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 Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. Lond.

by Nostradamus

English.

The holy Widow hearing the News

Of her Branches put in perplexity or trouble,

That shall be skilfull in appeasing of quarrels,

By his purchase shall make a heap of shaven heads.

ANNOT.

By the holy Widow, is meant the City of Rome, which is called in Italian, Roma la santa, because of the blood of so many Martyrs that hath been shed there, for the maintenance of the Christian Religion, he calleth it a Widow; because at that time there will be no Pope elected, and there shall be a kind of interregnum, as it always happens when a Pope is dead, until the new one be elected. What he calleth here Branches, are the Clergy men, and the shaven heads the Priests.

XXX.

French.

Par l’apparence de feinte Saincteté,