The _Sortes Sanctorum_, or _Sortes Sacrae_, of the Christians, has been
illustrated in the _Classical Journal_.
These, the writer observes, were a species of divination practised in
the earlier ages of Christianity, and consisted in casually opening the
Holy Scriptures, and from the words which first presented themselves
deducing the future lot of the inquirer. They were evidently derived
from the _Sortes Homerica_ and _Sortes Virgilanae_ of the Pagans, but
accommodated to their own circumstances by the Christians.
Complete copies of the Old and New Testaments being rarely met with
prior to the invention of printing, the Psalms, the Prophets, or the
four Gospels, were the parts of holy writ principally made use of in
these consultations, which were sometimes accompanied with various
ceremonies, and conducted with great solemnity, especially on public
occasions. Thus the emperor Heraclius in the war against the Persians,
being at a loss whether to advance or retreat, commanded a public fast
for three days, at the end of which he applied to the four Gospels, and
opened upon a text which he regarded as an oracular intimation to winter
in Albania. Gregory, of Tours, also relates that Meroveus, being
desirous of obtaining the kingdom of Chilperic, his father consulted a
female fortune-teller, who promised him the possession of royal estates;
but to prevent deception and to try the truth of her prognostications,
he caused the Psalter, the Book of Kings, and the four Gospels to be
laid upon the shrine of St. Martin, and after fasting and solemn prayer,
opened upon passages which not only destroyed his former hopes, but
seemed to predict the unfortunate events which afterwards befel him.
A French writer, in 506, says, "this abuse was introduced by the
superstition of the people, and afterwards gained ground by the
ignorance of the bishops." This appears evident from Pithon's Collection
of Canons, containing some forms under the title of _The Lot of the
Apostles_. These were found at the end of the Canons of the Apostles in
the Abbey of Marmousier. Afterwards, various canons were made in the
different councils and synods against this superstition; these continued
to be framed in the councils of London under Archbishop Lanfranc in
1075, and Corboyl in 1126.
The founder of the Francisians, it seems, having denied himself the
possession of any thing but coats and a cord, and still having doubts
whether he might not possess books, first prayed, and then casually
opened upon Mark, chapter iv, "Unto you it is given to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these things
are done in parables;" from which he drew the conclusion, that books
were not necessary for him.
One Peter of Thoulouse being accused of heresy, and having denied it
upon oath, one of those who stood by, in order to judge of the truth of
his oath, seized the book upon which he had sworn, and opening it
hastily, met with the words of the devil to our Saviour, "What have we
to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?" and from thence concluded that
the accused was guilty, and had nothing to do with Christ!
The extraordinary case also of King Charles I. and Lord Falkland, as
applicable to divination of this kind, is related. Being together at
Oxford, they went one day to see the public library, and were shown,
among other books, a Virgil, finely printed and exquisitely bound. Lord
Falkland, to divert the king, proposed that he should make a trial of
his fortune by the _Sortes Virgilanae_. The king opening the book, the
passage he happened to light upon was part of Dido's imprecation against
Aeneas in lib. iv. l. 615. King Charles seeming concerned at the
accident, Lord Falkland would likewise try his own fortune, hoping he
might fall upon some passage that could have no relation to his case,
and thus divert the king's thoughts from any impression the other might
have upon him; but the place Lord Falkland stumbled upon was still more
suited to his destiny, being the expressions of Evander upon the
untimely death of his son Pallas, lib. xi. Lord Falkland fell in the
battle of Newbury, in 1644, and Charles was beheaded in 1649.
The kind of divination among the Jews, termed by them Bath Kol, or the
daughter of the voice, was not very dissimilar to the _Sortes Sanctorum_
of the Christians. The mode of practising it was by appealing to the
first words accidentally heard from any one speaking or reading. The
following is an instance from the Talmud:--Rabbi Jochanau and Rabbi
Simeon. Ben Lachish, desiring to see the face of R. Samuel, a Babylonish
doctor: "Let us follow," said they, "the hearing of Bath Kol."
Travelling, therefore, near a school, they heard the voice of a boy:
reading these words out of the First Book of Samuel, "And Samuel died."
They observed this, and inferred from hence that their friend Samuel was
dead, and so they found it. Some of the ancient Christians too, it
seems, used to go to church with a purpose of receiving as the will of
heaven the words of scripture that were singing at their entrance.
To pay a very great deference in opening upon a place of scripture, as
to its affording an assurance of salvation, used to be a very common
practice amongst the people called Methodists, but chiefly those of the
Calvinistic persuasion; this, it is probable, has declined in proportion
with the earnestness of these people in other respects. They had also
another opinion, viz. that if the recollection of any particular text of
scripture happened to arise in their minds, this was likewise looked
upon as a kind of immediate revelation from heaven. This they call being
presented or brought home to them!
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