Many are fascinated by the alleged prophetic powers of the sixteenth century writer Nostradamus. But I’m way more interested in the question – did his methods show that he was a genuine heretic? His background, and the region where he was born, scream heresy. This was a time when those whose views were judged to be heretical faced prison, torture, and being burned at the stake. How did Nostradamus avoid that fate?
Michel de Nostredame (whose name is usually Latinised as Nostradamus) came from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the south of France – whose main claim to fame is that the painter Vincent van Gogh spent a year there incarcerated at the local psychiatric hospital between 1889 and 1890. Back in the fifteenth century, a Jewish family made the momentous decision to convert to Christianity.
Medieval Jews had a tough time
Life as a Jewish person was becoming very precarious as the papal inquisition viewed Jews as enemies of Christ. Even when they converted – and were publicly baptised – suspicion never lifted. Nostradamus’ grandfather adopted the new surname ‘Nostredame’, which translated as Our Lady in the local Occitan dialect – a reference to the Virgin Mary. As you know, the main cathedral in Paris is called Notre Dame in French. So this was about the most Catholic name you could select for your newly converted family.
But many Jews were reluctant to part ways with their old, ancestral beliefs. This forced assimilation with threats of physical violence was hardly attractive. So in private, they passed down ancient knowledge and even practised the Jewish rites – while at risk of being shopped to the inquisition by their neighbours. There is a theory that the young Nostradamus learned about the secrets of the Kabbalah – a Jewish form of mysticism – from his grandfather, which included the astrology that informed his predictions.
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One additional thing to note is that this region had only been fully integrated into France in the fourteenth century. Before that, it was fiercely independent, ruled by local barons, and in the 1200s, the population had been swept up in the heretical Cathar movement – which the pope launched a full-blown crusade to crush. The Cathars were gnostic Christians who rejected the sacraments and riches of the Roman Catholic church as well as the wickedness of the material world. They also allowed women to preach on an equal footing with men. Even though the Cathars were brutally extinguished – heresy still hung in the air.
Nostradamus was an astrologist, which potentially put him in danger of arrest. But attitudes to astrology were mixed and I think it’s fair to say that the reason the writings of Nostradamus are framed in such obscure language is that he was being very careful not to bring the inquisition crashing down on him. Nobody in their right mind wanted to be stretched on a rack. So we see Nostradamus using anagrams and coded references to hedge his bets. If he was interrogated about his writings, he had left wiggle room to interpret them in any number of ways.
Which was put folks have been doing ever since.
