The First Vatican Council and the Capture of Rome (1870)

V 46

Par chappeaux rouges querelles & nouueaux scismes,
Quand on aura esleu le Sabinois,
On produira contre luy grands sophismes,
Et sera Rome lesee par Albanois.

Quarrels and new schism by the red hats
When the Sabine will have been elected:
They will produce great sophism against him,
And Rome will be injured by those of Alba.


The Sabine is Cardinal Luigi Serafini.  He was ordained bishop of Viterbo e Tuscania on July 17, 1870.  The following day the First Vatican Council declared the doctrine of papal infallibility leading to controversy and schism within the Catholic Church.  Serafini was born in Magliano Sabina and later became bishop of Sabina.  The First Vatican Council ended prematurely with the capture of Rome on September 20, 1870.  Alba is in the Piedmont region of Italy.

James VI of Scotland becomes James I of Englnad

IV 96

La sœur aisnee de l'Isle Britannique,
Quinze ans deuant le frere aura naissance,
Par son promis moyennant verrifique,
Succedera au regne de Balance.


The elder sister of the British Isle
Will be born fifteen years before her brother,
Because of her promise procuring verification,
She will succeed to the kingdom of the balance.




The beginning of the Stuart dynasty in England as James I ascends to the throne in 1603.  Scotland is the elder sister of England, having been "born" in 1139, with the Treaty of Durham.  England, the younger brother,came into existence after fifteen years of civil war in 1154.

The Wicked Prelate

X 91

Clergé Romain l'an mil six cens & neuf,
Au chef de l'an fera élection
D'vn gris & noir de la Compagne yssu,
Qui onc ne fut si maling.


In the year 1609, Roman clergy,
At the beginning of the year you will hold an election:
Of one gray and black issued from Campania,
Never was there one so wicked as he.


On January 12, 1609 the Spanish Jesuit Fernando Mendoza was named bishop of Cuzco, Peru by Paul V.  He was the confessor to the viceroy of Naples, which is in the Campania region of Italy.  Compagne also refers to Company of Jesus, an alternative name for the Jesuits.  The Spanish Inquisition was active in southern Italy during this time.

The Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution (V-93)

V 93

Soubs le terroir du rond globe lunaire,
Lors que sera dominateur Mercure :
L'isle d'Escosse sera vn luminaire,
Qui les Anglois mettra à deconfiture.


Under the land of the round lunar globe,
When Mercury will be dominating:
The isle of Scotland will produce a luminary,
One who will put the English into discomfiture.


On April 4, 1689 the Estates of Scotland ruled that King James II had forfeited his crown by leaving the country.  Lunar and luminary refer to the lunar eclipse on that date.  Mercury was also in conjunction with the Sun.

Putin and the Papacy

V 92

Apres le siege tenu dix sept ans,
Cinq changeront en tel reuolu terme :
Puis sera l'vn esleu de mesme temps,
Qui des Romains ne sera trop conforme.


After the see has been held seventeen years,
Five will change in the great revolution's end
Then one will be elected at the same time,
One who will not be too comfortable to the Romans.


Pius XI was pope from February 6, 1922 to February 10, 1939.  The second line refers to a rare conjunction of five planets with the Sun in May 2000:  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.  This occurred during the fourth in a series of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions beginning in 1940.  On May 7, 2000, Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as president of Russia. This is the only quatrain where Nostradamus does not use the ABAB rhyme scheme.  The old French word tans has the same meaning as temps.  This quatrain implicates Vladimir Putin in the downfall of the papacy.

Vladimir Putin: The King of Terror (X-72)

X 72

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois
Du ciel viendra vn grand Roy d'effrayeur
Resusciter le grand Roy d'Angolmois,
Auant apres Mars regner par bon heur.


The year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror:
To bring back to life the great King of Angolmois,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.


Vladimir Putin was named acting Prime Minister by Russian President Boris Yeltsin on August 9, 1999.  There was a solar eclipse two days later.  It's maximum was in Romania.  The great king of Angolmois was the Visigothic leader Alaric, born in the Dobruja region of modern day Romania.  He sacked Rome in 410 AD.  After his death at Cosenza in the same year, the Visigoths settled near Angolmois in western France.  Nostradamus used the Julian calendar, which in 1999 was thirteen days behind our modern calendar.