there was still some restrictions he would be freer to practice medicine with the license then with just the Bachelor’s degree. To get his License, he would have to attend a dissection at the Amphithéâtre Opérant, maybe take a few courses to fill out his knowledge, teach at least one class and then conclude by taking a battery of oral tests. This battery of oral tests would involve taking a series of exams involving certain subjects, two each day over a week or two, with the subjects given to him just the day before. Of course, he had to pay the university professors to attend his oral tests, paying them in food and wine. It is also possible that he helped to obtain a fresh corpse that would be used for dissection at the amphitheatre. Regardless, he succeeded. With his license, he then turned to the last step, the step that would give him complete freedom to practice medicine anywhere without restrictions, the degree of Doctor de Physique.
To obtain his Doctorate, he had another murderous set of requirements he had to perform. He had to perform skilled public dissertations involving subjects given to him just the day before, teaching classes based on material given to him by the university head, attend a few graduate classes and perform a final dissertation. Of course, he had to take yet another battery of exams, just like he had to when he was obtaining his license. This is, of course, a murderous set of requirements for anyone to become a medical doctor. That said, it is quite equivalent to what modern doctors go through via the intern process (where new doctors are often forced to stay up for days at a time) and likely for the same reason – the responsibility of being a doctor is so enormous, the stakes of human life so great, that people do not want doctors who haven’t the mental or physical capability of performing accurately under the greatest stress.
We do not know how long it took him to obtain his doctorate from the moment he re-enrolled into the hallowed halls of Montpellier. But it could not have been very long. Considering how much would happen to him during the next few, very few, upcoming years, he would have had to have achieved his doctorate in a remarkably short time. That said, it is likely it took him only a year. Almost certainly his field work took care of many of the class requirements he would have had to undergo, some universities, including very advanced universities, consider field work to be a type of class in and of themselves. There is also an excellent chance that he did some of the work in the period 1524-1525, right after he had his Bachelor’s Degree. So with multiple years of field work to his credit, it is likely that he did not have to do any more of the classes.
Of course, it is almost a foregone conclusion that some of the questions he had to ask concerned his knowledge of the apothecary. The teachers would be very interested in knowing that the student was not abandoning the developing scientific method in order to embrace easy money through the mysticism of the apothecary. They would also be very interested in what he had to say, if there was any truth to whether the apothecary’s knowledge could be used by doctors of medicine and if so, how much of it. Nostradamus would have to have been very convincing in his replies, because he certainly passed.
The fact remains that he did succeed – this the university attests to for it did grant Michel his doctorate. At the time he got his doctorate, he was invested with the black four cornered doctor’s cap and the golden ring of Hippocrates, items only the university could give him. Then, upon a book of Hippocrates, the young doctor took the Hippocratic Oath and was received as an officially accredited Doctor of Physique, Doctor of Medicine as we would call it, awarded to him by the famed Université de Montpellier, with all the rights to practice medicine anywhere in France, indeed anywhere in Europe.
Philippus Aureolus von Hohenheim may be renown for rejecting the Scholastic path and embracing the path of Abelard, insisting that one had to observe, test and experiment in order to find truth in medicine, but the advanced universities were going towards that direction before Von Hohenheim made his famous statement. But it was a difficult, torturous path. A university that truly wanted to study anatomy and not refer to the books of the brilliant Galen had to wait for the King to grant them the corpse of a criminal who was usually executed. Because of this, corpse digging became commonplace. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein drew upon this reputation because in the days of the Renaissance, medical men of true learning had to find corpses that had suffered the ravages of certain diseases in order to determine what had gone wrong with that particular life.
Montpellier was famous even then for its forward thinking in regards to medical issues. However, it was one of the very few universities that was forward thinking. Far too many universities, even universities that taught medicine, followed the old scholastic tradition which meant that most physicians were merely studying the works of ancient physicians, including the anatomical writing and drawings of Galen of Pergamon. Now Galen may have been one of the most brilliant surgeons of all time, pulling off several surgeries, including brain surgeries, with unusual skill, but he was a product of the Roman Empire and his works were at least 1300 years old when the Late Renaissance bloomed. And many of the traditions followed by learned men of medicine were actually harmful to health. Even in the 18th Century there were still physicians who insisted on bleeding a patient in order to cure them.
Today we have pretty much abandoned those harmful traditions. But it took a long time.