Demonologia

by J. S. Forsyth

In what repute soever this mode of divination formerly might have been, M. Dacier observes, that, in Cicero’s time, its credit was but low; so much so, that none but the most credulous part of the populace had recourse to it. Instead of this another kind of sortes was introduced into Greece and Italy; which was, to take some celebrated poet, as for instance Homer, Euripides, Virgil, &c., to open the book, and whatever first presented itself to the eye on opening, it thus was taken for the ordinance of heaven. This made what was called the Sortes Homericæ and Sortes Virgilianæ, which succeeded the use of the Sortes Prænestinæ.

This superstition passed hence into Christianity; and the Christians took their sortes out of the Old and New Testament. The first passage that presented itself on opening a book of Scripture, was esteemed the answer of God himself. If the first passage that was opened did not happen to be any thing to the purpose for which the sortes were consulted, another book was opened, and so on until something was met with that might, one way or the other, be taken for an answer. This was called Sortes Sanctorum.

St. Augustine does not disapprove of this method of learning futurity, provided it be not used for worldly purposes; and, in fact, he owns having practised it himself.

Gregory of Tours adds, that the custom was to lay the Bible on the altar, and to pray the Lord that he would discover by it what was to come to pass. Indeed, instances of the use of the Sanctum Sanctorum are very frequent in history. Mr. Fleury tells us that Heraclius, in his war against Cossoes, to learn where he should take up his winter quarters, purified his army for three days, and then opened the Gospels, and discovered thereby that the place appointed for them was in Albania.

Gilbert of Nogent informs us, that, in his time, viz. about the beginning of the twelfth century, the custom was, at the consecration of bishops, to consult the Sortes Sanctorum, to learn the success, fate, and other particulars of their episcopate. This practice is founded on a supposition that God presides over the Sortes, and this is strengthened by Prov. chap. xvi. verse 33, where it is said, “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”

In fact, many divines have held, and even now many of them still hold, that the lot is conducted in a particular manner by Providence; that it is an extraordinary manner, in which God declares his will by a kind of immediate revelation. The Sortes Sanctorum, however, were condemned by the council of Agda, in 506, at the time they were beginning to take footing in France.

This practice crept in among the Christians, of casually opening the sacred books for directions in important circumstances; to know the consequences of events; and what they had to fear from their rulers.

This consultation of the divine will from the Scriptures, was of two kinds:—The first consisted, as I have said, in casually opening those writings, but not before the guidance of heaven had been implored with prayer, fasting, and other acts of religion. The second was much more simple: the first words of the Scripture, which were singing or reading, at the very instant when the person, who came to know the disposition of heaven, entered the church, being considered either an advice, or a prognostic.

St. Austin, in his epistle to Januarius, justly condemns the practice; but St. Gregory of Tours, by the following instance, which he relates as having happened to himself, shows that he entertained a better opinion of it:—“Leudastus, Earl of Tours,” says he, “who was for ruining me with Queen Fredegonde, coming to Tours, big with evil designs against me, I withdrew to my oratory under a deep concern, where I took the Psalms, to try if, at opening them, I should light upon some consoling verse. My heart revived within me, when I cast my eyes on this of the 77th Psalm, ‘He caused them to go on with confidence, whilst the sea swallowed up their enemies.’ Accordingly, the Count spoke not a word to my prejudice; and leaving Tours that very day, the boat in which he was, sunk in a storm, but his skill in swimming saved him.”

The following is also from the same author. “Chranmes having revolted against Clotaire, his brother, and being at Dijon, the ecclesiastics of the place, in order to foreknow the success of this procedure, consulted the sacred books; but instead of the Psalms, they made use of St. Paul’s Epistles, and the Prophet Isaiah. Opening the latter they read these words: ‘I will pluck up the fence of my vineyard, and it shall be destroyed, because instead of good, it has brought forth bad grapes.’ The Epistles agreeing with the prophecy, it was concluded to be a sure presage of the tragical end of Cranmes.”