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The years 1534 to 1543 are the most curious years concerning Nostradamus, as they are the years we have the least information. We know that for a few years he seems to have wondered throughout southern France, observing and criticizing. Early commentators note that he kept a journal that they quoted, a journal that seems to be lost to us. According to these accounts, he was in Avignon for a bit because he was highly critical of the greed of some of the medical men there. Per the same accounts he was also in Marseilles on the coast of the Mediterranean for a short time because he found the Marseilles pharmacies excessively bad in their administration. Multiple doctors in the region earned his praise or his condemnation, he did not keep control of his tongue which certainly did not help. Of course, with his grief over the death of his wife and children it may have been harder for him to hold his peace. It is said that he settled with a doctor of fine repute in the Dauphiné region, some say for 3 years though I have my doubts. We only know for a fact that in 1538 he lived in a town somewhere on the Garonne River, a town that wasn’t Agen.
Soon after the Inquisition event we know he turned towards Italy, it is almost certain that Scaligar and Bishop de La Rovère talked about Italian medicine which was probably among the most advanced in that age, at least in Europe. It is said that he went to Milan, Genoa and Venice, almost certainly he went to Florence, Rome and other cities; Italy was the hotbed of learning and medicine in those days. There he joined at least one secret society, this is evident from the first two quatrains in the first century of his Prophecies – the rite of Branchus, which he admittedly used in his divinations, is testimony to this. It is obvious he was very willing to ignore church doctrine in order to ascertain the truth. But with the Inquisition so powerful at this time, Nostradamus would have to be very careful.
Beyond that, there are only stories. Lorraine, Boudreaux, Belgium and Brittany have their legends. It is claimed he wrote an article in Navarre that was never published, being on the run from the Inquisition makes this plausible. There is a tale of him being in Vienna, the seat of Hapsburg power. Other places he may have gone to, other people he knew; for example, he may have talked to Nicolaus Copernicus at one time during these travels; they were contemporaries after all (Copernicus died in 1543). But other than the unknown town on the Garonne River, these are not known facts, just stories and speculation.
It was also during this time that his psychic gift, which was likely present most of his life in a minor way, burst out in full flower. Many stories abound about his psychic gift, stories that, while just stories, indicate a certain ability that few people had.
In one story, he was in the home of a certain Lord Florenville, who got his name from the Florenville region (now in modern day Belgium). While they were walking in the grounds, the lord asked the prophet if he could predict the fates of two suckling pigs that were wandering nearby. Of course, replied the doctor; they would eat the black one and a wolf would eat the white one. Seeing an opportunity to play a joke on his guest, the lord ordered the white one killed and served. At dinner, the lord mentioned that they were eating the white pig. Nostradamus insisted that they were eating the black one. Jaws dropped when the cook, called in to refute the doctor’s claims, confirmed that they were eating the black pig. It turned out that the white pig was being prepared, exactly as the lord had instructed. But the cook was a busy man; he had many dishes to prepare. He turned his attention away from the pig to another part of the feast. When he turned back, the lord’s tame wolf cub was seen busily helping himself to generous portions of white pig. The cook quickly got the black pig and slaughtered it. It was indeed the black pig that was served to the guests on the table.
In another story, during his travels, he reputedly saw a monk by the name of Felice Peretti di Montalto as he was walking down a road. Nostradamus knelt down in front of “Your Holiness,” the title given to the Pope. Brother Felice would have probably laughed it off at that time. Years later, however, he would remember it when he was elected Pope Sixtus V.
It must be remembered that these stories are just that – stories. We have no proof that either of these events, or other events that he reputedly did, actually happened. With his future became so illustrious, it is natural that people would want stories of him to exalt their own names. Would Flourinville and Petretti want to create Nostradamus stories about their pasts, stories that would serve to illume their own greatness because Nostradamus was involved? You be the judge!
Yet along with this lighter side came a much darker side, a side he did not tell many people. The visions we know he saw were generally of a most horrendous nature. Disaster upon disaster and evil upon evil presented themselves to his horrified eyes; this night he would see a part of this event, the next night a part of another event would be seen, later on a part of yet another event would present itself. Over time, as the images kept repeating and new images came to him, a fairly decent overall picture of the future presented itself to his horrified eyes.
The Religious Wars were coming. Nostradamus would be dead by the time the major blows would be struck, yet already he could foresee that they would tear apart France for years. He knew the leaders of the Protestants, he hated the fact that they would oppose their king, for wasn’t it the duty of every able bodied Frenchman to follow the commands of the House of Capet?
And farther in the future, France would be torn apart by a terrible feud with most of Europe over the issue of the succession of the Spanish throne. The lawful king of the then Spanish nation would want the descendant of Capet to assume the Spanish throne, yet the rest of Europe seemed to prefer the old Hapsburg lineage to stay in power. Nostradamus was in awe of the Gascon who was so skilled in battle that few could defeat him. Nostradamus was so overjoyed over this Gascon leader that his heart seemed to leap when he saw him. Years later, he would pen the name of Villars in one of the quatrains he published in one of his Almanacs.
He also saw the opponent of this Gascon, the one who lead the forces of Europe. Nostradamus would decide he did not like this leader from England, for was not England the long term foe of France? No, it was not the eternal foe: years before the island nation had been friendly with the French nation, Saxon kings had hobnobbed with Carolingian kings and relations between the two nations were peaceful and friendly. But for centuries the English and the French had fought each other in fights most bitter. This future fight was proving to be more of the same. The leader of the English seemed to not care at all about anyone in the French nation. Nostradamus had nothing good to say about John Churchill.
But he would not mention the name of Churchill in his quatrains. Why? Because to his horrified vision, the image of another Churchill presented itself. This Churchill was more portly, the clothes he wore were strange to his eye, but the same combative spirit that he hated in the first Churchill was present in this one as well. This one was defying all of Europe, daring Europe to do its worst, and succeeding.
At the side of this second Churchill was a Frenchman, with a name not unlike the ancient people that predated the French. This Frenchman proved not to be a turncoat and renegade, instead he was a patriot who seemed to be fighting for France instead of against it. But how could this be if he was fighting for France at the side of this English Churchill on English soil? Because as he figured out over the course of time, France was conquered, its people destitute, its pride and dignity destroyed. France groveled in the ground of ignominy, unable to stand tall, with a leadership that groveled in a horrible way.
And the true leader of Europe, the one who left France destitute, its leaders groveling? A strange man with a funny moustache and hypnotic eyes stared out at him. Over time, Nostradamus had gotten to know this future man, gotten to know his life, habits and opinions. He knew the anti-Jewish opinions of this strange man whose early life was defined by the Istar, or Danube River. He knew that though over the course of centuries the anti-Jewishness that this man exuded had to a large degree disappeared from the face of Europe, it was still present in sufficient strength to help bring this individual to the fore. He also knew of his pan-Germanic outlook, how he burned to unify everyone who was of German blood. Nostradamus could sympathize with this individual on that score, indeed his own King wanted to unify everyone who was French under the French banner. But Nostradamus could not condone the way this German tried to achieve this goal, as well as the other goals this German leader had, one of which was the humiliation and destruction of his own beloved France.
Nostradamus would finally realize that this second Churchill hated the fact that France was conquered, hated the fact that France was enslaved. This Churchill aided this Frenchman because the Frenchman was the hope and the spirit of France itself. This Churchill was also the mortal enemy of the German, striving to liberate France from its cruel bondage and restore it to its rightful place among the nations.
So there were two Churchill’s involved, one would oppose France the other would strive to liberate France. Should he mention the name of Churchill? What if he were to put the name Churchill into one of the quatrains where the second Churchill was fighting for the sake of the French? Would that aid his people while the first Churchill was fighting his people? Would not the French refuse to fight as fiercely if they thought that the Churchill they opposed was going to eventually aid them? And what if he mentioned the Churchill who was opposing France, would not that cause the British of the later time to not select the Churchill who was so necessary to the liberation of France? What if he mentioned both, would not that cause confusion among all, likely aiding the man whose life was defined by the Istar River? Nostradamus would not dare to mention the name of Churchill.
Other events he saw: the downfall of the French monarchy, its restoration and its inevitable collapse; the rise of the French Empire, the great lawgiver and the warmonger who were one and the same; The second emperor, nephew of the first, who was so inept at governance. And other places he saw: the rise of the people of Rus, the collapse of the Ottoman threat long before the Ottoman nation finally collapsed upon itself. The rise of nations across the ocean in those lands newly discovered, the Americas. He foresaw the rise of one nation, more powerful than all the rest, a nation that would fight with its full fury and might to protect France in two wars.
And finally, he foresaw the rise of an individual, more hateful and more horrible than anyone before, one who through his greed for power and his adherence to a twisted religious principle will bring the world to the brink of total destruction.
With his essentially peaceful nature, and probably the one confrontation with the Inquisition to scare him, it was inevitable that he would bring himself to where we know he went. Towards the end of his wanderlust period, he went into the Cistercian Abbey of Orval, a monastery that was known to be particularly rigorous. There, he would have sought guidance with the abbot about whether his visions were from God or the Devil. This would not be casually done. Christians even today believe that the Devil and his followers are lurking around every corner, waiting to pounce and take a soul to eternal damnation. In those days, it was taken very seriously by even the most learned. At this monastery, Nostradamus would try to come to terms with his visions.
It is this monastery where I believe his troubles with the Inquisition came to an end.
Nicolaus Copernicus, secretary and physician to the Bishop of Warmia, was nearing the end of his very productive life. For the latter part of his life, he had been writing his magnum opus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. He did this with the full knowledge and backing of the then Popes, Clement VII and Paul III and even the urging of Nikolaus von Schönberg, Archbishop of Capua who wanted the pleasure of reading it. Publication was handled by Georg Joachim Rehticus, a mathematician of note and a friend of Copernicus. The publication would touch off a storm for it was violently opposed by the arch conservative Dominican Order, though the forward thinking Jesuit order would strongly support it after it were founded by Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier & Peter Faber. The storm, though diminished, continues to this day as arch conservative "Creationists", people who reject the sciences and accept only what the Bible claims, still fight it.
What Copernicus started was what is known as the Scientific Revolution. The principles of the sciences were still then only half known – only the principles as espoused by Plato and Aristotle, with some clarification and additions by Abelard and Roger Bacon along with the razor of William of Occam, even the distinguished Arabic thinker Alhazen, were utilized. The works of Descartes and Francis Bacon were yet in the future to finalize the two approaches of the sciences – the approach of the physicist and the approach of the biologist. But incompleteness of method has never stopped anyone from seeking the truth in anything and Copernicus was no different.
But Copernicus’ work was not just in the scientific sphere. He also wanted to know God. As such he had studied to enter the priesthood, though he never did become a priest. As a servant of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, he ministered to people of all levels of society in the principality, mainly because it was his religious duty. He did this and felt no contradiction between his religious work and his philosophic/scientific work because he distinguished between the seen and the unseen worlds, between the world he could observe and write about and the world he could not see yet followed.
Modern science focuses solely on the seen, the perceivable, the measurable. But followers of modern science often ignore, to their detriment, even the possibility of the unseen. They deliberately ignore it, claiming that since it is not knowable it is worthless and anyway they have no proof of it so why even bother thinking about something that doesn’t exist anyway?
Today the sciences are in the ascent. But it does not preclude that someday we may have evidence of the unseen world. Indeed, if one is critical about it, there is strong evidence that there does exist an unseen world. However, like the religious thinkers of yore, today’s thinkers want to think in terms of only one thing, the scientific, just as yesterday’s thinkers only wanted to think in terms of one thing, the religious.
Always the advances in knowledge have occurred by those who refuse to be bound by a narrow band of thinking, by those who can perceive broad possibilities, even those who can understand the thinking of those they disagree with. It has ever been thus, it will ever be thus.