LLING.

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 n