POPULAR PROPHECIES IN EUROPE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1700, 15 January 1874, Page 4

POPULAR PROPHECIES IN EUROPE.

[Melbourne AiicrtiS. ] ' <l darlyle' commences one. of his earliest-. and .finest essays \vit,h a most eloquent warning against the woes that come,' sjllke to individuals and to nations, from de^alfirife'inticll'm vaticination; 'The grand busihefcfe of human life, as he points out in^hjs own (powerful way, is " not to see what lies dimly at a'distance, but'todo what lies'clearly at nand." And; he enforces 1 'this* r wis'e lesson, by quoting in a.' r 'rouoh' jtranslation an epigram . of QBetheV:-^ „. , , ' ■ •■•?• Knowest. thou ' Yesterday, its aim and '■'"' 'reason'? ' ■ '■■■•'■' ■ ' ■ ' ■■ !: : " ; Workecl thou'well To-day for worthy r-.'l. 4,. ., things? •.„..' , Then fialmly wait the Morrow's hidden ■". '• :: ' season,'- 1 "•••: ' ■■ - ''And' fear hot , thou, what, hap soe!er.it brings." But these are, lessons, for the initiated alone. , To the mass of mankind hauntin'jt'for^c'asts of the future are inseparable ftofiPtlTeir vague and hazy mental movements. He.jias attained to a high level of moral-discipline' who habitually carries intp.- practice the, principle enforced by authority i that 1 the evil of the 'day is'sufficient for it ; nor • cares to anticipate, Whilst i if ajthf nlly fulfilling the duties of the present hour, what shall be. the gloorii . or what the splendour the future may bring with it. " '' ;:::' :> ' Y6t, considered' as a. subject of purely ! 'iirtejlectu^al interest,, the popular pro-; jphecies '" current »i any' given are ; J alWSyk worthy of study. In Isaar- Disraeli^ Teve'r-gre'en' .- Otiriq^ities of Literature there 4% a, chapter devoted to it which any reading nian'hia'y jleriise half a dozen times, "seiid still 'find it fr&h and informing. Any IsliJbse ( quen,t : literary, gleaner in the same j field cannot liopeto do niiAre thanadd'a thai 1 admirable .chapter.; /iß\it'this'ia..a' taskjalwap.AYorthy^of beingl vexecu^d.., It^.is profitable,', as well as ' jpieasant',' to compare' the pfe'dicstioris that "at'ariy ' period possessi" the r popujarf mind d.with ,pas3ing.,,eTrents.,, Such predictions: 4 may, .not be safely maf'e the groundwork or^aiculatib'if^Tespecting I;he fntaie,'<bnt, | at least they exhijbit-a, very, .remarkable phase of popular intelligence;' aVid as Disraeli the ekier. remarks, jt.niay be possible to deduce from principles that them mayraisethe study intqa science, since such principles are drawn from the heart oi mlinj and^dfeperid'' / o'ri' the nature and connexion of, human events. To practical statesmen- this aift 6f : ''politibdl v divinatiori jiß^invaluable, and.it has received^ the high Banctioii ' oi Bacon. " The r shepherds of the ipeqple,"|is.,the7fii»e remark of- the philosopher of 'Verulam,'' Yl should 'under 7 tiiitand ;the;prognostics of state -tempestsblasts ,6f.'.wand, seemingly ' at a tniJistanoe, , and . secret, swelling- of, ihe sea, •"■ ; (6ften'prenedej ia*Btormv" .It was. by. the t'^cdiltiyation -^ of ':■•> this ■ art. . that Bishop Williams, in Charles the .-First's time, success; of the Puritan party in the great struggle then fmpending f ; 'that" Cardinal Juliani)in a letter to Pope) Eugenius^the. Fourth, foretold the —,"Refbnnation_and-aiL.its_.cop.se,quences k , jenturyjbefor^it happened ; ( that Tacitus wrote of the certain fall of the R.pmai Empire 400 years before the event'; 'an 1 i > thatißurke, JBrasmußi Sir Thomas More , ; r De Tocqueville, and other "eminent me i Jja Ha've IDeeyable1 Deeyable W f Precast the/ features c f v^theiiconjing : time:! > r The Saturday ,Re.vww, in. a recent article, brings the subject '"'ABm tpybu^own d"ayk'safid cites; asillui lii'.tratifee-.instapQes, f rß,eine's f predictions ( f the conflict between France and Germany, the' 7 aef<&t ; oF France,"' 'and^th^'tempdx&c|j{.<ti3..amph ; pi^ihe^, communists : Pr«i-vost-Paradol's prophecy of the collisic n eo&etween the t^ great , nations.on ,the, opposing banks of the Rhine ; and 1 De Toealmost literally correct progno i■iviij&M: ft 6 SH^ den^apse,- and. the imm^-' , diate cause that would nfecipitate the--30 »mtlf of empirk otf I a, te'gion.i fau'ibel6w:'thesa. calm anoheighte,iwhence : ! cpnjemplative statesmeltf i|; ;and f sagfs ( tjie_ jnoy'emen.ta of 'the, ' ' populous ' natrons' in' v the Vale "beneath, . vi tHeYe K fl'daW r mists and Vapouraof popular •Eujpreiiicfcibiav. for the lexiitettrefpf!. which' no w 94en.#fic 3I caus9 canrbe^asskned, ,^hey.' Beem to arise spontaneously from {he soil. .dVi %{)s&{??*}■/$■ over the s °ciaT at'mos'pherej until J the' minds of the entire mass become.' mdro' or/Jess .affected. -.by them. Their origin and their' frequent correcr.- '''" 3o j»fiss,jquite baffll^ .calcnlatiqn. . To-, this r !k e ffl p ' e ? .-^'jft inexplicabk why <> t th]&. .rnpfe body/ of the ancient Roman '' ' people (ionriected the my ihicar' story of the 1:0 flight of'thfeTwelve' Vul'fures a ; t, the sacri- ? with AW exact) date their fctiJ/mighty jmtion; was destined to: endure. in rAlmOßt , numberless, illustr,atipns. of a j rj gimijjarj.kind jinight,. jbe.^cited. . ,our pre^ sent purpose, however, is' to exhibit two or three' of 'tne^ 'most remarkable propher'Be^:atfpresen'ticufrent in Europe. : _ Of these prophecies, .the,- most notable — refer to the fate and fortunes of the Y.'il!apa?y> be more correct to say that a whole cl oud of prophetic wittedses hovers- above the Vatican, and the really startling circumstance connected with thead toatiiesses is, that they all concur in predicting the same event.,; Ernest Menah, ''the'weTl-kn'own writer! of the Vie de Jesus, in no spirit of mystic M ™fitta f < l i bdf"ifiih#ly' : M 1 & political divine? n^j&retells that the Ro^an; QhurchyH not . fall to pieces froindoctrina] divisions from ''^''wftnMi 5 but that) there wiUhapperi'a Papal ol i^lftftipn^ich^wiii be/deemed invalid [by one party, and the result will be the ris6 of. , i/fo a revival of' /lotjijth^lqurteenth centpry; strife .between the. sees of Rome and Avignon. This is merely guesaybUt what will be said of the "Prop,|{epyrpf.St.,Malachi, ' a monkish production that has been floating ab.pjot jEtttppe! "a»y jtime'ihese' 300 yeArs, and giving a list in advance of the 1 ast series of , Popes under symbolical tit es, which list has been verified in at least the latdßt'dofeeribf-iristarices't-' This prophecy > — _naw-ließ.before.uß.in,a.little French.cli apbook, bearingjdate 1849 j and the following is an' extracrfrbm if: — oilt mi 6^"? 1 ". 8 Appstolicus (the ; Apoitor -n'J Wify&m)' ? iua ■ ■■': : ir.i , ' . ■ f ■ yiur.A 2. Aquila Rapax (the Rapacious EaJle), Pins Vll. -■'• ■■■><■ •■^•'--■•■-■'i* ,1 «j / Canis et, Coluber (the Dog and lierfull <>J 4.-Vir«Religi6sufl (the fteliMpus M in)"' -mfapftsTVlH.'. : ' ° ■■ "•■ ■-[ '■' '■ k •'='■■■■; ] 5. De Balneiß Etriiriffi7from tnW B: Aha ""T^ryoiSnyVGregpryXVl. . .... Ta °' Y rCrux%e44 (th'e'^psrbf the tf^PE?i^3, w v-u I^. i:;:: J ■- llus last title is certainly; cunpusly Big-, nificant. Then follows a list* of io" Popes

mamed respectively — the Light in the HeaVeriy'the ißurniiig Fire, Religion Depopulated, the . cTntrepid Faith, The [Angelic Pastor, the Pastor and Mariner, the ; Fl6wer- of ;Fidwers, the Half of the. Mbori, : the Lab'6ii f r'bi"'ihe Sony the -Glory;' of the Olive. The list wirfds up -vfitK the awe-stricken prediction in Latin, of which the literal translation is as follows: — "In the last ( persecution of the Holy Roman Church a Roman Peter will be raised to thp;chair, who ;shall.pasture his flock in many tribulations, and these being passed,. the City on. the Seven Hills shall be destroyed, and the Dreadful Judge (Jiidex treniendiis)' shall judge the people." Here is a prophecy that, if it ; be genuine,; the next generation -shall live ,to see fulfilled. Two points in it are 1 worth noting, however. First, 10 more Popes" will reign through years of deep and gathering troubles, and the illustrious line of Pontiffs will end, as it began, with a Peter on the throno. Another of these monkish prophecies, bearing the name of John of VatiguerraJ and first published in the Liber Mirabilis in 1524j r foretells clearly the French Revolution and .the/troubles following it, and these amongst others :—" Between the Arragonese and , the Spaniards great troubles and divisions shail break forth, and; .they shajl. fight with each .othexjj [/and there shall be no peace between' these two kingdoms until one of them is enr tirely destroyed. Before the world shall arrive at the^year- 1525 (a mystical number);: tne chiirch universal and the whole world will shudder' 'at the spoliation, the devastation, and .pillage of that most ; famous city which is the capital and mistress of the entire kingdom of France. The church throughout the world shall be .persecuted in a lamentable and dolorous manner ; it shall be despoiled and stripped of all its temporal possessions ; and •the greatest personage in the church will, be happy if barely his life is. lef fto him. {.:;■■:•..:!']• /•>.:•. >: -. :'.-.■■ . . The chief pastor of the church will change his abode, and it will be happiness for this same pastor' and hisbrethevn who shall be with him ;if they can find a place of refuge where they may eat of the bread of sorrow in this valley of tears. For all the! malice of riien shall be- turned against the church universal, and the more so because of the fact that it shall have ; no defender for a, space, of five-and-twenty month, during' all which time there shall be neither" Pope nor. Emperor at Rome, nor Regent 'nriFraiice." Tire prophecy proceeds in the same dark strain, foretelling the rise, of a Pope of singular zeal, sanctity, and humility of life, who, aided by a pious Emperor, in whose veins runs the, remains! of the. sacred, blood of the Kings' of the : French, shall restore peace and unity to the church, but ending with a warning that the wickedness of men, after : an .interval of peacefulness, will break forth worse than before, and will precipitate -the end of the world through the . anger of the , Almighty. The quotation here given is literally translated from the French class-book mentioned above, which, contains many others of similar import. '-.; The general tenor of all these prophecies is that the spoliation, of the temporal possessions of the papacy, acicdmpanied Trith much persecution and affliction to the occupant of St. Peter's chair, will mark its approaching downfall,, and tHe nearness: ofir the end of the world. But -there- will be an interval of restoration and peace, during which a pope of great genius and energy shall reign, arid' shall be aided by a powerful and pious -kingof France. '<'< '■ '■ ' -, !.: ; The leading -apocalyptical .interpreters, ■ both in England and Germany^ agree in' fixing jthe /date ;.of : the fall of' the'lj§pacy sometime about' 1866. Robert Fleming,a'bcdtbh Presbyterian minister in London during the 1 reign M • William 111., clearly 1 marked: out the period from 1794 to 3848.' as the revolutionary epoch, or time of the r Fifth 1 Vial, when the throne 1 of the Pope 'wotild'begin to totter" and decline. The mystical 1260 years of the revelation are (Supposed to commence from the date of Gregory the Great (606), and, therefore, to end. about 1866. But a correspondent of The Argys^m 1870, before the intelligence :ofrthe occupation of Rome by, the King of Italy reached Melbonrne; showed that the i1260 i years'Tareithe apocalyptical expression for exactly 1800 years— the mystical scale of numeration being septenary, not •decimal— and that the -period covered by "them extends ■from" the fall of Judaism to : that of the Papacy— namely, from ad. 70 to a.d. 1870. A subsequent mail brought the iritel'igence that the last vestiges of the temporal power had been taken from the hands «i Pins the Ninth., Further, there is an ancient Latin prophecy, which has been current f-«r centuries in the Roman Catholic Church, to the ■effect -that until the tim« ; of -'the' end no Pope should occupy the chair of St. Peter for the- same period as. the great apostle him«elf, namely, five-and-twenty years •;' jind that ihe first Pope .whose reign should exceed that period, would be also the last. Now, it is a noteworthy fact that Pius the Ninth has. air. ady reigned 27 years, and is the. only Pope in the long line of Pontiffs who lias exceeded the period; of the apostle. Pius the Sixth comes next, his i reign extending to 24£ syears. ihe next most remarkable event upon' "which, these populatjj prophecies converge is the fate of France. And here the coincidences are so numerous and so striking ,itp, be really astonishing. In the Propliecy of J)jvcti, iov example, the whole course of eventsj.from the. revolution of 1798 to the ;sackof P,aris by: the Communists and its Biege by the Germans, is foretold as minutely.and as. accurately, as if it were all history, written after the occurance detailed. In Blackwood, for December, 1848, there will be found an article. on this: sub-, ject, in which all', the facts are fairly and impartially stated.' Here is i a literaHranslation of one passage from the previsions of Orvallthe, Solitary :— ? Howl, sons of Brutus ! (The Republican party is "thus indicated.) Call unto you the beasts that are about to devour ; you ! : God alone is great ! "What a noise of arms ! ■' A full number of moons is not yet, completed, arid behold many warriors are coming ! It is done ! The desolated Mountain'. of God cries to God. The. sons of Judah (the remnants of, the, Royal race of France) cry to God from the foreign land, and behold, God is not deaf ! His 'fiery arrows arelaunched. Ten times six moons and not yet six 'times ten" moons have appeased His wrath. " Woe to thee, great city ! Behold, kings armed by the Lord come against thee : but already has fire laid ,thee level with the ground. But the just shall not perish : God has heard them. ,The place of crime is purified by fire. iThe.greatriyer runs with its waters red with blood to the 'sea. Then Gaul, torn

to pieces, gathers itself together again. Gid love 3 peace. Come, O young prince, quit the isle of thy captivity, join the Lion to the White Flower ! Come ! What is^ foreseen God wills. The ancient blood tof the ages shall once again heal up divisions, and a single pastor shall be seen in Celtic Gaul. The Man mighty through God shall seat himself firmly, and by many wißo laws peace shall be established. God shall be acknowledged to be with him, so wise and prudent shall be the scion of the Cap." The "Cap" is Capet, the family name of the Bourbon ; and the White Flower signifies the Bourbon lilies. As the translation is from a volume now before us, and printed in 1849, there cannot be question of its authenticity. The other prophecies all proceed in the same strain. . The revolutionary madness is to work itself fully out ; France is to be desolated both' by internal strifes and foreign invasions ; Paris is to be burned and all but itotally destroyed j.and,' then shall follow an era of; healing and tranquillity under the' rule of the last remaining representative of the Bourbons. MademosielleLenormand, a once fashionable prophetess of Paris, whom it is said even the first Napoleon consulted, details a message which she received from the Angel Idrael in 1815. It is given in one of her prophetical books published in 1817, and predicts thus of Paris : — "O modern Carthage ! I have before my eyes the picture that thou shalt offer to the future ages, and the image of the fate that awaits thee. "Tyre fell a prey to an avaricious and barbarian conqueror, whom her wealth made her enemy : thou shalt be the prey of a crafty conqueror, whom thy cowardice encourages, and whom thy indifference -renders more perserving to wound thee. Tyre spared no efforts to recover her fall ; thou snalt lavish all thine efforts to accelerate thine own fall. Tyre fell under i:he might of brute force; thou shalt succumb to the might of perfidy, and shalt receive only the just punishment of thy wilful; blindness." ' In a similar strain it is foretold that the " Parisian himself, his heart filled with rage and despair, and full of the lesson he had been taught by the Muscovite, shall aid with his own hand the efforts of the remorseless foreign invader to 'lay ; the queen of, .cities in ruihsi" . . One of the most curious of modern secular prophecies was the Chevalier de Chatelain's prediction of the exact duration of the second Napoleonic empire. In a volume in the possession of the present writer, bearing date 1869, apretended prophecy of old Nostradamus (the Merlin of France) is quoted, setting forth in antique rhyme, that when- the second empire shall be set up in Lutetia (Paris), it should live 18 years less a quarter, and not a day • more. , Now, the second empire was proclaimed on December 3; 1852, and abolished on September 3, 1870. The prediction was thus verified to a Bingle day. The popular prophecies of Germany form an equally interesting chapter in the collection of uninspired predictions ; but we have left ourselves no space to speak of them at large. A very^instructive article respecting' them, by . Dr. William Gregory, of Edinburgh, will be found- in JSlackwood for 1850. The careful reader of that article will be struck very much with the curious coincidences between many of. these unfulfilled prophecies quoted by Dr Gregory, and the leading events in European history since 1850. Thus, Brother, Herrmann, a monk of Lehnin, who lived about the year 1270, clearly predicted the end of the Prussian monarchy, and the- re-establishment of the German Empire, in the eleventh generation from Joachim the Third. The present Emperor is Joachim's eleventh successor. ; Jaspers, again, the peasant seer Of Westphalia, who lived in 1830, predicted the '■ same event as well :as others equally remarkable. "Germany shall have one king, and then shall come happy times," were his words. Another pea-sant-prophet of recent times foretold that "when the Prussian soldiers should be dresaed like those who crucified Our Lord, war. would break out with great violence." The present Prussian helmet and military tunic are almost exact copies of the ancient Roman ' military uniform. The main points in which all the German seers agree are the re establishment of the empire, a great war between Germans and invading Russians on the banks of the Rhine, the overthrow of all priestly power, the internal division of France into three parts, and a final stupendous battle "at the Birchtree, near Werl. " A. long era "of peace and prosperity for Germany and for the world is to follow this great German Battle of Armageddon. It is, by excellence,- the coming event for Europe and the whole world. The impending battle at the Birchtree holds firm possession of millions of German minds at this moment.,- And this is the circumstance that lends a true historical interest and value to popular prophecies of the kind we have been detailing. They are firmly believed in by the millions, and that very belief is a factor amongst the several elements which go to determine a nations destiny. The predictions, help fr) fulfil themselves by preparing the minds of the multitude for their fulfilment. Herein lies the secret of . the true philosophy of popular prophecies. .