The Prophecy of the Popes

A silly thing about authors is that sometimes they think simply everyone must know everything they know. Such it is with the Prophecy of the Popes. This author has long been interested in such things, and being interested can cite a thousand times this prophecy has been in the news over the last thirty-four years. It has been brought to my attention that not all of my readers know about it. For an easy update, I refer those to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes.

As that entry mentions, the provenance of the “prophecy” is uncertain. It may even have been propaganda to support the candidacy of a certain cardinal to reach the Papacy. As author, I chose to use the Nostradamus explanation of the prophecy’s origin. I pictured him as he slowly wrote it out by hand, but then he reaches the new Pope in 1769. He wrote down the code phrase, but had a sudden inspiration that things had changed, that a new phrase was relevant. This was because even though the character who would later be known as Matthew West had yet to arrive on Earth, already his presence in the universe was propagating change waves through time.

So, what are the changes? The prophet scratches out the Latin phrase “Ursus uelox,” or “Swift bear,” (251 on the list on the Prophecy page on Wikipedia) and writes the Latin words for “Innocent of War.” This is a reference to the chapter of the same name in the second volume (Angels Revolting) where Cardinal Infante Carlos de Bragança of Portugal becomes Pope as Innocent XIV. The name honored the real Pope Innocent XIII, who had spent time in Portugal before he was Pope. (See entry 246 on the list on the Prophecy page.)

Of course, if one Pope is chosen differently, subsequent Popes will probably be different. The Pope may appoint different cardinals. He will almost certainly die at a time different than the real pope did, just as the fictional Innocent XIV dies in late 1783 as opposed to the real Clement XIV, our Swift Bear, who died in 1774. So, there are a different crop of candidates in 1783 after the fourteen year reign of the fictional Innocent XIV than were available after the five-year reign of the real Clement XIV. Of course this means that instead of the Prophecy’s continuing with the line 252 that we know, Apostolic Pilgrim, it has a different phrase, “Western Shores,” which just coincidentally is the title of a chapter in the upcoming fourth volume in the series. So, old Western Shores will take us up to 1810.

The next entry in the revised prophecy is, “Long Warrior, Long Time.” Would any be surprised if that referred to a tall and long-lived descendant of Matthew West? Of course not. So, that Pope will take us to 1902. Yes, a gentle reign of 92 years. But you won’t see him in action until at least the fifth volume and his ascendence to the Papacy until at least the sixth to eighth volume, depending on how things split as I fill in some of the chapters I am still writing.