Nostradamus

Once, while passing through Italy, Nostradamus bowed before a young


Franciscan monk, addressing him as "His Holiness."   Others around him did


not understand his strange behavior and the reasons as to why someone would


call a mere monk by such a title.   However, years later, and after


Nostradamus' death, that monk became Pope Sixtus V.   This was just one of


the hundreds of prophecies, or visions of the future, that the fifteenth-


century prophet made during his lifetime.




Nostradamus, born in the year of 1503 in France, spent his childhood


under the guidance of his two grandfathers.   After going to the University


of Montpelier for three years, he received a bachelor's degree in the study


of medicine.   Around this time, there was an outbreak of the plague in


various parts of France, and he quickly earned a good reputation with the


use of his medicine.   However, Nostradamus' "medicines" were not ordinary,


as they consisted of psychological guidance and homemade formulas.   Using


these methods, he cured many victims of the plague who were previously


labeled incurable.   He later went back to Montpelier to earn his doctoral


degree in medicine.




Although Nostradamus was very interested in medicine, he began reading


books about the occult and took a fancy to predicting the future.   In 1550,


he published his first book which contained prophecies for the coming year.


  The almanac proved so successful and accurate that he began publishing


them annually.   After several years, Nostradamus developed the idea of


writing a complete almanac, entitled Centuries.   This book came to consist


of prophecies ranging in time from his present to the end of the world.


In Centuries there were one thousand quatrains, or verses of four


lines each.   One which was particularly amazing was...