Vera damus cum verba damus quæ Nostradamus dat,
Sed cum Nostra damus, nil nisi falsa damus.
CHAP. IX.
Answer to the third Objection, which accuseth him of the Black Art, and of Negromancy.
The more doth Calumny lift up her self against this great man, the weaker are her arguments, like the smoke which is so much the easier dissipated, as it ascendeth higher.
Her reason is impertinent in this distributive argument, he hath known those things (saith she) which he could not know by the Planets, and he had them not from God, therefore he had them from Satan.
And we answer this argument in the same way, he hath known those things which he could not know by the Planets, nor by Satan, therefore he had them from God; this Argument is concluding, but that of calumny halteth, for it ought to have proved that he had not his knowledge from God, and that all those things he hath known may be known to Satan, which two things we have manifestly proved to be false, therefore if the Lord Florimond de Raimond was alive, I believe he would correct what he hath written against him.
CHAP. X.
Answer to the fourth Objection, of Calumny, which brandeth our Author with the title of Chief of the Seductors and Impostors.
The Weapons of this Medusa are sharper in this point then in others, therefore our Buckler accordingly must be of the best mettle and temper.
We cannot deny but Nostradamus hath affected obscurity, himself acknowledgeth it in his two Epistles, in that to Cæsar his son, he saith, he hath done it, not only because of the times wherein he lived, but also by reason of those that were to follow, in the times wherein he lived the Case was as it is now, Veritas odium parit, and this hatred in powerful men is prejudicial to those that speak the Truth, he was also cautious in that, by reason of the times following; for if he had plainly declared what he meant, the Wits would have laughed at it, and would not have believed those strange revolutions that came to pass, and which our Author had foretold. In his Epistle to Henry the II he telleth him, that he doth purposely make use of obscure terms to express his mind, for the reasons before alledged.
Now Calumny saith, that this affectation of obscurity is a sign that God was not the Author of his Knowledge, seeing that by this obscurity they have proved unprofitable to the Church.