[308.2] Eusebius, Eccles. Hist., vi. 29.
[308.3] Middleton, Works (2nd ed. London, 1755), vol. v., p. 153, citing “Hist. Raven., etc. Aring [hus], Rom[a] Subt[erranea], l. vi., c. 48.”
[309.1] Early Trav., 158. The casting of lots is divination—an appeal to supernatural powers to decide the event. Such divination (frequently glossed as the ballot) took place at the election of Matthias to succeed Judas Iscariot in the apostolate (Acts i. 23). It seems to have been a not uncommon practice in the Middle Ages for the election of ecclesiastical dignitaries. It is expressly reprehended in a tract De decem præceptis, published in the year 1439, by Thomas Ebendorfer of Haselbach, Court Chaplain and Privy Councillor of the Emperor Frederick III (Zeit. des Vereins, xii. 11).
[309.2] The church derived its name from having been erected in a Lombard burial-ground. Poles were set up on the graves, and on each pole the wooden figure of a dove. It is suggestive that the scene of the story is placed in such surroundings.
[310.1] Paulus Diaconus, Gesta Longobard., vi. 55. See also Soldan, 145, 148. Hildeprand did not reign long. He was deprived of the throne a few months later by Ratchis, who reigned for five years, 744-749.
[310.2] Soldan, 150.
[310.3] Post, Afr. Juris., i. 138, citing Harris, The Highlands of Ethiopia. Post notes that Krapf contests the accuracy of this account and states the succession was hereditary. The two statements are perhaps not irreconcilable. The succession to the throne of Businza, south of Lake Victoria Nyanza, was hereditary, but among the candidates an animal omen was decisive. Father van Thiel, who says this, however, omits to tell us exactly how (Anthropos, vi. 502). See also, as to other tribes, below, [pp. 317] sqq.
[311.1] Herod., iii. 84 sqq.
[311.2] Grimm has collected instances, Teut. Myth., i. 47; ii. 658; iv. 1301, 1481. Also von Negelein, Zeits. des Ver., xi. 406 sqq.
[312.1] Journ. Ind. Archip., iii. 316.