I think that your paper is well written, but I would like to know what kind of feedback are you wanting about this paper?

 

Yeah that is one of my questions too.  I'm not sure if that is what your teacher wants, or if writing on the college level is different than on the high school level, but other than some things like that I think that it is well written.

just remember mitch when you fill out your fafsa form make sure you dot every i and cross every t because i got into a fiasco with them when i didn't happen to list my dad's birthday or something like that, and they were saying i was ineligible for the lottery scholarship because that i was an out of state resident.

kannibalkaney

Does everyone that qualifies get the lottery scholarship or is it more of a "High tail it to get your FAFSA in to get the money$$$"?

Ok, I also have a paper due soon so read it and tell me what you think.


For hundreds of years, Nostradamus’ prophecies have been studied by scholars and pondered by many religious people. Nostradamus supposedly predicted many disasters, infamous dictators and wretched events throughout history; however, many people today are skeptical to his prophetic verses. His prophecies have been studied more over the past few years than at the time they were written and published for the public to view. Nostradamus’s prophecies made him a genius to his supporters, a fugitive in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and an embarrassment among his colleagues.

To begin, Nostradamus wasn’t the person most people thought him to be. Nostradamus is actually a Latin name for his original French name, Michel de Notredame. He was born in December 1503 in southern France in a Jewish family, later to be forced to convert to Catholicism. His lived in the sixteenth century so, there was a time of religious intolerance. He came from a very intelligent family line for most of his predecessors were either scholars or physicians. He, uniquely enough, was both a scholar and a physician (“Nostradamus”[1] 1). He studied medicine as well as astrology at the University of Montpelier where he graduated in 1525 at the age of twenty-two. He traveled a lot when he worked as a physician healing a supposedly incurable disease known as the bubonic plague, which left it’s victims bodies covered in black blisters (“Nostradamus”[2] 1). Nostradamus became a well-known celebrity in the city of Provence. Many wealthy families offered him wives so, naturally, he chose one to make his wife and had two children with her. Later, the bubonic plague claimed the lives of his wife and both young children. With his inability to save his own family, the citizens that once looked at him with respect and envy, now looked at him with scorn and disregarded what he once had done for them. His wife’s parents sued for the dowry he had received for marrying their daughter. Nostradamus’ life had taken a turn for the worst. His close friend Julius-Cesar Scalinger, a philosopher as well as a fellow scholar, turned his back on Nostradamus and no longer supported him in his beliefs and practices. He was asked to appear before the Catholic Church where at this point he knew he had become a fugitive. He continuously traveled throughout France practicing his medicinal techniques and stopping the spread of disease. He became a celebrity figure yet again in the eyes of society (“Nostradamus”[1] 1).

Throughout his life, Nostradamus led people to believe he was a devoted Catholic who believed exactly what everyone else did; however, he was not. He spent many sleepless nights meditating in front of a brass bowl filled with water prophesizing. He claimed his prophecies were inspired by divine intervention. He strengthened his predictions with past events and his knowledge of astrology. After his remarriage, he turned to prognostication, or foretelling the future through signs or symbols. He began producing his annual almanacs in 1550; however, his most famous works called “Centuries” did not come about until 1555. These were organized into ten books of one hundred quatrains, four lines of verse, in each (Grendler 322). His prophecies gained him fame as well as an invitation to the Paris court from King Henry II and his wife Catherine De Medici. Catherine wanted Nostradamus to predict what will happen to her seven sons. Nostradamus predicted, however, the king’s future:

The young lion will overcome the younger one
On the field of combat in single battle
He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage
Two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death. (“Nostradamus”[1] 1)

Nostradamus advised the king to stay away from any jousting while he was forty-one, however King Henry II did not heed Nostradamus’ warning. He went to a jousting tournament on June 28, 1559 while he was forty-one and while jousting, his opponent’s lance pierced King Henry’s helmet, went through his eye, and penetrated his brain in front of thousands of spectators. King Henry II did not die immediately but managed to live for ten more painfully excruciating days (“Nostradamus”[1] 1). Nostradamus’ prophecies earned him some very strong supporters and opposition likewise. His detractors, included supporters of Calvinism, whom he predicted harsh futures (Grendler 233). Although the supporters he had considered him a pure genius, the Catholic Church wanted to imprison him for the blasphemous behavior he showed with his beliefs in astrology and prognostication. Nostradamus’ Colleagues severed all ties with him for making such a profound announcement to the public with his prophecies so they would not become a victim of the Catholic Church. Many philosophers at that time praised him with a few who completely scorned him. Poets would either be amazed by his elegant verses of a mixture of Latin, Greek and Italian proverbs or they would gaze in confusion (“Nostradamus”[1] 1).

Today, Nostradamus’ prophecies are still in effect. When Nostradamus wrote his prophecies, they extended all the way to the year 3739 AD (‘Nostradamus”[1] 1). Many people believe that Nostradamus has predicted many disasters “In the tumult after tragic events, People over the last 400 years may have turned to Nostradamus to understand their world, just as modern citizens did right after the September 11 attacks” (“Nostradamus’s” 1). After the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, people read one of Nostradamus’ prophecies and saw that it resembled the events that took place on September 11 rather closely:

At forty-five degrees the sky will burn,
Fire to approach the great new city,
In an instant a great scattered flame will leap up,
When one will want to demand proof of the Normans. (“Nostradamus’s” 2)

It has been argued that Nostradamus’ prophecies did not have to predict an event before it occurred but merely seem as though he predicted it before it happened (“Nostradamus’s” 1). In other words, anything any given person reads will have a personal meaning to them. For instance if someone read this verse and they were involved in the September 11 attacks, that is what this prophecy is referring to. However, someone who was involved in the London Blitz, a fifty-seven-night war when Germany bombarded London with bombs and napalm, may believe this prophecy to refer to that event (“Nostradamus’s” 2). So Nostradamus may have just said things that he truly saw in his dreams or while in a trance, but the chances of something happening that was predicted in one of his prophecies were rather high, because his prophecies were very broad and didn’t give specific dates or places.

To conclude, Nostradamus was a very wise and intelligent astrologer and physician. He lived a rather interesting life and had many accomplishments he could have been proud of. Nostradamus would not let last part of his series, entitled “Centuries”, be published until his death in 1566 from gout. Nostradamus had predicted his own death, however he was off by one year. Nostradamus’ prophecies both amazed and frightened the people who read them, but regardless their views on his prophecies and their blasphemous nature; they are still studied to this day.