The true prophecies or prognostications of Michael Nostradamus, physician to Henry II, Francis II, and Charles IX, kings of France and one of the best astronomers that ever were a work full of curiosity and learning / translated and commented by Theophilvs de Garencieres ...

CHAP. V.

The fourth Objection maketh him the Head of those Seductors and Im∣postors, which are dangerous in a Common-wealth.

AS Fame doth increase by continuation of time, so doth calumny increase by the multiplicity of opinions, she was not contented to deflour slightly the Au∣thors reputation, by making him pass for some sottish Dreamer, and to rank him amongst the false Prophets, by accusing him to meddle with the black Art, but must needs also sacrifice him to the infernal Furies, by making him the Prince of Seductors and Impostors, that ought to be banished out of every Common-wealth. The fondamental reason of this was the obscurity of his Stanza's, where there was neither rime nor reason; the obscurity did proceed of abundance of gross fau ts, which the Copisters and Printers have inserted in them, from the omission of several words, from the changing and altering of others, and from the addition of some others, which did destroy the sense.

From this great obscurity, calumny draweth this argument, to ruine utterly the Author, charging him to be all at once a false Prophet, a dotish Dreamer, a Magi∣cian, and an infamous Seductor of people.

If God had inspired him what he hath written, he would have done it for the good of his Church and true Believers, seeing he never granteth this Prophetical Grace to any, but to that end as it appeareth in the Holy Scriptures.

This being so, what profit can any body draw from him, if the sense of his Stanza's be so obscure, as not to be understood? and although it should be granted, that some accidens that have happened in Christendom, may sometimes he found in his Pro∣phecies, what fruit hath the Church reaped of it, seeing that those accidents that were foretold, were never known, till they had come to pass, and that there was no avoiding of them?

It cannot therefore be believed, that God should have been the Author of his Predictions, but rather the subtle Spirit of Satan, with whom he was acquainted by such like black Arts.

According to those four Objections, the Lord Sponde in the third Volume of his Annals, made him this Epitaph in the year 1566. Mort••us est hoc anno nugax ille

toto orbe famosus Michael Nostradamus, qui se pr••scium & praesagum eventuum futuro∣rum per astrorum influxum venditavit, sub cujus deincept nomine quivis homines inge∣niosisuas ••ujusmodi cogitationes protendere consueveruent, in quem valde apposite lusit qui dixit. Nostra damus cum falsa damus, &c. In English. In the year 1566. died that Tri••ler so famous through all the World, Michael Nostradamus who boasted while he lived, to know and foretell future things, by the knowledge he had of the influences of the Planets, under whose name afterwards many ingenious Men have vented their Imaginations, insomuch, that he that made that Distick, Nostra damus cum falsa d••mus, &c. seemeth to have very well said.